Name: Deepali Chouhan

Title: Product Manager

Education: Master of Computer Applications from Vellore Institute of Technology, Tamil Nadu, India

Company Description: Master of Computer Applications from Vellore Institute of Technology, Tamil Nadu, IndiaPing Identity provides Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions,helping businesses secure digital interactions by verifying, managing, and governing useridentities featuring capabilities like Single Sign-On (SSO), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA),passwordless login, fraud detection. In essence, Ping Identity ensures the right people have theright access to the right resources at the right time, all while providing a smooth digitalexperience and robust security.

Tell us more about your job.

As a Product Manager, I get to work on critical problems, think of solutions to serve ourcustomers the best possible way. Product Managers are responsible to break high level visioninto a strategy and a roadmap which then gets converted into features that map with thecompany's overall goal. The products that we build help our customers run their mission critical businesses every single day. I get to work with smart people from various departments (like engineering, UX, sales, solution architects, customer success, marketing, documentation).

I like to think of a Product Manager as the director of a film (movie). Someone had a vision of "Kung Fu Panda," what story will the movie convey about the Panda, how will it be executed, what will the next iterations of the movie look like? Who will the audience be? As a PM I work backwards from a vision, strategy and a problem statement similar to how amovie director works with his team to execute on his vision.

Why is STEM important within your industry?

STEM is crucial in identity and security because:

● Identity systems are complex distributed systems - Identity for an end-user is logging in; under the hood it's a combination of Authentication, Authorization, Federation, Session lifecycle, Threat detection, to name a few. This requires computer science fundamentals like Data structures, Algorithms, Distributed systems and many more.

● Attackers are engineers with bad intent - Automating attacks, Reverse-engineering logic, Exploiting edge cases, Combining multiple small failures into one big breach. STEM education trains in these principles.

● Emerging identity tech is deeply STEM-driven - Biometrics (signal processing, ML, Decentralized identity) Passkeys & FIDO (public-key infrastructure)AI-driven threat detection (data science).

● Mathematics

○ Cryptography → number theory, probability, linear algebra,

○ Hashing, encryption, signatures → math proofs, entropy, randomness

○ Zero-trust models & risk scoring → statistics and modeling

Was there a specific moment when you decided you wanted to pursue STEM as a career?

I grew up naturally interested in STEM related topics. In my childhood, I would look at the stars at night and "the galaxy" always fascinated me. The little me was always curious about stars, planets, moon, sun, why this, why not that?? That naturally drew me into math and science. I didn't even realize when I got into STEM. For me it was a very natural process to pursue engineering & computers to see how that will turn out. During my masters I was blessed to have some highly educated and smart female professors who then also turned into my inspiration. I wanted to be smart like them. That was definitely a confirmation for me to continue to grow in this field. I did my graduation in Electronics Engineering. I didn't hate it, but I enjoyed building applications more and hence took Computer Science as a major during my masters degree.

What do you like best about your job?

I love solving complex problems. As a Product Manager on technical services, I get to work on critical use-cases that impact digital-lives of billions of people on a daily basis. The goal is to come up with comprehensive solutions, without degrading the customer experience. When I see the products in the market that I know use Ping products under the hood, it gives me immense job satisfaction to know that their digital interactions are secured. The other best part of my job is the smart people that I work with and learn from on a daily basis. It's rarely a dull day when you are a Product Manager.

What are the most important skills needed in your job?

Desire to solve problems, building technical knowledge, thinking from first principles (this is the superpower). I often end up stepping back and asking, What problem are we solving? For whom? Under what constraints?

Decision-making with incomplete information, communicating with people of diverse backgrounds, learning velocity, to name a few.

Have there been times in your career where you've faced difficult challenges? How were you able to overcome them?

Challenges are part of life, aren't they? No matter which career path you take you will be facing challenges along the way. Challenges shape us, help us grow, make us who we are today. Personally, to highlight a few - For me taking up science and mathematics seemed difficult and challenging at first (even though I was naturally gravitated towards related concepts but that doesn't mean it was easy). Moving to another country was challenging, moving from engineering to product management had its own set of challenges and learning process. What helped me is having the right people by my side who believed in me and who helped me take the next step. Most importantly I always believe in myself, even if no one else does :) Having the right mentor(s) can fast-track your learning and ability to deal with challenges in life. Luckily I have had some really great mentors who were the "beacon of light" to me.

Are there any hobbies, sports, or other interests of yours that have helped you excel in your career?

Playing any sport is powerful, it not only shapes you physically but also can teach you to learn certain important principles. While growing up I played basketball. It taught me principles like how to be a good team player, how to work with other people, how to be strategic, decision making under pressure. You can apply the same principle in your job. Success of a company and your team depends on how we deliver as a team, not just as individuals.

What advice would you give to girls of all ages who are interested in STEM?

The advice that I have for girls is - Don't chase a career, chase your passion and dreams, career will follow. Be curious!

With the advent of AI, amongst other things, this is such an exciting time to be in STEM. Exposure to STEM teaches algorithmic and logical thinking that will help one make decisions in life. Concepts like Inversion, First Principles and Anti-Fragility can be applied to all aspects of life, not just to build technical products.

Any additional thoughts on why it's important to get more girls involved in STEM?

STEM is everything that we see around us today and has been used to make everything that is a human invention. Everybody, not just girls, should have a say in what we make and how we impact the world for future generations. If only a subset of people had the ability to impact the world, then the world would be based on their impressions and experiences. An example is inearly phases of facial recognition which had inherent biases based on the images that were used to train the AI. Diversity is crucial to bring a holistic view to any situation and girls will always have a crucial role to play in what the world looks like in the future. Increasing representation expands the talent pool, leads to better and less biased technologies, and ensures that the systems shaping society reflect diverse perspectives. Encouraging girls in STEM is about removing obstacles and unlocking potential that benefits everyone.