Have you ever bought something from an online shopping platform and had it arrive at your doorstep in perfect condition only a few days later? Have you ever asked a smart assistant to tell you the weather, lock your front door, or turn off the lights? If so, you have product managers to thank for the convenience these services add to daily life.
Thousands of hours of effort go into building and managing software products to successfully run ecommerce websites, smart home devices, and other applications we rely on daily. The people who build and manage these applications are people like Parth Acharya, an expert product manager who has accrued almost a decade of experience managing software products across a variety of areas such as consumer ecommerce, B2B ecommerce, conversational AI, and computer vision.
Acharya's journey began with kicking off a product management career in Consumer Ecommerce. After obtaining his MS in Information Technology & Management from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2014, Acharya immediately jumped into the role of Product Manager for Dell Technologies. It was here that he built a best-in-class ecommerce application for large volume shopping events such as Black Friday.
"The ecommerce experience was successful in ensuring the website achieves an uptime of 100% and maintains zero oversell of discounted inventory," said Acharya. He eventually got his patent application for the application, which was granted in 2020.
But Acharya's journey didn't end with Dell, nor with ecommerce. While working his way up to Group Product Manager in a few years, Acharya spent almost six years developing B2C and B2B ecommerce experiences at Dell before leaving to become Senior Product Manager at Amazon in 2021. There, he was put in charge of working on Alexa Smart Home products and conversational AI.
He continued his product manager journey enabling conversational AI, building smart home experiences that added value to the lives of people with mobility disability or visual impairment. Thanks to Acharya and his team, people could simply say 'turn on the living room lights' to their smart home assistant and control their lights and other appliances. While this feature is something most of us might take for granted, it requires a lot of complicated work to make possible, and the value it adds to some people's lives can be immeasurable.
While at Amazon, Acharya now works for AWS Industry Products, leading the company's investment strategy and multi-year roadmap execution aimed at computer-vision applications for Telco and Sports enterprises.
So, what's next for Parth Acharya?
"I am continuing to champion my product management career by leading a product that uses computer vision and AI to drive sustainability and economic development in areas like agriculture and manufacturing," said Acharya.
If his history at Dell and Amazon is any indicator, Acharya's potential as a product manager is only just beginning to show itself.
