CAREER CHAT: MEET RASHMI PUJAR, PRODUCT EXECUTIVE
Rashmi is a Product Executive with over 15 years of experience in Trust & Safety across Financial Services, Fintech, and Healthcare sectors. Her expertise in AI-powered solutions for fraud detection, identity verification, and risk management has earned her multiple leadership awards for creative problem-solving and continuous improvement.
About This Q&A Series
This question and answer series with Rashmi aims to provide valuable insights for individuals curious about careers in Trust & Safety. Through Rashmi's extensive experience developing security and risk management products, I hope you will gain practical understanding of what these roles entail, the skills required, and potential career paths. Whether you're considering a career transition or simply want to learn more about this critical field, Rashmi's expertise will offer both clarity and actionable guidance for navigating the Trust & Safety landscape.
Rashmi Pujar, Product Manager Lead for Trust & Safety
1. Can you share your career journey and what led you to become a Product Management Executive in Trust and Safety? What experiences shaped your path?
“All Roads Lead to Rome” describes my journey to the multifaceted world of Product Management!
My career started in software development, eventually realizing my dream to be an Enterprise Architect, where I leveraged the best technologies to build products at scale to solve complex customer problems.
It dawned on me that even the best technologies fail when underlying processes, customer journeys and experiences are broken. This paved the way to becoming a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt - Mentor and Strategist, where I learnt to apply Lean principles to all aspects of product development, problem solving, designing customer experiences, and practically, to everything I do!
Understanding the human element in product creation was the next stop in my journey. Taking on product leadership roles enabled me to build high-performing teams, create environments for individuals to thrive and grow, and foster empowering cultures that bring out the best in everyone.
Product Management became the perfect confluence of Product, Leadership, Organizational, and Technical skills in a single role. Over the past 15+ years, I have delivered successful products, driven product adoption and growth, and built global teams at startups, high-growth organizations, and global market leaders.
A recurring theme throughout my career has been building products for Trust and Safety. I find this critical, ever-changing, challenging, and intellectually stimulating problem space fascinating! My teams and I built enterprise and commercial products, processes, and teams for Enterprise Risk Management, AML Compliance, Threat Monitoring, Detection and Investigation, and AI/ML-powered solutions for Fraud Detection and Identity Verification.
My unconventional, winding career journey has been a deeply rewarding, humbling and an amazing adventure, filled with discovery, learning and growth. I look forward to keeping it going!
2. What key skills or experiences do you believe are essential for someone aspiring to become a PM in the Trust and Safety space?
Acquiring experience and excelling at a combination of skills across Product, Technical, and Organization can make for a successful and rewarding career as a PM in the Trust and Safety (T&S) Space. Here are the key focus areas:
Product | Understand what problem(s) you are trying to solve for, who are you trying to solve for, and why
Know your customer needs and problems throughout their journey Understand and stay informed about the market, industry landscape, competitors and regulatory requirements
• Know your customer needs and problems throughout their journey
• Understand and stay informed about the market, industry landscape, competitors and regulatory requirements
This will help you build differentiated, user-centric products that solve for today and tomorrow’s emerging threats
Technical | Understand how you are solving for today and tomorrow
Open the hood! Know the underlying technologies and architecture on which your product(s) are built and trade-offs
This will help you ensure you are building your products on a flexible, adaptable and scalable platform
Organizational | Understand who you are working with
It takes a village! Know all the teams that need to come together to make it happen Build cross-functional collaborations with Product, Technical, Non-technical and Operational teams
• It takes a village! Know all the teams that need to come together to make it happen
• Build cross-functional collaborations with Product, Technical, Non-technical and Operational teams
This will help you problem solve and innovate as a team, across the entire customer journey
Lastly | Understand yourself
A PM is often the emotional center of the team. Keep a pulse on your personal and professional skills to make your career a success Develop your own emotional resilience to handle both routine and high-stakes conversations and discussions Cultivate attention to detail and strong analytical skills Enhance communication, negotiation, and team building skills Practice zooming in and out, pivoting as needed, and maintaining team focus
• A PM is often the emotional center of the team. Keep a pulse on your personal and professional skills to make your career a success
• Develop your own emotional resilience to handle both routine and high-stakes conversations and discussions
• Cultivate attention to detail and strong analytical skills
• Enhance communication, negotiation, and team building skills
• Practice zooming in and out, pivoting as needed, and maintaining team focus
3. What does a typical day look like for you in your current role? What are some key challenges you face as a PM in Trust and Safety?
