All right. Good afternoon, everyone. I have quite a bit to pass along today, so appreciate your patience, then we'll get right to your questions. First, let me start off by offering the department's deepest condolences to the families of our five U.S. Marines assigned to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 361, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, who died in a helicopter crash February 6 in California. As Secretary Austin said in his statement this morning, we mourn their tragic loss and his prayers are with these brave Marines, their families, loved ones and teammates. We will forever be grateful for their call to duty and selfless service. And we also want to thank the multiple local, state and federal agencies who are assisting with recovery operations. As a matter of policy, identities of deceased service members will not be released until 24 hours after all next of 10 notifications have been completed. For additional questions, I would refer you to the Marine Corps. Separately, Secretary Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General C. Q. Brown Jr. Jr. will travel to Brussels, Belgium next week to host an in-person meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group on February 14. This will be the 19th meeting of the UDCG since Secretary Austin formed the International Group in April 2022. The Secretary and Chairman will join ministers of defense and senior military officials from nearly 50 nations to discuss the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and the continued support from the international community to provide the Ukrainian people with the means necessary to defend their sovereign territory. While in Brussels, Secretary Austin will also participate in the NATO Defense Ministerial February 15 at NATO headquarters. Turning to the Middle East, as U.S. Central Command announced yesterday at 9.30 p.m. Baghdad time, February 7, U.S. Central Command Forces conducted a unilateral strike in Iraq in response to the attacks on U.S. service members killing a Qatub Hezbollah commander responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on U.S. forces in the region. There are no indications of collateral damage or civilian casualties at this time. Additionally, initial assessments indicate that there were no additional militants injured or killed beyond the one Qatub Hezbollah commander who was targeted. Additionally, CENTCOM continues to assess the results from our earlier strikes in Iraq and Syria on February 2. But initial indications are that over 40 militants associated with Iranian proxy groups were killed or injured in the U.S. strikes against seven facilities, which included more than 85 targets that Iran's IRGC and affiliated militias have used to attack U.S. forces. As we made clear, the United States will continue to take necessary action to protect our people, and we will not hesitate to hold responsible all those who threatened the safety of our forces. Separate and distinct from the U.S. strikes in Iraq and Syria are the multinational actions we took on February 3 as part of ongoing international efforts to respond to increased Iranian-backed Houthi destabilizing and illegal activities in the region. As you recall, coalition forces targeted 13 locations, striking 36 Houthi targets associated with the Houthi's deeply buried weapons storage facilities, missile systems and launchers, air defense systems and radars, all capabilities Houthi militia have used to attack international merchant and naval vessels in the region. These strikes were intended to further disrupt and degrade Houthi capabilities to conduct their attacks against U.S. and international vessels, lawfully transiting the Red Sea. CENTCOM continues to evaluate the February 3 strikes, but initial assessments indicate that 35 targets at the 13 locations were destroyed or functionally damaged. The targets destroyed include command and control sites, weapons storage, missile systems, UAV storage and operation sites, radars and three helicopters. More broadly, since the first coalition strikes on January 11, we assess that we've destroyed or degraded more than 100 missiles and launchers, including anti-ship, land attack and surface-to-air missiles, plus numerous communication capabilities, unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned surface vessels, coastal radars, air surveillance capabilities and weapons storage areas. I will repeat again that the U.S. does not want escalation and that these strikes are directly in response to the actions by the Iranian-backed Houthis. Again, however, we will not hesitate to defend lives in the free flow of commerce in one of the world's most vital waterways. Shifting to the Indo-Pacific this week, the U.S. military and the Japan Self-Defense Force conducted a bilateral command post exercise known as Keen Edge 24 with the participation of the Australian Defense Force. The exercise is the latest in a series of joint multilateral command post exercises designed to increase our integrated joint operational capability, refined command and control procedures, and enhance interoperability of all participants. This year's iteration of the Keen Edge exercise included greater synchronization with the U.S. Space Command and U.S. Cyber Command expanding the multi-domain collaboration that is incumbent on any large scale exercise or operation. And finally, as a status update on a topic that many of you have been asking about, the DOD Performance Improvement Officer and Director of Administration and Management and her team have completed their 30-day review of the Department of Defense notification process for when the Deputy Secretary or another designated official assumes the duties and functions of the Secretary of Defense. The review has been submitted to Secretary Austin, and he is in the process of reviewing it. Much of the report is classified since it relates generally to continuity of operations and the security of our personnel. However, as the Secretary has said, we remain committed to being as transparent as possible about the review, and we'll have more information once the Secretary's review is complete. And with that, I'll be glad to take your questions. We'll go to Associate Press Leader Valdor. Thank you, Pat. Just a couple of follow-ups on the strike, so you're confirming that Al-Sadi was the only person in the vehicle at the time and the only person killed, is that accurate what you're saying? That is correct. We are, we have high confidence that that was the case. And then you said, you mentioned 40 militants. Were those primarily KH militia that were killed, the 40 that you mentioned? Because I think there's been some statements that there was a belief that no Iranians have been killed. Is that still the case? So, you know, again, Senkham continues to assess right now we have no indications that Iranians were killed in these strikes. I don't have a specific breakdown in terms of the particular Iranian proxy militant group, other than to say, again, our assessment is that, you know, what I read out to you. And then just on the review, was that submitted today? And is there an expectation that there are any disciplinary actions recommended in this report or review, or is that something that comes later? Yeah, on that part, I haven't seen the review, so I can't answer that question again. We'll try to keep you updated on that front. To my knowledge, the report was submitted to the Secretary today. Okay, Jennifer. What evidence does the Pentagon have that the Khatab-Hasifullah was behind the drone strike that killed Americans in Jordan? Well, as we said in our statement, this commander was responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on U.S. forces in the region. So, again, I'll just leave it at that, Jennifer. Was he directly involved in planning that attack on the Jordan base? I don't have any information on that. We are confident that he was responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on U.S. forces, of which there's been over 160, as you know. And did you tell the Iraqi prime minister or anyone in the Iraqi government ahead of this strike? So, we notified the Iraqis shortly after the strike occurred. I'm not going to go into any more details in terms of, you know, private diplomatic discussions. We, of course, fully respect Iraq's sovereignty and have been very clear in our public statements and private conversations that we would respond at a time and place of our choosing when it came to