The product team is at the core of the big problems Koalafi is tackling. Each PM partners with an engineering team to focus on a specific area of the Koalafi product and experience - for example, filling out the application inside a brick and mortar location or paying back financing over time. We also flex our entrepreneurial muscles and wear other hats to help Koalafi succeed, taking on roles like General Manager to launch a new vertical or Partnerships to launch our integration with Stripe.

Some large problems we are thinking about for 2022 include:

1. How do we ensure our first-in-market “Full Spectrum” product is meeting the pain points it’s intended to address for our merchant partners and their customers?

2. What new functionality is needed to support our largest partners, who have a more complex organizational and operational structure than an independent store or small store group?

3. How can we help our merchant partners bring Koalafi customers back into their stores to shop again?

1. Listening to our customers: As a team we have a steady diet of listening to sales calls, going on ride-alongs, calling up merchants, and watching FullStory sessions to ensure we’re hearing from them directly.

2. Taking ownership: We go outside the traditional job description when needed to get something done. For many of us aspiring entrepreneurs, this gives us valuable experience wearing the “hat” of another role.

3. Fairness and Transparency: We have dual stakeholders in our merchants (who offer our financing) and our consumers (who accept it). We strive to ensure they each know what’s happening each step of the way with no surprises.

4. Move fast, but not too fast Understand the problem the amount necessary to make the decision and then monitor appropriately. Put concepts like Chesterton’s Fence and one-way vs. two-way doors into action.