Niyaz Ahmed K
Chief Product Officer
CEO Insights Niyaz Ahmed K (CPO) of MyGlamm, wherein he enlightened us about his professional journey as a leader and how does he motivate his team to function to achieve the company’s objectives.
With 14+ years of comprehensive experience across various industry verticals, how is your professional experience assisting you in your new business, MyGlamm?
Now, I have nearly 16 years of experience working in various organizations and sectors. During this long journey, I have learned how to operate and develop strategies such as which concepts will be adopted by consumers and which will fail. And everything is dependent on the brand we work on, and if I struggle to present anything in the market, I might not do so again. I have always learned from my failures. For example, if I designed 50 concepts and some of them did not work well, I would keep them in mind and will not play any games in that particular piece in the future. In terms of going a step further, I always take calculated risks.
How do you develop your product strategy to ensure that it meets the
vision and goals of the company?
There are two important things I follow as a leader in freedom and detailing, when discussing a new product launch or strategy with my team, I will brief them on the plan and procedure to be followed, but how to carry out such plans will be developed by the team members. I give them full freedom to work on their respective assignments because I believe that the more freedom you give them, the more responsible they will become.
Second, as a leader, I emphasize one factor: detailing. When my team returns to me with a project plan, I go through the details of those plans, such as checking on the presentation of the product, features that need to be highlighted, who the target audience will be, and how we will be executing the plan. Also, I will work on technologies that will enable me to assess the efficacy of the product in both pre-launch and post-launch periods. And, based on the analytics available, we will determine if the desired targets have been met or are still to be met.
Another technique I implement is to divide multiple categories of roles and responsibilities among the team once the target has been established.
What are the characteristics of a successful product officer and how would people working for you describe your management style?
Every business has its management style, decision-making process, and ground rules, and when it comes to a startup, a lot of things come into consideration in terms of ideas, projects to be handled, and all will be on our shoulders. We must think carefully and place everything on
There are two important things I follow as a leader in freedom and detailing, when discussing a new product launch or strategy with my team, I will brief them on the plan and procedure to be followed, but how to carry out such plans will be developed by the team members. I give them full freedom to work on their respective assignments because I believe that the more freedom you give them, the more responsible they will become.
During my long professional journey, I have learned how to operate and develop strategies such as which concepts will be adopted by consumers and which will fail
Second, as a leader, I emphasize one factor: detailing. When my team returns to me with a project plan, I go through the details of those plans, such as checking on the presentation of the product, features that need to be highlighted, who the target audience will be, and how we will be executing the plan. Also, I will work on technologies that will enable me to assess the efficacy of the product in both pre-launch and post-launch periods. And, based on the analytics available, we will determine if the desired targets have been met or are still to be met.
Another technique I implement is to divide multiple categories of roles and responsibilities among the team once the target has been established.
What are the characteristics of a successful product officer and how would people working for you describe your management style?
Every business has its management style, decision-making process, and ground rules, and when it comes to a startup, a lot of things come into consideration in terms of ideas, projects to be handled, and all will be on our shoulders. We must think carefully and place everything on
the table before discussing it with the team.
Eventually, we must reach a decision, and we can proceed with certain ideas while rejecting others that are not helpful to us. We receive various opinions from the CEO, CXOs, Investors, and Users Feedback, and we make a decision based on all of these factors. And once the decision is taken, we will review it carefully before moving forward with the course of action. In this phase, if any idea is left out or is not chosen by top management, I will persuade my team members and make them realize that it does not have any effect on our growth and does not make our users happy.
In your professional journey so far, which are the milestones that bestowed you with utmost satisfaction - both as an individual and as a CPO?
For me, a milestone is described as setting appropriate goals and the path we take to achieve those goals. Furthermore, when an organizational objective is identified, we as leaders must determine how to achieve it and how to inspire our team to work toward it. To achieve larger goals, I always set mini-milestones.
For example, if we have 10 milestones to hit and we are at 8.5, and for whatever reason, we may not be able to complete the target completely, I do not concentrate on the shortfalls, but rather on the growth perspective. Although while meeting the expected goals, if we complete the first three steps, I would have faith that we will meet the results, but not exactly as planned. So I inculcate the same confidence in my squad, and they are motivated to work harder to reach greater heights.
Niyaz Ahmed K, CPO, MyGlamm
Niyaz has completed his degree from University of Madras, he has a wide experience of 16+ years in various industries. Prior to MyGlamm, Niyaz has been part of various prominent companies like Network 18, Sulekha.com, Verse Innovation, and News Hunt.
Location: Mumbai
Eventually, we must reach a decision, and we can proceed with certain ideas while rejecting others that are not helpful to us. We receive various opinions from the CEO, CXOs, Investors, and Users Feedback, and we make a decision based on all of these factors. And once the decision is taken, we will review it carefully before moving forward with the course of action. In this phase, if any idea is left out or is not chosen by top management, I will persuade my team members and make them realize that it does not have any effect on our growth and does not make our users happy.
In your professional journey so far, which are the milestones that bestowed you with utmost satisfaction - both as an individual and as a CPO?
For me, a milestone is described as setting appropriate goals and the path we take to achieve those goals. Furthermore, when an organizational objective is identified, we as leaders must determine how to achieve it and how to inspire our team to work toward it. To achieve larger goals, I always set mini-milestones.
For example, if we have 10 milestones to hit and we are at 8.5, and for whatever reason, we may not be able to complete the target completely, I do not concentrate on the shortfalls, but rather on the growth perspective. Although while meeting the expected goals, if we complete the first three steps, I would have faith that we will meet the results, but not exactly as planned. So I inculcate the same confidence in my squad, and they are motivated to work harder to reach greater heights.
Niyaz Ahmed K, CPO, MyGlamm
Niyaz has completed his degree from University of Madras, he has a wide experience of 16+ years in various industries. Prior to MyGlamm, Niyaz has been part of various prominent companies like Network 18, Sulekha.com, Verse Innovation, and News Hunt.
Location: Mumbai