Shweta Padmanaban

When the head of Product at Google says that we're moving from PRDs to prototypes, you gotta believe the shift. It's a sought after skill now. Also validates the post that I shared about the AI PM hiring that had a vibe coding round. Vibe coding is a hard skill presentation. If you can communicate with AI effectively, you can definitely communicate with developers. No more assuming. If you're anyways writing a spec doc, fit it into an application and check the output as well. You might well realise what you were missing all this time. I've been pro vibe-coded prototypes for some time now. But it's not easy as you'd think. I've some resources as to how to maximise vibe coding apps. So do check out my profile. I'll continue writing this here. I had seen this coming for a year now so I'm over the majority of trial and testing phases. #vibecoding #google #ai #productmanagement

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A book is an introvert’s favorite friend and also the main source of their learning. Here are two of my all time bests: Outsiders ( Will Thorndike) - As they say, the CEO’s main job is to allocate capital (and bandwidth when there is no excess capital). Contrary to popular belief, bombastic and charismatic CEOs like Jack Welch of GE are not history’s best business leaders. Just as in cricket, the quiet champions let their bat (and ball) do the talking, in business, the greatest CEOs let their capital (and resource allocation) do the talking. Will Thorndike (also hosts probably the best podcast on business - 50X) tells us the stories of 8 such incredible CEOs and their exploits in this book. An absolute gold mine. The Hard Thing About Hard Things (Ben Horowitz) - This is probably the exact opposite of the above book in terms of scope and lessons. It talks about what it means to be a founder, when you have no capital, no nothing, and you set out to do something from absolute scratch. Anyone who has founded a company knows that the headlines are misleading. Only they know how close they are to demise all the time in spite of all the blood, sweat, hate, fear, nightmares, turmoil while trying to be upbeat and inspirational (it’s the biggest irony of entrepreneurship).  They don’t count the hours and think about work-life balance ( what would you call taking a shower while constantly thinking about how to make next month’s payroll or some other impossible problem - work? life?). The truth is, if you imagine the worst possible situation a founder goes through, you would still be underestimating the founder's struggle.  This book is for these founders, relatable and inspiring, scary and motivating at the same time. While we are on the subject, let me throw in a couple of terrific podcasts as well, for inspiration, reflection, and connecting the dots: https://lnkd.in/dXjhwm78 https://lnkd.in/dTScMn2k At Rebel, some of us learn through reading, and here is a list of books recommended by Rebels https://lnkd.in/dgbVjaPT

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𝗜 𝗵𝗮𝗱 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘀𝗲 𝗺𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗺𝗲 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝗜'𝗺 𝘀𝗼 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝗱𝗼. Our 𝗖𝗗𝗢 𝗥𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝗔𝗜 𝗶𝗻 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝗦𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 brought together incredible leaders from across Asia and the Middle East, and honestly? The conversations were eye opening 👀 Here's the thing nobody talks about enough: Most organizations are still figuring this out. And that's completely okay. What struck me most was the raw honesty in the room: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: 🔹 Most organizations are in the early stages of AI adoption, with the goal of operational efficiency being the primarily objective 🔹ROI demonstration remains to be a major challenge for AI initiatives, with CFO's asking for clear value metrics 🔹Data maturity varies significantly across organizations, creating challenges for successful AI implementations 🔹Organizations are struggling with the "hype" around AI, with unrealistic expectations from users about AI capabilities 🔹Data unification will be necessary to enable business users to easily and directly interact with data 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝘁𝗵: 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻'𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗮 𝘀𝗸𝘆𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗻 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗸𝘆 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱  AI transformation isn't a technology problem – it's a foundation problem. Before you invite AI to revolutionize your business, you need your data house in order. Period. This is exactly why we built DataGOL. We've seen too many brilliant AI initiatives crash and burn because the data infrastructure couldn't support them. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗮𝗽 𝗯𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗔𝗜 𝗽𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗔𝗜 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲? That's where we live. And after this roundtable, I'm more fired up than ever about bridging it 🔥 Huge gratitude to everyone who shared their challenges and insights so openly. These conversations are how we all get better. If you're wrestling with data unification or trying to make your AI initiatives actually deliver results, let's talk. Because transforming AI from buzzword to business impact? cc: Jonathan D. Ahn, Manikandan Balasubramanian, Nandini Bagit, Utkarsh Barasia, Ghassan Chkaiban, Anees Fareed, James Fong, Shobha Joshi, Jayesh Kammili, Marziyat Mamalaeva, Hiroaki M., Abdul Hakim, Sundaramoorthy M., Karthikeyan P. (Karthik), Jacques Rahi, Rajesh Khanna, Ravindra Rampuria (Ravi), Srinivasa Ruttala, Alaa Salem, Yuluarjo Sentosa, Dr. Henry SOO, Jaime Syjuco, Kevin Tay, Tit Ho Tan, Victor Tan, Rino Thomas, Arockiya Raj Venmani Arul, Boon Yip Yee, Yugandhar Vutti, Carolyn Goh, Tara Dutt, Ramesh Ramasubbu, Shruti T., Govindan Srinivasan, Ashish Singh, Vishal Singh, Vishal Singh, Neal Shah, Mark Seaton, Jeremy Hamerman, Christian Rice,   #DataTransformation #AIStrategy #CDORoundtable #DataUnification #AIInnovation

