Transition from Risk to Product
My story of becoming a product manager from an unique risk background
I have noticed that many people come from different career path ranging from engineering, software development, biomedical science, design and data science before they move to product manager position. I personally have come from an unique angle of field which is risk and fraud assurance.
What does risk exactly do? It means it includes interpreting regulation and compliance, working with audit team for the audit scope and plan, monitor fraud trends and writing risk frameworks. And, yes it does not sound sexy. With great bosses, in risk positions, I got to learn learnt how to put together my thoughts into structured formats, think skeptically about statements or findings, find some loopholes to ask why.
Why I move
Before I talk about how I move, I should mention why I move. When Covid-19 started to hit Southeast Asia, the thought of living only once stroked me. I considered that I should work on my career which I would not be regret. I took the risk to change the path to be more creative and build something that I could be excited.
I moved an internal move from risk to product so that I am closer to tech industry and entrepreneurial landscape. I used to work in a corporate bank which has more than 10,000 employees. My reasoning at that time was that I would get to be more visible with product position. Also, I considered about working abroad as tech jobs is more common to relocate than working abroad as risk jobs.
I polished my resume and approached to product team in the bank where I worked at that time. As I had kept conversations with stakeholders before, it was not a peculiar request for him as well. Internal transfer processes were conducted and here I moved to product person finally.
Key Learnings
Here are my learnings throughout the journey of moving into product management.
- Use my academic background as domain knowledge
As I was an Economics major in my undergraduate studies, I have basic domain knowledge as macro economics, credit system or concept of currency. I have been working in finance and banking industry and I can apply domain industry knowledge to fintech products that I work as a product owner/manager. Product strategy or vision can align with market demands or trends. In other words, I can see the big picture of the product with my background knowledge.
2. Learn, learn, learn
I did not take product or design bootcamps. As a self-learner, I have taken and continue to take online courses on agile software development, google UX design courses. I will share which books I read as a starter below.
3. Listen more
One of the biggest learning curve as a product owner/manager is technical side. I had numerous amount of one-on-one meetings with developer lead, engineers and design leads to open up to me. I was fortunate enough to have great solution architectures and project managers who translate my business requirements into tech terms.
3. Leverage from previous experience
With risk positions, I consulted other product owners which risks the product can expose and which actions can be made to mitigate. In other words, I may not know how to launch a product in the market on my own but I did witness when other did and share my thoughts from risk perspectives. As I have write up frameworks and standard practices for risk, I understand how much documentation and processes are vital. Although I think things from what can go wrong as a risk manager, I need to think an innovative solution to problems as a product manager.
One of the best examples how I can re-apply is analytics. In risk, I analyzed loan calculations when other product managers come up with a new product and presented me how they will create calculate the interest income, principal and term. As a product manager, when I create new financial products, I still need to come up with product design, integration and logic. Communication with stakeholders as soft-skill sets is even more mutual.
4. Share more
I believe the best way to learn is sharing what I apprehend and discuss with the community. With this purpose, I started to write and create content in the digital space. Please feel free to follow me on medium!
Books and Podcasts I checked as a starter product manager
Ruined by Design by Mike Monterio
Hooked: How to Build Habit Forming Products by Nir Eyal, Ryan Hoover
Invisible Fintech- Open Banking and APIs
The Product Podcast
I listened and read those in my first six months as a product manager and will share book reviews in the future.
Wrap up
This change has gone well so far. I can still apply my critical thinking and logic from risk in product management. And, I can test my creativity and empathy in customer journey and user experience. Meanwhile, technical areas have challenged me to be more humble and grounded. I am learning new things day by day and thanks to all former and current colleagues who help this to be an enjoyable ride.
