Vishal Bansal

💼 Product Management Across Indian Cities — An Unfiltered Observation 😄 After 10+ years of being a Product Manager across Bangalore, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, and now Mumbai, I’ve realized one thing — the role stays the same, but the vibe doesn’t. Here’s my totally unbiased take 👇 🚀 Bangalore: Everyone’s building a startup — even your Uber driver has an MVP in stealth mode. Meetings start with “Let’s brainstorm” and end with a Figma link. 💻 Hyderabad: Super structured. Jira boards are cleaner than my kitchen. And yes, people actually read PRDs. Absolute legends. 🏢 Gurgaon: Slides > Product. If it’s not in a deck, it doesn’t exist. Also, 90% of “quick syncs” end in buffet lunch plans. 🌊 Mumbai: Hustle + Humidity = true product-market fit test. People ship features faster than the local train schedule. After seeing it all, one truth remains — Good PMs adapt like chameleons. Great PMs laugh while doing it. Now I’m curious — 👉 Which city do you think has the most unique work culture? 👇 Drop your experience (funny ones welcome). Let’s make this a thread worth bookmarking! #ProductManagement #TechCulture #WorkLife #India #PMHumor #Leadership

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The role of product managers is evolving fast. I sat down with Saurabh Agarwal (VP Product Management - JioHotstar, ex-Google and LinkedIn) to decode what’s changing and what will not in the field of product management in the next few years. It was exciting to interact about his decade plus learnings on building products for 500 million+ Indians that most of us use daily along with uncovering how they came up with the ideation of the much revered Max-view feature in Hot-star, that went from idea to launch just in 6 weeks, as first ever vertical content consumption for live sports globally! Not just that, we covered the following elements in the conversation ✅ Engineer → PM → org-builder: how the scope and stakes grow ✅ Judgment vs data: when to trust instincts over dashboards ✅ The MaxView story: from insight → prototype → launch in ~6 weeks ✅ Product trade-offs at true billion+ internet scale ✅ Designing for India’s Next Half Billion (NHB) users ✅ Where AI is actually reshaping PM & design ✅ Why simplicity beats cleverness in execution He also dropped a bunch of timeless nuggets on velocity, taste, and building for constraints. Thanks to Rati and team at Product x People for the invite. Link to the full conversation in comments. #productmanagement

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From burn to break-even — Meesho’s turnaround story is redefining India’s ecommerce playbook In just two years, the Bengaluru-based unicorn grew its revenue 64% to ₹9,389 Cr while cutting losses down to just ₹108 Cr (excluding one-time costs). With 87% of its 213 Mn users coming from beyond India’s top cities, Meesho has become the voice of Bharat in digital retail. Now, as it readies for a ₹6,000 Cr IPO, Meesho isn’t just chasing growth — it’s proving that profitability and scale can go hand in hand. 📈 #Meesho #IPO #StartupIndia #Ecommerce #Inc42 #StartupEarnings #D2C #IndianStartups #financials #revenue #SEBI #stockmarket

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An interesting trend that we have seen accross D2C merchants at Razorpay is the willingness to offer Cash on Delivery(COD) #payment option. In fact COD is still the king in India: - 50% of all e-commerce orders in Tier 1 cities are COD - 70% in Tier 2 cities - 90% in Tier 3 cities A major roadblock is the problem of Return to Origin(RTOs). What is RTO? A lot of times, at the time of delivery of COD orders the #customers refuse to accept the orders and pay. These orders have to returned to the source address. Why would customers not pay for COD orders? These mostly happen when customers place impulsive order(imagine seeing a nice dress on Instagram and placing orders at that time and later realising it was not needed) or putting in incorrect address or unavailable during order delivery or even fraudsters placing COD orders to hinder the #business . This leads to losses like the shipping costs, #opportunity cost of inventory being blocked. The problem is so big that a lot of our merchants would not offer COD or put COD charges to deter customers from placing COD orders. During our conversations we found they would direct the customers to order from Amazon, Flipkart or quick commerce apps like Zepto, Blinkit if they wanted to place COD orders as inventory there is managed by marketplaces. We tried building a solution that solves the problem both for merchants and customers with Partial COD. Using Partial COD, merchants could ask for a small token amount(generally covering the shipping cost) and customers could pay the rest during delivery. This creates a win-win situation for the entire ecosystem. For merchants, it helps them recover their shipping costs. For customers, it is a way to get the benefit of paying through COD. On top of this we have also added a layer of data science and #technology. Over the last few years due to the sheer number of orders that Razorpay processes, we have been able to make a strong #machinelearning model that can accurately predict which order will get RTOed based using the order parameters. So merchants could choose to monetise even the high risk orders(which would have been blocked for COD) by offering Partial COD to just higher risk customers and normal COD to others. We have been scaling this #product since last few months making sure that the feature doesn't hinder the accounting(as this is different from traditional COD) and is compatible with all shipping providers(across merchant there are 30+ shipping providers). The results have been amazing! Accross merchants we have seen ~25% increase in GMV along with a signifcant reduction in RTO. Even a lot of our merchants who had never offered COD before have started to offer COD resulting a significantly higher GMV. #kneeledge

