We welcomed our first batch of APMs (Associate Product Managers) last year in April. We are a product-focused company building the future of fintech in India. Through the APM programme, we are enabling and building the next generation of product leaders from the ground up.
Our tight-knit cohort of full-time APMs were groomed in two stints of three-month each in different teams on pre-conceived projects. From a pool of over 100 candidates from technology backgrounds, around twenty-four participants from B-School graduates were selected from across the country. During this programme, these young talents were given opportunities to build impactful products across our businesses and grow in their professional journeys at Paytm. They were given support to learn through hands-on experience and mentorship.
As an enabler, we are creating the ecosystem for Paytmers to deepen their skills and create value for us. APMs were paired with a buddy – a seasoned Paytmer who played a guiding and mentoring role. One-on-one management sessions gave APMs the mentoring necessary to be effective communicators, managers, and future leaders. It also offered a strong focus on advocacy, personal development, and executive exposure.
Management sessions helped them with a variety of things, including skill-building, giving great presentations, working to improve team dynamics, and working on time management skills. Each APM got the chance to design its own personal development program and goals. They received constant support in the form of learning and development sessions from internal experts as well as external speakers, mentorship, a leadership connect every two months and community connects.
The sessions also gave APMs exposure to working in two different industries in the early stage of their career. It helped them to build features for the customers and understand the entire process of problem identification, ideation, feature development, and hypothesis validation. This also helped them to identify their strengths and weaknesses so that they can work on getting better with each experiment.
The programme encouraged APMs to take sessions and training with engineers, Project Management versus Product Management, Problem Solving for Product Managers, Wire-Framing for Beginners, Design Thinking for Product Managers, Program Management for Program Managers, System Design/Architecture – Lending (Onboarding), Overview of Push Notification System, Overview of Order Management System.
Moving ahead, we are now planning to open up the APM programme to a much wider audience where recent graduates and freshers from technology backgrounds can apply. We want to build the best talent pipeline in the product talent marketplace. If you think you are the one, look out for Paytm APM 2023!
Look out for Part 3 in this series where we will be talking about life after Paytm’s first APM programme and what our first batch has to say about their experience so far.
