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.
 
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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