“If you’re passionate and want to solve important challenges, Qonto is the place for you.”

Discover our Qonto Insiders of the month: Adil Dewan, Product Operations Principal at Qonto.

1. What did you do before joining Qonto (your education, professional experience etc.)?

I had a winding path into the world of product! I studied Law at the University of Manchester but was more interested in playing cricket than reading legal cases. This led me to Australia after my degree, where I played a cricket season for Melbourne University Cricket Club.

Once back in Europe, I decided to continue my studies in France at ESSEC. I did two internships at Criteo, fell in love with the technology sector and decided I wanted to work closer to the teams working on the product. I joined Theodo, a software consultancy where I learned to work with super strong developers on projects for some amazing companies in France, UK, Greece and Morocco.

I moved home to London in 2018 and jumped on the fintech bandwagon, which was exploding in the city, by joining 11:FS and learning from some extremely smart people who were helping to shape the industry.

2. Why did you join Qonto?

Working in fintech, I’d been hearing good things about Qonto for a while. There was the nerdy stuff, like how they built their core banking platform from scratch, which was now helping them to go faster and achieve better unit economics. I’d also heard great things about the culture from my former manager at Sipios, Rodolphe Darvez-Bornoz, who had worked with Qonto.

I reached out to the Chief Product Officer, Marc-Antoine Lacroix. We talked about his vision for Qonto’s product team and a role he was hiring for — Product Operations Principal — a sort of Product Manager for the Product team who would help to scale the team whilst maintaining the high quality which which has made Qonto so integral to its customers’ businesses.

3. How would you summarize the recruitment process?

The smoothest I’ve ever had. Jordan Jalabert, my Talent Acquisition Specialist, was very attentive and available from the very first call.

I had a couple of discussions with Marc-Antoine, followed by a product-focused skills test. I then had a chance to meet Thomas Vuchot and Sisi Li — two brilliant colleagues who, at the time, were filling the Product Operations roles. I also met Theresa Gschwandtner and Mathieu Micheneau — Heads of Product Marketing and Design, respectively. So it was a quick process but I was able to meet some of the key people I’d be working with on a day-to-day basis.

4. What stood out for you about the onboarding process?

Everyone I spoke to during the process was full of energy and passionate about what they were doing. I also got a sense that this was an exciting period of Qonto’s growth, having just raised a Series D and launched in 3 new European markets.

5. Tell us about what you do as a Product Operations Principal at Qonto.

I work closely with Marc-Antoine on strategic projects relating to scaling and organizing the Product team. The team includes Product Managers, Product Marketing Managers, Product Designers, Brand Designers and UX Writers.

On scaling, I help with recruitment initiatives such as launching bootcamps, boosting employer branding for the product team, organizing meetups, determining key skills for roles we’re hiring for and generally looking for opportunities to help Qonto hire the best talent.

On organizing, I help our cross-functional teams solve day-to-day problems, drive initiatives that will help us to work smarter, and act as a link between our product teams and wider business initiatives.

6. What are the qualities required to be a successful Product Operations Principal?

In no particular order: adaptability, empathy, data proficiency, product sense, and getting things over the line.

7. How would you summarize your day-to-day life as part of the Qonto Product team?

No two days look the same! But it’s generally a mix of longer term projects and shorter, more reactive tasks. For example, over a few days I might:

• “go-and-see” team meetings to get a sense of how our best practices (”standards”) are being applied and identify opportunities for improvement;
• based on improvement potential, work on an update to a standard, develop a new standard or even remove a standard. Then work on a plan to train the team on what has been updated.

8. What has been your biggest challenge as a Product Operations Principal?

Setting up a Production Performance Dashboard, which acts as a sort of mission control for the Product Leadership team. It allows us to better track the quality of our releases based on identified success metrics. It also helps us to visualize problems and understand when and how to lend a helping hand.

There were several steps. For two weeks, I did nothing but observe team rituals to see how our project boards (”kanbans”) were being used by teams and get a sense of where the improvement opportunities lay. Once I had an idea of this, I started cleaning and sorting the boards and then proposed a new standard for how teams should fill and maintain a kanban. With teams trained on how to use the new kanban, I got to work on visualizing project data so it could be used to track quality and identify problems.

9. Which of Qonto’s 4 values (Ambition, Mastery, Teamwork, Integrity) resonates with you the most and why?

Teamwork. As a lover of sport, I’m fascinated by the alchemy that creates great teams. For me, it’s a mixture of belief in the mission, trust in your teammates and desire to win.

In a fast-growing team at Qonto, our ability to consistently deliver more value to our customers whilst growing our team will be key to our success.

10. If you could speak to potential future Qonto candidates, what would you tell them?

You’re often propelled out of your comfort zone and it’s certainly not an easy ride. But if you’re passionate and want to solve important challenges with some of the smartest people around, then Qonto is the place for you.

11. Do you have a fun anecdote you would like to share about your time at Qonto?

I’ve only been here two months but I was lucky enough to attend the delayed Christmas party at Pachamama in Paris. There was an amazing vibe! Well done to the events team who organised it perfectly.