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Top 50 Product Leaders to Watch: Upraised Game Changers 2024

SUMMARY

It lists top product managers from some of the leading Indian tech companies, who have solved high-impact business challenges through innovative solutions

The initiative highlights the unsung heroes of India’s product ecosystem and inspire future product management talent

Founded in 2019 by Mona Gandhi, Upraised is an upskilling edtech platform that specifically helps individuals become great product managers

Did you know that Airbnb’s journey from a radical idea to becoming an $82.83 Bn hospitality giant was fraught with challenges? The company faced regulatory battles, trust deficits, and the need to build a profitable business model on a revolutionary concept of home-sharing. Scaling issues, cultural differences, and market adaptations added to the complexity as Airbnb expanded globally.

Mona Gandhi, Airbnb’s first female engineer, witnessed firsthand the power of innovative problem-solving in overcoming these obstacles. She realised it took more than engineers and designers—it took problem solvers, who could deal with real-time crises, anticipate user concerns, and think ahead of their time to build solutions that matter. 

Her experiences inspired her to found Upraised in 2019, a platform aimed at training individuals to become exceptional product managers at a fraction of the cost of an MBA, without requiring them to leave their jobs.

Recognising product managers as the unsung heroes driving India’s transition to a product-first economy, Gandhi has now launched the Upraised Game Changers.

“The product managers are the real game-changers in the world of business,” says Gandhi. “Through the Upraised Game Changers Campaign, we aim to recognise the effort of 50 Game Changers and inspire others to be ambitious and build world-class products rooted in excellent problem solving.”

Upraised Game Changers 2024 has identified 50 product managers, who were able to solve high-impact problems and bring those innovations to life. Understanding the problem faced by the user and resolving it with solutions beyond the obvious to deliver a delightful offer that creates a lasting impact made the credential for the selection. 

The true Game Changers are exceptional collaborators of design, engineering, and strategy by which they deliver products of real value and, in turn, become an inspiration in the industry. These 25 product managers, who feature on the coveted list, were selected through a multi-step process which included an expert shortlisting them based on framework evaluation, community engagement, public voting, and a final review. 

Product managers from Zomato, Blinkit, Meesho, Uber, Lenskart, MakeMyTrip, Myntra, and several top Indian brands were shortlisted for their effective solutions to crucial business challenges. 

Let’s get introduced to 25 exceptional product managers who have proved to be the real game-changers in the first edition of this list. 

Here’s The List Of Upraised Game Changers 2024

Akash Agrawal, Product Manager, Flipkart

While rolling out Hyperlocal Minutes, Flipkart wanted to leverage its extensive customer data to improve the overall shopping experience. But there was a challenge in the database. While the addresses were sufficient for regular dispatches, hyperlocal deliveries needed more details.

As the product team brainstormed for a solution, Akash Agrawal, a product manager and an IIT-BHU alumnus, sprang up with an idea. It selectively prompted customers to confirm their addresses only when the system flagged lower confidence in the stored data. This was followed by a series of address validation checks designed to be minimally intrusive, while striking a fine balance between accuracy improvement and frictionless shopping experience.

The ecommerce giant soon had a database of flawless addresses. It also reduced cancellations because of delivery errors.

Akshobhya Abhigyan, Associate Director, MyGate

In this age of quick commerce, a delivery partner can’t wait for long across the gate to complete the task. The wait gets longer when it comes to serving the gated communities where security personnel can’t let the executive in without verifying the identity and getting a go-ahead from the resident.

MyGate, an app created to manage security in such housing societies, came to the rescue of the delivery agents. Akshobhya Abhigyan, MyGate’s associate director with eight years of experience in product management, introduced Express Entry, which enabled the entry of delivery executives by automating the resident approvals, registering rider’s entry details, and verifying the identity through a six-digit passcode.

MyGate succeeded in cutting down the time spent at the gate by nearly 95% through API-based integration with partner companies like Zomato, Blinkit, and Swiggy.