holding the groups that have been attacking U.S. forces accountable. And is your response over? You know, as I said, this strike that we did yesterday was in response to the continued attacks on U.S. forces. I'm not going to discuss or speculate about potential future operations other than to say that we will continue to take necessary actions to protect our forces. Let me go over here to Tom and then we'll go to... The 40 militants killed a wounded. Do you have a breakdown from Iraq and Syria? And also, any sense civilians were killed? The mayor of Al Qaim says one civilian was killed five houses damaged. Are you guys looking into that? So, Tom, I don't have a breakdown for you, Iraq versus Syria. What I will say is that we are aware of allegations that at least one civilian was killed during the February 2 strikes, which Sankam is reviewing. As you've heard us say, we will always take civilian harm mitigation very seriously and take all possible precautions to minimize potential harms to civilian, but beyond that, I don't know. Do you know where that person was killed? I don't have that in front of me. So, again, Sankam will review this and, you know. And lastly, on the review, will that also look into the communications breakdown and what happened there? For the 30-day review. So, it will look at all the relevant facts associated with the notification process as it pertains to transferring authorities from the secretary to the deputy secretary. Again, that memo is available online on the DOD website under the publications tab and you can see exactly what the review is calling for. Missy? But will the review be provided to Congress? And if so, would that be in a classified format so they can review it in classified studying or will you wade into some sort of unclassified version of that? And then, going back to Iraq, do you have an update on the HMC process? There's some reports that there's gonna be a meeting in a few days. Yeah, thanks Missy. So, we'll certainly work to keep Congress informed about the review and so we'll keep you updated on that front. Again, at this stage, the secretary just got it so he's reviewing but I'm confident as we always do, we'll work with Congress to ensure they have the information that they request and that they need. On the HMC, you know, we do remain committed to the HMC process. I don't want to get into the specifics on how and when those private conversations will occur other than we, again, will work with our Iraqi partners. I forgot to ask, do you have any update on him potentially testifying before the HASC? Yes, the secretary will testify to the HASC on 29th February. And will that be open hearing? I'd have to refer you to Congress on that piece. Okay, Dan. Could you give us an idea of how important al-Sayyidi was to that militia group into these attacks on U.S. forces? Well, again, I'd point you to Sankam's press release and as I highlighted, I mean, this was a commander who was responsible for directly planning and conducting attacks against U.S. forces. And so, again, our focus in Iraq and Syria is on the enduring defeat of ISIS but when our forces are threatened we will take appropriate action and this strike was conducted in response to the attack against our forces as well as the attack on our base, our facility in Jordan, where three service members were killed and numerous wounded. Can I just ask you about the sea stallion crash? Is there any indication at this point that weather versus mechanical failures might have been a factor? And also, are there any indications that the crew tried to land or just considered landing before it went down? Yeah, thanks, Dan. I don't have any information on that. As you know, in any type of aviation accident or incident there will be an investigation and so it's very important to allow that investigation to run its course before any, you know, there's any discussion or speculation on what may have happened. So I'd encourage you to keep in touch with the Marine Corps and they can keep you updated. Secretary, is there a wider concern about aviation safety now? So many mishaps, there's been reports indicating problems with training, a sufficient amount of training for both pilots and the maintenance crews. Yeah, well, I mean, I can assure you that we are dedicated to ensuring that safety is in all of our programs to include our aviation programs. We've taken critical steps to integrate industry best practices when it comes to evaluating, training, maintenance, safety standards. I can also assure you that each of the services takes this very seriously as well. And so they will, as always, continue to look at their training, maintenance, and safety programs to ensure that we learn from every incident and apply those lessons into their risk management programs and management of those fleets. Thank you, Fadi. Thank you, General. I just have one clarification on the higher military commission. There is a statement by Major General about the meeting on February 11th. So is the Pentagon confirming that or not? Sure, I didn't refer to that statement. Okay, cool. Okay, so my question, I could have taken that question. My question is, I have two questions. This is the first time we hear an official statement naming Abu Bakr al-Sadi. Statement from Sankam just said commander, said he is involved in this and that. I mean, why hasn't the Pentagon or Sankam mentioned who the guy who was targeted, especially the Iraqi government, is protesting what happened, targeting someone in a busy street in dangerous civilians, according to their statement. And there's a major disagreement between you and your partner in Iraq. And yet there's another commander, part of the, according to Iraq's PMF, that's been, who's been assassinated in Baghdad. And you're not sharing enough information to prove that he's involved in anything that related to attacking US forces. There was literally no question in that statement. I'm saying why, there was a question. Even in your statement, you didn't mention his name until you were asked about it. So was Sam Mohammed Sabir al-Saidih, was a Qatab Hasbalaq commander who was responsible for directly planning and participating in attacks on US forces in the region. He's not a member of the PMF. He's a Qatab Hasbalaq commander and we're very confident in the process that we took in order to identify and again hold this individual accountable. And then you said you respect the sovereignty of the Iraqi government. The Iraqi government disagrees with that statement and it seems your action run opposite to that statement. When you take military actions in a sovereign nation, isn't that a violation of its sovereignty? Well Fadi, so first of all again, we're in Iraq at the invitation of the government of Iraq to fight ISIS. And again, I know you know this, but for the benefit of those listening and watching, you'll recall when we returned to Iraq with significant numbers in 2014, it was to help them fight ISIS. Again, those forces are there to help train and advise in their fight against ISIS and help save Iraqi lives. We, the US military, have an inherent right to defend ourselves if attacked. And again, publicly and privately, we've made it very clear to our Iraqi partners that we will take necessary action to defend those forces. Again, I've served in Iraq, I've been there many times. We have fought and died alongside Iraqis for many years to help them defend their nation. And the reason that we're there is again to help them to protect their country against ISIS. But if we're attacked, we have a responsibility to defend our forces and that's what we did. Let me go back over here to Oren and then we'll go to Carl. Two questions. First, was it by design that no Iranians were killed as the US seeks to avoid open conflict with Iran? I'm not gonna have anything to provide Oren beyond what I've already made in my statement. And then second question, General Masloom, the SDF commander briefed reporters and said ISIS has taken advantage of the situation, frankly, the chaos in the region and they have seen a spike in their activity. Has the US seen that same spike? Does that mean more ISIS attacks? Does that mean the ISIS coalition has effectively been busier? Well, look, I mean, part of this is relative when you wanna start talking about ISIS and its presence around the world and around the region in terms of spike. Certainly, as we've seen before, ISIS is insidious and will take advantage of ungoverned spaces and opportunities to exploit tensions and