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🟣 Zepto is utilising every pixel on the screen for generating ad revenue. Is this the right approach for PMs ? Zepto has taken a bold step by transforming the search bar, traditionally a utility-focused component into a dual-purpose tool for user intent & category promotion. Currently, while Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart show a voice search icon, Zepto replaces that with a seasonal CTA: “GRAB IT!” for ice cream & candies. This isn’t just clever design but it’s a monetization play. They're using prime UX real estate to nudge users into high-conversion or sponsored categories. 💡 𝐒𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐭𝐡 𝐡𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐫 𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐬𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐞? 🎯 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐬: 🟢 Revenue-generating UX →Every tap has the potential to drive more GMV or brand deals. 🟢 Seasonal alignment →It gives teams flexibility to plug in timely campaigns (e.g., mangoes in summer, chocolates near Valentine's). 🟢 Micro nudges, macro impact → A tiny prompt near a core action point can change behavior subtly, yet effectively. ⚠️ 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐞-𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐬: 🔴 Blurring intent boundaries → Are we helping users or pushing them? 🔴 Trust erosion risk → If overused or perceived as ads, users may feel manipulated. 🔴 Design clutter danger →Core functions risk being diluted if monetization creeps in everywhere. 👀 𝐒𝐨 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐰𝐞 𝐝𝐨 𝐚𝐬 𝐏𝐌𝐬 & 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 𝐃𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬? You can ask this question to yourself 👇 🔵 Does this nudge align with what the user wants—or what the business needs? 🔵 Is this additive to the experience, or intrusive? 🔵 Can we monetize without making it feel like monetization? What is your thought ? Smart use of space, or too close to a dark pattern? #UXDesign #ProductManagement #MobileUX #UserExperience #DesignThinking #ProductManager #ProductDesign #UIUX #Design #DarkPattern #QuickCommerce

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Difference between our smallest client ACV and largest one is 250x. That is the capability growth in past few years at Refrens For pay-as-you-go pricing this is normal but for feature based pricing, this is surprising for me also. The challenge is in growing the team's mindset to sell a 250x product. From few thousand rupees micro saas to few lakhs for mid market systems. Sales people need to go from talking about samosa chutney to cheesecake.

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Blink and you’ll miss two things: a new AI model and a new Vertical Qcom marketplace. Ecom led to a wave of vertical marketplaces -  Myntra, FirstCry, Nykaa, Purplle, Urban Ladder, Lenskart, Swiggy, Zomato. Repeating trend with Qcom -  Swish, Slikk, First Club, Tyro, Cavi, Knot, Apollo/1Mg 10mins. One thing that’s surely different - VC money isn’t flowing like the Ecom era. Survivors will have to figure out how to scale profitably while maintaining CX metrics! The costs for Last Mile are quite high for Qcom than Ecom. And the competition is intense - Swiggy, Zomato, Blinkit, Instamart, Zepto, FK Minutes, everyone is competing for the same fleet. Sharing a few key learnings for marketplaces just starting up, from our journey of scaling Qcom. Had to split this into 3 parts! (Supply, Product, CM) Part 1/3 & the most important - Supply/Your Fleet 3 core things that matter to them - 1️⃣ 𝗙𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗱𝗼𝗺 - 𝗗𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗹𝗲𝘁 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲.  • Enforce right behaviour while keeping the platform non-restrictive.  • Freedom of working hours - Accommodate 2Hr/ 4Hr/ 6Hr/ 8Hr shifts. Helps get multiple personas to your platform.  • Freedom of earning model - Build flexibility over Fixed Earnings / Per Order Earnings and around Weekly/Monthly payout cycles. 2️⃣ 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 - 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗘𝗣𝗛  • EPH (Earnings Per Hour), what do I earn if I put “X” hours with a company? >80% work at 2+ companies, which company at which hour depends on EPH. 3️⃣ 𝗛𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗜𝗻𝗱𝗲𝘅 (𝗜𝘁’𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀)  • Avenues to Grow - Make sure there is a path of career progression. Rarely does someone want to just deliver orders for long.  • Timely Payouts - Pay them on schedule as you would your employees. One delayed payout churns ~10% of your fleet.  • RnRs - Find ways to connect better. Deliver "X" orders & earn ₹"Y" is very transactional. Small gestures like monthly RnR, leadership connects go a long way.  • Insurance - Help them get life, health, and accident insurance. We aren’t perfect on many parameters; these are core things that are being fixed as P0s. Zomato currently sets an industry benchmark on most, 10X better at least providing citywide resting shelters, medical insurance, riders becoming part of product teams, and even tax filing support! Btw, there is a much easier way to launch a Qcom vertical marketplace.  Just use Blitz Qcom rails and launch in 10 cities on Day 1. You source, we deliver!

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