Main at Roblox with Garima Sinha

Main at Roblox is a collection that explores the profession journeys of Roblox’s leaders and discusses their roles, philosophies, and administration kinds. On this profile, we get to know Garima Sinha, Senior Director of Product, who heads up our Social Staff inside the Person Group.  

Garima with colleague Effie Goenawan discussing a latest venture

Let’s discuss your profession path to Product management. How did all of it begin? 

GS: I’ve at all times been enthusiastic about technical innovation. I studied Laptop Science Engineering in Delhi as a way to start a profession within the expertise trade. After faculty, I took my first full-time function as a Product Supervisor. This was a bit uncommon, as most PMs enter the place after just a few years of common engineering expertise. However I jumped in and realized rapidly. So as to thrive, I needed to have a “doer” mindset and never shrink back from difficult issues. Many of those traits guided how I lead at present.

Two years later, I pursued my Grasp’s diploma in Software program Administration from Carnegie Mellon. From there, I had some wonderful alternatives within the coronary heart of Silicon Valley at corporations like Meta (then Fb), Thumbtack, and Instacart. I began my function right here at Roblox in April of 2022, and this primary 12 months has been nothing wanting wonderful. I’m doing a number of the most revolutionary work of my life.

What does your present function entail?

I’m a Senior Director of Product Administration inside Roblox’s Person Group, main Social. Our imaginative and prescient is to allow one billion individuals to attach, play, study, talk, and work collectively in high-quality 3D immersive co-experiences. On the Person Group, I lead Product for 2 of our verticals: Connections and Communication. Our focus is on constructing the merchandise that empower free, expressive, and immersive communication on-platform, and our mission is to allow and mimic real-world communication in digital co-experiences. Constructing these options safely and at scale has by no means been completed earlier than, and our staff is so excited to reimagine the best way individuals talk.

Garima talking at Roblox Builders Convention 2022 with colleague Tom Sanocki

What’s one factor you’ve realized as a frontrunner at Roblox?

Everybody in a company is exclusive, and what energizes somebody and will get them impressed varies throughout people.

By my time as a frontrunner, I’ve realized that managing every of my reviews in the identical method simply doesn’t work. I would like to have the ability to adapt my type to my individuals – and by extension, to the scenario and context that we’re in at that second. It’s straightforward to default to my very own most popular administration type, so I’m usually checking myself and making certain that I’m aligning to the person’s wants, not simply my very own. My objective is to assist everybody do their greatest work whereas holding a excessive bar, and empowering them to succeed in it.

On the finish of the day, my job is to assist my staff do nice work and develop as technical professionals. Grounding my strategy to management in that goal has helped me coach wonderful and various professionals who complement each other with their completely different kinds and strengths.

How do you assist to steer and construct a tradition of innovation at Roblox?

I consider in autonomy, possession, and making a tradition the place risk-taking is inspired. I feel it’s essential to teach my staff, however I additionally need them to have the house and creativity to take the steps that they consider are proper for a venture, with out worry of failure. I’ve discovered that when my groups really feel like they’ll personal and drive their area areas, they actually step up and do their greatest work, and if individuals are not afraid to fail, they aren’t afraid to push the boundaries. For those who can create that atmosphere on your individuals, you’ll encourage innovation as a frontrunner. I attempt to present steerage, inspiration, and help, whereas encouraging of us to lean on their very own instincts and experiences. Each day at Roblox, my groups are fixing issues that none of us – myself included – have the reply to. By inspiring our individuals to push boundaries and discover inventive choices, we’re capable of finding these solutions and innovate past our wildest imaginations.

The second factor I do to facilitate innovation is get my arms soiled with the staff! I’m by no means shy about diving into the main points – spending time brainstorming, whiteboarding, and problem-solving. We’re working to reply a number of the world’s hardest product questions, so collaboration and knowledge-sharing are key. There’s no process that’s too huge or too small for anybody to tackle. It may be straightforward for leaders to get disconnected from day-to-day work. However for the kind of work we’re doing at Roblox – constructing issues that nobody has ever completed earlier than – it’s crucial that individuals of all ranges dive proper in. We’re altering how the web works for the following 10 years, and we gained’t be capable to try this if we don’t all deeply perceive every little thing in our product and in our stack.

For those who had to decide on a worth that the majority resonates with you as a frontrunner, which one would it not be?

After I take into consideration our progress towards our imaginative and prescient, I feel we have now two values that work collectively synergistically – Get Stuff Achieved and Take the Lengthy View. We take motion and regularly iterate to realize a really excessive quantity of labor at scale. Our tradition is action-oriented, and we’re continuously looking for options that allow us to construct with velocity. 

On the similar time, we’re a really long-term firm and taking the lengthy view is essential for us. Our tradition encourages intentional pauses: if we see one thing off or awry, it’s innate in our values to pause, step again, and rethink – even when which means a delay to make sure we get it proper. We at all times prioritize constructing with security and civility, which implies creating the most secure product options as a substitute of simply attempting to ship issues and test a field. We’re actively constructing for the longer term – though we may have to attend weeks, months, or years to essentially see our imaginative and prescient come to life. 

Garima Sinha, Senior Director of Product at Roblox

In closing, what excites you about the way forward for your staff? What about Roblox as an entire?

I’m extra impressed proper now than I’ve been in a really very long time. And I say that as a result of I consider that we’re on the crux of one thing large. We’re altering the best way individuals come collectively. How they hang around with one another. How they convey. How they play. We’re so near that future, and I’m very excited to make it occur. 

Impressed by Garima’s story? She and her staff are hiring! Go to our careers website to discover open roles.