A typical day for a Product Manager is highly varied and depends on the specific product, company size, and stage of product development. It is a blend of strategy, collaboration, and execution.
Meetings
Team Meetings: Sprint planning, stand-ups, retrospectives, problem solving with your core triad team (Product, Engineering and Design) Stakeholder Meetings: With Marketing, Sales, Customer Support, Legal, Operations, Executive Teams to align on product roadmap/strategy, share/gather feedback (customer and product) and communicate progress User/Customer Meetings: Observe product usage, conduct customer interviews and review user feedback
• Team Meetings: Sprint planning, stand-ups, retrospectives, problem solving with your core triad team (Product, Engineering and Design)
• Stakeholder Meetings: With Marketing, Sales, Customer Support, Legal, Operations, Executive Teams to align on product roadmap/strategy, share/gather feedback (customer and product) and communicate progress
• User/Customer Meetings: Observe product usage, conduct customer interviews and review user feedback
Product Vision, Strategy, Roadmap Planning and Prioritization
Defining product vision: Strategic outline about the product's long-term goals and how it fits into the broader market and business goals Roadmap Planning and Prioritization: Creating and maintaining product roadmap, outlining planned features, timelines and sequence and, GTM activities. Evaluating and prioritizing new features and improvements based on user needs, business value, and technical feasibility Strategy Development: Developing product and GTM strategies for product development, rollout, training, GTM activities, product feedback loop, and reviewing product analytics for any shifts/updates to core product artifacts
• Defining product vision: Strategic outline about the product's long-term goals and how it fits into the broader market and business goals
• Roadmap Planning and Prioritization: Creating and maintaining product roadmap, outlining planned features, timelines and sequence and, GTM activities. Evaluating and prioritizing new features and improvements based on user needs, business value, and technical feasibility
• Strategy Development: Developing product and GTM strategies for product development, rollout, training, GTM activities, product feedback loop, and reviewing product analytics for any shifts/updates to core product artifacts
Requirements, Documentation and Backlog Refinement
Product Requirements Document (PRDs) or User Stories: Documenting detailed requirements to provide context for Engineering and Design teams to ensure they understand the "what" and "why" behind features Communication: Building shared understanding of product vision, roadmap, strategy, progress, and plans across various stakeholders Backlog Management: Maintaining, refining, and prioritizing the product backlog
• Product Requirements Document (PRDs) or User Stories: Documenting detailed requirements to provide context for Engineering and Design teams to ensure they understand the "what" and "why" behind features
• Communication: Building shared understanding of product vision, roadmap, strategy, progress, and plans across various stakeholders
• Backlog Management: Maintaining, refining, and prioritizing the product backlog
Collaboration in Product Execution
Requirements Clarification: Walk thru PRD, user stories or detailed specifications with Engineering and Design teams Design and Implementation Feedback: Providing feedback on design mockups and reviewing implemented features to ensure they meet the desired quality and user experience Trade-off Decisions: Making informed decisions about scope, technical feasibility, and user experience
• Requirements Clarification: Walk thru PRD, user stories or detailed specifications with Engineering and Design teams
• Design and Implementation Feedback: Providing feedback on design mockups and reviewing implemented features to ensure they meet the desired quality and user experience
• Trade-off Decisions: Making informed decisions about scope, technical feasibility, and user experience
Key Metrics and Analysis
Key Metrics Review: Analyzing product usage data, user engagement, and other relevant metrics to understand product performance and identify areas for improvement Trends and Insights Identification: Using data to inform product decisions and identify opportunities or potential issues
