Finding the Middle Ground
In conversation with Samyak Mehta
This blog series is for students and early-career professionals who don’t already have a playbook, a polished network, or a direct line to the tech world’s inner circles. I started this series because I believe stories open doors.
I’m talking to product professionals from my own network - people who’ve taken different routes, worked across varied domains, and built meaningful careers through curiosity, conviction, and clarity of thought. We explore the connective threads in their journeys, how their product thinking has evolved, and what they’ve learned along the way - not just about the craft, but about themselves.
If you’re trying to break in, figure things out, or just feel less alone in your exploration, I hope these stories give you perspective - and possibility.
Samyak Mehta is a Senior Product Manager at BlackRock, where he’s spent the last seven years shaping his journey from a rotational analyst to being part of the company’s first cohort of associate product managers. Over the years, he’s worked across multiple teams and is now focused on building BlackRock’s GenAI platform and its suite of offerings. He describes himself as a talkative, fun-loving PM - and someone who’s grown alongside the evolution of the product function within the firm.
We talked about accidental beginnings, learning through rotation, and how to view success. These are the parts of our conversation that left a mark, told through his voice.
Q: When did you first feel drawn to product management?
To be honest, my path into product management was more accidental than intentional. Back in India, the default assumption was that if you’re an engineer, you become a software developer. I started there but quickly realized it wasn’t for me.
When I came to the U.S. for my master’s in information systems, I gravitated toward management-focused courses and took on a consulting internship with PwC. That experience made it clear consulting wasn’t quite the right fit either. What I did figure out, though, was that I wanted to be somewhere in the middle - not purely engineering, not purely client-facing consulting - but I didn’t yet know what that “middle” looked like.
I joined BlackRock on the software development track, mostly with the mindset of figuring things out along the way. The best part was getting to rotate through different teams - every six months I’d try something new, whether that was coding, business analysis, or even a bit of sales. That variety gave me a broader view of the tech ecosystem.
What really pulled me toward product management, though, were conversations with peers. He was the one who introduced me to the idea of Product being that middle ground I was searching for. Our team didn’t even have a formal PM role at the time, so we had to kind of invent it as we went. But that’s how I first stepped into the world of product.
Q: Looking back, is there a common thread that connects the roles or products you’ve worked on?
So every role I’ve held - though the products have been different - I’ve been a core PM, a platform PM, a product PM, an experience PM. But I’ve never really gone into any opportunity thinking, “Hey, does this align with some larger arc?” because I’m just not that kind of person. I’m not super decisive or opinionated about where I want to be or what I want to do long-term. I usually just try to evaluate each opportunity on its own merit.
From a 10,000-foot view, you probably wouldn’t see a clear pattern - except that, over the past four or five years, I’ve consciously tried to move toward working on tools and tech that are closely tied to AI. Initially, that was more traditional AI, not really NLP, and now it’s evolved toward generative AI, transformers, and NLP-heavy workflows.
So intentionally, that’s been the one thread I can point to. Beyond that, it’s really been about: is this an opportunity to learn something new or pick up a skill I didn’t have before? And if it is, that’s usually the bet I take.
Q: How has the diversity in your roles shaped your approach today?
Over time, I’ve come to realize the same thing. Early on as a product manager, I equated success with shipping as fast as possible and trying to say yes to everything - to prove I was a strong executor. But now, I see it’s much more about the discipline to say no.
Making those strategic bets thoughtfully and decisively is what really matters. It’s definitely challenging, with plenty of political and organizational dynamics involved, but staying firm and prioritizing what truly makes sense is key. It’s less about trying to please every stakeholder or user and more about being the strongest advocate for your product’s vision. That shift has made all the difference for me.
Q: How do you define success for yourself - whether in terms of career milestones, personal growth, or the kind of impact you want to create? What does ‘making it’ look like to you?
That’s a really interesting question. I think about success in two dimensions - personal growth and product impact - and they’re quite distinct for me.
On the personal front, success looks like eventually starting something of my own. Whether that’s as a founder, a co-founder, or one of the early hires shaping the direction of a product, that’s where I hope to be. I don’t have the full blueprint yet - when, where, or in what space - but that’s the long-term milestone I’m aiming for. In terms of domain, I’m still exploring. It could be FinTech, sustainability, or something entirely different - I’m open.
When it comes to product success in the here and now, I measure it in two ways: first, by how well I’m able to meet user needs and actually make them happy; and second, by how I contribute to the growth of my peers. Enabling the people I work with is just as important to me as building something users love.
