I talked about how to build products for different geographies like India, USA and South East Asia.
How users change, how product change and how development process change.
2. Intro
● Working at Branch.io as Senior Product Manager for Core Platform and User
Experience
● Branch is California based attribution and deeplinking Unicorn
● Worked at Tokopedia in Indonesia as Senior Lead PM for Data and Growth
Products
● Tokopedia is Indonesia’s biggest ecommerce and SEA’s 3rd biggest startup
$7B
● Worked at Paytm as Product Manager for Consumer Payment Products
(started out of B.Tech)
● Launched Paytm QR code, Paytm SDK’s, Paytm Passbook and Bank
3. Agenda
● Talk in general about how
○ Users
○ Products
○ Culture
○ Startups and
○ Teams
differ across India, SEA and USA
● How you can expand a product across India
● What are Pros and Cons of working outside India
4. Expansion
- Language Barrier
- Local office
- USA Service and Sales
- Product hunt
- Twitter and YC tags
- Attend Conference
5. Product
India -
● More Strategic
● Need Driven
● Target is not profitability and currently in expansion mode
● UI and UX is much more cleaner and intuitive (specially main apps)
● It’s more towards growth and stability and less innovation/R&D
Example -
Paytm QR code - Started from 200,000 to 50M till I was there
6. Product
Indonesia -
● Generally a model copied from other parts and modified and adapted to
market
● Target is profitability
● Competition is more and thus more towards sustainability
● UX and UI is more visual and graphical
● Operate on PAAS model
7. Product
USA -
● Generally Mission Driven
● Try and Fail mindset
● Copying is looked down upon
● Since people pay for service, profitability is not true worry, innovation is.
● Simpler, One Product - One Service
8. Start Ups
India -
● Less risky road
● Prepare for backup options
● More business savvy
USA -
● Silicon Valley kids, so have seen their
parents work in or start startups
● Try to change the world and thus more
mission driven
● Network effect is profound
● High Risk appetite, may be due to society
SEA -
● High Pressure to be rich
● Side hustles along the work
● Studied outside, saw a trend,
monetizing it at home
● Since copying is okay, need
to be frugal and cunning
● China 1 child policy
10. Users
India -
● Want maximum out of minimum
● Ready to adjust on quality
● Market is so big, that everyone can find a
niche
● Less loyalty
● More tech savvy
USA -
● Early Adopter and Innovators
● Loyal
● Pay and expect quality
● Expect low mental load
SEA -
● High Spending Power
● Promo hunters
● High Language barrier
● C2C economy
● Frugal
● Low loyalty
● Respectful
11. Tech and Process
India
● More varied tech level, can find people at all level
● More on What and less on Why.
● QA is still not high priority
● Choose tried and tested stacks
● More informal towards process
● Jugaad mentality
● Find the best what works for them
12. Tech and Process
Indo
● More like, Google it and implement what is on top
● Respectful
● Hierarchical
● Tech stack and code quality is cleanest
● They lack the speed of execution
● Talent gap is prominent
● Language is one big challenge
13. Tech and Process
Since technology is still growing, projects like PWA and AMP are popular.
E.g. -
- Implemented PWA to go beyong Jakarta
- a 5X jump in conversion rates, a 40% increase in organic traffic, 65% faster page load times, and a 60% lower
bounce rate, which highlighted better engagement.
- https://amp.dev/success-stories/tokopedia/
14. Tech and Process
USA
● More formal in office
● Social Norms and Work life balance is promoted
● Respect Time
● Focus more on Why and How
● Spend time in R&D
● Avoid hacks and prefer delayed but quality product
● Strong QA focus
15. Pros and Cons
Pros -
● Experience and Exposure
● You have influence in Indonesia, in USA it’s tricky
● Career Opportunities
● Learn empathy and best practices
● Networking
16. Pros and Cons
Cons -
● Language is a barrier in day to day life in Indo, you miss stuff
● You may be smartest person in room and that is not good
● It’s not acceptable to have the Indian attitude
● Learnings in Product could be less
● Personal aspects (family, friends and stuff)
17. Career Opportunities
● USA, L1 or H1B
● Indonesia and Singapore, easier. Singapore has Employment Permit.
● SEA yes, a lot of influx of engineers from Indians recently.
Let’s talk about how