fissures is what you see in places like just yesterday. I think there was an attack in Bluchistan by ISIS-K. You see them in Afghanistan. You see them on the African continent. So in Iraq and Syria, they are down, but they're not out. And so, again, this work by an international coalition continues to try to prevent a resurgence of ISIS. And so, again, we're very focused on that, but it's obviously not helpful when you have things like Iranian proxies attacking your forces that are there for that mission. But have you seen an increase in their activity in Iraq and Syria? I mean, they certainly conduct activities. I don't have any data in front of me right now to show. But again, yeah, I'll just leave it at that. Carla. Thank you, Pat. Just a follow-up and then one question. But to follow-up, you'd mentioned about how U.S. forces have been working with Iraqis for years. This was the second time that the U.S. has struck inside of Iraq without letting the Iraqis know until after the strikes that occurred. Has there been some level of trust that's been lost between the United States and Iraq? Look, we, again, view Iraq as a very valued and important partner, and we will continue to work and consult closely with them on regional security issues, supporting them, because, again, we're there at their invitation. In terms of notification processes, you know, look, we're going to take Operation Security and Force Protection into account into any operation. But again, I'll just go back to what I've said, that we've been very clear, publicly and privately, that we'll take appropriate action to defend our forces. Let me go to the floor. Okay, and then I'm one on Ukraine, if I may. Sure. Alexander Cersky has taken over from Zaluzny as head of Ukraine's Armed Forces. Has Secretary Austin or General Brown spoken to Cersky yet, and does the Pentagon anticipate any changes in Ukraine's military strategy after this reshuffle? I can't speak for General Brown to my knowledge. Yeah, I'm sorry, I'd refer you to Joint Staff for that. General Austin, so, General Austin, going back in time there. Secretary Austin has not spoken to that individual. You know, obviously a lot of questions that we've received were aware, of course, of the reports about changes in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. That's really something that I would have to refer you back to Ukraine to discuss their internal discussions and decisions. I can tell you the one thing that won't change, and that is our continued support for Ukraine and their efforts to defend themselves against Russian aggression, so just leave it at that. Laura. Thank you. One on Iraq, Syria, and one on Ukraine. Is there, have there been an increased threat since these attacks started to the detention centers in Syria where, as you know, there's many ISIS prisoners that are at risk of escaping? Laura, I'm not aware of anything, well, attacks against the detention? Just an increased risk of some kind of breach or the SDF guards having to. Yeah, I'd have to refer you to Sankam on that. I'm not aware of anything specifically as you highlight. I mean, this is sort of a US SDF joint effort to essentially ensure that Ahal continues to contain ISIS prisoners, but I'd have to refer you to Sankam on that. And then on Ukraine, we talked about how the PDAs are on pause right now, US AI contracts continue to flow. How much longer will the US be providing flowing air defense missiles to Ukraine? So I don't have a number to provide for you. There are certain capabilities that were contracted under US AI, which will continue, which does include some air defense capabilities, will also continue to work very closely with allies and partners in terms of identifying Ukraine's needs and then working with them to help facilitate that process. So they're currently still flowing US air defense missiles to Ukraine right now, to the US AI contracts? To my knowledge, that and other capabilities that we've announced as it relates to US AI. Jennifer? Just a follow-up, Pat. You say that the person killed and bagged at the head of Koteb Pesvolo was not a member of the PMF, but the Iraqi leaders say that he was. So how can you say he wasn't a member of the PMF if they say he was? And if you have targeted the head of Koteb Pesvolo in Iraq, does that mean you've determined that the drone that killed Americans in Jordan came from Iraq? I don't have any updates to provide in terms of the point of origin for the drone that struck Tower 22. And again, we're confident that this individual was a Koteb Hezbollah commander, and I'll just leave it at that. I won't speak for the Iraqis. Last week, we heard from the Defense Secretary who said that Iran was ultimately to blame because they paid for these groups, these proxy groups. They bankrolled these missiles and these drones. So is it in his estimation that Iran has been held responsible for the attack at the Tower 22? Is it the Secretary's estimation? Again, look, what we've said is that we will take necessary action to hold those accountable, those responsible for these attacks against our forces accountable. I'm not going to bound it other than to say that we will continue to stay focused on our mission in Iraq and Syria, as well as doing what we need to do to protect our forces. And I'll just leave it at that. Gordon. Just to go back to this review thing. The Secretary's answer on how much would be revealed or whatever it was a bit shaky, the idea of who knew what when and who was supposed to say and do all that cannot be positively classified. So I'm trying to get a cleaner answer to how transparent the building will be on the result of this review. Because the idea that a lot of it is classified seems not true. I'm going to take a deep breath there, Gordon. I know I understand and appreciate your skepticism there. I'm telling you the truth, and that there will be portions of that report that are classified. And then we will work hard to provide you with as much information as we can, and you'll just have to take my word for it. Thank you. Sir? Just quickly on the Iraq strike, can you talk about any timeline when the president authorized the strike at a time? How long it took place? And then can you talk about what levels of discussion took place following the strike? You said you informed Iraq. Yeah. Thanks, Joseph. So I'd refer you to the White House for any discussion on the president. As I'm sure you can appreciate, I'm not going to get into discussions that the Secretary has with the president in terms of timelines other than central command at the authorities that they needed to conduct this strike. And then on the level of call from this building to the Iraqis after the strike? I'd refer you to central command. I don't have anything to read out. I mean, as you know, we have forces in Iraq, as well as a US embassy presence. And so we're communicating at multiple echelons, but I'd refer you to central command on it. Will, there's been talk about the Israelis that said they conduct a military operation in Taddafah. Does this department, would this department support such an operation? And then secondly, on that, at least to maybe a third American have been detained by the Israeli military. There's civilians that continue to be killed in Palestine. The department has verbally said and warned that there needs to be a reduction in civilian casualties. When or is the department prepared to do more than just issue verbal warnings? There's a lot of questions there, Joseph. So in terms of Rafa, I don't have anything for you on that. I'd refer you to the Israeli MOD to talk about their operations. I think NSC has talked about this a bit. Clearly, we continue to remain focused on ensuring that humanitarian assistance gets into Gaza and there are concerns about making sure that civilian safety is taken into account if there were any operations to be considered in that area. But again, I don't have anything to provide on Israeli operations. As it relates to the detainment of any U.S. citizens, again, I'd refer you to State Department on that. I just don't have anything to provide. Okay, sir. Yeah, thank you. When it comes to addressing the threats of the Iranian-backed groups in Iraq and Syria, has your policy changed or shifted from deterrence to degrading these groups? Because whenever I go, the State Department and the BDX person said that the focus continues to be on both, on deterrence and also degrading these groups. Has anything changed in terms of that? So I think you've