The modern, successful tech and product leader is someone who sits at the management table and gets directly involved in the company’s strategic direction, believes Pramod Jajoo, SVP, Technology, and India Country Head, ShipBob, an ecommerce fulfilment solution.
“In a world where tech and business are increasingly joined at the hip, tech and product leaders must realise that sometimes the vision of the company takes many years to fulfil. During this time, they need to be aligned on what the north star for the company is and build for it,” he says in an interview with YourStory.
Jajoo, who built BigBasket’s tech systems as its CTO from the ground up in its early years, did so long before today’s 10-minute deliveries were even conceptualised.
Building an online supermarket at that time—in 2012—was a unique, early, and difficult problem statement, and so Jajoo had to constantly ensure everyone was on the same page and aligned on what BigBasket was building.
“In those days, I would talk to the founders five to ten times a day,” explains the BITS Pilani grad.
Another goal was to stay 8-12 months ahead of business needs by spending a lot of time building the backend. This was critical from a process perspective such as building efficient processes for inventory management, order tracking, and more.
As BigBasket scaled, documenting the common goals and vision became even more important.
Being on the same page allowed Jajoo to derive Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) for his team, and figure out how everybody could contribute to breaking down existing challenges.
Going after hard problems
Jajoo’s work on bringing consistency to the supply chains and backend of BigBasket’s operations was not only crucial to the startup’s rise towards becoming one of India’s most-loved consumer internet firms, but also kick-started his journey in the supply chain sector.
“I had worked across SaaS, systems software, and mobile technologies before, and had always tried to pick and solve hard problems. Working on ecommerce systems was essentially problem solving for a situation where the physical (goods) meets virtual (the marketplace),” he says, adding: “From then on, building top-notch supply chain systems became very interesting to me.”
After a brief stint with venture capital firm Kalaari, Jajoo joined Freight Tiger to build product and technology for the logistics firm. Then, he joined Flipkart as SVP, leading product and tech for its supply chain, customer care, and post order systems.
At Flipkart, when COVID-19 hit, its fulfilment services saw the biggest changes, as the startup made large investments in supply chain and warehouse automation to navigate lockdowns.
Jajoo also mentored and advised startups with NASSCOM and Ankur Venture Capital, and became an angel investor through Indian Angel Network.
Now, at ShipBob, he leads the India innovation hub for the global omni-fulfilment platform, helping small and medium-sized businesses get access to supply chain and fulfilment capabilities.
Building ownership and communication
Over the years, Jajoo has witnessed and been part of a shift in work culture in the tech sector, and has gained leadership insights for product and tech leaders from working to solve some of the hard problems he picked.
“Now, everybody is a leader in some way, and we should all look to wear the hat of a product owner, and think how problems can be solved. You wouldn’t want to only be told what to do; instead, you’d want to proactively try new methods to address a challenge,” he says.
Another trick to becoming a good tech and product leader is working on communication skills.
“Entrepreneurial spirit comes with accountability. You should be able to communicate well, describe your challenges clearly, and balance stakeholders, both internal and external,” he explains.
“While integrity, honesty, and trust between stakeholders in a business is non-negotiable, a good leader should also be able to stick by the firm’s common value systems. For example, leaders should be able to agree to disagree, and disagree and commit. Smart people rarely agree. Even after heated debates, trust shouldn’t waiver,” he adds.
Clear and empathetic communication also helps deliver honest feedback to those who may not be delivering, and focus on solving problems instead of finding fault with people.
This allows the company to move ahead and make progress in a startup ecosystem that’s closing the gap on Silicon Valley, according to him.
“We are arguably as ambitious. The gap still exists in hard skills and depth of knowledge to produce breakthroughs, but with adopting and making good use of tech, we are on par with anyone else in the world,” he says.
