The C-Suite of a Technology giant had neatly laid out five probable reasons for the customer churn rate. I changed my ‘consultant’ hat and became a user. As my timer hit 2 minutes and 10 seconds, a customer support executive answered.
Unfortunately, the power users were not facing trivial issues but sophisticated workflow errors that required interaction with a customer service human over an AI bot. The competitor’s friendly 1-ring answer for power users was the reason for the 15% churn rate.
We designated three personas– loyal, power, and light users. Based on the value of the subscription service, we ..
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We made incredible progress in overhauling the curriculum for < Y's> summer school online program by working with instructional designers, UI designers, and subject matter experts.
As the project manager, I monitored that grade 1 to grade 4th students were fast, but kindergarten students spent an inordinate amount of time on the instructions. Soon, we realized that despite parents supervising the kids, they often multitask – many working from home while the sessions were conducted. For the next iteration, we included audio elements in instructions – a small change ..
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Leading a team of four on a product that serves the highly volatile FinTech space in India, Malaysia, and the UAE required navigating three different regulatory environments. When one key person in the team haphazardly began taking a leave of absence, I began exploring his perspective. As a father of a newborn, he was in an incredible phase of his life that required supporting his wife. Since there were no shortcuts to the rigor of our testing process, I formulated a flexi-leave policy for new parents that has become a unique incentive in our hiring process.
I explored a similar open-mindedness ..
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Growing up in a conservative Sikh family, I was indoctrinated with the value of truthfulness and service. As the purchasing manager, I sourced ingredients worth $10M. The incentives were designed to tie performance bonuses with the bottom line.
The VPs found a shortcut and favored suppliers that arranged backend commissions for the contracts, costing us 15% of the profit margins.
I raised the alarm, and the CEO entrusted me to redesign the incentives.
The first reform was ...
After selling B2B marketing solutions for 3 years, I designed a marketing application that seamlessly managed campaign schedules, analytics, chat history, and newsletters in an easy-to-use interface. Eager to build a customer support team, I posted my requirements on LinkedIn. Soon, I began receiving a call from <z>, who couldn’t complete even a single sentence in English. The fourth call was with a promise to be the most loyal soldier for the company.
As a test of my hypothesis that ‘attitude and commitment matters,’ I recruited ..
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There was visible anger on the Doctor’s face as he opened the App.
The patient record was running on an App from one vendor, the doctor’s notes had poor integration with the records, and the insurance details from a third vendor slowed down the preview of the record.
The first week of on-ground data collection required us to observe doctors. The information flow about referring patients to another department happened through phone or email or a note that were stuck in the workflow of the slow App. The hierarchical nature and specific chain of command around seniority made the customer – the patient an afterthought.
As a consultant, I developed
I gave my victory lap, soaking in the love of the crowd. To acknowledge the appreciation, I raised my fist and felt a sprinkle of sweat falling on my legs.
It was embarrassing.
An estimated 2-3% of Americans experience axillary hyperhidrosis – the excessive sweating of the underarms. Unlike an athletic event where the audience is removed from the athlete by at least 100 meters, at the office, college, and in a social event, the sweats leave a visible stain. The underarm pads were clunky and didn’t offer a permanent solution. As an Entrepreneurship major, I developed the prototype ..
The numbers dropped from a 25% conversation rate to 0% in our sales dashboard. Assuming some error in the data connection, I refreshed the App.
100+ flight cancellations in 1 minute.
The pandemic had arrived.
A month before, I was present in the board meeting with our team of 15 for the acquisition announcement to <x> - the leading travel services company. With a proprietary predictive algorithm, we could set pricing for over 20,000+ hotels, optimizing their sales and campaign plans. ..
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I was surprised when the Founder shared the news that he had accepted a $20 mn acquisition deal with <x>. As part of the deal, the management gave promotions to the top 10% of the employees. The triple promotion that I earned in a year led to an interesting first-day meeting where I was leading technologists 10 to 20 years senior me.
Our project customized AI and cloud services for Fortune 500 companies. The transition involved a steep learning curve as, traditionally, the company sold enterprise technologies with proprietary products that have been tested and deployed in thousands of servers and devices.
Although the company had the distinction of earning the most patents, the honor also perpetuated a culture of individual brilliance over teamwork. Cross-functional idea ..
Starting my career in a 900+ strength Fortune 500 company made me wonder whether I had any impact on society. When the founder of the non-profit, <x> invited me to join their consulting team, I embraced the opportunity.
In a year, I was entrusted to lead a team of 12 on a renewable energy project in rural India. The organization has a tradition of recruiting engineers as most of the problems require interpreting complex datasets and correlating the impact of policy, laws, and budget allocation on government projects in the villages.
The quant-heavy nature of the analysis that attracts engineers also led to the development of a monolithic culture.
Two years back...
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With just 2 years into developing campaigns, I was assigned to lead the campaign for <X> – a newbie from the US with limited market penetration. However, the flagship brand – <c> chip, had a cult following in India and Japan – two markets with opposite palettes for spices.
The campaign was the first time I was leading a team of creatives. Unfortunately, for a niche market, my employer had limited resources, and I was assigned professionals with relatively low experience.
<X> was not impressed with the initial campaign idea. Our slogans integrated Cricket into the Campaign in India and Anime for Japan. The head of marketing laid it out in brutal honesty. “We are going to lose the account if your team doesn’t come up with a fresh campaign.
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