How I Became a Product Manager at DataChannel

The Unplanned Beginning

I never planned to be a Product Manager. In 2021, I wasn't planning much of anything at all.

I had just lost my father. Months spent in hospitals. The kind of time that hollows you out and leaves you going through the motions. I was a Software Engineer at Xoriant, doing QA work, but my heart wasn't in it. My heart wasn't anywhere.

Then Rashi — my girlfriend at the time, now my wife — mentioned that DataChannel was hiring. She was a Data Analyst at Decision Tree, DataChannel's sister company. "Just apply," she said. So I did. Not because I had ambitions. Just because she asked.

I joined DataChannel as an ETL Tester. Quality Assurance. Validating data pipelines. It was work I could do on autopilot, which is exactly what I needed. I showed up. I did my job. I went home.

The Sit-Down

A few months in, Sandeep — DataChannel's CTO — asked me to sit down with him.

I thought I was in trouble. Maybe my work was slipping. Maybe they could tell I was just going through the motions.

Instead, he said something I didn't expect:

"There's a lot more you can do and contribute than just being a QA here."

He saw something I couldn't see in myself. He nudged me toward Product Management — a role I'd never considered, a path I'd never imagined.

Then he gave me a project.

Datahooks: My First Product

The project was called Datahooks — aggregating data from webhook-based sources into data warehouses. Sandeep told me to own it. All of it.

Over the next couple of months, I did everything:

• Wireframes — sketching out user flows and interfaces
• Designs — working through the UX details
• POC — proving the technical feasibility
• PRDs — documenting requirements for engineering

I worked on it like it was going to ship. I obsessed over the details. I talked to potential users. I thought about edge cases at 2 AM.

When I finished and presented everything to Sandeep, he smiled and said:

"This was all for your learning."

I didn't know whether to laugh or feel foolish. But then he added — we'd be incorporating all of it into DataChannel. The work was real. The learning was the point.

That was the moment I became a Product Manager.

Building DataChannel

Since then, it's been an upward trajectory. Not just for my career — for the product, and for the company.

When I joined, DataChannel was a cold-call dependent company. We'd reach out to prospects, pitch the product, and hope for conversions. I helped make DataChannel self-serve.

Along the way, we've added hundreds of new integrations, onboarded 50+ clients, and transformed from a services-heavy operation into a product-led company.

What I've Learned

I've grown here. Not just as a PM, but as a person. I was able to fulfill childhood dreams I'd forgotten I had. I bought my first car. I married Rashi. I found purpose in work again.

DataChannel gave me more than a job. It gave me a reason to show up when I had none.

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