Amit Jaglan, Director, Design, Urban Company

Urban Company faced some glitches when users started dropping out without booking certain services. The startup that connects customers with professionals for services such as beauty, cleaning and plumbing realised the users were not sure of the details of the services they were booking and what to expect from them.

Amit Jaglan, an IIT Guwahati alumnus and director of the design team, introduced a step-by-step breakup of each service to the user starting from the point when the professional would arrive to what happens after the service ends. This resolved the hesitation and uncertainty among the users.

The traction on the detail pages increased significantly and Urban Company took the widget as a standard for all the services across geographies.

Anirudh Agarwal, Software Engineer, Blinkit

Anirudh Agarwal was clueless about the nearest outlet when he urgently needed to print a document late one evening. The crisis led the software engineer to devise a feature in Blinkit that can save many like him in such times of urgency.

Blinkit’s Print Store allows users to upload documents directly through the app, which are then printed remotely with zero human intervention at a nearby dark store. Once printed, the documents are carefully handled – picked, packed in secure envelopes, and handed over to the delivery rider. Stringent checks and handshakes are incorporated at every step to uphold the confidentiality of the documents.

Anirudh didn’t get a printing shop that day but his brainchild helped hundreds, sending Print Store’s contribution to 1.5% of Blinkit’s total order volume and maintaining over 97% of average uptime.

Arushi Jain, Senior Product Manager, Blinkit

Blinkit wanted to overhaul the gifting experience on the platform around Valentine’s Day last year. While it wanted to make the last-minute gifting personalised, elegant, and effortless, it also wanted to tap into people from overseas willing to send gifts to their loved ones back home.

Senior product manager Arushi Jain was tasked to revamp the gifting segment. Jain and her team organised products by use cases, categories, relationships, and other relevant filters. The IIM Calcutta graduate also launched the industry’s first special gift bag feature, making the gifting experience more premium and personalised.

Jain’s solution unlocked the international markets for Blinkit for NRIs who wanted to send last-minute gifts to their families back in India. This resulted in a rise in business AOV with gift items securing a bigger share of orders.

Aryan Indraksh, Head of Design, Yulu

Yulu revved up in a big way among gig workers soon after the shared electric vehicle app was launched. But it soon slowed down drastically. The users shied away because of the English-heavy interface of the app.

Yulu’s design head Aryan Indraksh and his team worked out some major changes to the interface which included adding motion design to effectively grab the attention of the users during the initial seconds. To make the onboarding process easier, the IIT Guwahati graduate with over 15 years spent in the industry, used audio and video messages for a more comprehensive communication. Users also got the option of choosing their language on the app.

Exits reduced in days and Yulu recorded higher conversion in rental plan purchases.

Ayush Jain, Product Manager, Blusmart

Clean car, well-behaved cabbie, and relief from haggling over tariffs – ride-hailing apps brought all these – but failed to rid the rider of the boredom of feeding in the same route and repeating the entire process while booking the cab every day.

Ayush Jain of Blusmart sorted this perpetual disgruntlement of passengers with his recurring rides feature. The users who use specific routes in their daily commutes to work or school or make weekly appointments can schedule their rides that repeat at consistent intervals. This cuts down the need for manual bookings and saves time.

What came as a pleasant surprise to Blusmart was a 200% surge in trips per rider for the cohort using recurring rides as against the regular cohort of Blusmart.

Gagan Mahajan, Director, Product, Meesho

Gagan Mahajan, recognising Meesho’s core strength as a low-cost e-commerce platform, sought to further amplify this competitive advantage. However, he observed a challenge: sellers were inflating prices to offset high return rates, often due to reasons like ‘changed my mind’ or ‘don’t like the product’.

The product’s director, who studied at St Stephen’s College in Delhi, introduced a dual pricing system where sellers offered two prices: One with easy returns and one without. Users could choose between lower prices or convenience of returns.