got to take a step back a little bit more from that and say, you know, the focus is on conducting the mission that we're there to do. And if we're attacked, taking appropriate action to deter future attacks, as well as safeguarding our forces, to include holding those accountable who have been conducting these attacks. Part of that would include degrading the capabilities that they've been using to conduct attacks, right? So that's what you saw on Friday was efforts to degrade the capabilities that they have, but also send a clear message that we will take action if our forces are attacked or threatened. So I totally understand that you are in Iraq with an invitation of the Iraqi government, and we spoke on that at different times. But when it comes to that, the Iraqi government says totally different what we are believing when it comes to the sovereignty. You say that we respect the Iraqi sovereignty and the Iraqi government. The Spock's person for the Iraqi government says that the US is violating the Iraqi sovereignty. And also today, what they announced is that these attacks compel the Iraqi government more than ever to terminate the mission of the coalition. Does that concern you at all these comments that coming from the Iraqi government? I understand that you are not speaking for the Iraqi government, but are you taking these comments statement seriously? Well, look, we take our relationship with Iraq seriously, and we value them as a partner. We do respect their sovereignty. But again, when our forces are attacked or threatened, it's incumbent on us to take necessary action to protect those forces. And so I'll just leave it at that. May I add the last one? I think we need some of your colleagues here. Is there any agreement between you and the Iraqi government? Have you told the Iraqi government if you like it or don't, if our force has been attacked by any groups inside Iraq, we will respond then without pre-notification to your government? So as I mentioned, we have been and have had conversations with Iraqi partners that we, both publicly and privately, that we will respond to any attacks against our forces. And of course, part of those conversations include working with the Iraqi government to request their assistance in protecting our forces that are there at their invitation. And so again, in some cases, we have seen ISF forces doing that. But as you have all highlighted and as we've discussed when our forces are threatened over 160 times and after three US service members are killed, multiple wounded, we're going to take appropriate action. Let me go to the phone here, Idris from Reuters. Hey there, Pat. When did the Secretary last speak with the Iraqi Prime Minister? I think it's been a few months at least. And is the lack of conversations and phone calls with him, a sign that the Secretary feels that the Prime Minister is sort of helpless in stopping the attacks against US troops? And secondly, you mentioned that about 100 missile launchers have been destroyed or degraded. What do you mean by degraded? Does that mean that they're sort of damaged beyond use or did you describe that phrase? Yeah, thanks, Idris. I'll have to take the question on when the last call was. I want to say it was December timeframe with the Prime Minister. And then I'm not going to speak for him and how he feels about things. Finally, in terms of degraded, yes, functionally incapable of operating or being employed as intended. Thank you. Come back to the room here, sir. Thank you, General. I'm going to come back to the HMC discussions. Today, the spokesperson for Iraqi Armed Forces said this Sunday the negotiations will start again. And he said when all the topics is to face our withdrawal of US and Alliance forces, does this contradict what you have said before? Look, first of all, I'm not going to hold the meeting here. That's what we have meetings and discussions for. And as you heard us talk about the purpose of the Higher Military Commission, which was agreed upon back in August was to discuss the phasing of the transition of the military forces as part of the coalition to a longer term bilateral US-Iraq security cooperation. So, again, what that looks like is exactly what those meetings will be all about and discuss. The important thing here is I think we all agree that a secure and stable Iraq is important to the region. And so the United States is committed to working with Iraqi partners toward that end. I may ask, do your forces in Iraq have any role in conducting strikes or only cent come? The forces in Iraq are there to support the train and advise mission for the defeat ISIS mission at the invitation of the government of Iraq. Jared. Sir, I believe it was the evening of February 4th. That could be incorrect. But there was a suspected militia drone attack near the Green Village base in Syria in which Syrian Democratic forces members were killed. Is that the first time suspected Iran back militias have targeted the SDF with drones? And does the department see that as potentially indicative of a shift in tactics by these groups? So, Jared, I don't have the answer to that question. You'd have to talk to the SDF. As I, you know, my assessment based on, you know, my read what I saw was that that drone was probably intended for Green Village and, you know, landed several kilometers away from Green Village. So whether or not they were intentionally targeting SDF, I don't know. So just have to leave it there. Thanks, yeah. Two questions. First, in terms of all the strikes against the Houthis equipment and different sites, have there been any Houthi casualties? And then on our earnings call today, the mayor CEO said that the US Navy can't guarantee the safety of passage in the Red Sea. Does the Pentagon agree with that? Is this Red Sea safe for commercial shipping right now? So on your first question, I don't have any information to provide in terms of specific numbers. I think it is a safe bet to assume that there are some Houthi militants that have been killed as a result of the strikes that we've conducted. I just don't have any numbers to provide for you. Again, our focus is on eliminating capabilities that they've been employing or using to conduct these attacks. And then in terms of the Red Sea, look, this is why you have a coalition of over 20 countries working to help safeguard this vital waterway. It's a defensive coalition that is conducting joint patrols and providing capability to help vessels that transit. At the end of the day, it's up to commercial industry whether they opt to go through that route. Obviously, I think it's in the international interest to ensure that it is safe and secure. And that's why we're working so hard toward that end. Let me go back out to the phone here. Jeff Schogel, task and purpose. Thank you. The Pentagon has provided an update of how many service members have been injured in Iraq and Syria. Could we get the number of those diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury? I know it's been asked before and understandably other things have happened, but an update on the TBIs would be most welcome. Also, back in January, there were some tweets that the Houthis with their F5 fooled around and found out and that their F5 was shot down. Can the DOD talk about that at all? Yeah, thanks, Jeff. On your first question, we'll take that. As you know, those numbers can fluctuate, but we'll take that question. On the latter question, I don't have anything to provide for you beyond what I've read out in my topper and in the previous briefings in terms of BDA at this stage. Thank you, Tom. Thanks, Pat. Other than the first time it was announced about the Ukrainian contact group, in every time you've mentioned a new one coming up, you've always said, and more than 50 nations will participate. In your opening remarks today, you said nearly 50 nations. Why the drop-off in support? So I don't think there's been a drop-off in support and I'd ask you to go back and look at the various statements because I would submit that sometimes it's nearly 50, sometimes it's more than 50. I thought you might say that, and I did look before I asked the question. So it was a setup. Excellent. Good to know. All right. Anything else I can do to entertain you? You've done a great job so far. That's perfect. All right, let me go to Howard Altman and Warzone. Hey, thanks, Pat. Can you provide any more details about how the drone that got through Tower 22 in Jordan, how that happened? Was it a lack of air defenses? Can