Transition to Product Manager
People often ask me why I made the jump to being a product manager and whether it was the right move. The answer is personal, but for me, it absolutely was. This is something I've wanted to do for the last couple of years. So when the opportunity at Zillout came up, I knew I had to seize it. Over the past year as a product manager at Zillout and part of the founding team, I've done everything from brainstorming the initial idea to building our MVP, aligning our product roadmap with the business goals, setting up processes, helping raise funds, and most importantly, learning to adapt in a constantly changing environment.
How it started
From a young age, I had an entrepreneurial spirit, even before I knew what the word entrepreneur meant. At 11, I started my own arts club, and by 13, I had a Facebook page promoting environmental awareness. As I grew, my interests expanded to computers and web development, leading me to learn Webflow early on. My curiosity drove me to try out new tools as they emerged. I transitioned to design, where I could visualise my ideas, working on everything from car designs to industrial concepts. In college, as the Head of Design for Google Developer Groups VIT, my serious journey into design began. I worked with several startups, getting a taste of the startup ecosystem and realising I wanted to build something of my own. Joining early-stage startups after college, which later turned into unicorns, gave me a firsthand look at what it takes to build a successful business.
Joining Zillout
The drive to create something new led me to Zillout, where I joined as part of the founding team. I was eager to contribute in any way possible. Initially, stepping into this role felt like a leap into the unknown, but looking back now, it’s been an incredibly rewarding journey.
ZillOut is bridging the gap in the Indian Nightlife market by offering a pub-going experience that is seamless and exclusive. Users can explore pubs, bars & clubs, book events & activities there, pay real-time entry & cover charges & get faster entry. It is a platform for pub-going & a tool for venues to manage booking, entry & ordering.
Early-stage startups typically go through four phases in terms of product maturity: Build, Acquire, Retain, and Monetize.
Build: Identifying the scope of the MVP
Acquire: Focusing on product marketing, sales strategy, establishing product-market fit, and user onboarding
Retain: Understanding user personas and their use-cases to drive retention
Monetise: Developing a pricing strategy and understanding unit economics
Step 1 : Build
From the early days, we engaged in intense brainstorming and ideation sessions, figuring out which problems to tackle first and how to enter the market. My design background coupled with a PM mindset was instrumental here, utilising tools like Figjam and Miro to help all ideate together. We initially kept the approach tech light, focusing on our design strengths, and used tools to convert designs into a basic app. This approach, using both real and augmented data, allowed us to test market reception, which was overwhelmingly positive.
This was just the start & now we had to build the actual product. We knew that the right tools will help us optimise our processes, so we adopted Clickup for project management, Google Analytics first & later Mixpanel for user analytics, Firebase Crashlytics for monitoring crashes. Most of these products had a startup program where they'd provide free credits for limited duration to registered startups. I also used Akiflow to manage all of my tasks & time-blocking.
Here's some of the insider scoop of what we did including brainstorming, deriving product goals from business goals, prioritising features, doing usability analysis & a lot more. And for all the impromptu or smaller discussions, the white board did the trick.
I had created separate sprints for product (All apps, FE + BE) & Design. This would allow us to manage it easily & initiate handover process based on design ticket status. There's no denying that we encountered spills (more than once) but we were flexible with our approach from the beginning.
I knew that keeping main things organised would be key to easier collaboration & for getting new people up to speed. So I'd update the tickets with details that might be useful for later, keep Figma completely structured & organised, and built a small personal knowledge base in Notion.
Step 2 : Acquire
We acquired over 100k users, with around 8,000 monthly active users (MAUs) in a single city (Bangalore) within 12 months. This was a significant milestone for us. This was mainly driven from our promotional campaigns like partnership with a venue to give free beer to Zillout customers and running Google ads.
I myself was on the ground to place the standee at the venue & monitor user behaviour. This time was also utilised for Guerilla testing where some of us would ask pub goers about Zillout. Even though we did not document all this feedback, it still helped us tweak & shape our product.
Step 3 : Retain
Retention proved to be a tough nut to crack, especially since we were trying to drive a new user behaviour. Being the first app in Bangalore which would allow users to pay online & skip the line at venue was an all together new experience. People were excited about this but our initial app was buggy & laggy making causing most people to not use it again.
Current user behaviour also involved people exploring the streets to identify happening places & then get in. This experience is not possible on our app.
Step 4 : Monetisation Strategy
From the start, we were clear about the goal generating revenue, including subscription models for venue owners, fees per event for organisers, transaction fees from customers, and loyalty programs. But as of now, we've not reached the stage where the venue owner, merchant would trust us enough to start paying us. We need to increase our presence with both merchant & event organisers.
Merchants are number focussed, so unless we could show high numbers & make them realise that they can rely on Zillout for a significant proportion of users, it will be hard to justify the payment. We'll roll out more ideas as we progress further
What we've built yet
Here's a glimpse of what we've built till now.
Learnings from being PM at a young startup
As a first-time product manager in a challenging environment, I've learned several important lessons:
Be Biased Towards Action
In early stages, conditions & environment will keep changing so don't wait for perfect conditions. Any small improvement is a progress, although this should be with a clear vision in mind.Prioritise Ruthlessly
With so much to do, knowing what to focus on is crucial. In smaller teams, usually everyone is involved in the product development cycle which means different perspectives, lot of inputs & criticism. A product manager needs to balance inputs from various stakeholders and should be capable enough to take the decisions that aligns best with the product vision. They should also be able to communicate it clearly with the team & align them towards the products vision.Be Resourceful and Flexible
Startup life means constant resource constraints. Constraints also come in the form of money, time, people and experience. So one needs to figure out ways to get things done with whatever resources are available. They have to be creative to still execute effectively & weigh what resources needs to be spent now, what to reserve for later. This is especially tricky when everyone looks up to you for product success.
There's still lot that's happening at Zillout & it's going to be a long & exciting journey ahead.
Know more about Zillout