The Product Person #32: Tara Seshan

I interviewed Tara Seshan, PM & Business Lead at Stripe.

hey! Anthony here. This is a preview of my interview with Tara Seshan. For the past 6 years, Tara has been product-ing at Stripe. She started as one of the first PMs at Stripe, to leading the launch of Stripe Billing (an essential for any internet business), and now she’s the Business Lead of Financial Products at Stripe. She’s a product pro.

We talked about a lot, including:

• ⚡️ She broke down how she galvanized support within Stripe to build out and launch Stripe Billing— the backbone for many Saas products.

• 🧠 Important learnings while at Stripe and throughout her career in product.

• 🤒 How she deals with imposter syndrome as a PM.

• 🤕 Easy mistakes to avoid as a PM.

Here’s Tara Seshan:

Here a few short snippets from the interview. Hope you enjoy:

Clip #1

🤒 Tara talks about dealing with imposter syndrome as a PM at Stripe & a common pitfall to avoid when feeling PM imposter syndrome. (4m 6s)

Clip #2

🧠 Tara shares a product framework that she likes to user with her teams: “Specific F.U.D.” (1m 35s)

Clip #3

🏀 Tara talks about how PMs should learn from their “game tapes”, and why you should avoid asking for your users’ feedback too early. (2m 51s)

Clip #4

📦 2 most important lessons she’s learned while doing product at Stripe. (1m 51s)

Clip #5

⚡️ Tara recalls how she launched Stripe Billing. (3m 52s)

Clip #6

💡 Tara talks about what she’s learned from others at Stripe like Shreyas Doshi & Noah Pepper and others. (2m 15s)

Clip #7

📈 Tara talks about how she invests in the product of herself. (1m 43s)

Clip #8

🙂 Tara reflects on how the work she’s done throughout her career has changed her. (1m 48s)

🎧 For the full 31 minute interview, subscribe today :)

---

You can find Tara on Twitter & LinkedIn.

---

Thanks for reading Issue #32 of The Product Person.

I’m Anthony —You can find me on Twitter • LinkedIn • My Blog

(If you could ❤️ this post, I’d really appreciate it 🤗 It helps a lot)

If this email was forwarded to you, subscribe here.

📌 What did you think? What questions should I ask next? 🤔 Tell me here.