Building successful products and PM careers in fintech II Learnings from Square and Mercury

The first half of this episode covers best practices and frameworks used by best-in-class fintech companies like Square and Mercury to build products and drive go-to-market.  

In the second half, we discuss insights and learnings for PM career planning in fintech, including ways to prepare for the potential impact of AI on product jobs.

Joining me for this discussion is Rohini Pandhi - Product Lead at Mercury and ex-Product Lead at Square/ Block. She is also a prolific angel investor, and co-founder of both the SquareAngels alumni syndicate and Transparent Collective, a non-profit that supports underrepresented founders.

TIME STAMPS:

(01:08) Square’s product-building philosophy - “The Four Corners”

(03:46) Square’s framework for building MVPs - “Pioneers, Town Settlers, City Planners”

(11:02) Managing customer discovery and feedback while launching a product in 99 countries

(14:11) Building Block’s Bitcoin hardware wallet while FTX was imploding

(16:29) How to approach pricing - “Monetizing Innovation” by Madhavan Ramanujam

(21:05) Transitioning from a big company to a startup, a framework for choosing your next job

(25:08) Mercury's product philosophy and culture

(27:31) Dealing with change, career planning, and finding your next job as AI disrupts the PM function

Connect with Rohini - https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohinipandhi/ and follow her on X - @rohinip

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Check out "An Operator's Blog" (https://operator.blog/) for weekly posts on Startups, Investing, and Life.

I am a venture investor focused on the US-India corridor. Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/soumitrasharma5/) and follow me on X (@soumitra_sharma).