Her Story
About Cansu
Cansu Berkem serves as Director of Product Management at Datadog, a public technology company with around 9,000 employees, where she oversees a team of 15 product managers. She has spent 15 years in product management since earning her computer science degree from Bilkent University in Turkey in 2009. Her career path includes director roles at Salesforce, where she developed AI-driven recommendation systems, as well as earlier positions at startups and mid-sized companies. At Datadog, she built the company's fastest-growing product, achieving 20 million dollars in revenue growth in its first year. Berkem actively participates in women in product management groups, originally sponsored by Meta, which host networking events and an annual conference in New York and San Francisco. She attributes her success to discipline, continuous learning, and a willingness to step outside her comfort zone, such as transitioning into large organizations like Salesforce. Berkem values trust and transparency in professional relationships and advises young women entering tech to embrace AI opportunities without fear, noting that the field is evolving rapidly and offers a chance to build expertise early.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Cansu
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to discipline, continuous learning, and pushing myself into areas where I don't feel confident. Getting out of my comfort zone has been key, like moving from smaller companies to a huge organization like Salesforce with 70,000 people and creating influence there. Self-belief that yes, I can do it, and continuously working for that has brought me here.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I received is that it doesn't matter how much you know about the industry, but how fast you learn, how fast you can correlate things back to your previous experiences, and how fast you act on it. Problems are similar regardless of the industry, so what matters is understanding business challenges and making the right connections.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would tell young women entering tech not to be scared of AI because it's so new that no one knows everything. It's an amazing opportunity to get up to speed now, and in 10 years you'll be one of the first people who know the most about AI. Dive into it now and learn.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenges are that the field is still heavily male-dominated, and women may feel they don't belong or struggle to find mentors and support within companies, often walking alone. Opportunities include going after AI businesses and learning AI, which is one of the biggest opportunities of our era. Women also have a duty and opportunity to shape AI to avoid bias against women.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Trust and being transparent are most important to me. I value when everyone seeks to express exactly what they feel, is open with their thoughts and ideas, and communicates constructively. This creates healthy business relationships, management, and trust.
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