Yesterday, we caught up with the vibrant and enthusiastic Ravi Teja GNV, the Product Manager at Affinidi India. His journey has been an interesting one as he traversed across the world of customer success to get to the other side of the coin - product management. Read on to know why Raviteja is in this space, what he wants to achieve, and some of his secrets too!!

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How would you describe Affinidi?

In a nutshell, it’s one of the best places to work! But to answer your question, here are my top 5 reasons :

• Open to Innovation
• Friendly and supportive leadership  
• Plenty of career growth opportunities  
• Good work-life balance
• A high-performance working environment

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What’s the best part about your role as a product manager?

Product managers are the CEO of the product. We’re a jack-of-all-trades and must know everything about it. Further, this has to be seen in the context of the customer’s pain points. And this is apart from leading a team, taking various forms of input, and ultimately making the product-related decisions.  

The best part about being a product manager is that you’re constantly looking out for new opportunities and innovative ways to use your product. I’m also always exploring what new features can be added to the existing products to make them ideal for a wider audience.  

To give you an example, I came up with a thought process to use our verification solution for a few popular apps and services. I brought this up with my team and we’re now brainstorming about this. Such innovative ideas and the opportunities to implement them are what keep me going.

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And the worst part?

Often, people think that a product manager and a delivery manager are the same. But in reality, a product manager is more than that as they are responsible for all the successes and failures related to a product.

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So, what brought you to Affinidi in the first place?

I’ve always been keen on the stock market, and cryptos and I’ve done a lot of research in this space too.  This led me to start thinking about digital wallets. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I started to develop a keen interest in data ownership and privacy. That’s when I learned about Affinidi. Intrigued by its vision, I joined Affinidi in July 2021 in a customer success role. By September 2021, I was glad to have made an impact and was recognized for my contributions.

Since I’ve always wanted to have both a tech and management role, I moved to product management. Mukul, Bhuwan and Aswin supported me in every possible way and are the reason for my consistent performance. In all, I think I’ve been having an interesting stint at Affinidi and I look forward to more achievements and creating more impact.

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Fantastic! As you talked about identity technology, how do you envisage its future?

We are moving towards a world where trusted identity is a big game-changer.  Even today, physical IDs or digitized versions of physical IDs are used. The problem with these IDs is that you give way more information about yourself than needed. In the case of existing online IDs, there are high chances of fraud as well.  

Globally internet users are growing rapidly and users need to prove their identity to participate in social, political, economic and cultural life. Day-by-day, more financial institutions, governments, travel agencies, healthcare providers etc. are adopting and constantly looking for new digital identity solutions. Therefore, people are looking for the easiest and safest options to achieve those ID verifications. At the same time, they also want the best customer experience possible.  

Due to these reasons, people are now looking for solutions related to trusted data and security. This means more opportunities for companies like Affinidi.

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But, there’s one challenge here. This need for trusted data is not widespread. What would you do to create more awareness around it?

I would help people to understand this problem from a personal standpoint and probably based on their experiences. Ideally, I’d want to create content around this topic to bring greater awareness to it.

Moving on to some personal questions, what would you be doing if not for your current role in Affinidi?

I guess I’d still be talking to people about digital identity as this is something close to my heart.  Besides this, I’ll probably be solving operational difficulties.  

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Who is your inspiration and why?

Two people are my inspiration – Nithin Kamath, the CEO of Zerodha, and P.C. Mustafa, the CEO of ID Fresh. I look up to Nithin because he took his startup to great heights quickly.  Likewise, Musthafa found a different solution to a common problem. With this, he proved that any problem can be solved with the right mindset.

Within Affinidi, I look up to Bhuwan. He is my current reporting manager and is almost like a brother to me. I look up to him for many things such as his calm demeanor, personal connection with his team members, and for always being supportive. He’s also one of the reasons for my growth in Affinidi.  

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What do you do outside work?

Traveling. Nandi Hills is one of my go-to places. Also, I like talking to new people.  

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What’s the one thing that people don’t know about you?

I’m extremely sensitive and I look at all angles before making any decision.

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And your wish for a superpower...

Agility, power to influence my environment, and an X-ray vision