Aspiring Product Manager Club and Co-op Create a Path for Startup Success
Subash Rajaseelan, MS’23, engineering management, founded the Aspiring Product Manager Club to share the skills he gained through his eight-month industry co-op and through his interdisciplinary coursework with other students, enabling them to become successful leaders in the industry.
Subash Rajaseelan, MS ’23, engineering management, believes to create a valuable product or service, the consumers’ needs have to be understood. Rajaseelan has incorporated this mindset throughout his professional and academic career. He says, “I want to learn how to build products, not just promote them. To do that, I have to think about users and the value the product brings to their lives.”
Rajaseelan received Northeastern University’s prestigious 2023 Yamamura Leadership Award for outstanding leadership skills.
After graduating from Anna University with a bachelor’s in electronics and communications engineering, Rajaseelan spent four years in marketing and business development. Seeking to further develop his data analytics and product management skills, Rajaseelan joined Northeastern’s engineering management master’s program. He was drawn to the flexibility built into the curriculum that gave him the opportunity to explore his interests in technology, data analytics, and product management.
Flexible curriculum allows for career exploration
The interdisciplinary curriculum allowed him the flexibility to switch directions if his interests shifted. “The program has a great mix of technology and management courses. With the array of electives, I could pick courses from any program,” Rajaseelan says. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all program. I could really evaluate what I liked and choose my career path. It’s a well-oiled machine that prepares you for whatever goal you want to achieve.”
Rajaseelan was invited to speak about effective leadership practices at a panel organized by the Young Indian Professionals of New England in collaboration with Northeastern’s Indian Culture Association.
The advanced product management class taught by Sara Salahi, part-time lecturer of mechanical and industrial engineering, became an influential course in Rajaseelan’s academic experience. Salahi’s multifaceted experience spans from the technology industry to research and product development. Rajaseelan says, “She has a unique blend of industry and academic experience, and the course reflected her dynamic career.” He appreciated the class’s structure that focused on communication and collaboration to develop skills needed to effectively lead a team.
“Learning to write product visions, think about metrics, and measuring success—these skills form the foundation of product management. I implement these techniques in my day-to-day job right now, helping both me and the company grow,” Rajaseelan says.
Creating a club to engage students
“When I joined Northeastern, some people didn’t really know what product management was,” he says. “There wasn’t a strong community for this emerging field.” So Rajaseelan founded Northeastern’s Aspiring Product Manager Club (APMC). The organization grew from informal meetings to a 2,000-member community running semester-long hackathons with over 500 participants.
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During his time at Northeastern, Rajaseelan organized many APMC Product Conferences. He continues to stay involved in the club by organizing various events and speaking at their alumni speaker series.
Rajaseelan joined APMC students in attending a MIT Product Conference.
The club created the first-ever APMC Protothon—a two-week product prototyping no-code hackathon organized by APMC NEU that other universities have adopted. During the two weeks, teams are given a problem statement and participate in two bootcamp sessions.
The club has also developed bootcamp programs, interview preparation sessions, and networking events with industry professionals, creating a community for project managers to connect. “We created a culture of learning that complemented the academic curriculum,” Rajaseelan says. “Our goal was to give students opportunities to become the best product managers possible.”
He remains close friends with his co-founder of the club.
Industry co-op and on campus positions facilitate learning
Rajaseelan’s academic success led to an eight-month co-op as a product manager working on a fintech start-up—that was later bought by Aliaswire, Inc.—developing credit cards for small businesses. His resume was spotted by a recruiter looking for a co-op student on behalf of the company. “They wanted someone with caliber and experience. Since it was such a key role and I would have a lot of responsibility, for my interview, I got on a call with the president of the company,” Rajaseelan says. His role was to understand the value their product brings to consumers and organize marketing around those values.
The company’s goal of helping small businesses was fulfilling for Rajaseelan, he says, “many of the minor problems that frustrate a small business are solvable, but they can’t do anything about it because that is how the system is. I was working on a product that solves a problem and was very meaningful.” The experience gave Rajaseelan hands-on product management experience in the growing fintech and startup field—an industry he wants to pursue.
Rajaseelan also gained experience through multiple campus jobs. Throughout his two years at Northeastern, he worked for technology services and eventually became a lead technician responsible for training others and improving operational efficiency.
Rajaseelan was the spokesperson for the Thinkverse exhibition at the Future of Education Technology Conference.
Rajaseelan was a research assistant for Fernando Suarez, Jean C. Tempel professor of entrepreneurship and innovation, studying technological innovation patterns. He learned data analytics skills that he applies to his current role as a founding product manager for the AI math tutor startup, Thinkverse, that helps students improve their math skills by an average of 30%, according to Rajaseelan. His role involves understanding user needs, developing product marketing strategy, and aligning engineering teams around growth objectives.
With his comprehensive AI and leadership knowledge, Rajaseelan led an educational hike on GenAI’s impact on education for the Boston AI Forum.
“All these experiences taught me to wear multiple hats. The program is meant for building people who can be at the forefront of new technological revolutions. In a startup environment, you need someone who can solve diverse problems—operations, process, strategy. Northeastern gave me that versatility,” he says.