Getting In Flow with Meaghan

Meaghan is a Senior Product Manager based in Vermont.

Meaghan Swain is a Senior Product manager based in Vermont. In her free time she enjoys traveling and exploring outside. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.

Tell us about yourself.

Hello! My name is Meaghan Swain. I’m currently a Senior Product Manager at Ollie, a fresh dog food company. At Ollie I wear a few hats, both supporting the Core Platform Products - think the systems we use to power our e-commerce and logistics business, as well as being the Product Manager for our Diagnostics Innovation lab, building fun features in our app for pet parents.

At home, I’m the Product Manager of our household, with my husband and two cats. I’m originally from central Massachusetts, went to college in Vermont where I met my now husband, moved to Boston for a few years, and then when remote work became more widespread in Product with Covid, my husband and I moved back to Vermont. Outside of work, I’m usually either traveling, exploring something outside, hanging out with friends, or binging a book series on my Kindle.

What energizes you about your career?

I’m someone who really enjoys connecting with people, and as a Product Manager you get to talk with people in all parts of the company – stakeholders, designers, software engineers, other product managers, and hopefully also some customers! It’s great to learn about different perspectives, and I find it a fun challenge to figure out how to make everything work. I’m also someone who does best when I’m busy, so having a balance of meetings to connect with people, and a limited time to get things done outside of meetings keeps me productive because I have to be.

What's something that puts you into a state of flow?

First, it’s to make sure I have flow time and at least 45 minutes without any meetings or interruptions. Typically slack is the most quiet in the mornings and on Fridays with my current job, so those are the best times for me to reduce external distractions. Strangely enough, having music (any music), as long as I’m not horribly offended by it, is what helps me to focus the most. I think it’s probably because my mind is usually running a million miles a minute, and I’m always trying to multitask, so by putting music on in the background, I’m adding stimulation so my brain doesn’t wander as much, and I can focus on the thing I need to complete. I also schedule times for things on my checklists so it will notify me when I should be working on a task to help keep me accountable. 

How can people learn more about you and your work?

When I’m involved in large launch milestones, I like to celebrate them on LinkedIn, but there’s plenty that’s going on behind the scenes that I don’t post about.

I’m really passionate about helping Women in Tech and supporting female Product Managers in a male dominated tech environment. During covid I started a monthly women’s PM virtual meetup where we talk about challenges we’re having with work, or just to catch up with fellow female PMs to cheer each other on, and that’s been really fun.

If you’re looking for mentorship, or just to talk shop and spitball ideas in the day to day, feel free to send me a personalized LinkedIn request with what you’re looking to talk about!

Thanks for sharing your story with us, Meaghan!