Success was assured. Most users opted for lower prices, which brought down the return rates, pushed up order volumes, and improved user retention. As a result, over 30% of delivered orders were at lower prices, with the average price down 6%, orders increased by 8%, returns reduced by 10%, and the overall user engagement improved significantly.

Harjot Singh, Associate Director of Products, PhonePe

Don’t be puzzled if you hear Big B declaring that the shopkeeper has received the money you paid. It’s the PhonePe smart speaker that belts out the baritone.

Thanks to Harjot Singh, who is the associate director of product at the fintech major, the ‘Superstar Voice’ feature has translated into an uptick in merchant acquisition, increased retention, and higher engagement, apart from a stronger sense of belongingness for the PhonePe smart speakers.

The idea of the Indian School of Business alumnus with over a decade spent in the industry allows a merchant to choose a superstar as a preferred voice for the payment confirmation audio on the smart speaker, which is a key revenue earner for the payment solutions startup.

Manan Agarwal, Group Strategy – CEO’s Office, Reliance Retail

Scarce traffic on RazorPay leading to low engagement and delay in resolving rather quick tasks was a cause for concern for the web-based payroll startup. It was hard to get employees visit their pages and use the services on offer.

A more user-friendly option could end the impassé, thought RazorPay’s strategy manager Manan Agarwal. He planned a WhatsApp chatbot that would provide an always-accessible experience to the users and let them fetch important documents, file their reimbursements, and access payslips on the go.

The bot was able to boost user satisfaction by reducing friction and making routine payroll tasks faster and more convenient. RazorPay registered more than 50% of employee adoption in the first 30 days after the launch of the WhatsApp bot.

Mehar, Head of Design, Infinyte

Share your insight on wealth, but do not let anyone look inside your wealth – perhaps that was the thought that drove Mehar of Infinyte devise Mutual Fund Jam.

Here, members can learn and engage with peers in a fun and informative way, while not compromising on their sensitive and personal details. Seasoned for over 13 years, the company’s design head led the development of the feature with privacy-first information architecture that protects such sensitive information as investments and allocations.

It doesn’t, however, stop the club members from exploring comparative metrics such as XIRR, growth percentages, fund lists, and streaks to track their progress, celebrate milestones, and learn from each other.

The result: 78% of users on the platform invited at least two or more people to the app and the overall engagement on the app surged 40%.

Prashant Sachan, Founder & CEO, Sri Mandir App

In a land of myriad ethnicities, cultural and traditional nuances are naturally ingrained in the way Gods are worshipped. Does a one-size-fits-all approach to spirituality satisfy a devotee in that deeply personal connect?

The thought kept gnawing at Prashant Sachan’s attempts at improving the Sri Mandir App, which he had founded. No wonder, dealing with spiritual sensitivity was a tightrope walk for Sachan, who is also the chief executive of the app.

The IIT Bombay alumnus, seasoned in product development for over 10 years, came up with personalised deity representations based on the ethnicity and the language of the user. Ganesha’s avatar, for example, changes subtly across locations, reflecting the regional variations like the position of the trunk, attire, and accessories. The familiarity certainly enhances the spiritual connectivity between the devotee and the divine.

A consequent rise in user engagement and retention was foretold.

Priyanshu, Principal Product Manager, Swiggy

Sending food to your loved ones is special, but Swiggy spotted a problem in lack of coordination there. Most of the time, the sender didn’t know the precise location of the receiver or the delivery executive failed to coordinate with the receiver.

Priyanshu, the principal product manager at Swiggy and an alumnus of the Indian School of Business, thrashed out a simple-yet-effective solution. He proposed an ‘address sharing’ feature using which the receiver can share their Swiggy location with the sender and all the details would be 100% correct.

The receiver would then receive the details of the order and the delivery executive will also be able to connect with them directly through a masked number. The idea became the foundation of a gifting use case for Swiggy while the platform also saw a spike in orders with much better average order values (AoV).

