The people behind Alasco: Meet our Frontrunners! - Ben as Lead Product Manager

As our company grows, so does our product in functions and features. In order to not develop those features in product management not in isolation from each other, it is important to keep an overview of the big picture. For this reason, we are proud when some of our Alascians in the Product Team step up and take over the position as Lead Product Manager and make sure that our many product teams are aligned.

Ben joined Alasco in the early days of Alasco in 2019 as a Product Manager and decided to grow into this new position at the beginning of 2022. Today Ben tells us how he discovered his passion for product management and led us through his development.

How did you know what to do after graduating from Highschool?

Ben: "As for many young adults, it was hard for me to decide which professional direction would be “the one” for me during high school. Due to my wide-ranging interests, I decided to choose majors, that offers me many professional perspectives after graduation. I chose business administration and mechanical engineering. Although economic modules were relatively poorly represented in my degree study program, compared to technical subjects, I quickly realized that my strength lies in economics. To strengthen my professional perspective, I gained a lot of practical experiences during internships or working student activities, next to my studies. With each experience I made, my professional interest sharpened. Finally, I found my interest in innovative and complex products. After completing my bachelor's degree, I finally decided to study Business Innovation and Management Consulting in Munich."

You already mentioned instructive, practical experiences next to your studies. Which of these experiences shaped your interest in becoming a product manager?

Ben: "In addition to the internships I already mentioned, I would describe the time of my master's thesis as a key experience. That's where I had the steepest learning curve because I always used the theory learned in my studies and combined it with my practical experience. Thanks to my innovation-focused course of study, I was lucky enough to have come into contact with the Munich start-up scene at this point. Through this experience, I already knew that the freedom to make decisions within a job is very important to me and that I needed the opportunity to fiddle with processes or projects myself. Thanks to Gini, an inspiring Start-Up in Munich, I was able to work very closely with the product and collaborated a lot with product managers and developers. I remember this time as formative because it was here that I found my love for product management. Thanks to internal coaches from Gini and a few other external courses, I was able to grow into the role of product manager quickly."

How come you joined Alasco?

Ben: "Although I owe my development and expertise in product management to Gini, I decided to look for a position where I could fully live out my product vision. I already knew Alasco and was fascinated by their Vision, so I sat down with Sebastian, CEO of Alasco, and talked about an eventual future there. I realised that the real estate industry is a riveting industry where you can build inspiring digital products, so I wanted to be a part of this progress and took the job as a product manager. Little by little, we adapted our processes, enlarged our app, and acquired more and more knowledge. But not only did our product grow - Our team did as well. Over time, I took on more and more personnel responsibility and grew into the role of Lead Product Manager, which I am allowed to occupy today. Now I am less involved in the specific product decisions but focus on the perspective of our product development. With agile working methods and construction knowledge, I want to enable our product managers to do their work in the best possible way. As Simon Sinek once said: "Leadership is not about being in charge. Leadership is about taking care of those in your charge.""

How would you describe the (Product) Team?

Ben: "With the development of our software, our Product Team got huge and split up into many different focus areas, like Workflows or Platform. But despite these groups, there is no competition as in “who belongs to the “most exciting” team - Instead we complement each other very well. Every team member can develop freely and express their opinion on any topic. We live and breathe a trustworthy, appreciative, and tolerant get-together.? There doesn’t exist someone I would not drink a coffee or a beer with. That fantastic atmosphere you can scale up on Alasco as well. Every Alascian shares a similar mindset, which makes the cooperation pleasant and effective and forms a fantastic team. Additionally, one of the most impressive things about Alasco is our form of leadership. Smart and quick decision-making requires accountability, ownership, trust and room for failure. However, such titles do not characterize our daily social interaction. Open communication on all levels and constructive feedback is essential for us, whether it is towards an intern or one of our founders."