Main at Roblox is a collection that explores the profession journeys of Roblox’s leaders and discusses their roles, philosophies, and administration kinds. On this profile, we get to know Garima Sinha, Senior Director of Product, who heads up our Social Workforce throughout the Person Group.
Garima with colleague Effie Goenawan discussing a current challenge
Let’s speak about your profession path to Product management. How did all of it begin?
GS: I’ve at all times been excited by technical innovation. I studied Laptop Science Engineering in Delhi to be able to start a profession within the expertise business. After school, I took my first full-time position as a Product Supervisor. This was a bit uncommon, as most PMs enter the place after a couple of years of normal engineering expertise. However I jumped in and discovered shortly. So as to thrive, I needed to have a “doer” mindset and never draw back from difficult issues. Many of those traits guided how I lead right now.
Two years later, I pursued my Grasp’s diploma in Software program Administration from Carnegie Mellon. From there, I had some superb alternatives within the coronary heart of Silicon Valley at firms like Meta (then Fb), Thumbtack, and Instacart. I began my position right here at Roblox in April of 2022, and this primary 12 months has been nothing wanting superb. I’m doing a few of the most revolutionary work of my life.
What does your present position entail?
I’m a Senior Director of Product Administration inside Roblox’s Person Group, main Social. Our imaginative and prescient is to allow one billion individuals to attach, play, study, talk, and work collectively in high-quality 3D immersive co-experiences. On the Person Group, I lead Product for 2 of our verticals: Connections and Communication. Our focus is on constructing the merchandise that empower free, expressive, and immersive communication on-platform, and our mission is to allow and mimic real-world communication in digital co-experiences. Constructing these options safely and at scale has by no means been accomplished earlier than, and our group is so excited to reimagine the best way individuals talk.
Garima talking at Roblox Builders Convention 2022 with colleague Tom Sanocki
What’s one factor you’ve discovered as a frontrunner at Roblox?
Everybody in a corporation is exclusive, and what energizes somebody and will get them impressed varies throughout people.
By means of my time as a frontrunner, I’ve discovered that managing every of my experiences in the identical method simply doesn’t work. I would like to have the ability to adapt my fashion to my individuals – and by extension, to the state of affairs and context that we’re in at that second. It’s simple to default to my very own most well-liked administration fashion, so I’m usually checking myself and making certain that I’m aligning to the person’s wants, not simply my very own. My objective is to assist everybody do their greatest work whereas holding a excessive bar, and empowering them to achieve it.
On the finish of the day, my job is to assist my group do nice work and develop as technical professionals. Grounding my strategy to management in that goal has helped me coach superb and various professionals who complement each other with their totally different kinds and strengths.
How do you assist to guide and construct a tradition of innovation at Roblox?
I imagine in autonomy, possession, and making a tradition the place risk-taking is inspired. I believe it’s essential to teach my group, however I additionally need them to have the house and creativity to take the steps that they imagine are proper for a challenge, with out concern of failure. I’ve discovered that when my groups really feel like they will personal and drive their area areas, they actually step up and do their greatest work, and if individuals are not afraid to fail, they don’t seem to be afraid to push the boundaries. For those who can create that surroundings on your individuals, you’ll encourage innovation as a frontrunner. I attempt to present steerage, inspiration, and help, whereas encouraging of us to lean on their very own instincts and experiences. Day by day at Roblox, our groups are fixing issues that none of us – myself included – have the reply to. By inspiring our individuals to push boundaries and discover artistic choices, we’re capable of finding these solutions and innovate past our wildest imaginations.
The second factor I do to facilitate innovation is get my fingers soiled with the group! I’m by no means shy about diving into the main points – spending time brainstorming, whiteboarding, and problem-solving. We’re working to reply a few of the world’s hardest product questions, so collaboration and knowledge-sharing are key. There’s no job that’s too large or too small for anybody to tackle. It may be simple for leaders to get disconnected from day-to-day work. However for the kind of work we’re doing at Roblox – constructing issues that nobody has ever accomplished earlier than – it’s crucial that folks of all ranges dive proper in. We’re altering how the web works for the subsequent 10 years, and we gained’t be capable of do this if we don’t all deeply perceive every little thing in our product and in our stack.
For those who had to decide on a worth that the majority resonates with you as a frontrunner, which one would it not be?
Once I take into consideration our progress towards our imaginative and prescient, I believe we’ve got two values that work collectively synergistically – Get Stuff Executed and Take the Lengthy View. We take motion and steadily iterate to attain a really excessive quantity of labor at scale. Our tradition is action-oriented, and we’re always in search of options that allow us to construct with velocity.
On the similar time, we’re a really long-term firm and taking the lengthy view is essential for us. Our tradition encourages intentional pauses: if we see one thing off or awry, it’s innate in our values to pause, step again, and rethink – even when meaning a delay to make sure we get it proper. We at all times prioritize constructing with security and civility, which suggests creating the most secure product options as a substitute of simply attempting to ship issues and examine a field. We’re actively constructing for the longer term – regardless that we might have to attend weeks, months, or years to essentially see our imaginative and prescient come to life.
Garima Sinha, Senior Director of Product at Roblox
In closing, what excites you about the way forward for your group? What about Roblox as an entire?
I’m extra impressed proper now than I’ve been in a really very long time. And I say that as a result of I imagine that we’re on the crux of one thing big. We’re altering the best way individuals come collectively. How they hang around with one another. How they impart. How they play. We’re so near that future, and I’m very excited to make it occur.
Impressed by Garima’s story? She and her group are hiring! Go to our careers web site to discover open roles.
