Christina Roxana Rouse

Software engineer -> Business Analyst -> MBA student -> Product Leader

I started my career in Software Development. It wasn’t something I picked per se, rather I fell into it during college and landed my first job right out of undergrad. I spent years building Enterprise web applications then moved over to data engineering and ETL scripting for a Data Warehouse migration project.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t the best engineer but I did love the art behind building, compiling and deploying web products. I also earned a sense of pride knowing I could learn new and apply new languages. There was a feeling of satisfaction knowing I was smart and doing this that people couldn’t just “do” randomly. Programming and having a technical mindset is special and I loved building that foundation at the start of my career.

During my time as a developer, I learned a lot about SDLC but often found myself curious about the “why” we were building and the “who” we were building it for. I sought a new opportunity and landed one as a Business Systems Analyst, where I was liaising between the business and engineering. No more coding, but all-in on requirements and use case identification. The “why” and “who” became my focus while remaining technical as I collaborated with engineering.

After a few years, I decided to do my MBA at Boston University. I packed my bags and moved across the country where I didn’t know a single soul. It was the best decision I ever made. I challenge each of you do something big that takes you out of your comfort zone! It was here where I discovered product management.

I interned in product at two companies, I attended any/all events around entrepreneurship and tech, I did tons of informational interviewing with people in different tech careers. I did a vision board exercise where I got a giant poster board and started writing things that came to mind. I captured my strengths, weaknesses, interests and the intersection of these pointed to “Product Management” Back in then it wasn’t a defined career path and I realized I had been doing in all along in some capacity.

Upon graduating I moved back to the Bay Area and landed my first Product Manager role at a startup in San Francisco. Fast forward, my true product career responsibilities spans from a PM to Sr. PM to Product Lead managing and scaling teams. The bulk of my work has been in Enterprise B2B SaaS in Sales Tech, Mar Tech, Mortgage Tech with a stint in Retail and Finance.

There’s a lot to unpack about my official product career. Stay tuned.