Rachel Mclean, Product Management Specialist, is our #3 interview this month for the March ThingWorx Navigate Women Spotlight Series. Rachel is not a new face to the PTC Community! Rachel has contributed ThingWorx Developer community content in our IoT Tech Tips board.
Let's learn more about Rachel!
Jaime Lee: I am excited to learn more about Rachel! What can you tell me about your role at PTC that myself or the PTC Community might not already know?
Rachel: I have been at PTC for about 2.5 years, but joined the ThingWorx Navigate team in September 2022 as a Product Manager focusing on Connected PLM, Telemetry, Navigate Components, and liaising with customers via the Community and our Customer Success partners. I’ve held a few different roles at PTC. Right before this, I was a ThingWorx Product Manager, joining the Navigate team has been a natural transition, especially focusing on Connected PLM.
I’m also involved with our Employee Resource Groups at PTC, leading professional development for Women of PTC and serving as the chair of Early Career at PTC, because I am passionate about diversity, equity, and inclusion and building my network at PTC, and beyond.
Jaime Lee: Women of PTC is a great ERG! I try to attend Women of PTC listening sessions myself. This is a great segway to my next question. What has your experience being a woman in product at PTC? Has anything been surprising to you?
Rachel: My background is in business, and when I first expressed interest in product management, I was at my previous company. The feedback I received was essentially that product wouldn’t be the right fit for me because I didn’t have a technical background. For me, being a woman in product at PTC has been full of opportunity. The product organization here is majority male (as it is across the board), but I’ve always had great partners and mentors in my PM roles at PTC. The ThingWorx teams I worked with had incredibly talented, patient, and collaborative Technical Product Manager and R+D counterparts. I have met and am still meeting, some of the most incredible mentors in product management.
Jaime Lee: So, do you find more "product" women in more areas in PTC than others? Do you find it easy to connect?
Rachel: I’ve found that the women in product at PTC are great at making connections and supporting one another, even though we span across the entire PTC portfolio, which is part of how I was connected with Emily When a spot opened on her team, I was so excited for the opportunity because 1.) Navigate is a great product and PLM is a core part of PTC’s business and 2.) It’s a strong product team of primarily women that are great at identifying opportunities and solving challenges quickly and efficiently. I’m really excited to continue to grow with this team.
Jaime Lee: So you are about six months in as part of the Navigate team...what ThingWorx Navigate stories do you have from your time workingon the product you can share with the community?
Rachel: My favorite memory so far is from when I first joined the team and got to go to PTCUser. When I was on the ThingWorx team, I had quite a few customer engagements, but nearly all of them were virtual because I joined the team during the pandemic. It was so great to go to PTCUser and engage with customers face to face, and it was especially great to be able to hear questions that came up during the roadmap session and discuss the product with customers in real time. I even got to sit in on some user testing sessions testing out new Navigate UI.
As a product manager, time with customers is invaluable, so I hope I get more opportunities to engage with customers and do some site visits to discuss common use cases and challenges customers have with ThingWorx Navigate.
Jaime Lee:: What is your favorite thing about ThingWorx Navigate?
Rachel: I love how Navigate makes PLM data more accessible for non-expert users. In a previous role at a different company, we were a Windchill customer, and I was in a non-engineering role where I needed to access specific and up to date information from Windchill. Windchill is a fantastic resource that has a wealth of information, but for someone who wasn’t familiar with the platform and only needed one file in a giant repository, I often struggled to find what I required to get my job done. I often had to ask the technical program managers I worked with to find the files for me, which used up both of our times. When I came to PTC and learned about ThingWorx Navigate, I was so frustrated my previous company hadn’t invested in it with their Windchill package because it would have made my job so much easier.
My favorite thing about Navigate is that it makes people’s lives easier, and I have firsthand experience in not having Navigate, but needing a small amount of information from Windchill, which made my life harder.
Jaime Lee: When you aren't working on ThingWorx Navigate enhancements or participating in the PTC Community, what do you do with your free time?
Rachel: In my free time, I like to run (including marathons), hike, explore new cities with friends, and spend time with my dog, Cooper.
Jaime Lee: Marathons! Tell me more about that. How many marathons have you been in?
Rachel: I’ve run six marathons, including the Boston Marathon three times (I am from the town where the marathon starts), and am currently training for a half marathon at the beginning of April. Running is my way of clearing my mind, so sometimes, you’ll find me running around the Seaport near PTC’s headquarters during my lunch break. I love being outdoors and have always enjoyed hiking around New England.
Jaime Lee: I, myself, have never been a runner, but I do enjoy hiking. Have you hiked in any interesting places?
Rachel: Recently, I’ve been taking hiking trips where I fly to a different part of the U.S., and sometimes different parts of the world, to both explore new cities and experience hiking in different environments. I just got back from a three day trip in Death Valley, California, where I did a lot of dessert hiking and exploring the salt pans and flats. It was a great way to be outside and unplug a bit, because there was no cell service in the valley.
Jaime Lee: Does your dog go with you on these running activities or exciting hiking trips?
Cooper is more of a sprinter than a distance runner, so he is not a great running buddy, but he does enjoy hiking! I take him with me on hikes near Boston, but unfortunately, I have to leave him with a dogsitter when I go on my big trips. My favorite part of my trips is usually coming home to him because he is always excited to see me.
