On product growth, being a senior hire, and more

Sign up for the Daily Newsletter, sent exclusively to our premium subscribers. We break down the big and messy topics of Asia’s tech and startup community. Get the newsletter in your inbox everyday with a premium subscription.

Hello reader,

I once told my boss (shoutout to you, Winston) that I’d rather eat sand than do his job. At this point in my career, I don’t think I’m cut out for a managerial role. This might change in a few years, but right now, I’m happy being an individual contributor.

Being in a senior role can be pretty tough – and I imagine it’s even tougher when you come in as a senior hire. Aside from having to adapt to a different company and its systems, processes, and culture, you also have a whole new team that you need to figure out how to support.

Plus, you’re under pressure to make big changes and have a significant impact. And if you’re not careful about how you do it, it can end quite badly.

At least, that’s what Isaac Timothy Tay, vice president of product at cashback platform ShopBack, shared in his session at our annual Product Development Conference (PDC). We learn more in today’s premium story.

Today we look at:

• Some insights from Shopback’s VP of product
• The seed round of an electric vehicle startup founded by two ex-Gojek execs
• Other newsy highlights such as Alibaba’s most recent capital injection into Lazada and Grab’s acquisition of a taxi firm in Singapore

Premium summary

Some advice for senior hires, and more

Image credit: Timmy Loen

At this year’s PDC, ShopBack’s VP of product shared some insights on how a business should scale after finding product-market fit. He also talked about his experience being onboarded by the firm as a senior hire.

Here are some highlights from Tay’s session:

• Many changes: Once a company has product-market fit, it expands in many directions. This increases distances between people and teams, both physically and metaphorically, which makes communication difficult.
• Honoring the past, looking to the future: Coming in as a senior hire, one may want to implement big changes. But doing so while ignoring the context of past decisions could backfire and end up closing your team off.
• Communication is key: However, to have this context, teams need to diligently document the thought processes and discussions that lead to these decisions, which should then be properly communicated to the senior hire.

Read more: ShopBack product lead: The one mistake senior hires must avoid at a new job

Vroom vroom

All eyes on generative AI in Southeast Asia

Quick bytes