• Key Metrics Review: Analyzing product usage data, user engagement, and other relevant metrics to understand product performance and identify areas for improvement
• Trends and Insights Identification: Using data to inform product decisions and identify opportunities or potential issues
Market Research and Competitive Analysis:
Industry Awareness: Keeping abreast of trends, competitor activities, and emerging technologies Opportunity Identification: Understanding the market landscape to identify potential new features or product opportunities
• Industry Awareness: Keeping abreast of trends, competitor activities, and emerging technologies
• Opportunity Identification: Understanding the market landscape to identify potential new features or product opportunities
Addressing User Feedback and Issues:
Feedback Analysis: Reviewing user feedback from various sources (support tickets, surveys, social media) to understand user pain points and needs Issue Investigation: Collaborating with the Engineering and Support teams to understand and resolve user-reported issues
• Feedback Analysis: Reviewing user feedback from various sources (support tickets, surveys, social media) to understand user pain points and needs
• Issue Investigation: Collaborating with the Engineering and Support teams to understand and resolve user-reported issues
Specifically within the Trust and Safety domain, Product Managers face key challenges such as
Balancing user experience with safety at scale: Effectively creating and maintaining a safe platform while ensuring a positive and engaging user experience, especially as the user base and content volume grow exponentially Constant adapting to evolving threats and regulatory changes, while maintaining policy effectiveness: Continuously staying ahead of new forms of online abuse, fraud, and harmful content, and ensuring that policies and detection mechanisms remain effective in a dynamic environment Navigating ethical considerations and public perception: Making difficult decisions with significant ethical implications related to user privacy, data security, harmful behavior, while managing public scrutiny and the platform's reputation regarding trust and safety
• Balancing user experience with safety at scale: Effectively creating and maintaining a safe platform while ensuring a positive and engaging user experience, especially as the user base and content volume grow exponentially
• Constant adapting to evolving threats and regulatory changes, while maintaining policy effectiveness: Continuously staying ahead of new forms of online abuse, fraud, and harmful content, and ensuring that policies and detection mechanisms remain effective in a dynamic environment
• Navigating ethical considerations and public perception: Making difficult decisions with significant ethical implications related to user privacy, data security, harmful behavior, while managing public scrutiny and the platform's reputation regarding trust and safety
4. Collaboration is crucial in Trust and Safety. How do you effectively partner with cross-functional teams like engineering, legal, and policy to build impactful solutions?
Collaboration is the lifeblood for both effective Product Management and Trust and Safety work. Effective partnership hinges on these core activities
Cultivating a shared vision for how to build products and solve problems by
Understanding the roles each and every team plays and the value they bring throughout the customer journey Defining clear ownership, driving accountability, and facilitating decision making
• Understanding the roles each and every team plays and the value they bring throughout the customer journey
• Defining clear ownership, driving accountability, and facilitating decision making
Fostering open and transparent communication to work as a team by
Bringing everybody along early and often Creating an environment of trust to support and respect each other Defining and celebrating success together
• Bringing everybody along early and often
• Creating an environment of trust to support and respect each other
• Defining and celebrating success together
5. Trust and Safety work often involves sensitive topics and high-pressure situations. How do you maintain resilience and focus when dealing with challenging incidents or escalations?
