I am a product intern at a major company in the Byte Group. On my first day of employment, I was told that my mentor was the company's legendary "product tyrant"—Zhou Xubai.
It is said that he fired seven interns a year, scolded three product managers, and even dared to reject the CTO's plan face to face.
During the first requirements review meeting, I stayed up all night working on the PRD, but he criticized me every word: "The logic is confusing, the user scenario is fake and empty, I need to redo it."
While I was hiding in the stairwell secretly wiping my tears, I received an internal message from him: "Come to my desk at nine o'clock tomorrow morning with a new plan. Don't let me down."
The second time, he started taking me to core project meetings, letting me sit behind him and listen. After every meeting, he would say in a voice that only the two of us could hear: "What the VP just said, where are the loopholes? Do you understand?"
For the third time, my plan was finally unanimously approved by the product committee. He sat across the conference table and rarely spoke. He just looked at me and raised the corners of his mouth slightly.
On the day of my defense for becoming a full-time student, my competitor—the returnee master's degree student with a glittering background—exposed him in public: "She's a second-time graduate, why?"
Before I had time to speak, Zhou Xubai pushed open the door and entered.
He walked up behind me, put his hands on the back of my chair, and glanced across the audience:
"Her user growth plan has increased daily activity by 8%. Is this reason enough?"