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Last week, I had an eye-opening conversation with the Product Head of a fast-growing AI-powered design platform from Europe. They'd just launched in India, and honestly, I was impressed: ⚫ Intuitive product with world-class UX ⚫ Strong funnel metrics ⚫ Solid user engagement But here's what was alarming: their adoption numbers were terrible. "We can't figure it out," they told me. "People sign up, but so many just drop off at the final step. Maybe Indian customers aren't ready for products like ours yet?" Then we looked at their payment data. Success rate: Just 62% The culprit? They were using the same payment setup that worked perfectly in Europe: card-only payments. Here's the problem: In India, card penetration is under 12%. Most people pay seamlessly via UPI. This team had mastered the hard parts—they built a product people genuinely loved. But 4 out of 10 customers were hitting a wall at checkout. The fix was simple: We rebuilt their payment flow to prioritize local payment methods. The results? ⚫ Success rates jumped within weeks ⚫ Renewals followed suit ⚫ India transformed from a "tough market" to one of their fastest-growing regions The takeaway: You can have the best product, the smartest GTM strategy, and brilliant marketing - but in India, if you don't solve for payments, you're scaling with a leaky bucket. This is exactly why we built Razorpay the way we did - to help global companies succeed in India from day one. P.S. If you're interested to learn more, check out https://lnkd.in/g_tvdYUK Also, you can go through the case study of how we helped a global giant like Hostinger arrive and thrive in India: https://lnkd.in/gfWuRERe Paulius Lapėnas Harshit Shrivastava Ritwik Kadu Tejas Gowda Akanksha Bawa Akshith Rao Rishi Kumar

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Recently had a chance to sit with Joy Banerjee, VP Product Design at Zomato and it was one of the most informative power packed conversations I’ve ever had about product, design, human behaviour and everything in between! What started as a 60 mins conversation on a Sunday, extended far beyond 5 hours talking about how the product/design landscape is changing today, learning from his 2 decade plus of experience building products and shaping behaviours for 100s of millions of users. He had a refreshing take on how design as a field has been such native to India [think Indian architecture] and hence it shouldn't be looked with a myopic view of only optimising funnels. Its a much larger responsibility and learning from nature should help us design behaviours that sustainable and human-centric. Some of the key insights we discuss on how to build products : ✅ The 3C Framework — Choice, Control & Clarity Indian consumers appreciate product flows that give them enough information to feel confident in making high-value purchases. At Cleartrip, reducing friction actually reduced bookings because users wanted to double-check details. Joy shared - give users choice, control, and clarity to help them make decisions. That’s what creates delight for high-value actions. ✅ Honesty is Still the Best Policy! Cancelled orders were leading to massive food wastage at Zomato. Joy’s team introduced the now-famous “Food Rescue” feature - openly telling users they were rescuing cancelled meals. Earlier there was massive apprehension how users would take it however the result: huge reduction in food waste and users loved the chance to be part of something noble and meaningful. ✅ Design Shapes Human Behaviour — So Shape It Right Features like the ‘Like’ button or ‘Order Now’ have permanently shaped how people behave online. Joy reminded us that every design decision has the power to shape behaviour forever - and we must be intentional about the why behind every choice. ✅ Live Your Users Understanding how Indian users engage means living their behaviours - not just surveying them. Joy highlighted shifts like voice-first usage (voice notes for delivery partners) and more visual, prominent cues as patterns that emerged only by closely observing users. Great design comes from living your users and then designing for them! Joy also touched about Shape coding and how this interesting field led to so many physical product becoming successful - by mimicking how humans were already behaving in the world. Thanks to Rati Murti and Team for organising this. Link to both the episodes in comments. #productdesign #product #design #psychology

