Priya Jain, product manager

Her Step Forward

As a product manager, Priya Jain is passionate about leveraging technology and data to empower people. She has spent most of her career working for Fintech companies because she believes that any solution that helps reduce financial anxiety is worth pursuing. Born and raised in India, she moved to the US to do her Master's in Chemical Engineering at the University of California, San Diego. After spending 6 years in San Diego for one of the pioneer big data companies, she moved to France to do her MBA and has since lived and worked in four different cities around the world. Priya attributes her own personal and professional growth to having a supportive family and great mentors and tries to give back by mentoring women in technology when possible. Most recently, she co-founded Tales on Silk, a home decor brand inspired by Indian art forms. When she is not working, she is generally planning her next getaway or testing out a new recipe.
Stepping out of her comfort zone, Priya Jain decided on moving to France to pursue her MBA. It was the choice that would help her realize just how much there is to learn by interacting with different cultures, explaining that “if everyone in this world starts traveling more, we wouldn’t need to think about borders or walls - because the borders and walls we have are more in our minds than actually being there.”

Today, she doesn’t limit herself to locations or career roles, if there’s something she wants to explore. Spending time in roles from Management Consulting to Business Analyst, Product Manager, and more, Priya explains that one of the keys to her success was learning from a previous manager to make sure that she stayed focused on only her strengths, instead of taking the traditional look at strengths and weaknesses.

Going on to discuss the other essential ingredients for women to find success in the corporate arena, especially in tech roles, Priya notes that it’s important to address the lack of mentors. “As women, what we can do is support each other, and mentor each other... and I also feel that we should never try to do that by alienating men. It’s not only about women supporting women, it’s also men supporting women.”

Joining us to share her story, Priya talks about using her love of cooking to explore the culturally-diverse places she’s lived; connecting with her roots while giving Indian artists a platform for their work via Tales on Silk; and the framework that keeps her coming back to the most important priorities in her busy life.