The 3 things I learned as the first product manager in a company that went from stealth mode to $1.3B in under 2 years

When I decided to look for my next adventure almost two years ago, I had three things I decided were most important when looking at companies:

• A product-driven company
• An impact-driven company
• A people-driven company

As a product manager, the top two are clear. I want to work on an amazing product that impacts people.

People (and not only those using the product I build) have always been my second passion. I strongly believe that to build a world-class product, you need to have great people in the correct environment working alongside you.

Melio is that type of company, no question, and it is not easy when you grow so fast (I am employee number 30 and today we are already over 330 amazing people).

As a young PM I was told that “Always be learning” should be one of my motos, and I strongly believe in it. So for my peer product manager friends, I wanted to share some of the main things I learned as the first PM of this incredible team who built a company that went from stealth mode to a $1.3B valuation, and grew our monthly active users (MAU) by over 2,000% in less than two years.

An amazing user experience is the sum of millions of small details

Every product built must be answering a user’s need. When a person is using your product they have a goal they want to fulfill. It can be a business need, a personal need, or even an emotional need. That is known and all product managers work that way. However, if I ask you about the products you love and their user experience, what do you appreciate? Is it one part of the product that makes it amazing? No, it is a sum of many small details which make the experience smooth, simple, exciting, or whatever emotion it evokes.

A product may have amazing tech, beautiful UI, or great content, but these are all pieces of a bigger story.

This is something I always knew, it was not new to me, but at Melio it became very apparent that it is not just important, it is the most critical principle to follow when building consumer products. From my first day I had to step up my game and make sure that every detail comes together in perfect synergy.

Our focus on the details is in every step of the user journey. From the first ad a user sees on Facebook through our landing pages, the onboarding steps, making a payment, and making sure the payment is received by the vendor correctly and on time. I think many companies strive to work this way, but at Melio we actually work this way.

That is a lot of steps, and many different people are in charge of different pieces of the puzzle. By making sure that all the pieces are consistent and come together to serve our users’ needs, we create an incredible user experience. This is what creates clarity for our users and makes them feel we know what is going on with their business, which eventually builds trust, which promotes retention.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication (Leonardo da Vinci)

KISS — keep it simple and stupid, is a very familiar framework that people like to use in the product world, but when you are building a financial system, it is easier said than done. Financial products have a lot of complicated flows.

Sending money may seem easy, but what happens when you have a payment that failed? What happens when there is a chargeback? How do approval processes work? These are all challenging workflows which is why so many small businesses have a difficult time managing their incoming and outgoing payments online, and instead, they still defer to mailing physical checks.

These two years taught me that when working on a challenge, as hard as it is, don’t give up and look for the easier way to design or build it. Many companies grow and become a patch over patch over patch in the design. They make sure the product stays beautiful, they make sure the flows make sense and that in each separate flow users have a good experience. But when you look at the broader picture as they grow, the product becomes more and more complex.

It takes a longer time and is harder, but when you make sure the flow stays simple enough for anyone to understand it, it pays off. Take extra time to make the UX perfect and connected with the big picture. Don’t give up on flows, don’t slack on your pixels and make sure the content makes sense, this is what makes the products you love awesome.

And if you need some proof, here are two (out of hundreds) customer reviews we have gotten from our customers:

״Finally, a simple electronic payment method to streamline bill pay. We’re one step closer to getting rid of checks altogether! The Melio dashboard takes convenience to the next level.״ (Accounting firm owner)

“We started using Melio for the credit card, but now we use it to pay all our vendors and we love the simplicity.” (Business owner)

Don’t be afraid to dream big

When I joined Melio our core product just launched and the product I lead today was just a dream. This product was so aspirational, that when I first heard about it, I was like, really!? But this product is a big part of what led Melio to what it is today. I am talking about our integration with huge 3rd parties in the fintech world.

Growing organically is great, but helping the user with their payments within the financial platforms they already use, well that is an amazing dream and we made this dream come true. In the past two years we announced a partnership with Quickbooks, one of the leading fintech platforms for small businesses, to power its bill pay solution. In addition, Melio just announced a partnership with Capital One, one of the leading banks in the U.S. focused on small businesses, by equipping a segment of Capital One Business card holders with what they need most right now: increased access to cash flow management tools and payments that are accepted everywhere.

Making such partnerships happen is all about how you position yourself, how you sell the dream to the partners, how you move fast and show your partners the product from the get-go. Preparing a realistic business model is key, and most important, working hard to make sure that promised growth actually happens.

When you understand that you are onto something, don’t be afraid to dream big. Prepare well, be clear about your story, work hard to execute and make sure to turn this dream into reality.

I guess you can see I am very proud to be part of this team and it is so fulfilling to look back and see what we have accomplished (with many details and keeping it simple 😊). I feel very privileged to be part of this special journey and to be part of the FaMelio.

Thank you Matan , Ilan and Ziv, our co-founders, for believing in me and giving me the privilege to join this exciting ride so early on.

Can’t wait to see where this journey is going to take us. Onward and upward.