Working as a PM in Indonesia’s Tech Unicorn(s)
2017 was one of my most important year as I started my life as an adult and needed to decide my next step after graduation. Should I start a business? Working for a company? Which company? Which sector?
At that time, starting a business was not a viable option. It required a certain amount of capital and had a high risk of failure. I just graduated, still poor (haha), and had low-risk appetite. You know, all of the adulting life costs are pretty frightening: buy house, car, marriage, insurance, etc! This is certainly not a cheap life. Moreover, I have started some businesses during my university, ranging from franchise to building a business from scratch. Let me tell you, it was not easy. I felt like I still need to learn.
Thus, I decided to work for a company and landed jobs in two of the biggest tech unicorns in Indonesia. Traveloka and Tokopedia as Product Manager.
So, what is it like working as a PM in Indonesia’s Tech Unicorn(s)?
The role
To give you context, I started in Traveloka as an associate country product manager for Traveloka Thailand for 1.5 years, Traveloka’s second-biggest market after Indonesia. For those who don’t know, Traveloka is the biggest OTA player (well now it’s more of a lifestyle super app) in the ASEAN market and valued at $2.75 billion (source).
As a fresh graduate, I got involved in several key initiatives such as product localization (expanded product verticals from 2 into 6 products), launched revenue optimization features (adding millions $ of revenue per month), and operational efficiency features. As a bonus, I also often travel to Traveloka Thailand :).
After that, I got a growth and revenue optimization role for 3 months. Got involved in an expansion plan to Traveloka Australia, to be specific the experience and hotel product. I learned to do product positioning, market research, user research, and P&L management. Moreover, I also analyze revenue optimization opportunity through insurance pricing experimentation.
Then, I transferred to build a new fin-tech product: Traveloka Mandiri Credit Card. In this role, I focused on the term negotiation, 5 years plan, product design and communication, risk management, and also value proposition planning.
After Traveloka, I joined Tokopedia as a Product Manager. For your context, Tokopedia is one of the biggest e-commerce players in Indonesia, valued at $7.5 billion (source). In 2019, we contributed to 1.5% of Indonesia’s GDP.
Here, I started managing my own team, leading from 1 PM to 2 PMs to 3 PMs. Also handling various modules from API integration, acquisition, buyer engagement (shop page, home page), seller management, until internal business process improvement.
In Tokopedia, I had a chance to did some API use case optimization; improving acquisition by ~3x; adding millions US$ additional revenue per month. Internal process optimization; reducing hundreds of manual operational hours per month. Buyer optimization through push notification experimentation and content optimization; improving engagement and conversion. Also, seller optimization, launching optimization tools for sellers and reducing manual work.
Now, enough context about me (this is my Linkedin if you want to know more: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-stefanus/). This is how it feels like working in Indonesia’s tech unicorn(s).
Common sense
For three years working in tech unicorn, I can tell you that no one is an “expert”. There are a lot of problems that my team, I, or even my boss haven’t encountered before. Not to mention the problem ambiguity and complexity level.
Who would know the answer on: “How can we make people more engaged to shop?”, “How can we reduce the chance of wrong transfer?”, “Will this feature regress our performance?”.
Therefore, we are operating based on beginner’s mindset: analyze the problem step by step and came up with creative answers. Typical question in the meeting was: “How did you end up with this solution? What are the pros and cons? “ instead of “How did we do this in the past?”.
Being structured, critical, and creative is the key.
This creates a unique condition where everyone is kinda starting from the same point. The leader is not necessarily right and have the answer. Everyone can propose ideas and explore (as long as you still have time and energy to do so lol)
Also, as no one knows exactly what is right and what is wrong, the culture of experimentation is embraced. We have clear hypothesis in mind, but all solutions need to be able to be experimented. Data is the key. All team needs to be flexible and have a gut to try.
Constant changes
The second point, one thing is certain when working with tech unicorn: changes. As consumers and industry are changing constantly, we also need to adapt quickly.
During my tenure working in tech unicorn, I had 5 different direct report when I work Traveloka for 1 year 10 months. In Tokopedia, I underwent 3 big organizational re-structured and 4 times scope changes, all happened under 1.5 years. Crazy, huh? :D
To be honest, sometimes it’s sucks because nothing set in stone. But, on the positive side, you’ll never get bored. You got exposed to a lot of different things, and by the time, you develop the skill to learn (which I think the most important skill in life).
I got an opportunity to learn and re-learn all of the new modules. This is also good for my portfolio as I have experience in many different things.
Rewarding
Last but not least, I’ll vote for my experience working in tech unicorn as a rewarding experience. There were lots of ups and downs (you can ask my friends. I complain a lot). But, while writing on this article and look back, it was superrr rewarding.
People are generally brilliant. You can see a lot of good people in tech unicorns. People with good background (my leads graduated from HBS, Cambridge, Berkeley). People with a good sense of thinking. And most importantly, good people that genuinely care about me.
The company is willing to invest in you. They give opportunities and scope for me to grow, even to the point until I kinda doubted myself whether I deserve the scope or not (I just feel stupid sometimes). You can really make a dent in the company. I still remember the first project where I could bring additional thousands of dollars in revenue per month. It was one of the best feelings ever. You feel needed.
As the culture is learning, making mistakes is not seen as a sign of weaknesses. We embrace mistakes. Back when I made mistake, my lead mentioned to me that “It’s ok, as long as you don’t make the same mistake twice. Don’t feel bad about yourself. This is a team mistake.” Thus, the way I see it, people will only getting better in
It’s tiring, to be frank. I got demotivated along the journey, felt stupid, and had doubts. But looking at the reward, I don’t regret my decision :).
Conclusion
For me, it’s a challenging yet rewarding experience to work in tech unicorns. It’s suitable for those who are hungry, willing to learn, and looking for an acceleration in their career (as things move and change fast).
If you are a fresh graduate that is thinking about your next step, this is my advice to you: find a good boss, find a place that can let you learn something (learn how to fail, learn to celebrate, and learn to boost your confidence), and also find a place where you can give something in return (bring impact).