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“Wait... Product Managers actually earn ₹50 LPA+?” That’s the exact sentence a junior messaged me last week. And honestly? . . . I had asked the same thing when I was starting out. The title “PM” feels vague. But the money? It’s very real—if you play it right. Here’s what most folks don’t tell you: 1/ APMs (0–2 yrs): ₹10–20 LPA 2/ PMs (2–4 yrs): ₹18–28 LPA 3/ Senior PMs (4–6 yrs): ₹25–40 LPA 4/ Group PMs (6–9 yrs): ₹35–50 LPA 5/ Directors (10+ yrs): ₹50–80 LPA And yes—remote roles now pay at par with office ones, especially in global SaaS or Series A+ startups. Don’t get fooled by fancy designations or startup equity promises. Use the ladder to benchmark your growth, ask better questions, and negotiate smart. ----------- PS. This would’ve saved me 2 years of trial and error. Repost ♻️ if it might help someone else out there navigating this messy PM world. #salaries #career #ladder #companies #growth #careercoach #2025updates #linkedin #india #apm

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At 9:58 AM, the launch didn’t happen. No email. No banner. No Slack huddle. That’s called a miss. — At 10:00, the PM said: “Tech delayed the build. The final API was ready just yesterday.” That’s called velocity. — At 10:02, the Tech Lead replied: “We didn’t have final specs till last week. The PRD changed 4 times.” That’s called clarity. — At 10:04, Design chimed in: “We redesigned 3 screens after the founder’s last-minute feedback. Why wasn’t that caught earlier?” That’s called alignment. — At 10:06, Marketing said: “No key features were locked. We couldn’t plan GTM without knowing what was shipping.” That’s called collaboration. — At 10:08, the PM replied: “We mentioned the launch scope in a Notion doc and shared it in the group.” That’s called documentation. — At 10:10, Leadership said: “We thought this would be live by now. Why was this flagged so late?” That’s called visibility. — At 10:30, the retrospective began. Each team came armed with receipts. No one owned the delay. That’s called accountability. — Fiction? Only if you’ve never seen a launch derail in real time - with each team convinced they were the only ones doing it right.🙃 Lesson: When clarity is everyone’s job, it becomes no one’s. Build shared reality before shared timelines. It’ll save your launch (and your sanity).

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The HR mistake that changed my career trajectory forever. Walking into Rakuten Mobile as a UX intern, I was excited to wireframe interfaces and run user research sessions. Then HR handed me a badge labeled "Product Manager" instead. My heart sank. I had zero PM experience. No MBA. No business background. Just design skills and a growing panic that I'd be exposed as a fraud within days. That moment of terror became the best career accident of my life. Turns out, my design background wasn't a liability—it was my secret weapon: • User empathy skills translated directly into stakeholder management • Wireframing became my go-to tool for communicating product vision to engineers • Design sprint methodology helped me drive rapid product iteration • Visual thinking made complex technical concepts accessible to business teams Four years later, my trajectory speaks for itself: Doubling of my salary across Rakuten, Mercari, Paidy, and now Chocolate Finance. The skills I thought were "just design" became the foundation of everything I do as a product leader today. Sometimes the best career moves are the ones you never planned. Thinking about transitioning to PM? What's your biggest fear about making the leap? Drop a comment below, and if you want more career growth strategies, join my newsletter at https://lnkd.in/gEyDPGQr

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