Melding Empathy, Crypto & Tech with Bitwala’s CPO, Kristina Walcker-Mayer
How to Pave your Path in Fintech Product Development
Berlin-based product leader Kristina Walcker-Mayer holds a Master’s Degree in Business and has an impressive career: as a consultant for successful mobile apps, team lead for product at Zalando, product lead & head of engagement at N26, and now Chief Product Officer at Bitwala. She’s been a podcast host and is often an invited guest on other podcasts – distributing knowledge on product-related topics. That’s what recently caught our attention. We were thrilled to catch up with her for a moment atop Spain’s remote Tenerife Island, where she reflected on her experiences to share key learnings with our readers.
Welcome, Kristina! You are the first of our C-Level Insights series guests to have worked at not one, but two Earlybird Fintech portfolio companies, N26 and Bitwala.
1.Tell us about any similarities, about making the jump between these companies, and any insights along the way.
KWM: Yes at N26, we were working on making digital banking frictionless and helping people access features and tools of traditional banks in a new and convenient way. Bitwala is going a step further, combining the traditional world of banking with financial innovations of tomorrow by leveraging Blockchain technology.
I have always brought empathy and customer-focus to product development, so that is the lens through which I am used to looking at customers’ pain points. This is the approach we used to make traditional banking easier at N26, and now at Bitwala to pave the path for the future of banking.
Even though I had built up expertise in banking products prior to joining Bitwala, I was a relative newcomer to the crypto scene: I held some crypto but was not staking or yield farming in my free time. This wasn’t a problem though, as I could leverage learnings from the in-house team and combine it with my prior experience in defining and solving problems for big user groups. In the early days of my career, I learned that it’s not about the technology itself, rather that we use tech to solve problems; tech should be an enabler but not a driver.
“I learned that it’s not about the technology itself, rather that we use tech to solve problems; tech should be an enabler but not a driver.”
At N26, I studied the fears and concerns that stop people from making financial decisions. I focused on the needs, worries and pains people have when it comes to putting money aside, saving, or investing. At the moment, there are no convenient saving solutions out there and the interest rates have been super low for years. We do indeed need tech to solve these issues in a fresh and innovative way. Yet, a new system e.g. through Blockchain has not been fully established. So it’s an interesting time to be in this industry, where we already see the horizon for traditional banks while the cresting wave of tech is still arriving. Bitwala builds the bridge between these two worlds.
2. What advice would you give others contemplating such a role switch?
KWM: Don’t be afraid of solving problems in different areas. Be sure to create a diverse product team as that will lead to more diverse product solutions. Being a woman in this sort of hyper-technical, super-informative, typically-male, predominantly-dark crypto platform space, has led me to see that changes to product in that particular space can attract a newer, wider audience. It’s what differentiates your brand from the rest.
“Be sure to create a diverse product team as that will lead to more diverse product solutions.”
3. Listening recently to Georgie Smallwood of Tier, who herself is another female veteran of N26, she stresses the importance of ensuring the company’s vision, and surrounding yourself with a team that fills any knowledge gaps. How do you personally approach team building?
KWM: I 100% agree with Georgie Smallwood here. When you’re building a team, aim for cross-functionality and be sure the team members complement each others’ and your own skills: mix introverts and extroverts; combine thoughtful strategists with ‘get-sh*t-done’ types; blend rational vs emotional. Then ensure everyone acts in a customer-first way.
4. What is Bitwala’s mission & how does the product team support that?
KWM: At Bitwala, we aim to enable the banking of tomorrow. We not only bring bitcoin and crypto to the mainstream, but we also offer attractive financial products based on innovative technologies, such as Blockchain. Our approach is to combine ease of use with attractive returns, but without encouraging users to “gamble,” as we can observe on several trading platforms at the moment. We do that by tackling three key issues: trust, security, and user experience (UX).
“We not only bring bitcoin and crypto to the mainstream, but we also offer attractive financial products based on innovative technologies…”
We recognize the significance of offering ‘hand-holding’ support for customers who are just getting started, trying to understand where and how to invest in crypto. This is especially important because for example, it can take 10 minutes for a transaction to be confirmed. If this is not explained in an understandable way to our customers, it can generate a panic moment that we need to mitigate. We are building a secure and convenient solution that emphasizes UX and includes a wide range of offerings.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) offers great opportunities for people to generate high returns, but the accessibility is very limited and its usability shows these things are not designed for a mainstream target group. We want to abstract those advantages for our users and make attractive returns accessible for everyone.
It’s like the third wave of digital banking: In the first wave, traditional banks offered online banking (mostly in an unsatisfying way, if we’re honest). In the second wave, the neobanks came and offered a delightful experience on top of traditional banks. What we are doing now is to take this great, established UX, but disrupt the underlying infrastructure.
5. Why is Bitwala’s mission so relevant today?
KWM: As I mentioned, we’re at an interesting point as the days of traditional finance are numbered, but the cutting-edge world of finance has not yet arrived in the mainstream yet. It’s super easy to be overwhelmed by too much information regarding crypto & digital assets: over 150 different coins, financial volatility, and the ever-pervasive FOMO factor. Not to even mention DeFi. So today, people can benefit from our approach and get excited about what is still to come: access to a new world of finance. Right now, we just see the tip of the iceberg when it comes to innovative solutions. Money’s worth is being redefined, yet it is less tangible, so we need to make it easily understandable. The tokenization of things will change a lot how we think of investments today.
“Money’s worth is being redefined, yet it is less tangible, so we need to make it easily understandable.”
6. What inspires you on this quest?
KWM: A reinvented kind of transferability and definition of value. Typically, people aim to grow money by either a) giving it to the bank (where they have little control over it), or b) investing into companies via stocks (but they lack insights and a personal connection to those companies.)
With tokenization, new things can get invested into, things with which you might share a personal or emotional connection. An example I like to consider is a work of art by Picasso, or another artist that you love, where multiple people could own it via digital tokens. A great example is what is going on with NFTs and musicians right now…Or imagine investing in a sports team with others who also hold fan tokens, where you all knew about the players and felt a connection to them. Or maybe you are all about collecting rare things — like the tiny plastic toys inside of a classic childhood treat in Germany called Überaschungsei, or surprise eggs, which interestingly sell on-line for crazy high sums.
7. As a female in a predominantly-male Fintech space, what role models do you consider influential in your career so far?
KWM: Katharina Gehra is a great German role model in the even more male-dominated Blockchain space. More internationally, Lindsey Jane (former VP Product at Monzo) is for sure a great role model in the fintech and product area. It might sound weird, but I think you should also create a ‘desired end state’ for yourself in your career and become your own role model. That’s the most important one ;)
“…create a ‘desired end state’ for yourself in your career and become your own role model.”
8. Finally, what books might you suggest around product development to people aspiring to be in an executive role at a startup?
KWM: If you only read 1 book, it should be Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Perri. When it comes to leading product teams, I highly recommend Strong, by Petra Wille.
An oldie-but-goldie, Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In opened my eyes in many ways. It pushed me to take control over my own career trajectory.
The Product Academy in Switzerland also does a great job of bringing product knowledge to a broader audience, no matter if for junior PMs or CPOs.
Thank you for talking with us, Kristina!
To learn more about how Bitwala is building the future of banking, visit their website and follow Kristina and Bitwala on Twitter. You can also discover more about Kristina in this video on product experience, or this podcast interview in German.
For further reading on Bitwala, check out the CEO Ben Jones’ perspective:
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