Payfit

Ines-Ambre Salhi is Head of Product France at Payfit, where she manages a team of forty people. As a French woman in tech, she knows what it takes to manage a diverse and excellent product team.&nbsp;I was born and raised in France, and my family is both French and Algerian. I went to an engineering school in Paris and then I specialized in computer science. Towards the end of my studies, I started a very small company with two friends from university. We developed some route optimization software, but soon we ran into a lot of problems because our product wasn’t very good. The algorithm and the route optimization worked well, but the UX interface was lacking, so it was really hard to sell the product. Still, it was a huge adventure that we learned so much from. In the end, we sold the algorithm to a competitor.After that, I wanted to really dive deep into product management and design and learn how to build a product that customers really love. So I joined Payfit because a friend of mine was product manager there at the time. There were 100 people working there at the time. My first job was quite technical: I became a coach, helping others master our internal local software. For the past year-and-a-half, I’ve been Head of Product France.&nbsp;A highly versatile roleThere are 40 people in the French product team. I am managing four people, and those people are managing people that are managing people. We work with a lot of departments — for instance, the customer service department which is key because they are in touch with our customers on a daily basis. We also work with all the different product teams and tribes to make sure we’re sticking to the common roadmap. Then there is also the sales team, with whom we work closely to understand how we can help them reach their sales targets. So our team is really at the service of all the other departments.My job as Head of Product is really versatile. Part of it consists in having direct contact with customers to really understand what they look for — their context, their emotional needs, and figuring out how Payfit may or may not be able to help. Being in touch with our customers’ reality is really essential. I also have a lot of (virtual) coffees with people in my team to make sure everyone is OK, and that the departments we're working with are on board with what we’re doing. And, last but not least, my job is about setting out a vision and defining objectives for the company, and then making sure people have what they need to reach those objectives.&nbsp;I’d say my management style is really aligned with the culture of Payfit in general. It’s focused on transparency and a lot of time is dedicated to active listening. I need to understand how people feel and what drives them to do what they do. We also really value autonomy, so we set objectives that are realistic but also ambitious. As a manager, I help people in our team approach these objectives with the right mindset and energy.Culture of transparencyThe culture at Payfit is very open and transparent. If you want to grow quickly in a company, you need to know what you’re good at and what you need to improve. It’s so important to be surrounded by people who can give honest feedback to help you progress.I’ve also had management training, as all other Payfit managers do when they start. Having some guidance saved a lot of energy and helped me grow as a manager at the same pace of the company. Being a manager can sometimes be counterintuitive — you have to learn a lot of new skills and take the time to really understand people. It’s really a science in its own right.&nbsp;Values compatible with diversityDiversity wasn’t something I was actively looking for when I joined Payfit, but the company did immediately strike me as a place where I could reach my full potential and be fulfilled. During the interview process, I met different types of people who were all really open-minded and transparent. Even though we had no clear diversity and inclusion strategy when I joined, we had something priceless: values that were highly compatible with diversity and inclusion.&nbsp;Today, a good product team needs to rely on other people. It needs to be open minded, and for that it needs to be humble. This level of humility is only possible if you have a diverse team of people who think differently — otherwise, you run the risk of groupthink and a false sense that their opinion must be right because they all agree. This is dangerous for the product. It’s a really good thing when team members are not completely aligned and challenge each other.&nbsp;Balancing quality and excellenceWhen I started as Head of Product, there were very few female managers. This was a big challenge for us, and we talked about it openly. We all agreed that we needed more diversity at the management level because that’s the only way to ensure diversity at all the other levels too. We never sacrifice quality and excellence, and I’m proud that now we’ve really reached the right balance.&nbsp;

“Humility is only possible in a diverse team”

Julien Londeix