you provide any more details? Yeah, thanks, Howard. So what I can tell you right now is that US Central Command is investigating the attack on Tower 22. And so at this stage, it would be inappropriate for me to comment or speculate on the specifics of that. US Army Central Command has the lead for that investigation. And so they'll be doing that work. Certainly, once that investigation is complete, we may have more information to provide. But right now, I'm just not able to go into those details. Thank you. Come back in the room. Sir? Is there any indication that North Korea prepared conductive military action against South Korea? That North Korea is preparing to military action against South Korea? I don't have any intelligence to pass along. So basically, again, we're going to continue to monitor the situation. I'm not aware of any imminent attacks. But we're going to continue to work closely with South Korea and Japan to monitor the region and work towards security and stability. One more. So do you know any information that what kind of a web phone or technology North Korea received from Russia in return for providing ammunition to Russia? I'm sorry, can you repeat that? So what kind of a web phone or technology North Korea received from Russia in return for providing ammunition to Russia? I don't have any specifics to pass along. As you highlight, there is a relationship there. And we do know that North Korea has provided capabilities to Russia, hoping to build up a relationship to be able to capitalize on Russian capabilities. But I'll just leave it at that. Let me go to Fadi and then I'll come to you. So General, after the attack on US forces in Jordan, the Pentagon said the response will be multi-tiered. So far, we've seen twice, two waves, at least the one in Iraq and Syria, and now in Baghdad. Is this approach still valid? Or does the Pentagon think that the response to the attack in Jordan has played out? And now it depends on whether attacks continue on US forces in the Iraq and Syria. Yeah, thanks, Fadi. Again, just to emphasize what I said earlier, that the strike on Friday and the strike yesterday was conducted in response to those attacks, as well as the attacks on US forces, and meant to hold those responsible, accountable. As for whether or not there will be future attacks, again, I'm just not going to speculate or talk about potential future operations other than to say, again, we'll take necessary action to protect our forces. And I'll just leave it there. Mike, time for a couple more. Thanks, Pat. Today, General Maslum of the SDF accused Turkey of attacking their civilian infrastructure, including oil facilities. Can you confirm if that's true or not? And does that cause any problems for the campaign to have two allies fighting each other instead of ISIS? Yeah, thanks, Mike. I don't have any information on that. I haven't seen those reports. It doesn't mean it hasn't happened. I just haven't seen anything on it. And as for political campaigns, that's just not something that I'm going to comment on. Last question, sir. Thanks, sir. Two questions. One, China was in the news last week and this week in the media and also on the Capitol Hill, that as far as cyber security or other concerns our Chinese have, so many people here against the United States. My question is, how much concern is from Pentagon here as far as Chinese cyber and military security is concerned within the US? Yeah, well, without going into specific instances, what I would tell you is we've highlighted many times before China continues to remain our pacing challenge. And as we've highlighted in our national defense strategy, one aspect of that is operations in cyberspace. And so, again, we'll continue to take that very seriously. And it's something that we'll continue to work on closely with allies and partners as it relates to their own cyber security. And then you have a second question. As far as this war in the Middle East is concerned and terrorist activities against many countries in the Middle East, there are many terrorists in many countries there. My question is that they are digging. They have had 1,300 or 1,500 tunnels. They have arms. They have financing. My question is, are we going after those who are financing them millions and millions of dollars and giving them arms and supporting them? I'm sorry, which terrorist group? In the Middle East, like Hamas or Azbulah and others. Yeah, so without getting into a specific breakdown of various terrorist groups, and happy to have an offline discussion with you on that, as you know, as part of our national defense strategy, counterterrorism is an aspect of that. We acknowledge that there is a significant terrorist threats around the world. And we will continue to work with our allies and partners towards addressing that to include those that affect our homeland. And so it's something we obviously take very seriously. It's something, oh, by the way, that we got very good at after 20 years of conducting counterterrorism operations, but also recognizing the fact that we're


Happy anniversary, chaplains! For 239 years, Navy chaplains have been where it matters, when it matters, with what matters to enrich the spiritual lives of our sailors, marines, coast guardsmen, and their families, and ensure that they are able to enjoy a community of faith. From our first commissioned chaplain William Balch in 1799 aboard the USS Chesapeake, Navy chaplains have supported the religious freedom of our people and brought a ministry of presence to the deck plate, to the battlefield, to naval hospitals and prisons. We remember chaplains who made the ultimate sacrifice, like John Leonard on the USS Cumberland during the Civil War, George Rence, who served with the 11th Marine Regiment in France during World War I, and then later ministered to those on the USS Houston before she sank in World War II during the Battle of Sunda Strait. Chaplains Robert Brett and Vincent Cappadano gave all in devotion to their marines in Vietnam. Chaplains like Roland Giddelson, Eli Teckesian, and countless others have served as agents of hope, walking alongside our people through the darkness of battle and loss. In times of war and in times of peace, chaplains have served as a reminder of God's divine presence, of humanity, and unfailing love in the midst of lifestorms.  As we honor our rich legacy as a chaplain corps, we also celebrate our present work as religious ministry teams, carrying out the sacred call of caring for our people, whether in humanitarian crises like typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, or the tragic shooting at the Navy Yard. Chaplains have proven to be where it matters, when it matters, with what matters, bringing hope and pastoral care in times of acute human need. While this year marks the 10th anniversary of the Battle of Fallujah, our chaplains and our peas remain forward deployed around the globe, ministering to those in harm's way on land, at sea, and in the air. Our calling to provide courageous care remains vital to our people, care that goes beyond supporting them in the fight, but also finishing the course with them. Just as we have for 239 years, we will walk alongside them beyond the experience of war, the strain of deployment, and help them replenish their strength of heart, mind, and soul. We will keep faith with our Marines, and we will keep our Marines in faith, their personal faith. Whether ministering to a CB battalion or Marine regiment, to a carrier or amphib in the Pacific, to a Coast Guard district within our cradle centers or naval hospitals, your ministry remains invaluable to the resilience of our people.  I also want to acknowledge the sacrifices you and your family make as together you face the same deployments and separations as those we serve. As your chief of chaplains, I am honored to represent our community of nearly 1,000 chaplains, active and reserved, and I thank you and your families who support you, for your continued ministry to our sailors, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, and their families, for your professionalism as naval officers, and for your continued engagement with commanders as a moral voice, and as their key advisor on the welfare of their people and the command climate. May God bless each of you as you answer the call to serve. Continue to carry out our sacred ministry as Navy chaplains in the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. Happy anniversary. Happy anniversary. Happy anniversary, chaplains.