Rahul Jain, Lead Product Manager, Pocket FM

As books in audio format draw more listeners than their good-old physical avatars attract readers, PocketFM sees deep pockets in its audiobook consumer segment. The digital content startup was looking for the right monetisation model for their long-form audio series when product manager Rahul Jain came up with the idea of a pay-per-episode option.

The listeners can now pay only for the episodes they are willing to listen to. The IIM Lucknow pass-out says pay-per-episode allows the user to pay only for what they want to listen to, and not for the entire bundle of services.

Already in the fast lane riding on regional content, PocketFM almost doubled repeat transactions on the platform with the pay-per-episode option while also doubling the revenue.

Rupali Jain, Director, Product Management, Nykaa

A set of simple questions did wonders in Nykaa’s journey into the minds of its users. Getting personal with every user was its key to unlock the powers to transform the way India shops for beauty and fashion.

When Rupali Jain framed the basic questions on essential beauty attributes such as skin tone, skin type, hair type, and various individual beauty concerns, what played in her mind was building a connect between the company and the consumer. Answers to these questions helped Nykaa offer the user more personalised products and, in turn, build a lasting relationship.

Beauty Portfolio, a brainchild of Jain’s product team, made the experience more personalised and richer for the user. The portfolio carries a unique beauty profile for every user and reviews on products. Users returned the questions soon with a 75% completion rate. Of all the Nykaa users who read reviews, 15% interact with portfolio-based review filters. The feature also significantly improved the rate at which users add products to their cart. 

Sajan Dhunna, Senior Manager, Product, MakeMyTrip

When to leave for the airport? Is the flight on time? Which terminal to head on to? Where to get the boarding passes from? There’s no one who doesn’t fret over such issues. Sajan Dhunna had the solution in mind. The IIM Lucknow graduate and now a senior product manager has created a widget for iPhone users booking flights and hotels on MakeMyTrip.

Eight years in product management and experience of travelling around the world helped Dhunna to design the widget in a way that it fetches all the information about the user’s flights and hotels and displays them on the iPhone’s lock screen. Live Activities remind the user to depart for the airport at the right time, get the terminal information and, on arrival, get their tickets and boarding passes just by a tap.

No wonder, the widget recorded the highest click-through rate (CTR) and NPS too was significantly high.

Shashwat Dwivedi, Head of Business Operations, FRND

Many a date dies out in dearth of words and love fails to bloom in lack of confidence.

FRND spotted a huge gap in awareness level when it was building engagement spaces for boys and girls in Tier 2 and 3 cities. Non-exposure to dating norms among the youth widened the gulf. FRND wanted to leverage its platform to solve this.

Shashwat Dwivedi proposed the idea of Love Skool as a safe space for youngsters to build confidence and address common questions by connecting with micro-influencers from social media platforms. Trainers could monetise their time through virtual gifts on the platform. 

The idea of the head of business operations and an IIT Kanpur graduate fetched strong revenue for FRND. The feature was used by 87K users leveraging hundreds of micro-influencers resulting in a large uptick in revenue for FRND. 

Shoaib Hussain, Product Manager, Lenskart

If dresses can change across occasions, then why put up the same-old pair of glasses? Lenskart saw a macro opportunity in this micro customisation.

Shoaib Hussain and his team developed a tagging and scoring system for personalised eyewear recommendations. The product manager from IIT Guwahati prompted the users to select product types, share occasions, and analyse attributes like face shape, age, and gender. After this, they are offered products suitable to the specifications provided.

AI-powered AR Tryon, past activity insights, and the first-of-its-kind AI frame removal allow the users to experience seamless trials and decision-making, improving the overall shopping experience. The feature attracted more than 17% rise in overall conversion for the online eyewear store.

Shreeya Malpani, Head of Design, Cult.fit

A positive recognition is the best antidote to fight out negative motivations, thought Shreeya Malpani. Cult.fit was looking to find a solution to keep its members upbeat on workouts by developing good health habits and keeping negatives at bay.

The graduate from the National Institute of Fashion Technology with over 13 years of experience designed Cult Ninja, a program to identify members who are active for three days a week for four straight weeks, a pattern that improves long-term health.

