Advancing your career — inside the Product Department at Trulioo

Product management represents the voice of the customer and their needs at a company. To meet those needs, Product needs to work with multiple other business units. It takes people who can identify problems, figure out solutions and collaborate with numerous stakeholders to be successful.

Product professionals set the requirements that work for the customer and the business. At Trulioo, this often means thinking outside the box, coming up with new ways of addressing problems and navigating solutions, and learning how to experiment their way to successful outcomes. It’s about coming together as a team and understanding and empathizing with other viewpoints. That’s why we’re highlighting some of the Product team members who help make Trulioo a success.

We’ve produced a series of videos featuring some of our employees to give you a first-hand impression of what it’s like to work at Trulioo. This blog features Director of Product, Neil Chong-Kit, who offered his personal take on the work environment at Trulioo.

Tell us about yourself; what is your role at Trulioo?

I’ve been in tech for 20 years and have lived and worked in Singapore, New York, Calgary and Vancouver. I’ve worked in substantial companies, been part of startups, and now I’m the Director of Product at Trulioo. I made the switch from software development to product management seven years ago.

How has your career progressed since joining Trulioo?

To make the switch from software development to product management, I did my MBA part-time. Trulioo is the second place I’ve worked in product management. I joined Trulioo to further my product management skills after spending five years at a smaller company. With Trulioo’s tremendous growth, I was quickly promoted to Director of Product.

What makes Trulioo an exciting place to join? How does the Product department affect and impact Trulioo as a whole?

At its current size, Trulioo punches way above its weight. For a Product team member, this means the company is still small enough that I get to work directly with all the other departments, but the company has scaled enough that at the same time, every decision you make has a tangible impact on the organization and the world. We get to see how world news, especially in tech, directly drives our customers’ requirements!

What can applicants expect during the interview process?

Keeping the customer in mind, communication, and technical knowledge, are all required to be a successful Product team member and are evaluated throughout the entire application process. Some hints for applying:

• Treat Trulioo as the customer, the job posting as describing customer needs, and use the cover letter to explain how you will fulfill those needs
• If you list specific technology competencies (for example, SQL, TypeScript), I will ask some basic questions to verify your claim

The first interview is all about fit for the current role. We ask all applicants the same questions and have a standard scoring system to try and eliminate bias.

The second interview is all about long-term potential. Based on work we see coming on the long-term horizon, we ask related scenario-based questions that don’t necessarily have right or wrong answers.

Applicants should be prepared to talk about what makes them happy at work, as our interview process is about finding the right fit between what the role requires and the applicant’s aspirations

What is the team’s growth plan? How crucial is the team to the growth of the whole company?

Introducing new identity verification services is key to Trulioo’s overall platform strategy, but we need the right people across the organization to take advantage of these untapped opportunities. Product is crucial to maintaining and introducing new products, but nothing we do actually has an impact unless we get it into the hands of customers. This requires working closely with Technology, DevOps, Customer Success, Sales and Marketing.

What is it like to work on the team?

Working at Trulioo in Product is simultaneously challenging, exciting, frustrating and fun. A lot of what we do involves resolving ambiguity: defining what the customer needs, deciding what features to build first, communicating release information and clarifying the value proposition for the go-to-market strategy. On a daily basis, this means carving out time for individual work and a lot of collaboration and communication.

How do the leaders on your team support employee development?

People new to product management join as Technical Product Analysts, who get familiar with our products and product management by supporting existing products and projects. Technical Product Analysts then grow by taking product owner responsibility at a feature, application, or process level. Based on a person’s strengths and interests, they can then choose to follow a Technical Program Manager or Product Manager path. Technical Program Managers focus more on technology shared by all products, as well as lead strategic projects. Product Managers focus more on developing customer-facing products and how to launch them successfully.

Advance your career today

Thanks, Neil, for your answers! At Trulioo, we’re on a mission to verify the globe. Our identity service helps companies transform their operations and improves people’s lives. If you’re interested in a career at Trulioo, please visit our Careers page.