Welcome to the latest issue of The Commons digest!
This is our bi-weekly round-up of community news, relevant content and anything that can help us level up together.
As always, reach out if you have any feedback or if youโd like anything featured in here.
Now onto the update ๐
โ
#community-wins ๐ฅ
We celebrated several hiring announcements and promotions!
- Anna Dabrowski was promoted to Manager, Strategic Planning at Clio โ๏ธ
- Celine Chang joined SkipTheDishes as a Government Relations Manager ๐ฝ
- Alexa Shenstone joined Snapcommerce as Senior Operations Manager, Vendor Ops ๐ฑ
- Haley Bryan joined Alumni as a Senior Product Analyst ๐
- Linus Lu joined Caption Health as a Deployment Strategist โ๏ธ
- Caroline FitzGerald joined Data Culture as CEO ๐
- Simon Tancredi joined Guiker as Director of Operations ๐ก
Community members: please be sure to reach out with a word or two of congratulations on Slack!
โ
Last Call: Product Operations Sprint ๐
Tomorrow is the last day to apply to the upcoming Product Operations Sprint!
The Sprint is led by Wafic El-Assi (Uber), Nick May (Shopify) and Prateek Ranganathan (Shopify) who will help you learn everything you need to succeed in Product Ops roles and level up to nail an interview โ๏ธ
The Sprint kicks off next week and is almost full. You must apply by 11:59pm EST tomorrow (April 22nd) to be considered for the Sprint.
โApply Now - Product Operations
โQuestions? We've got you covered. Just reply to this email and we'll be glad to help.
โ
An Operator You Need to Know About ๐
We recently interviewed Gary Yang, Head of Product and Operations at Placeholder, on the latest episode of Need to Know (our podcast).
Gary candidly shared his insights on BizOps and Product, what it takes to succeed in start-ups and his journey from management consulting to tech.
This is a must listen for current and aspiring operators, particularly those who want to get a sense of what it takes to enter the leadership ranks at top startups.
Listen to the full episode right here.
โ
Community Members Spotlight ๐ก
Today weโre featuring Ellie OโBrien, who works in Product Operations at DoorDash and who is a member of the mentor team here at The Commons.
Here's a quick look at her career path:

Ellie is a great example of how you can design your career around the types of problems you genuinely enjoy solving.
In her case, she discovered a love of data analysis while working in consulting and positioned herself to do even more of this work as she transitioned to tech.
Her career philosophy is essentially: find what you like and then uncover opportunities to do more of that work.
Ellie also enjoys mentoring people, and has made a big difference in the careers of several community members in a very short period of time ๐
You can read more about Ellie and her work at DoorDash here.
โ
Events @ The Commons ๐
- Community-members are hosting IRL meetups in four cities over the next two weeks ๐
- Montreal on Sunday April 24th - sign up at the link in #mtl-community on Slack
- Toronto on Monday April 25th (at capacity) - details in #toronto-community on Slack
- Vancouver on Friday April 29th - see the #vancouver_bc_community channel on Slack
- San Francisco on Thursday May 5th - head over to the #sanfrancisco-community channel to learn more!
โ
- โWednesday April 27th: We're running another edition of our Keeping it Candid series, which focuses on community-driven topics and honest takes. This one focuses on entrepreneurship! Learn from community members John Thomas, Aliza Bhatia and Lisa Carrie Goldberg as they chat about their experiences as founders, the lessons theyโve learned, and what you need to know to start your own company. We'll post a link on Slack for community members to sign up at.
โ
- โWednesday May 4th: Mentors Anna and Allan will be hosting office hours for community members! Join to hear them share their trajectories and how they broke into tech. They'll use the rest of the time for questions and discussion. We'll post a link on Slack for community members to sign up at.
โ
Apply Early: Summer Sprints ๐
We've quietly opened early applications to four Sprints that will kick off this summer: The Commons Core, Strategic Finance, Product Strategy and Revenue Growth.
Applying early is the best way to secure your spot in that we'll have more time to review your application. All of our March Sprints, for example, filled up before we could even finish processing all of the applications.
Dozens of community members and other smart business professionals have already enrolled in these Sprints. You can join them by applying below ๐
โApply Early - Revenue Growth
โApply Early - Product Strategy
โApply Early - Strategic Finance
โ
One (Community) Thing ๐
We've received lots of positive feedback on s'up - the tool we use to connect community members for bi-weekly group chats.
Thank you to all community members who have been connecting. That's what this community is all about!
Here's a screen grab of Alex, Jun and Ellie from one of their recent hangouts:

***
Thatโs all for now โ๏ธ If youโd like to access more news and content before the next update, you can hop on over to Slack.
P.S. please give us a follow on Instagram - weโre bringing the community directly to your feed :)
โโSee anything your friend might find interesting? Feel free to forward this issue! This community grows stronger and more valuable to everyone in it the more smart people - i.e. folks like you - learn about The Commons. Sign-up to receive all things The Commons right here.