Why I want to be a product manager
MS Dhoni is a name we are all familiar with. Love him or hate him, he has certain qualities that we cannot ignore him! I have been a die hard fan of this man and continue to admire his skill set that has not only brought laurels for the country but also proved how some unconventional, well thought out decisions can make all the difference. As captain, he had a clear vision on how he wanted to build his team to deliver great results. He is exceptionally knowledgeable when it comes to cricket and knows how to satisfy the spectators. He studies his competition thoroughly and can envision certain moves that not even the coach could have foreseen. He is also known to have good networking skills and seek feedback from senior cricketers, coaches, team staff, even junior players and implement the right feedback among them on the field. Dhoni, according to me, is a great product manager who built the Indian men’s cricket team into a self-confident bunch that the country takes pride in.
For Dhoni, his product was the team. For me, the product is anything that can make digital payments seamless and secure. I want to master all the qualities that I have highlighted above to build and scale solutions that exceed user needs when it comes to payments. Here are four problems I have identified and want to solve in this space, being a product manager.
- The right balance between UX and Data security
Users tend to have a negative experience if they are asked to go through multiple hops or fill in a lot of details at each step for security reasons.
2. Trust factor
Research shows that only 56% of the world population trust digital payments. Others are still more comfortable with cash payments. This needs a mindset shift to make payments transparent.
3. Data driven intelligence to detect fraud
Reactive rather than proactive measures are taken widely today in the fintech ecosystem. Compliance and security should not be an overhead anymore.
4. Ability to be a step ahead and build future ready products
Being able to think ahead of competition and introduce products that customers didn’t even know they needed, thus increasing profitability.
A product manager holds an unbelievable amount of power, responsibility and accountability both to the organisation and to the customer. Thus, this person can also make or break products that directly affect both stakeholders. I am currently in a customer facing role and this has given me a glimpse of products through the customer’s lens, which may not always be how the product team thinks of it. I would like to minimise this gap. Having led different teams right from my school days to my professional life, I want to use the same skills, but in a much more evolved manner, to facilitate cross functional collaboration, take feedback from customers and build revolutionary features, processes and products. This is why I firmly believe my calling lies here.
