Case Studies and external Presentations
Tangible Examples of Product and Analytical Capabilities
Interviews are great at assessing a person's attitude, cultural fit, and mental sharpness. However, I believe that the best indicator of the work that a person can produce is previous examples of that work.
While I can't recreate exact work that I have produced for companies for confidentiality reasons, I have decided to portray some key examples of what I have generated and can share broadly, in order to provide better insights into who I am as a Product Executive.
AirBnb collections analysis and roadmap Proposal
Drawing on public information, general Payments and Collections process knowledge, and fictional but feasible transactional data, I analyzed the current state of Collections at AirBnB. Specifically focusing on why Collections should be a key focus for the payments team, and potential solutions for how to improve their business.
This was created as a thought exercise to showcase how I think about a current issue at a company and how I would resolve it. In this case, recommendations generated leverage my payments/fintech experience, product management, and UX components. They are split in both preventive and reactive measures to efficiently tackle Collections at a company like AirBnB.
improving delivery times at rappi (instacart of latam)
Working out of a prompt found online for an exercise that Rappi used to do for Product interviews for their Delivery business, I worked on a problem set on how to improve delivery times and completion rates for RappiTenderos, or delivery personnel, at Rappi.
This exercise helped me gain a thorough understanding of the core Rappi Delivery business, which was extremely helpful in landing my current position as Chief Product Officer for Rappibank, the digital bank of Rappi. Furthermore, it allowed me to better understand and apply principles of product marketplaces, optimization, growth, and incentives.
Kayako's Strategic Analysis and AI/ML Product Proposal
In this AI for operations case study, I analyze the product that Kayako offers for streamlining customer support operations for their B2B product, which has the unique selling proposition of centralizing multiple communication channels (e.g. chat, email, phone calles) into a single multi-thread view.
The information presented in this case is mostly based on the experience from one of Kayako's key customers, whot they showcase as a success story in their website, Appify (public interview can be found in the doc).
After analyzing Kayako's product offering today, I then generate a proposal for an AI/ML automation product that can significantly enhance Kayako’s product offering to their clients, like Appify, leading to an increase in sales, loyalty, and customer satisfaction given the higher level of automation and corresponding levels of savings for their end customers.
Sal's Presentation for Stripe.pdfpresentation for stripe: technical product Development
I created a presentation for Stripe about a complex, technical product that I had led the development for. In this case, I chose a cryptographically-secure, triple-blind, data exchange mechanism that I led while being the Head of Product Management at Spring Labs. This product and the related data-sharing networks increased the startup's valuation in Series B by 2.4x compared to the one in Series A.
The product developed incorporates advanced cryptographic mechanisms to exchange and protect sensitive financial information, while creating a data-sharing protocol aimed at disinter-mediating credit bureaus in the US. This technical presentation is what ultimately lead Stripe to give me an offer to lead their key products in Latam.
key learnings from Google's innovation culture
Gave a presentation for the annual meeting of ASOFOM (the largest SOFOM Financial Institution association in Mexico) about the culture at Google. I focused on Google's history, progress, performance over the years, and why the culture (naps pods, free food, on-site sports) is a key factor driving employee retention and productivity.
An additional topic covered was the culture at Google X. Specifically, the celebration of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) - a traditional celebration from Mexico, where people who have passed away are commemorated. At X, the commemoration was about projects that had "died", doing a post-mortem on what the key decisions were, why were they taken at the time, and what the key learnings were.
This annual event allows X to: a) not be afraid of failure (it's even celebrated when the steps taken with the info at the time was the right one!), and b) allows for continuous improvement and learning from others. This is one of the key learnings that permeate my day-to-day as a Product Executive.
best practices for product management in blockchain
During my time as an active speaker for The Product School, the key talk that I presented was about Product Management for Blockchain Products, focusing specifically on what is different vs "traditional" PM roles (e.g. moving goal posts as underlying technology is being developed), technical complexities (e.g. need for byzantine fault tolerance is great for security but can work against your speed for developing end customer solutions), and best practices (e.g. open communication with Engineering team, staying up-to-date with key industry developments, etc).
While my presentations are generally geared towards having me presenting them (vs having all the information within the slides), this deck still generates contacts from people interested in learning more about the topic, which I love talking about with others and connecting over interesting challenges that they face at work.