Mark Young

Mark has worked as a Product Professional for over eight years, with spells as a Product Manager, Head of Product and Consulting Product Lead within a broad range of industries. Covering early stage start-ups all the way through to global blue chip corporations, he has built, released and managed products in the ecommerce, gaming, fintech, medtech, crowdfunding and media sectors. By day, Mark is currently working on building out the Product function at Everpress – a global fashion marketplace start-up which empowers grassroots creators to fight waste in fashion. Mark says he is motivated by building groundbreaking products that solve real problems, and providing user experiences that delight customers. He is a proponent of agile and lean product development, focusing on continuous cycles of discovery, iterative development, release and optimisation. He has studied lean business principles and conducted case studies across a wide range of industries to inform his methodology, and he has authored several reports on business and digital transformation. Mark has been part of the product instructor team with General Assembly since 2015.

IN CONVERSATION WITH Mark Young:

What is your favorite technical skill to work with on your own projects and why?

Experimentation and taking an iterative, build-measure-learn approach to building new products and services. The gratification of making progress based on validated bets is a flywheel that motivates me to keep pushing forward.

Product and data analytics, because it feels like you're bestowing a superpower on people, and it's a subject that many think is outside their capability before they learn it.

Understanding what students are trying to accomplish from their learning journeys, and then doing my best to give them a skills-base and mindset that sets them on the path to achieving it.

Treat yourself and your goals like a product. Understand your own unique value proposition, which is made up of all your skills and experiences so far. Set your mission, vision, and the values you believe in. Then plot a path from where you are now to where you want to go, keeping an open mind to evolving your plans as you iterate.

I am a product professional with over 15 years of experience in building products, departments, and strategies across a wide range of industries and roles. I have worked for organisations ranging from blue-chip companies to innovative scale-ups and early-stage startups, spanning e-commerce, fintech, medical, media, service, technical infrastructure, and beyond. I have been teaching with General Assembly on the suite of Product Management offerings for over ten years. I also run a consultancy, coaching, and mentoring service, which you can find at myproduct.pro.

WHAT [Mark’s] STUDENTS ARE SAYING...

”He is friendly, engaging and makes all answers feel valid. I am learning a lot from Mark.”