Malpani added a touch of gamification by which the members could track their weekly progress, earn streaks, and celebrate a milestone. Trainers hailed them in public ceremonies at Cult centres with certificates and earned-not-bought goodies.

The health and fitness startup soon saw a 12% rise in people building fitness habits.

Smritinjoy Das, Group Product Manager, Paytm

It was cumbersome to feed in the code every time you scanned to pay until UPI Lite came up with a relief. 

The Unified Payment Interface, which has revolutionised the everyday transaction habit for Indian consumers, saw a surge in small-ticket deals, especially in Tier 1 and 2 cities. Paytm, one of the earliest fintech platforms in India, recorded a 70% jump in such transactions.

UPI Lite was Paytm product manager and IIT Bangalore alumnus Sumritinjoy Das’s solution to the unease in making such small-value payments. On UPI Lite, users can add up to INR 500 to their wallet and use it for their low-value purchases without the need to enter the PIN.

The result was a 1.7% rise in platform retention for Paytm and an obvious ease of using BHIM.

Syed Danish Nabeel, Lead Product Manager, FRND

Syed Danish Nabeel, Lead Product Manager at FRND and a Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology alumni was responsible for executing Love Skool as a safe space for youngsters to build confidence and address common questions by connecting with micro-influencers from social media platforms. This feature has turned out to be one of the coolest innovations for the app and is helping in driving revenue for the brand.

Utsav Poddar, Director of Growth, Pocket FM

Users onboarded through marketing often drop off PocketFM because they expect video content from their ads, but the app offers audio-based stories.

Utsav Poddar, who is the director of growth at Pocket FM and an alumnus of FMS Delhi, tried to engage the users through content, instead of format. He tried out long-form audio ads lasting up to 15 minutes, offering a glimpse of the story to the user.

These ads were designed like cliffhangers that stoked the curiosity of the listeners and encouraged them to stay on with the content. Instead of focusing on the medium, the ads focused on the story itself. By allowing users to sample the content before fully committing their money, PocketFM was able to build anticipation and interest in the story. It helped the digital audio content provider to double its conversion and increase its lifetime value (LTV) by 2.5 times.

Vaibhav Bhutani, Ex-AI Product Lead, Blinkit

Gone are the days of salivating over images of delectables because of lack of ingredients to cook them at home or failing to choose the one dish you would love to gorge on, as AI can make your epicurean fantasies a reality, in moments.

Quick commerce major Blinkit’s AI Recipe Rover can not only give you the detailed recipe of the dish that you wish to cook but also suggest the ingredients that you would need for this. The user can source everything from Blinkit in minutes.

The mastermind who mapped the AI route through the stomach is Vaibhav Bhutani, a Cornell University alumnus. The feature is effective in increasing the gross merchandise value on the platform.

Vikas Jarmale, Product Designer, Infinyte

Vikas Jarmale, a product designer at Infinyte, brought his expertise to the table in developing the Mutual Fund Jam with friends feature. Working closely with Mehar, Vikas focused on ensuring a privacy-first approach to the information architecture, addressing users’ concerns about the confidentiality of their investment data.

Vijay Sahil, Founding Member and Product Manager, Infinyte Club

Vijay Sahil, an IIM Calcutta graduate and founding member of Infinyte Club, serves as the product manager of the app. Collaborating with Mehar and Vikas, Vijay contributed his insights to the development of the Mutual Fund Jam with friends feature, aiming to make the investment journey more enjoyable and rewarding for users.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Upraised Game Changers, where we’ll unveil the next 25 inspiring stories of product innovation. 

For an in-depth look at these exceptional product managers and their groundbreaking features, visit https://www.upraised.co/top-product-managers-india-2024.

Disclaimer: The product managers featured in this list may have transitioned to new roles or organisations since their development of the highlighted features. However, their enduring contributions continue to generate significant value for their respective brands, warranting their inclusion in this compilation.

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