I'm definitely still striving toward where I want to be. From a peer and team perspective - especially when I think about how I contribute to the overall growth and success of the product - I’d again say somewhere around a 5 or 6. Overall, still a work in progress, for sure.
Q: What’s something you’ve come to appreciate more over time?
Sometimes, though not always, I feel like being a product manager is a bit like being a spy. I actually started thinking about this while watching a new spy show. Spies have to think on their feet constantly - every moment and every change in their environment can impact their overall situation, even things outside their control. Their objectives are shaped by so many external factors, and they have to stay sharp to navigate through all of that.
I’ve come to really appreciate that side of product management. You’re juggling countless fires and constantly adjusting to shifting priorities, metrics, and initiatives - all influenced by external forces. Knowing how to adapt and steer through that chaos is definitely a skill you develop over time, but it’s a fascinating part of the role.
What are some of the key challenges or limitations you’ve encountered that made it difficult to excel? Is there any aspect that you are learning as you go and refining your approach over time?
Definitely. I hadn’t realized how important it is to be clear and concise in your communication - to make sure your intentions come across exactly as you mean. And to really drive this home, I want to focus on stakeholders. It could be anyone you interact with - sometimes not even traditional stakeholders - whether that’s senior leadership, a cross-functional team, or even during casual conversations by the watercooler. You have to know your user so well that you can tailor your message and advocacy to resonate with the person you’re engaging. Your deep understanding of the user is your strongest asset in those conversations.
I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve gone into presentations or demos without really knowing who I was presenting to. Sometimes I’d get way too detailed, other times too high-level, and it would just cause people to tune out or get frustrated. So, knowing your audience is absolutely critical.
Lastly, I’d strongly recommend having someone in your corner - a champion who supports both you and your product. That backing makes a huge difference when it comes to selling your vision. I’ve been fortunate to have managers and mentors who have been champions for me, helping me navigate the selling process and stepping in when tough questions arise to back me up.
Q: What questions are you exploring now in your career?
There are three main areas I’m really focused on right now. First, I want to work more on commercial products in the pure technology space. I would eventually like to move towards what I call truly tech-focused products.
Second, I want to move more toward leading or building zero-to-one products. At BlackRock, I’ve had some chances to work on zero-to-one initiatives, but most of my experience has been with mature products where the focus was on maintaining and growing them. I’m eager to dive deeper into the full zero-to-one or growth journey and really own that process.
And third, though it’s not immediate, I want to eventually transition into more of a management role - like a group or team director of product - where I can lead and manage a team.
Q: Where is the PM function heading over the next five years?
I think the core mindset of product management isn’t going to change - being obsessively user-focused, acting as your product’s toughest critic, that kind of thing will always be central. But when it comes to the surrounding tasks - writing PRDs, gathering requirements, creating executive summaries and presentations - I’m pretty sure AI will eventually take over a lot of that.
Honestly, I’m super bullish on it. Getting rid of all that busy work is amazing because it means we can focus more on the strategic and creative parts of the job instead of the mundane stuff like drafting documents. Plus, AI can pre-compile research from dozens of sources, so we don’t have to sift through endless articles ourselves.
I really believe a big chunk of these functions will be handled by AI, and while some roles might shift, I’m excited to ride that wave and see how it transforms product management.
What advice would you give to someone who is interested in exploring this as a career?
From my experience, anyone really interested in product management should be endlessly curious and committed to learning - that’s something I’ve always tried to embrace and keep doing. Being shamelessly curious about everything is key.
One other crucial aspect, which isn’t exactly a skill but something people pick up over time, is the ability to influence decisions without having formal authority. In other words, knowing how to sell your vision. I often tell new product managers at BlackRock that if there’s one thing beyond soft skills they should focus on, it’s understanding how to sell - not necessarily to customers, but internally. You’ll need to convince different stakeholders of your vision and objectives, and that ability is invaluable.
I walked away from this conversation with a few things echoing in my head:
Staying open, following your curiosity, and embracing roles without over-optimizing can lead to success.
Product management is as much about judgment as it is about execution.
Communication is a learned skill. You are selling even when you don’t know it. Always be advocating.
Samyak didn’t chase product management - he stumbled into it by staying open-minded, saying yes to new roles, and following his curiosity. That mindset? It’s what made him a natural fit for PM long before the title showed up.
What resonated with you? What’s a role you landed without knowing where it would take you?