From Consulting to Head of Product and why it's great trying out different functions

Veronica Sherwood-Meares, Head of Product at Future Super, has already had a varied and successful career.
In this interview, she tells us how she got into consulting, why she then worked in many different areas and positions, such as Head of Strategy, spent some time in marketing and finally became Head of Product. Veroncia also gives valuable tips on how to make the leap into product management as a consultant and explains why it's worth trying out different roles.

How did you originally get into consulting?

My original ambition while at uni was to go into equities or research, so I studied finance and accounting. When my final year came around, I really cast the net wide. I applied to a bunch of investment bank graduate programs, but also to some consulting firms, as I had heard of consulting but didn’t have much of a clue as to what was involved - it just sounded interesting. 

Not long after putting in an application to Port Jackson Partners, I got a call one afternoon, asking me to come in for an interview the next day at 7:30am! I agreed, but again I didn’t really have much of an idea about what was likely to be involved.

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So assuming that you weren’t really expecting to have to grapple with a complex case study?

Totally not. But looking back on it, it probably helped that I hadn’t tried to memorise any specific frameworks, I just used logic to break down the problem and not overthink it. (Not saying this would work for everyone, but it did for me!) Maybe it also helped that the case study was quite interesting: advising Uber on predicting likely usage on New Years’ Eve. 

I received an offer to join PJP just as the banking interviews were due to start. I was intrigued by my interactions so far at the firm, I had found the interviews and case studies interesting, and I had a feeling that consulting would provide a broader experience than banking - so I was happy to accept.

And then things took off from there!

Yes - and a good choice of phrase, as I was lucky enough to do a lot of client work overseas, which I absolutely loved. PJP had a partnership with Scandinavian consultancy QVARTZ (acquired by Bain in 2019) and I spent 6 great months in Copenhagen as part of a consultant swap. I did a lot of work with global Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk and loved soaking up the best of the city.

It's been almost three years not being staffed in Sydney, working on really interesting projects in China, Singapore and the US. I worked across a number of sectors, particularly industrials, manufacturing and natural resources, and then later had some great exposure to superannuation (pension) funds - which came in handy later on.

How do you look back at your experience in consulting?

PJP was a terrific environment to be part of. At that stage, the firm would have been only about 30-40 people, with one office in Sydney. We had a great reputation in strategy (our founding partners were all ex-top-tier) and we were working on critically-important projects, but at the same time, the firm was small enough to easily navigate and develop relationships. I built a really strong bond with colleagues, especially with those I worked on international projects with.

So what got you thinking about moving on from PJP?

It was probably a combination of three things. Firstly, it felt like it was probably time to stop travelling quite so much! Secondly, while I really enjoyed consulting, there was appeal in the opportunity to tangibly see something through, from analysis through strategy through execution and operations. I could see the appeal in doing this in a smaller growth company or startup. Thirdly, and probably most importantly, I wanted to feel like I could contribute in a role that was connected to the purpose of the organisation, while remaining industry agnostic.

I had an opportunity to join Future Super on a 3 month basis. (Future Super is an ethical superannuation fund, the first fossil fuel-free fund in Australia). As a relatively small business (~30 people at that stage), they’d never had a “Strategy” function. I came in and picked up a bunch of areas that needed framing up and building out. I got heavily into the data, set up OKRs and led the planning cycle.

Having thoroughly enjoyed that first stint, I joined the business as Head of Strategy in a permanent capacity, where I set up a small strategy team. This included formulating the company’s 5-year strategy, helping with a capital raise, as well as steering analysis and research functions.

Two years in, Strategy was humming along well (I was also fortunate to have hired very well!), so I was open to exploring new challenges within the business. 

At the time, we were working with an external agency that was running all our online and performance marketing. As we were reaching a certain size and scale, the outsourced model was proving to be sub-optimal, and we had no real analytical capability within our in-house marketing and creative team. So I pitched the idea to move into marketing and help bring it all in house. I hired a really solid performance marketer and we built a small specialist team which delivered savings to the business while driving better performance than the outsourced model. This included developing LTV models and we established LTV:CAC as the lighthouse metric for the team. 

Again, it got to the point where things were running really well, and it started to feel like (again) I had done myself out of a job!

Is that when you first got the opportunity to get involved in Product?

Yes. At this time we’d set up our first product team as a 3-month pilot program. Instead of having silos of engineering, design, analytics etc, we made it cross-functional from the start. I sat in on that program from an analytics perspective.

The pilot program was a great success, so I pitched the idea of becoming a full-time product manager and running one of the ongoing teams being set up off the back of it. It was a bit of a running joke that it was about time for my regular internal job change!

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And the rest is history - how have you enjoyed the shift into Product?

While I obviously really appreciated and enjoyed my career up to this point, it was when I took on the Head of Product role that I had the proper Eureka moment of, “this is the job that I totally love”. It’s just such a satisfying role. It’s utilising a bunch of different skills and experience, across strategy, analysis, prioritisation - it’s hugely around prioritisation - making sure your team is focusing on the biggest opportunities.

On that point, I feel that Product is an underrated exit opportunity for consultants, who bring all the right skills. The more technical specifics (like how to work with engineers!) is something that you learn by doing.

What advice would you give to a consultant keen to pivot into Product roles?

An ex-consultant might be lucky enough to find a product role straight off, but even if they first pivot from consulting into a strategy or commercial role, to move into Product will come down to getting a foot in the door. It will be about jumping on opportunities to get exposure to Product internally and building your credibility to the point where you can make a jump across. 

I believe coming from a strategy, analytics, commercial or biz ops background into Product could gear someone up to become more senior quite quickly, as the grounding in those areas are super important building blocks.

Do you have any other advice for people making a pivot in their careers?

What worked extremely well for me was finding an external mentor. Future Super proactively suggested I link up with a mentor who in my case was an ex-consultant who had built his career in Product. It was so incredibly helpful and you really don’t need a big training budget to fund an hour or two a week of someone’s time. A real no-brainer.

Secondly, I invested a lot of time into my relationships with our tech and engineering team. It was a steep learning curve, but being really open to constructive feedback and making it clear I was very ready to dive into the detail so I could upskill myself. I guess it’s like anything, once you get a few reps of something that’s foreign, you’ll soon get to grips with it! 

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What about you as a hiring manager - any tips?

At Future Super we have a very structured process that deliberately tests skills of candidates, rather than relying on personalities or career backgrounds. I must admit I was incredibly sceptical about the fact that we were supposed to make a hiring decision without reviewing CVs! 

But it has been such a positive way to bring great talent into our business. It really reinforced that it has to be the skills that we hire for. The subject matter can just be coached. We’ve found we’re hiring for excellence consistently now, and we’re also seeing a brilliant diversity dividend across our hires too.

And now you’re off on a sabbatical?

Yes! My partner and I have decided to quit our jobs and take 12 months off for travel. We didn’t do the gap year thing after school or uni, so it’s been on the wishlist for a while.

We geared up to do it a few years back but then the pandemic put those plans on the backburner. Originally we considered doing a sabbatical for 3-6 months, but the list of places grew to the point where we realised we needed a whole year.

We’re keeping it pretty flexible though. If we like a place, we’ll stay longer. We might even decide to work a bit along the way, to keep the brain ticking over. I’ll be keeping an eye on remote freelance projects via Movemeon, if it comes to that!

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