Shaping My Path as Product Manager with Grab

Happy 1st Grabversary to myself! 🥳 I can’t believe a year has passed, while I still feel like last month was my first day at Grab. Nevertheless, I’ve been learning a lot and absolutely enjoying my journey with Grab so much. So, on my 1st Grabversary, I’d like to take this chance to share with you a story about how I grow together with Grab as a Product Manager for GrabKios products.

May 2021 last year was an official kick-start of my journey with Grab. To be honest, I’ve never thought that I could make it this far; I, who have a background in literature, could join one of the most prestigious tech companies in Asia as their Product Manager.

My career path, I would say, is a bit unique. I graduated in 2014, majoring in Translation & Linguistic Studies, and started my career as a Content Writer at an E-commerce and became the Head of Content for the Indonesia market after three years. Then, I was introduced and learned more about product scope after getting a chance to step up into Regional Product Operations for the SEA market. At that time, I collaborated a lot with Product Managers, Software Engineers, and Designers related to a product that I handled. Hence, increasing my knowledge about product management. Before joining Grab, I had a chance to fully shift my career as a Product Manager with one of the biggest ed-tech companies in Indonesia.

With Grab, I’m currently handling GrabKios business, providing digital products that can be resold by drivers and merchant-partners to increase their income or simply utilize for their personal use. These digital products are in the form of credit, data packages, and many more.

From providing directions for driver-partners on how they can sell this digital product, to finding ways to engage with consumers, my role as a Product Manager is related to the success of GrabKios. As a Product Manager for GrabKios Experience, I have to make sure that they have the best experience transacting on our platform, making us to be one of their top-of-mind to transact digital goods by providing continuous improvement on the main journey, campaign, promotions, loyalty, and such.

Hmmm, let me tell you a glimpse of my day as a Product Manager in Grab. 😎

On inventing or iterating the product, there are several steps that Product Managers need to follow. Firstly, we identify the problem using data and observation. After that, we try to find the solution, and think of ways to improve our product. During these stages, I heavily communicate with stakeholders, such as engineers for the feasibility of the idea/requirement, designers for consulting the overall experience, and the business team to ensure that the idea is one solution that we can take to move the needle.

For example, if our driver-partners use e-money quite often, but have problems with the top-up, firstly we look at the existing data to evaluate the funnel and list down some assumptions based on the data that we looked at. After that, exploring the potential solutions and talking to some users for solution validations. Once we get the insight, we discuss further with all the relevant stakeholders on the findings and with engineers for the next steps on the prioritization and development process.

“At the heart of every product person, there’s a desire to make someone’s life easier or simpler. If we listen to the customer and give them what they need, they’ll reciprocate with love and loyalty to your brand.”
– Francis Brown, Product Development Manager at Alaska Airlines

During the development process, we continue to meet with other relevant stakeholders, such as the marketing team, customer service team, and other support team to align with them about the new product or the iteration. After the release, we have to find out about customer behavior, and whether the product is effective or not, so we have to be friends with the data too.

Initially, I thought being a Product Manager requires you to have certain technical skills such as reading the codes or doing some part of the design. Yet, over the process that I’ve been through, as well as observing and learning from my experience, seniors and colleagues, I would say the most important skill to be a Product Manager is a communication skill, because my job as a Product Manager requires me to meet and communicate with various stakeholders, and sometimes have face-to-face meetings with users to understand their problems.

After FGD session with Grab drivers

While it’s not simple to create and improve a product, I really enjoy the process and love what I am doing right now. Sooo… I’m absolutely looking forward to more and more years to come.

For those who are thinking about switching careers to Product Management, my tip is you probably can start from a very small step such as watching videos on YouTube, practicing your public speaking/communication skill, or you can also join some online training/webinars to learn about Basic Product Management.

Anyway, Grab is always on the lookout for talented Product Managers. If you’re interested to be my colleague and excited to make an impact to the community, especially in South East Asia, feel free to ask me about it through LinkedIn or you can always visit grab.careers!
#GrabIndonesia#WomenAtGrab