An Engineer’s Take on Product Management with Aniket Naravanekar, Chief Product Officer at Cheq

A big shoutout to all product leaders. Welcome to the Product Leaders Podcast by Fireart with your hosts, Dima Venglinski and Tolik Nguyen. Every episode is a deep dive into different aspects of product leadership to enhance the end-user experience.

In this episode, Tolik is joined by Aniket Naravanekar, Chief Product Officer at CHEQ, a social payment platform that connects consumers to food and beverage businesses. Aniket is a computer science engineer who has transitioned to product management. He shares insight on the pros and cons of having an engineering background in a product management role and details on the product at CHEQ.

Topics we discuss:

Does a background in engineering help in product management?
Selling to different sets of audiences
Always have a value differentiator
Complexities of a product managers role

Hot Takes and Key Highlights:

Does an Engineering Background Help in Product Management?

Aniket answers the question by saying that it depends on the situation. For instance, at the product development stage, an engineering background helps to talk to the engineers in a language they understand. It’s also helpful when you need to update the version based on customer feedback. At the same time, one needs to watch out for jumping the gun and diving into the technical design without fully understanding why we need to design or redesign the product.

“Start by focusing on why we are designing the product and the product itself before looking at the technical stuff”

Selling to Different Sets of Audiences

Aniket explains how different sets of audiences require different pitch strategies and how to tailor strategies to individual audience personas and sales cycles. He cites the example at his organizations where there are two distinct customer bases, one that is venue based in stadiums, while the other is the customer at a restaurant. The customer's needs will differ at the two touchpoints; hence, the onboarding and selling strategies differ.

“It is important for sales and product teams to be aligned to deliver a great customer experience”

Always Have a Value Differentiator

Even if you’re an innovator and the first to market to fulfill an unmet customer need, always build a differentiator into your product to competition-proof the product. Aniket cites the example of CHEQ, where the app tells the customer the average wait time at the different concessioners in the stadium, thereby allowing the customer to choose one with the shortest wait time.

“The app accurately tells you the waiting time within five minutes at each concession stand for greater user convenience. That is our value add”.

Complexities of a Product Managers Role

The complexities arise from aligning and coordinating with diverse sets of audiences. Aligning with the engineering team requires some degree of technical skills so that you can communicate in a language they understand. Aligning with sales requires a different skillset and the ability to break down the product into a language that sales understand.

It is essential for product managers to break down problems into hard problems and softer day-to-day issues. The Hard problems require realignment, while the softer ones need flexibility and adjustment”.

Guest at a Glance:

Aniket Naravanekar has a Masters degree in computer science, and he has spent four years in an engineering role and eight years in product management at companies like Microsoft and Ring Central.

Aniket on LinkedIn

CHEQ on LinkedIn

Hosts at a Glance:

Dima Venglinski: Dima is the CEO of Fireart Studio, a boutique design and software development company committed to innovation and technology. His client portfolio ranges from startups to established global brands like Rolls Royce, Google, and Atlassian.

Connect with Dima on LinkedIn

Fireart Studio Website

Tolik Nguyen: Tolik is the CSO and Partner at Fireart Studio and leads the strategy team while solving the company’s end-user issues from an early idea stage.

Connect with Tolik on LinkedIn

Fireart Studio Website