After working as a management consultant for a number of years, Rahul Yadav discovered his passion for Product Management. He joined Codal in May of 2021 as a Senior Product Manager where he deployed his skills, experience, and expertise to provide game-changing results for our clients. Now acting as Codal’s Associate Director, PMO, Rahul has also taken on the responsibility of being a strategic thought leader for the department, finding ways we can improve internal processes and client delivery.
“As a Product Manager, I’m essentially acting as a CEO of whatever project we’re working on,” says Rahul. “This comes with a tremendous amount of impact and influence. We have the opportunity to improve people's lives by shaping future products and services. We play an essential role in helping clients achieve business key performance indicators (KPIs), and also partner with them to determine the company's strategy and North Star.”
Over the past year, Rahul has developed authentic relationships with his clients while helping them build powerful products, drive internal efficiencies, and ultimately improve their bottom line.
Let’s take a closer look at Rahul’s role, as well as his insights around designing and developing effective, scalable solutions in today’s ever-evolving business environment.
What does a Product Manager do?
Codal’s Product Managers oversee projects from beginning to end. Based on the client’s industry and underlying technologies, Rahul will assemble a team of designers and developers that have experience working in that particular niche, and with the applicable solutions.
For instance, some developers are more confident using ReactJS, as opposed to other Javascript frameworks. Fortunately, Codal employs an immense staff of developers across the globe, covering a wide range of specializations.
When taking on a new project, Codal’s Product Managers focus on these key objectives:
Understanding the client’s current situation: In the beginning, Rahul learns all about the business’ goals and requirements, along with its customers, competitors, and technological infrastructure.
Analyzing product requests: Rahul communicates with the client to uncover the true motivation behind their request, and ultimately better target the work we will be doing. Some clients, for example, may want to build a mobile app to improve their customer experience. But in his analysis, Rahul may discover a better solution, such as building out new features and functionality on the client’s website.
Identifying additional opportunities: During the Discovery phase, Rahul and his team constantly find ways to improve internal workflows and the customer experience. Rahul will bring these opportunities to the client’s attention and add them to the scope of work.
Delivering exceptional results: Taking everything the team has learned so far, Rahul puts together an implementation plan with a timeline of project deliverables and milestones, then executes that plan using the Agile methodology.
What are the keys to success when working on a project?
With over a decade of experience building and optimizing products for businesses in finance, healthcare, legal, public sector, and many other industries, Rahul has learned that there are certain rules a Product Manager must live by. Regardless of the project, Codal’s Product Managers always emphasize:
Constant communication: “It’s always better to communicate too much than too little,” says Rahul, who constantly keeps his clients updated on the project’s progress, roadblocks, and so on. “We never want the client to be confused about what our team is doing or how long something will take.”
Adaptability: Even after the strategy has been kicked off, clients will often want to make changes, based on new priorities, business trends, and other factors. Rahul and his team must remain flexible so they can quickly adapt to these changes.
Thinking outside the box: As mentioned above, Codal’s Product Managers are always looking for additional ways to improve business processes and optimize revenue for our clients. These opportunities are identified through creative brainstorming—where the team utilizes past experience, technical expertise, and in-depth research.
How has the industry changed over the past few years?
For more than a decade, Codal has been helping organizations solve problems through digital transformation. And after working on countless web development and design projects, Rahul has noticed that the term “digital transformation” has taken on a new meaning.
At the beginning of his career, digital transformation was exactly what it sounded like. Companies would replace analog technologies and processes, like taking sales orders over the phone or organizing documents into file cabinets, with digital solutions—such as online sales portals and databases.
These days, digital transformation at Codal means thinking about things from a broader perspective. “Our focus has shifted from delivering output to outcome,” explains Rahul. “Rather than thinking about building an app with a disparate set of features for a client, we say ‘how can this new mobile product help strengthen the client’s relationships with their customers?’ or ‘we need to build x product to help the client achieve x revenue growth and/or potentially go after a new customer base’.” In other words, Rahul and his team don’t simply build digital solutions for a client and then move on. They work closely with the organization’s staff and third-party vendors to help establish long-term and impactful success via new technologies and business workflows.
How does Codal differ from other design and development agencies?
“Codal perfectly blends modern management consulting with traditional web design and development services,” says Rahul. “We’re a big company with little bureaucracy, so I have the autonomy and resources to get moving on delivering value to our clients as quickly as possible.” The Product Managers at Codal are equipped to plan and execute strategies with optimal speed and efficiency, meaning our clients receive results on time, on budget, and of the highest quality.