Hi everyone, thank you for joining this session on creating impact as an internal product manager. I'm really happy to get this opportunity to talk about my experience and to share any insights that I have gained from it. So let's get started. Before we begin, I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Zareena Ashraf. I am currently a senior product manager at booking.com. And I drive the design system team there. Now a design system is a product that helps designers and developers build consistent user experiences efficiently. I've been an IT for about 12 years now, out of which six years have or the six of the past years have been in product management. I really enjoy the challenge of delivering beautiful user experiences in complex cross-functional products. I have an MBA in marketing and I also hold a bachelor's in electrical engineering. I'm currently based in Amsterdam with my family. So nice to meet all of you. For some of those who have joined the session today, the term internal product manager might be something new. So let's spend some time to understand that better. Internal product managers build products that help businesses be more efficient, grow at scale and gain a competitive edge. Ultimately, they support teams and departments to be more efficient and deliver more value. Internal PMs not only help customer-facing teams, but also any other business department. Think of an automation of recurring operational tasks and workflows in an organization, or a tool that displays customer information and performance metrics, or even a system that integrates work streams and data flows between marketing, operations and finance. They are all examples of internal products. Now, the terminology of the role can vary hard to work. Some refer to them as technical product managers, some even call them non-revenue product managers, internal PMs or platform PMs. For the sake of this presentation, I will refer to this role as internal product manager. If you use the Pragmatic Institute's framework as a reference and you take away the blocks relating to pricing and sales, you do see that all the remaining blocks are very much relevant to what an internal PM would do for the products that they own. Even though internal PMs work on products that don't directly generate revenue, their work does ultimately contribute to the company's growth and success. Now, we have established who internal product managers are. Let's see how this position can deliver impactful change. Internal PMs can be seen sometimes as the slightly less glamorous sibling of feature PMs, but my experience has taught me that it can be a very satisfying role if you operate keeping a few things in mind. This session is focused on delivering impact, but what does impact look like for an internal product? In this context, impact refers to the effect or influence that the product has on the organization and its operations. This impact could take different forms like increased efficiency, cost savings, improved collaboration among its teams, increased employee satisfaction or even the achievement of business goals. Now, as a PM, you want to create products that meet the needs of the users and provide value to the organization all the time, minimizing any negative effects. And so the success of the product is determined by how much value it brings to the organization. And here, its impact is a crucial metric for assessing this. Now, if only delivering impact was so easy, we would not need this session, right? But there are some challenges internal PMs face. Understanding user needs. It can be challenging to gather and understand the needs of users that are so often diverse. And because of that, there may not be a clear way to prioritize them. Balancing conflicting priorities. As internal PMs, you will receive multiple requests from different departments or stakeholders, each with conflicting priorities. So now, which one do you pick up first? Limited resources. You often have to work with limited resources like time, budget and team members because most companies want to focus their firepower on customer raising products. Complex stakeholder management. This one is tricky because you have to manage multiple stakeholders across various functions and varying management levels. It can be challenging to balance the needs of each group by keeping the product vision intact. Organizational alignment. You need to ensure that the products you develop align with the company's overall strategy and goals. Now, this can be challenging considering that some departments might have completely different priorities and objectives. Lack of user feedback. Unlike external customer products, internal products may not have mechanisms established to obtain user feedback. And even if they do, the number of users that are many that exist are many times not large enough for us to get significant insights. This can make it really difficult to understand user needs and preferences. Resistance to change. Introducing new products or features within a company can be met with a lot of resistance, especially from users who are comfortable with the status quo. You need to navigate this resistance and build support for your ideas. Finding that balance between innovation and practicality. The sky is the limit as far as what you can achieve. But let's get a bit realistic about what actually is doable with given the constraints of people and time. So you must ensure that the products you develop are feasible, scalable and profitable. Ensuring adoption. Even the best design products will fail if they're not adopted by users. In some cases, processes or the company might mandate that each employee use your product. But what happens if it's an option or an alternative that employees have and you really need to drive adoption? Okay, that is a huge list. Now, what will it take for us to go from this chaotic mesh of challenges on the left to reach a point on the right where we gain control of the product and start reflecting the intended outcomes? Okay, this list might look familiar. You're right. There's the same list of issues that we looked at a second back. Let's see how we can handle each group of these challenges. One, direct. Direct the product and the team to better align with the organization. Two, focus. Focus on the user and build customer-centered products. Three, engage with your customers to bring down barriers to adopt. And four, measure outcomes. And that is going to help in each of these above points that I mentioned earlier. Let's deep dive a little bit more. Direct. As a product manager for an internal product, you need to be in the driver's seat and give the team and the product the direction to ensure continued positive progress. Use your skills to guide the product and the team towards delivering impactful outcomes while maintaining alignment with the organization. Now, while you can explore more methods, what I would recommend is these three key steps. Build a business case, define a product vision and strategy, and have effective stakeholder management. Why do we need to build a business case? Because what is your reason to exist? Why should the company invest in your team? Why should a group of people put time and effort into the solution that you propose? There's so many ways. So, crafting a concise and well-defined business case is crucial for the future prosperity of the product. It helps articulate the pain points that the product seeks to address. So, make sure you describe the problem statement, the approaches that you have considered, and the alternatives that you have evaluated. Describe the risk of not doing anything and even the risk of each approach. Based on all the factors, what is the solution that you recommend? Outline the business value the solution provides. Describe the scale of a solution in a language that makes sense for senior stakeholders. For example, the business benefit could be the cost savings of doing things right once and consistently across the company. Define the product vision and strategy. Now, this is where we go deeper into the value the product will provide and how you will go about it. Some internal products are borne out of hackathons or a solution to urgent problem statements that existed at the time. By building a product vision and strategy, you use the opportunity to describe how this tool goes beyond that one automation it delivered or how it's a solution that will benefit users beyond the current fiscal year. It will force you to outline and discuss your assumptions and push you to think more deeply about it. Take a team through your product's vision and strategy, review the actions you are taking now and how they contribute to that vision. Be open to feedback and feel comfortable to incorporate it into your strategy. The product vision can provide a clear direction for the team to focus on and prioritize their efforts towards achieving a specific common outcome. It also helps to align stakeholders around a common objective and ensure that everyone is on the same page. We also use this opportunity to tie the product with the company's objectives, outline how it aligns with and contributes to each objective. As most feature or customer facing teams work on products or business capabilities, it is important to decode how your product complements their goals. One thing I like to do towards the beginning of the year when everybody is setting objectives is to be observant of the objectives of the more customer facing teams. I identify the opportunities for our product team to support and enable them in order to achieve their objectives. In this way, my product not only will increase efficiency, bring in cost savings and improve employee satisfaction, but it will also result in contributing to improving revenue for the business. It's important to highlight here that your vision will provide a benchmark for measuring progress and evaluating whether the team is moving in the right direction. Much of what product leadership entails even for an internal product is creating alignment and enthusiasm for an idea, so use your product vision to get that conversation started. Internal products are slightly harder when it comes to stakeholder management and this is why. One, you have multiple stakeholders and they exist across the company, they