Working in Trust and Safety inherently involves exposure to sensitive topics and high-pressure situations, which can take an emotional toll. Developing robust strategies for maintaining resilience and focus is therefore imperative. Here are key techniques that can help navigate these challenging circumstances:
Maintaining perspective and focusing on the larger impact and controllable factors Acknowledging, and giving yourself time and space to process emotions through actions that work for you such as taking a step away, taking a deep breath, practicing mindfulness, meditating, talking to a trusted colleague or leveraging your support systems Investing in self-care and well-being by establishing clear boundaries between work and non-work times, exercising, getting enough sleep, maintaining a healthy diet, setting aside time to pursue hobbies, spend time in nature or other stress-reducing activities Building knowledge of policies and procedures on how to handle such situations, breaking down complexity and learnings from past experiences
• Maintaining perspective and focusing on the larger impact and controllable factors
• Acknowledging, and giving yourself time and space to process emotions through actions that work for you such as taking a step away, taking a deep breath, practicing mindfulness, meditating, talking to a trusted colleague or leveraging your support systems
• Investing in self-care and well-being by establishing clear boundaries between work and non-work times, exercising, getting enough sleep, maintaining a healthy diet, setting aside time to pursue hobbies, spend time in nature or other stress-reducing activities
• Building knowledge of policies and procedures on how to handle such situations, breaking down complexity and learnings from past experiences
6. If you had to design a “Trust and Safety Superhero,” what powers or gadgets would they have to protect users in the digital world?
A "Trust and Safety Superhero" would combine technological prowess with insights and human-centric values to create a safer, more trustworthy digital world for all users. They would think like a bad actor so they can be the bastion for their products and customers! Here is what that would look like: A highly skilled individual with the power to bring a holistic approach to digital security by
Deeply understanding evolving threats and continuously adapting strategies to combat online harm Adopting the mindset of a “bad actor" to proactively think, anticipate and preempt their actions Bringing a balanced approach to designing solutions with human centric values focussed on empathy, ethical considerations, and the overall user experience Developing technological expertise to leverage cutting-edge tools and AI-powered solutions Fostering a culture of shared responsibility by empowering all members in the organization to take an active role in maintaining digital safety
• Deeply understanding evolving threats and continuously adapting strategies to combat online harm
• Adopting the mindset of a “bad actor" to proactively think, anticipate and preempt their actions
• Bringing a balanced approach to designing solutions with human centric values focussed on empathy, ethical considerations, and the overall user experience
• Developing technological expertise to leverage cutting-edge tools and AI-powered solutions
• Fostering a culture of shared responsibility by empowering all members in the organization to take an active role in maintaining digital safety
A few cool gadgets this SuperHero would have:
Digital Literacy Guardian: A tool that instantly and continuously educates users about potential online risks and best practices for digital safety as they navigate the internet Real Time Content Analyzer: A tool for accurate analysis of digital content to understand sentiment, intent, and potential impact patterns, helping to identify harmful content Digital FootPrint Scanner: A tool to ethically understand a user’s potential risk profile by scanning their digital footprint and activity across devices and platforms, operating within strict privacy and ethical guidelines Deepfake Disruptor: A device that can instantly detect and neutralize deepfake content, while preserving the authenticity of digital information Privacy Cloak: A gadget that can make users' digital footprints invisible to unauthorized trackers and data collectors. Web Sleuth Weaver: A tool with an uncanny ability to connect the dots, and follow the trail of online fraud, scams and harmful activity by analyzing network patterns and digital breadcrumbs Threat Neutralizer: A gadget with the ability to neutralize online threat closest to the point of origin to minimize scope of impact
• Digital Literacy Guardian: A tool that instantly and continuously educates users about potential online risks and best practices for digital safety as they navigate the internet
• Real Time Content Analyzer: A tool for accurate analysis of digital content to understand sentiment, intent, and potential impact patterns, helping to identify harmful content
• Digital FootPrint Scanner: A tool to ethically understand a user’s potential risk profile by scanning their digital footprint and activity across devices and platforms, operating within strict privacy and ethical guidelines
• Deepfake Disruptor: A device that can instantly detect and neutralize deepfake content, while preserving the authenticity of digital information
• Privacy Cloak: A gadget that can make users' digital footprints invisible to unauthorized trackers and data collectors.
• Web Sleuth Weaver: A tool with an uncanny ability to connect the dots, and follow the trail of online fraud, scams and harmful activity by analyzing network patterns and digital breadcrumbs
• Threat Neutralizer: A gadget with the ability to neutralize online threat closest to the point of origin to minimize scope of impact
If you want to learn more or have questions about Trust & Safety job roles, send me your thoughts via ryuen@rubyyconsulting.com. Please repost or share this articles.
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