From an Idea to Reality: How My Contribution Transformed the Landscape of Education Lending in Pakistan
A Senior Product Manager's Journey of Innovating Uncharted Fintech Territory
Written by Salman Taha, 23 July , 2024 | Reading Time: 4+ mins
The Vision:
EduFi started as a dream to revolutionize student lending in Pakistan. Imagine a complete digital lending solution with mobility and an administrative web portal with built-in AI-enabled creditworthiness checks. This platform aimed to provide Pakistani students with seamless lending opportunities, leveraging the latest in technology and innovative workflows.
My Role:
When I joined the EduFi team, As a senior product manager, we had nothing but a vision. I was the individual who created an empty Google Sheet that would eventually map out user stories, define business processes and lay the foundation for our groundbreaking platform. From those humble beginnings, I embarked on a three-year adventure that encompassed a myriad of responsibilities and achievements.
Crafting the Product:
As the first architect of our product vision, I delved into hands-on product discovery, ensuring we achieved the perfect product-market fit. I meticulously defined features, created user story maps, and prioritized them to maximize impact. Spearheading our product vision, roadmap, and strategy, I conducted in-depth market research, analyzed customer and end-user behavior, and explored product variants to expand our total addressable market (TAM).
Developing the Platform:
As a product management leader, I collaborated with the development and QA team to create a cross-platform B2C mobile application and an AI-enabled web application for admin staff (B2B) to manage applications and streamline the decision-making process. I defined user stories for each functionality, researched and shortlisted third-party systems, APIs, and tools, and outlined their integration scope. These integrations enhanced various aspects of the financing application, decision-making journey, and user engagement. Ensuring cybersecurity was paramount, I implemented robust measures, secure user flows, and compliance with local regulations, leading to certification against technical audits by authorized auditors. I also implemented product analytics to ensure proper usage and future enhancements efficiently.
Leading the Charge:
As a senior member of the team, I constantly provided cross-functional leadership by orchestrating efforts across product management, development, quality assurance, customer support, sales, marketing, and legal teams. I coordinated with 35+ educational and financial institutions, executed marketing initiatives, and launched new products, all while formulating and executing sales and marketing strategies to enhance our brand positioning and offerings. My contributions were key to meeting the regional regulatory compliances. I thoroughly reviewed policy circulars and diligently collaborated with the legal, tech, and business teams, ensuring the successful procurement of the NBFC license. This enabled EduFi to launch its operations in the region.
Stakeholder Management
Navigating the complex web of stakeholder relationships, I worked closely with internal teams, business leadership, and the board of directors, as well as external stakeholders like banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), educational institutions, and investors.
Feature Enrichment: The product saw a 5x feature enrichment across the mobile app and web portal.
Strategic Collaborations: Collaborations with over 40 educational institutes, banks, and NBFCs to generate unparalleled lending opportunities.
Customer operations Management: Expertly optimized customer success, operations, and support processes.
Customer Engagement: Successfully Strategic product marketing initiatives in partner educational institutes
AI-Driven Efficiency: Implemented AI-driven instant eligibility checks and lending proposals with minimal delinquency and seamless loan approval workflows.
The Results:
My journey with EduFi has shown what hard work, leadership, and innovation can achieve. This experience enhanced my product management skills, enabled collaboration with cross-functional teams, and improved my ability to manage program-level initiatives.