10: How Different is a FinTech Product from Other Industries?

In this episode of the How to Succeed in Product Management Podcast, marketing professor Jeff Shulman and The Product Management Center advisory board members Red Russak and Soumeya Benghanem welcome Herman Man (BlueVine) and Ambika Sharma (US Bank) to discuss how uniquely different financial services is from other products yet they share the same goal and that is to understand the what and why of a customer and then building a roadmap around that.   Support for How to Succeed in Product Management is brought to you by Apptentive, which enables product managers to measure shifts in customer emotion and gather actionable feedback across the mobile customer journey. To learn more, go to Apptentive.com/UW.   What to Listen For: 00:00 Intro 01:24 As a FinTech product manager, how do you relate to other industries? 04:22 The nuance that comes with financial services 07:56 FinTech is a huge opportunity where you find something that works for the audience 09:55 FinTech and healthcare industries are parallel in a way that there should be trust, stable, and reliable 12:58 Start with understanding what it is that you can’t do 15:25 Influence without authority, prioritizing which experiments 19:42 Grit and intuition creates a good product manager 21:39 Figuring out whether or not the idea sticks 24:24 What is product innovation in the FinTech space? 28:16 The biggest issues with invoice factoring 29:39 Keeping an eye on the changing landscapes and finding opportunities to leverage 33:00 The impact of retail trading on different product areas 34:57 Business competition possibly affecting a PMs roadmap 38:12 Customers understand their problems but can’t express how to solve it 41:48 Coming up with the right solution is going to require intuition 45:23 Monthly cadence makes a formal process go smoother 48:35 Partnering closely with internal partners  50:26 Being a PM in FinTech making a financial difference to people's lives 52:25 There is no general rule that is always true 54:00 Always understand the what and the why of a customer 56:40 The success factors are always passion and curiosity