Life of a Product Manager at ZET

Does this image ring any bells for you?

If you’re a ‘90s kid, you would have definitely played this classic game at some birthday party or school fete. Haven’t we all??

Well, I was chitchatting with a colleague recently about his role at ZET, and after a good forty-five minutes of listening to what he really does, my mind instantly took me back to my childhood lane and brought me here.?

Any guesses about his role? Product Manager!

When it comes to product-led innovations, they seem to do it all. Right from researching which products to make, to coordinating with various teams to ensure that the product gets made and finally running the analytics on its performance. And yet there is more.

In continuation of our series of understanding various roles at ZET, and to answer the elusive question, "What does a PM really do?", we caught hold of Archit Goyal, a product manager at ZET.?

But before we dive in, let’s get to know him better.?

A chartered accountant by profession, Archit hails from the pink city of Jaipur. He joined ZET (Previously OneCode) in November 2021 and since then has been an integral part of all product-led innovations at ZET. He began his career as an auditor at Deloitte, but after a year of soul searching he realized he wasn’t enjoying it as much as he had hoped. He then decided to make a transition within finance from compliance to due diligence and moved on from one Big 4 to another by joining KPMG, Delhi.?

To an outsider it may have looked like he had it all, yet to him he knew, he was made for more. On a constant lookout for new challenges, and after a slight family drama on wanting to give up his illustrious CA career, for a field in which he would have to start from scratch, his conviction was strong enough to convince anyone and everyone, including the CEO at ZET.?

So, Archit what exactly do product managers do?

For a product manager, more important than building a product is understanding the problem the user is facing. First, we find a solution for that problem, and then we think about how the business can make money while solving it.?

What are you currently tasked with at ZET?

Being a fintech startup, more than innovating on the tech front, we’re constantly ideating and innovating on how we can reach our customers better. One of the main objectives I had since the time I joined ZET was how can we leverage our product and platform in order to make the credit cards vertical grow. Since ZET is partnered with more than 50 top-tier banks and financial institutions, sorting the supply was most important to ensure a smooth supply for our customers.?

What is the most exciting product innovation you have worked on so far?

In the past, we were using third-party services for generating offer recommendations for our end customers. But the output was different from what we had hoped. So we decided to build something on our own. Using four to five pieces of basic information about our customers, we started filtering and made our product recommendations more focused. This instantly doubled our conversions and lowered credit card application rejections. This gave us an early indication of how a robust filtering system could give ZET the competitive edge it needed.

What do you love the most about your job?

The best thing about working in product is that if your product is working well, you get very tangible feedback right from Day 1. In a way, you can see the direct impact your innovation has had on the user. To me, this is the most satisfying part of my job.?

As a CA, was it hard for you to land a job in product management?

Often times there is a misnomer that only coders or individuals with computer science backgrounds can become product managers. That is not entirely true. Tech will not help you understand the user’s problem, there it is your analytical and problem-solving skills that come into play, but familiarity or comfort with tech will help you arrive at a solution quicker. Anyone with a good amount of interest, intent, and tech-savviness can become a product guy. And a pretty good one, at that!?

What do you do in your free time?

In my free time, I usually read about new developments in technology, advancements in AI, and basically anything and everything that makes me understand the world better. I also am a music enthusiast and love to play my guitar.?

Well, this was Archit, finally resting our curiosity about product managers to peace! Next time you have a PM breathing down your neck on another P0 item, think about it in the larger objective of the user, and bear with him/her! :)?