exist across crafts and functions and different management levels. Each group has different priorities, needs and interests and it can become challenging to manage all of them effectively. You own a product that is not customer facing, which means that it can become challenging to demonstrate the value of the product and gain support from stakeholders who may not understand its importance. Resistance to change. Nobody likes to disturb status quo. So it can make it challenging to gain buy-in and support for your products, especially if they require significant changes to existing workflows or processes. These are the strategies that I feel can help. One, identify your stakeholders. Start by identifying all the key people who will be impacted by your product. This includes employees, managers, leaders and any other groups of individuals. Make sure you consider the needs, expectations and their priorities. Establish clear communication channels. Keep stakeholders informed about the progress of the product, its benefits and any potential challenges. This can include regular status updates, progress reports, feedback sessions, be proactive and highlight dependencies that might need unblocking. Build relationships. Build relationships with your stakeholders by engaging with them regularly and seeking their input and feedback. This will help create a sense of ownership and involvement amongst the stakeholders and increase their support for the product. Also identify key stakeholders who hold slightly more influence because of their position and can help better communicate with other decision makers. Set realistic expectations. Be transparent about what the product can do, cannot do and set realistic expectations for its impact and timeline. Now this will help manage stakeholder expectations and avoid disappointment or frustration. Prioritize feedback and address those concerns. Prioritize feedback from your stakeholders and use it to inform the development of your product. So you are slowly making sure that you are moving in a direction that is amplifying benefits. Address concerns or issues that stakeholders have, react to them promptly and effectively. This will help to build trust and credibility and demonstrate your commitment to their needs. The next step we now talk about users. Customer centricity is as important for internal products because just like external customers, internal users have specific needs and requirements that must be met for the product to be successful. Once you do this, you now create products that are more efficient, effective and user friendly. And that in turn can lead to increased adoption, improved productivity and a better overall experience for the users. My recommendations to do this are to firstly leverage the user base, chase outcomes and maintain your captive audience. How can you leverage a user base? For an external product manager, users are people outside of the company like customers, sellers or other third parties who use the product. Whereas for an internal PM, your customers are your colleagues and your peers, which will of course include employees within the company and departments. Now, while being the main source of requirements, internal users can sometimes be harder to manage. Imagine having to justify your latest feature that you released in the last quarter over your lunch break or deal with clarifications about how to use a feature while you run to get some coffee. Not really, really fun, huh? Now on the flip side, you have easy access to your customers. Take opportunities to understand the needs and goals of your users. This involves conducting customer research, analyzing customer feedback and identifying pain points or areas for improvement. Involve users in the process. By involving them in the development process, they feel more invested in the product and they feel seen. You can do this by user testing or conducting focus groups. This will ensure that the product is designed with their needs in mind. Now, when I'm in conversations with other PMs, I like to give them a heads up on a feature or initiative we feel will be relevant to them. And this feature could be coming up in the next few months. So this gives them a feeling that not only am I as a PM sensitive to their needs, but I'm also working towards addressing and prioritizing them. Chase outcomes over milestones. Prioritize features based on customer value. Focus on product features based on the value they provide to the end user. This will help you ensure that the product is aligned with their needs and their goals. Instead of milestones like in project plans, focus on initiatives that contribute to the outcomes that you want to see. It can be easy to slip into a mode of funding or prioritizing features based on milestones like in a project plan. But in all likelihood that would lead to fragmented features that shift the product further and further away from the company's objectives. Now, this step becomes easier when you have done the due diligence of identifying what the core value of a product is.  This has been a learning for me in my current role considering how I used to operate in my past positions. But what I've learned is that it takes some gumption and some bravery to take an outcome based approach. Why? Because now at the end of the quarter or the year, you have to demonstrate the outcomes you have achieved. The best part though is it gives you, the PM, so much flexibility to adjust the roadmap as needed to achieve the desired outcome. Maintain your captive audience. In most companies, users will be recommended to use your tool or protocols will mandate that they use your product. Now, in case they are unhappy with their experience, you now have not a captive but a fugitive user group who is so frustrated because they don't have an alternative. Now, this might not result in a loss of revenue, but it will definitely impact how your product is perceived and used in the future. So acknowledge user frustration. Establish feedback loops and provide excellent customer support to ensure that users have a positive experience with the product. This includes providing support resources and responding promptly to feedback and issues. Maintain current documentation of your features and give users the tools to learn and explore the product by themselves. Use all this as a mechanism to build trust. Additionally, you never know where your next best idea comes from. We get many feature requests from our users that provide us with new perspectives and insights into the product. Engage. Engage with users and build relationships that will foster trust and loyalty. The following two points will get the ball rolling for you. First, market your product to your users. And second, stay current in your area of operation. Let me tell you more about it. Market the product. Now, most PMs would have worn the marketer hat at least once. Now, let your talent shine here too. By now, you would have had a better understanding of who your users are, what are the groups or the cohorts that they form. Use it to develop a strategy focusing on individual user groups because one size may not fit all. For example, the design system that I work with services developers, designers, and product managers. We realized that we had to communicate in varying degrees of technical details. In order for the information to seem relevant to each of these user groups. Market your product. Take opportunities to educate and build awareness to its benefit. For example, in large companies, you have a constant stream of new joiners or employees who have recently switched departments. Identify them and hold a training or an introduction session of the product for them. This is a great way to get them on board and start exploring your product. Leverage blogs, workplace, forums, and company events. Take these as chances to generate interest in what you offer and to amplify its impact. Staying current. This is important because you need to stay current with what is happening both externally and internally. If your product does not stay current, it can become outdated, less effective, and potentially even obsolete. You don't want that. In addition to decreased user satisfaction, this can also lead to a variety of other negative consequences for the organization. Such as decreased productivity, decreased efficiency, higher costs, and a decreased competitive edge. So first, periodically evaluate and benchmark against external competitors. The company might have decided three, four years back not to use an external tool, but to build the solution in-house. Time has passed and the market has so much more evolved products out there. And if your product has not kept up with the times, it is possible that solution is not providing the benefits to the company like it did before. You may be reaching a point of obsolete product. We'll do this slide again. Staying current in your area of operation is really, really important. And this applies to... Sorry, I'll do this slide again. Stay current in your area of operation is really critical. So keep be aware of what is happening both externally and internally. If your product does not stay current, it can become outdated, less effective, and potentially even obsolete. In addition to decreased user satisfaction, this can also lead to a variety of other negative consequences. Like decreased productivity, decreased efficiency, higher costs, and a decreased competitive edge. So how do you go about doing that? First, periodically evaluate and benchmark against external competitors. The company might have decided three years back to not use an external tool, but to build the solution in-house. Now time has passed and the market has much more evolved products out there. If your product does not keep up with the time, it is possible that the solution you build is not providing the benefits to the company like before. This can lead to decreased productivity and increased frustration amongst the users. Listen to and observe your users to improve user satisfaction. Be vigilant to whether touch points with your product are overburdening your users at any point. Engage with them to understand their evolving needs, wants, and pain points. And use that information to guide the development of your product to service, ensuring that it meets their