Having studied economics at university after the financial crisis, I had one career goal in life, and that was to become a trader. However, when I joined the industry, I soon came to realise that it was not everything I thought it was and the job did not really align to my skill set or interests. My abilities lie in creative problem solving, collaborating with people, and driving delivery, so after spending time moving around a large bank trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I stumbled across a digital product management role which allowed me to utilise all those skills in the best way.
At the tail end of 2020, I joined Capco as I wanted to enrich my product experience and surround myself with great people building best-in-class digital products. Seeing the success in the delivery of Mettle is what initially sparked my interest in Capco, and it turned out they were looking for product people like myself. The interview process was one of the most seamless I have experienced. Furthermore, the recruitment team focussed equally on my career aspirations as assessing my suitability for the role. This was even more impressive given that the entire recruitment experience had to be done virtually due to the pandemic.
When I started, I thought it would be a relatively quiet period given I was a new joiner, and it was during the run up to Christmas. However, I immediately joined an extremely interesting project, working with an amazing product team driving the delivery of a digital SME platform for an international client from inception to discovery, design, and development.
Although I haven’t been at Capco a long time, the experience has been rich so far. I work with an incredible team of product experts, who push the boundaries when it comes to thinking innovatively on how to solve customer problems. I have also been able to share my experience and passion for product, by designing and delivering training of the subject both internally as well as for multiple external clients.
In my experience, there is a lot of material online on how to successfully implement digital products, but there is still limited content on how to do this within financial services, an industry which is heavily regulated, entangled with legacy architecture and limited budgets for digital transformation. This is something which me and Capco are extremely passionate about.
Life at Capco is what you make it. I wanted to push myself to become an expert in delivering digital products in financial services, and the culture at Capco empowers you to achieve this. There is a lot of support from senior management from day one, there is an appreciation of the need for work-life balance during this difficult period, and there is access to the right people, resources, and projects to push you and help you grow your career.
At Capco, we do not lecture clients on what they should be doing better, nor do we shy away from telling clients things they might not want to hear. We partner with them to combine their expertise with our product knowledge and best-in-class practice, to get the best out of their business goals. This collaborative approach is vital for a product person, as you are a ‘mini-CEO’ who needs autonomy and ability to drive customer value.
I would thoroughly recommend working at Capco to further your career in product, whether you are a senior product manager with many years of experience, or just getting started as a product owner.