From Starting Out to Standing Out: Building Your Product Management Skills and Mindset
Hosted by Carnegie Mellon University MSPM
June 12, 2025
12:00:00
Virtual Event
For this month’s networking event, we have an inspiring and insightful session lined up: What does it take to succeed as a Product Manager, especially when you feel like you’re still finding your footing?
In this webinar, two Carnegie Mellon MS in Product Management alumni share how they built confidence, developed critical skills, and grew into leadership roles.
You’ll hear from Brielle Irving, MSPM 2024, who broke into AI product management at Rocket Mortgage without a technical background, and Priyanka Khandelwal, MSPM 2024, who went from feeling uncertain about her direction to securing a Senior Technical Product Manager role with Amazon Web Services.
This double header is packed with relatable stories, actionable insights, and a stronger sense of how to own your own product management journey.
Agenda
Speakers
Brielle Irving
Digital Product Manager at Rocket Mortgage, MSPM 2024
Brielle spent just over 10 years working with HR Technology, approaching her work by finding the balance between tech & talent. During her career, she spent time in the start-up tech sector where she had the opportunity to enhance the customer experience either by identifying time-consuming manual processes & finding ways for automation, or by taking an existing process & making improvements. This was also the time when she saw products being built to make people’s lives better, and with her experience working with internal cross-functional business partners and external stakeholders, she knew she wanted to officially transition to Product Management.
Priyanka Khandelwal
Senior Technical Product Manager at Amazon Web Services, MSPM 2024
Priyanka is a Senior Technical Product Manager for External Services at Amazon Web Services (AWS), bringing 9 years of diverse product and technology experience. Before her AWS journey, Priyanka demonstrated her product leadership at BYJU'S, an ed-tech startup, where she built an in-house CRM solution serving 18,000 agents and led a lead generation app that added 5M+ users. Her career began at OYO, a hospitality tech unicorn, where she evolved from Associate Program Manager to Program Manager, laying the foundation for her product management journey. She enhanced her product management expertise through Carnegie Mellon University's Master of Science in Product Management program in 2024, gaining advanced knowledge in AI product design, data science, and business fundamentals through their prestigious School of Computer Science and Tepper School of Business. Priyanka's unique blend of technical expertise, strategic thinking, and business acumen, combined with experience across startups and tech giants, enables her to deliver impactful solutions that drive business growth and enhance user experience.
