Growing your startup with EntryLevel

Osfield took our Product Management Level 1 course and applied learnings to his startup. Here’s what he shared:

Hey guys! I completed PM1 not so long ago and I applied almost everything I learned in my startup Wavier. I hope this course is also helpful to you guys. I'm seeing great results so far. Just want to share it!

Notes

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Tell us your story - what was your learning journey like?

Got interested in mobile applications

Made apps with Android Studio

Was interested in UI/UX design

Took Google UX certification, but didn’t finish

Started working with Wavier

• Started with roommate
• During COVID, hard to find barbers
• Now there’s 5 people working on the team

Started as UX design (worked on most designs of apps)

Tried learning as much as I could

• It was very difficult, I wish I had EntryLevel back then

Built first app (Android, iOS)

Knew how to code, so joined in on dev team

• Started leading the dev team alongside doing design too

Recently in May/June, started working as a product manager

• Built almost everything
• Also did a bit of marketing
• Want to learn more, apply it to startup
• Found out about EntryLevel

How’d you find out about EntryLevel?

Saw on explore feed

Skeptical would break into tech in 6 weeks

Affordable

6 weeks isn’t impossible

• Takes more to break into techs
• Months to learn to code
• 6 weeks is good to get started

6 weeks learned so many things, applied everything to startup

Waited til end of the course to apply learnings to own startup

• It wasn’t individual concepts
• It was a whole block of things at once
• Ideation, research, etc.
• Didn’t even think about applying to startup right away
• At the end of the course, realized how useful it was for own workflow (Jira custom workflow)

What did you do after EntryLevel?

Applied learnings to startup

What are your plans for your startup?

Built feature, MVP, etc.

Pushing more on marketing

There’s EntryLevel’s PM 2 course (go to market strategy) and Growth Marketing course

How did you make time for PM Level 1 course

No idea

PM course wasn’t that difficult to me

Not mindbreaking

Able to do 30-60 mins per day going through the course

Had 2-3 weeks

• Had extra time to take it seriously - more than enough time to finish it

Time was not a problem

• Could allocate in my schedule every day

Rest a bit, work on PM course, then on startup

What advice do you have for other students?

Work on your startup, do things as soon as you can

The more you learn, the more you can do, etc.

Just work on something you like - if your friend has a startup, just join

Create use cases, fake products, etc.

• You’ll learn what you want to work on

Just try stuff and you’ll succeed

Never discount an opportunity to learn something

• Read articles, books
• Apply stuff all the time
• Read about work and time management

Be open-minded about researching

• Not going to learn everything in one place

If you have a startup idea, work on it - you’ll learn a lot

• Build it with friends
• Even MVP

Where do you recommend to start?

So many things out there, can get overwhelmed, not sure if you’re learning from the “right” place

• But there’s not really a right place to learn
• You can get overwhelmed very quickly
• A lot of things are communicating the same thing in different places/ways

If you find 1 place that gives you the knowledge you need, the value you need

• Focus on that, start there
• Go in with the mindset that you can learn more somewhere else later
• If there’s a community, it’s even better (get more knowledge and insight)

Like EntryLevel cuz it has knowledge, community, points you to diff places to learn from

• As you get more experience, you’ll naturally find more places

EntryLevel portfolio

Helped with startup’s workflow

Used all templates

Currently use during sprints at startup

Templates can help with simplifying, make things easier
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Connect with Osfield

Wavier: https://www.wavier.io/?utm_source=entrylevel&utm_medium=interview

Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/wavierapp/

Twitter page: https://twitter.com/wavierapp

LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wavierapp/?viewAsMember=true‍

Osfield's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/osfield-gaga-482055144/