needs at all times. Stay updated on processes. If there are changes in processes or protocols intern and even in the company, introspect on how your product can adapt to it. Staying aligned with processes will ensure that your product stays relevant to its users. Make sure you stay aligned with the company direction and are working to contribute to it. A company that maintains a portfolio of internal products that are aligned with its direction can gain a really strong competitive advantage. But that's on the PMs to ensure that continued alignment. We come to the last part of our solutions or strategies, measuring. Measure the impact of your product to drive direction and ensure its continued relevance within the organization. This can be done by monitoring smartly and demonstrating value. Without good monitoring mechanisms, your product will suffer due to lack of accountability, inefficient use of resources and missed opportunities. So to maintain the health of your product, you need to define clear metrics. Metrics used by external and internal products are very different. For an external product, their metrics are customer driven, like revenue, growth, retention rate. But for an internal product, we can't use something like retention rate because in all likelihood, users will not stop using our product as long as they are in the organization. Before launching the product or before reaching a key milestone, define clear metrics that will be used to measure its impact. These metrics should be tied to the goals and objectives of the product, like increasing efficiency, productivity or employee satisfaction. Metrics should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and tie-bound. Make them smart. Collect feedback. Collect feedback from users of the product to understand how it is being used and identify areas of improvement. This can be done through surveys, focus groups or user testing. Analyze usage data. Analyze usage data. Analyze usage data to determine how often the product is being used, which features are being used the most and which features probably aren't being used as much. This can help identify areas of improvement or you make sure that there are some features that can be removed. Track performance. This is really important to see if the product is meeting the defined benchmarks or performance. So put in place mechanisms to track that as part of the product code or its implementation. Now make the process of gathering the data points as frictionless as possible. To do that, forge relationships with the teams using the product. So you have the collaboration in getting the inputs you need. And the second point is really important, automate as much as possible. We can all agree that having to chase down 20-30 stakeholders every quarter to update a Google Sheet is really not fun for anybody involved. The second step, demonstrate the value. Take opportunities to demonstrate value. This is a chance to engage with your stakeholders and it helps to tie your product vision with how you are building a customer-centric product. See what I did there. I connected all the blocks together. Many times, internal product teams almost operate in the shadows or they choose to communicate only to the stakeholders directly involved with them. Take space in the company and remind your organization about the business problem that your team is working on and solving and its current progress. So share the success metrics. Whether it be user satisfaction or performance metrics, let users see in quantifiable ways what is the value you have delivered. Share positive feedback from users and their success stories. As humans, we relate to personal experiences very intrinsically. Display and celebrate outcomes and important milestones. Announce that recent feature that you all worked on or call out the start of the latest experiment. Establish a team's presence and reaffirm that progress is being made in the right direction. The future looks bright for internal PMs. As companies continue to focus on innovation and digital transformation, the need for internal PMs will only increase. Here are some key trends that will shape the future internal PMs in the industry. Agile methodologies. Now agile methodology has become the norm in all types of product development internal as well. So as an internal PM you need to be proficient in it to ensure that you're working on products efficiently. Increased focus on user-centric design. Internal PMs will need to focus more on the user experience and develop products that meets the needs of the users. So we go back to the reason that we need to gather feedback, listen to our users and make informed product development decisions. Integration of emerging technologies. As emerging technologies such as AI, blockchain, IoT become just mainstream, internal PMs will now need to understand these technologies and try to think ahead of how they can bring it into their workspace. Cross-functional collaboration. Internal PMs will need to work closely with other teams including development design, marketing that to ensure that products are developed and launched successfully. Increased importance of data analytics. You will need to be proficient somewhat in data analytics to gather insights and make informed decisions that will drive your team. Emergence of no code and low code. Now this has created a new techno-functional space in business operations which is perfect for our product managers. Overall the future of internal PMs in the industry looks promising and they can be pivotal to empowering teams and setting them up with success. With that I come to the end of my presentation. I really hope you found the session informative and useful. If you have any further questions or you would like to continue the conversation I invite you to connect with me on LinkedIn. You can just type in my name and you'll see my face. Thank you for your time and attention today. Bye.


Finally, regarding the mock interview, role of mock interview in the whole practice. So, Rituraj, what do you have to say about the mock interviews before the final interview? Yeah, I think one should give at least three or four of the mock interviews. And the right guidance as well. And one should prepare as if you are going to face a rare interview. How does it help the mock interview? It helps a lot in the way your body language is, the way you are entering the room and how you will be answering, how you will be denying and what are the emotions that you want to go when you are not able to ask questions or uncomfortable questions are asked to you and how you really cope up with it. So, it's like a kind of simulation of the original interview. So, if you take it in a good way and analyze it. Yeah, that's it. Sumit, what do you say about the mock interview? How does it help? So, mock interviews are important as far as preparation goes. The same goes the more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed involved. So, it helps you out to get more. It is better to sweat earlier, right? There are two aspects of interviews actually.  So, giving mock interviews to the experts helps you out in understanding how you will be evaluated. And giving more and more interviews to your friends helps you in making yourself presentable in a better way. So, both the aspects should be taken care of. And mock interviews are as critical as being informative and aware of the present. So, what is your opinion on this? Sir, this is my personal opinion. Sir, you prepare yourself for the mock interview. Because sir, it is not certain that you will be asked the same question that you know. Sir, you are not able to prevent a thousand dollars from becoming a disaster. So, you get prepared that something can be asked beyond my career. My experience. So, you prepare yourself for it. You don't have to respond to any of the questions. And you know your weaknesses too. Where I have to go and what I have to go. So, as a weakness, both of you are well aware of it. And the other one is that your feedback is very strong. I will be able to respond to it very well. So, it is very effective. And the other one is that you are well aware of it. Very good. What would you like to say about the mock interview? Sir, a mock interview sets you on a path. Basically, a constant learning process through which you evaluate yourself. And in the end, it also provides you with different situations through which you go. And one of these situations fits in the environment which you get in the final D day. So, that is what the utility of the mock interview is. That is why. So, a mock interview is a very important aspect of the preparation for the interview. Because it gets you the feedback from the experienced people, from the set of people, which acts as a course correction for how to present the interview. Also, it gets to help you know yourself better. And understand the situation that may arise in the interview board, the actual interview. So, as many mocks you take from guidance from limited boards which come up before the interview, it is advisable to take as many as you can. And I recommend that one should take at least three or four mock interviews before going to the actual interview. Because that will help the candidate to experience what it feels like. Some interview, some interview, maybe you are asked on the video lines. That will give you a lot of confidence and satisfaction. And that is actually needed before the interview. But in case something goes wrong and some stress kind of interview is taken, then that also helps you as to the experience of how to navigate through some difficult questions. Personally, my third interview does a very stressful interview. And my first two interviews and the positive interview that went very fine as I planned, I had thought. My third interview went completely out of trajectory. And I had no idea, absolutely no idea how to handle myself despite appearing for the interview. So, it is always advisable to take as many mock interviews as you can. And learn from each and every mock interview and take feedbacks very seriously. Because you never know what the environment or what situation it may go. So, as you experience and as it is said, experience has no substitute. So, one should take an ample number of mock interview from repeated institutions.