In the hot seat: Chirag Patel - Product Manager, Product & Engineering

We recently caught up with Chirag Patel, Product Manager for our lender software, to get a glimpse into his dynamic role at finova, his journey into the fintech world, and his passion for both work and life outside the office.

Can you tell us about your role and a typical day?  

I’m one of the Product Manager’s at finova, responsible for R&D initiatives and looking after a suite of products. I could say no two days are the same! From looking at innovative technologies that finova could leverage to being part of lender discovery sessions and helping build strategies for how finova can help them achieve their organisation’s goals.  

What inspired you to pursue a career in this industry?

With previous experience working in proptech, delivering solutions in the estate agent, buy-to-let and affordable housing space, entering the mortgage industry felt like a fantastic opportunity to expand on my experience across the property buying, selling and renting landscape. Also, with fintech becoming increasingly integral to our day-to-day lives, it was a solution space I wanted to get into.  

From a product perspective, I fell into it. Having a natural knack for problem solving and trying to look beyond the business process, becoming a Product Manager felt a natural fit not just for my personality type, but also for being able to leverage my previous experiences to drive innovation.

What do you enjoy most about working at finova?

I have the opportunity to work across a breadth of different lenders and am surrounded by a wealth of industry experience. There’s a great culture of trust and enabling you to get on with things whilst having support readily available to overcome obstacles and challenges.

Can you share a recent project or accomplishment you're particularly proud of?

Optimo – our dynamic decisioning engine, which was launched early this year. Being able to shape the proposition of the product and help curate the messaging and initial product direction was an enriching experience to help step outside the roduct layer and look at things strategically. Especially given this was around the time of the mini-budget and where mortgage products were sensitive to macro environments, it was important to understand how we can help lenders move with agility, get the message across whilst also shaping the vision of where we want to take them to help drive lending growth too.

How do you stay motivated and productive while working on challenging tasks?

Generally, I’d consider myself a pretty resilient person. Still, in those instances where work and projects can overwhelm and become testing, I’ve found it's important to know when to take breaks or having something side of desk that can take you out of the high pressure narrow focus to enable you to breathe and recapture the drive the task needs.  

What key skills do you think are essential for success in your role?

I think if you spoke to any product person, the one thing they’d say is being adaptable, dynamic with your thinking and listen more than you speak. I think we’ve all been in stakeholder or discovery meetings where we can become passive and I believe it is important to challenge, push back, go back to “first principles thinking” to get to the root of the problem you are attempting to solve. In addition, learning the people you work with and the different communication styles so you can get your message across. Jokingly, I’d say the same skills you need to be prime minster are the same you would likely need to be a Product Manager!

How do you approach professional development and stay current in your field?

I’ve built up a habit over the years to spend 15-30 minutes in the morning browsing a range of tech and industry related news websites to stay up to date with the latest trends and happenings. I feel like this has helped me stay on top of the evolving industry.

In addition, to aid my professional development as a Product Mmnager, developing my skills so I can start to build my products, especially in the advent and boom of AI tools, helps keep my analytical and requirement development skills sharp. Nothing is more humbling than attempting to build your product or prototype and not working. It also enables you to recognise all the use cases to consider.  

What do you enjoy doing outside of work to relax and unwind?

If I’m ever close to burnout, I’m booking a holiday to somewhere warm with copious amounts of cocktails available! But I’ve found a helpful way to relax personally is getting a quality Lego set to work on whilst enjoying a TV series in the background. Sometimes, it’s the simple things that help you slow the pace that ends up being the most effective.  

What’s one fun fact about you that your colleagues might not know?

My small claim to fame is having been in a short film with Zainab (Nina Wadia) from Eastenders. Sadly, Bollywood was not an option, so I chose the glitz and the glamour of tech instead!

What are you most looking forward to in the coming year at finova?

With so many new and exciting projects on the horizon and the finova group growing with MSO joining the family, I’m really looking forward to seeing how we can build out our ecosystem and drive new technology initiatives especially around AI.  

Are you interested in joining finova?  

We have great opportunities across the business. Check out our current role openings on our careers page: https://www.finova.tech/careers