Each day, everyone at Springworks comes into work with a true passion for building products and tools for the HR ecosystem. We are artists, innovators, achievers, and dreamers, with a one-track mind to fine-tune the products that we build. Through this series of posts, we showcase our team members, their roles, and what a typical day looks like for them. You can check all the posts here.
We are rated 4.8 on Glassdoor 🤩
Richa Rao joined Springworks remotely in March, 2020. She started her career as a Business Analyst working for an IT MNC.
She’s been taking care of the life cycle of a couple of products at Springworks –SpringRecruit and SpringScan (SpringVerify) and handling a team consisting of designers and engineers.
Her work involves managing the product throughout the product lifecycle, gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements, defining the product vision and working closely with engineers and designers to deliver valuable products.
Let’s dive into it right away and take a peek into the life of an Associate Product Manager.
What are your customers like? What type of people do you serve?
Our customers for SpringRecruit are SMBs willing to simplify their recruitment processes, yet cannot invest a hefty amount on Applicant Tracking Systems. Therefore, our free-forever ATS is there to help such organizations.
Customers of SpringVerify are also SMBs that want their employee verification process to be simple with exceptional TAT and daily reports. The main goal for them is to spot any potentially fraudulent employees in their organization.
You joined Springworks remotely in March, 2020.. How was your experience during this transition from working out of an office to moving to a remote setup?
Honestly, it took me a few weeks to adapt to the work-from-home environment. Before this, I had always worked in an office. However, Springworks made this transition easier by giving employees a one-time allowance of Rs. 25,000 for a home-office set up. We were also offered one-time reimbursement of Rs. 3,000 for headphones and a monthly internet reimbursement of Rs. 1,500.
What type of people do you work with?
We have nine members in the team including engineers and designers who work independently, but we also work as a team to accomplish our goals. We focus on communication a lot to make this a smooth operation.
Reflect back from Day 1 to now. How have you evolved in your current job?
Initially, it was really intimidating because you are just getting familiar with the product and team that you’re working with. You have to know your territory, who your customers are and that can be overwhelming.
Today, I can say that I’ve been handling conceptualization, designing and developing multiple features for two of our products, along with the two teams.
What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced in your job?
Market competition is the biggest challenge. There may be ten other companies offering the same product as you. The question is – what strategies do you have to stand out?
Reviewing competitors, analyzing and comparing aspects such as features, price, perceived benefits, etc. helps understand where your product sits within the market.
I want to say that iteration is Product Management. As an agile development team, we operate on an iteration-by-iteration basis that is, a set amount of time reserved for development which lasts 1-2 weeks. Thinking process is fun too.
Walk us through a day in the life of Richa!
- Get up at 8 am
- Have Breakfast
- Read news
- Check Slack & work emails
- Start work at 10 am
- Team standup
- Groom the product Trello board
- Have Lunch
- Read a book during breaks
- Talk to the development team to make sure things are going fine
- Work on upcoming features
- Work until 8 pm
Tell me a little bit about your life outside of work.
Reading books and sketching are two things that I love to do in my free time during the quarantine. I am an absolute book hoarder. These days, I’ve been reading Ocean Vuong’s “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous”.
What advice would you give someone working as a Product Manager?
- Communication is of the utmost importance. Convey things clearly to your team, leaving no room for uncertainties.
- Don’t hesitate to try something new.
What is the Springworks team like?
People working at Springworks are really good at what they do. They are great learners too. Also, it is good to see the company building a strong employer brand that actually is helping attract and retain the right talent.
