Product Manager - Workmate (Helpster)｜Meet.jobs

Hi thanks for looking at this Workmate JD.  Since we might be working together, I wanted to write a cover letter to YOU. 

I’m Tudor.  I’m the CPO and hiring manager for this position.  

I wanted to take a different approach to JDs to give you a candid and hopefully better understanding of whom Workmate is and what Product Management at Workmate is all about. You should probably read the whole thing if you’re serious about applying.

A little about me since you and I will work together: 

I have 15 years of experience in products, technology, marketing and innovation. I am looking for someone with the same passion for innovation, problem solving and execution as I and my team share.

I exited my first tech company in 2015 in the travel space after 5 years of developing and expanding in SEA, ultimately selling the business to another travel company.  Afterwards I held positions leading teams in product, marketing and innovation. 

At my core, I love not only building awesome products but seeing users adopt those products to make their lives better.

The reason I joined Workmate  is because it has an awesome purpose; to organize the informal workforce in SEA.  There are a lot of bluecollar/essential/informal/unskilled workers in Asia that must constantly seek out employment to support their families but their experience and skills are rarely remunerated or recognized properly in their environment. Workmate wants to change that. 

We want to capture these workers on one platform that not only gives them full time employment at the click of a button, but also creates a history of their work, their experience, their performance so they get rewarded, paid fairly, get recognized for their work and stop having to worry about finding their next gig.

This is why we’re building Workmate; a platform that allows Clients to post their jobs and get access to thousands of pre-qualified, vetted workers at the click of a button.  Our AI matching and grading system delivers a ready-made workforce for our clients to plug into their existing workforce (we are looking to even get clients to plug into via API!) .  

You can check out my linkedin profile here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tudorcoman/

That’s enough about me.  Let’s talk about who YOU are.

Who you are and whom we’re seeking: 

1. You are a skilled communicator. The team, our clients and workers span across Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. Being able to articulate and communicate complex concepts into simple terms is a must to our business.
2. You are extremely driven for growth; personally and professionally.  You are seeking new ways to grow the business, you are constantly inspired by other peers in the tech industry. You share knowledge you have gathered with the team and you are a sponge when knowledge is shared. You proactively seek out any new knowledge that is required to fulfill your goals.
3. You are focused and can say “no”.  You can talk at a thousand feet view strategically with the CEO but then you can focus and describe specific solutions to engineers.  You will be constantly inspired with new ideas from the team and barraged with feature requests from clients, but you are disciplined enough to cut out the noise and focus on your goals (We use OKRs a lot).
4. You are a true detective; you are obsessed with getting to the root cause (ie, the 5 whys) and not accepting an answer “just because it’s always been done like that”. You can clearly articulate the right questions to stakeholders and customers to understand the core issues and be able to paraphrase those back to establish a common understanding.  
5. You love talking to humans.  You are willing to fly down to Thailand and Indonesia on a dime’s notice for a few days to understand your customer.  You are willing to take the time to prototype ideas with customers and validate any new solutions and seek out real meanings to customer feedback. 
6. You are more concerned about the why rather than the how. The only way we can keep moving forward and being innovative is to constantly re-assess why we are doing things.  How can current processes be re-assessed from first principles to enhance customer lives, keep the company innovative and keep growing?
7. You share the same social drive to enhance people’s lives.  You want to make a social impact and take pride in working for a company that is putting your average low skilled worker as the main customer.
8. You are ready to be wrong.  We believe the best ideas and solutions come from debate and putting an idea through the gauntlet. You are aware of this and will present your ideas in a manner that invites criticism and are willing to change your solutions based on feedback.
9. You are data driven. You always seek out how to quantify all aspects of work. Whether it's quantifying goals through OKRs or quantifying the outcome of your solution, you use data to make solid decisions and win debates.

Being a Product Manager at Workmate: The value of Outcome, not Output.   

Product management is NOT managing projects. Nor is it babysitting engineers or taking orders from clients.  Product management is about discovering and defining problems.  

At Workmate, we have a rigorous process for problem discovery and definition.  We won’t even step into the solution space until PMs can accurately describe problems, get agreement from peers, engineers and stakeholders that the problem is agreed upon.  This will take 60% of your time.

Afterwards, solutions will be presented, debated, prototyped, validated, built and monitored.  Oh yeah, and you won’t be blocked or “under resourced”.  

Things you may do as a PM: 

• Grab onto a quarterly OKR or define your own OKR and trajectory, publicly.  The outcome is up to you and your team!  
• Lead a squad of designers, engineers and operations teams to solve a specific problem -> manage their weekly deliverables and timelines
• Lead problem discovery and root cause analysis in order to define problems with stakeholders.
• Fly down to Thailand or Indonesia to talk to customers on a monthly basis whether its for discovery, validation, prototyping, or pitching solutions
• Lead whiteboard and solutioning meetings with a large audience of different management levels in person and remotely.
• Create user flows and wireframes on whiteboard/photoshop
• Write detailed user stories for your solutions to be accepted into sprints.
• Manage your research in a company wiki
• Follow a SCRUM process with engineering AND Product Managers
• Work with commercial leadership to launch products, so they are usable for our customers and internal teams
• Launch your own products and communicate with company and customers either through screencasts/video recordings or company meetings

About Working at Workmate 

• We expect you to be in our Singapore office in the first few months of employment (unless you're traveling) until you get your bearings.
• Once you are confident that you are running at our cadence, you are welcome to work from anywhere.  We have engineers working in Bali, Singapore, Korea, from home, and offices in Jakarta and Bangkok.  Again, as long as you can deliver output you are the one accountable for your trajectory.
• We have a basic medical package that does not include dental nor dependents at this stage.  We will be raising series B at a later stage EOY so we can see these benefits grow.
• We have been achieving 100% y/y growth for the last 2 years so financially, we are on an enviable trajectory.
• People you will directly work with:      
  • Mat, he’s our Founder and CEO and the longest survivor of this project. He has a tough hide since this is his second startup (previously sold an ad-tech company).  He has a lot of insights on customers, clients and loves good banter.
  • Pete, he’s our COO and can tell you exactly whom to go to or who to seek for the right info.  He’s a goldmine when it comes to making things more efficient and he will contribute greatly to your success.
  • Lerk, our VP of Engineering.  Rumour has it that Lerk was found in the deep jungles of Malaysia developing code on a gas powered 386.

How to Apply: 

1. email me: tudor at workmate.asia
2. Tell Me About Yourself
3. Include links to your portfolio/website/twitter/dribbble/etc. Include at least one live-on-the-internet product you've helped ship.
4. Pick one specific product/project you've helped ship. Explain your process from 0 to shipped. Make sure to include any sketches, wireframes, mocks, screenshots, and narrative to effectively describe your process deciding what to build through actually building (or helping build) it. 
5. Looking forward to hearing from you!

 

Agile Project Management Scrum User Experience (UX) Design Mobile User Experience Product Management Product Marketing Product Research Product Development User Interface (UI)

Workmate is a fast paced company driven by a team of young, ambitious, tech savvy, entrepreneurs, who have a vision to organize the informal workforce by connecting people to more opportunities, increasing their income, social protections, and ultimately their quality of life. 

The company was Co-Founded by Mathew Ward and John Srivorakul, serial entrepreneurs who have built multiple successful startups in the past including Admax, Ensogo, Ardent Capital and aCommerce.

We believe in Customer Obsession, How to Fight Like an Underdog, Open and Honest Communication, Taking Pride in Our Work, and becoming Stronger Together.