Q1. To begin, tell us a bit about yourselves!
Hello, I’m Augustin. I am a product manager in charge of developing the commercial paper platform which is Onbrane’s core business. Before Onbrane, I worked as a broker on inflation-indexed debt products and as a DCM banker.
I joined Onbrane 3 years ago, at the beginning of the journey and I now am witnessing how our project scales up and gets increasingly recognized by the market. Can’t lie – feels good to see our hard work pay off!
Hi, I’m William, the sustainable product manager at Onbrane. Previously, I’ve had experience in entrepreneurship and corporate finance and developed a real interest in web design. Above all, sustainability concerns are at the core of my personal and professional life that drives me to contribute in building a truly sustainable world for tomorrow.
This is what motivated me to join the product team at Onbrane two years ago and take on a truly ambitious project – create a one-stop ESG solution for debt market players.
Q2. How is the product team organized at Onbrane?
William: At Onbrane, a product manager is a very unique position that acts as a mini-CEO for an entire product branch. As such, we enjoy a high degree of ownership and a holistic view of the product we manage.
For two years, I have overseen all our ESG features from conception to launch on the platform, as well as each new iteration on production.
In addition, we work in a fast-paced international environment where I have the opportunity to constantly interact with multilingual teams, clients, and partners from around the world.
Augustin: At Onbrane, each product manager is in charge of his or her market and product. Each of us must therefore lead an entire team to meet objectives.
Each squad has an UX-UI designer, several developers, and a quality team for testing new features implemented.
The product manager at Onbrane, as William said, is a mini-CEO of his product and must ensure that all the involved parties interact well for the proper functioning of the product.
Sometimes, product managers get to work on the same projects and therefore, collaborate with one another for smooth execution.
In addition, as a general rule, we meet regularly to see what each of us is working on or wants to develop. This helps us see the synergies, and gives us a possibility to assess how our individual projects fit with one another to take the approach that best aligns with the company’s long-term strategy.
Q3. What does your week as PM look like?
William: To be honest, my weeks are never the same. Although, there are of course certain practices that are critical to the smooth running of the company’s products.
For instance, I review the weekly progress on the product, user integrations and partnerships to be sure that next week’s priorities are aligned with the product sprint, roadmap and strategy I set for myself and my team.
I take some time each week to follow the ESG market news and stay on top of the ongoing market developments.
In a nutshell, the Onbrane Product manager should be a solution-oriented person who wants to make a difference for their clients and always seeks to provide solutions that answer a well-identified pain point. To achieve this, interacting constantly with your final users and your teams is crucial.
Augustin: The only routine is to have a continuous sequence of three-week sprints. Apart from that, everything is pretty flexible.
Ownership is high among all the members of an Onbrane team, which means that micro-managing the progress of a sprint is not the daily routine of a product manager at Onbrane (from the developers to the testing team, everyone’s a little PO).
So the days can go from meeting with current and new customers to getting feedback, developing new features in accordance with the product roadmap, integrating new features if needed, wire-framing design, etc.
Our weeks are never alike and that is the beauty of our job – it’s impossible to get bored!
Q4. What are the main challenges in terms of product management, specific to the Onbrane platform?!
Augustin: Our environment is challenging by nature: we are in the heart of the financial markets. This means that every feature or product decision must be well thought out and above all, work perfectly well in order not to break the trust of our users who are issuing several hundred million euros on our platform.
Our product must also satisfy different types of users and we must aggregate all the best practices to deliver the most efficient processes for all.
Finally, it is a complex environment by nature, and our approach with a neat UX is very appreciated but sometimes very challenging to conceptualize.
William: One thing that I find challenging is to get everyone moving in the same direction when talking about sustainability. In fact, everyone is aware, but not everyone is as familiar with these topics.
Since everybody is part of the product’s success, if we are not 100% aligned on the why and how to go about ESG, it can lead to misunderstandings or a mismatch with the client’s needs.
One of my main goals to prevent this is to take the time to clarify our client’s needs and make sure the product is understood by all so that it is delivered in a timely and thorough manner.
Q5. How do you build relationships with debt market actors and ultimately Onbrane users?
Augustin: Onbrane was created through discussions with corporate treasurers and we continue to develop our product with them as well as the rest of the market.
As a Product Manager at Onbrane, the first mission is to meet the entire ecosystem and become an expert in your field. Then, by taking part in the integration and support of the various users, by collecting their feedback, and by exchanging regularly with them, you can understand the evolution of the markets, of these practices and anticipate the improvements to be made or the next products to be developed. We are user-centric by nature.
William: A good product manager is someone who connects the dots between the client’s pain points and the solution he or she provides. My goal is always to gain a better understanding of my potential users, businesses, and how they work so that I can address some of their specific needs related to sustainable finance.
My most important ongoing mission is to build strong relationships with my end-users and my industry by engaging with them as much as possible (either by online call or demo, having a cup of tea, or running a brainstorming meeting in their offices).
I pay close attention to what the market is saying and I really value hearing what others think about my product. That’s why I regularly share my achievements with the industry peers, partners, and teams directly or on social media, in order to receive feedback and constantly improve what Onbrane can offer on ESG.
Q6. What do you love in your job as a Product Manager?
Augustin: What I like most about Onbrane is the cross-functional role you have: every day you interact with very different businesses and people, both on the client-side and internally. Different in their jobs but also in their skills, experience, and even culture.
William: What I love about being a “PM” at Onbrane is that I am constantly learning from a wide variety of people on a broad range of topics, not just in my area of “expertise.”
This feeds my professional and personal life with many ideas and skills that push me to always try to think outside the box and to be ready to seize new opportunities (such as writing a blog about ESG, speaking at conferences & events, creating ESG data visualizations, or even building smart contracts.)
