Sharad Agarwal has been part of teams rapidly scaling architecture at two unicorns (Inmobi and Flipkart) before beginning his entrepreneurial journey at Sprinkle Data. When we talk about scaling technology, we often talk about technology trends and architecture. In this talk, Sharad will take an alternative approach to look at Technology from Product & Business lens. He will talk about how Product thinking plays a pivotal role in technology choices and how technology leadership can be at the forefront of scaling a company.

1. Product Thinking in Technology
Sharad Agarwal
Founder

2. Top of Mind of Tech Leadership
Delivery - Development, QA, DevOps
Hiring
Scalability/Architecture
New Technologies - Cloud, ML, Open Source,
Micro-services etc
Build or Buy
Budget
Engineering Roadmap

3. We often think INPUTS than OUTPUT

4. Tech is not an end in itself, it is a
means to build something useful for
Customer

5. Output FN
Customer Success
Tech
CPO/CEO Sales

6. Output FN
Keep current
customers happy
(Customer Success)
Tech
Strategic Product & Features
(CPO/CEO)
Convert Trials/POCs to paying
customers
(Sales)

7. Keep Current Customers Happy
If you don’t keep your current customers happy,
they will churn
Bug Fixes
Feature asks
Tech Operations and Supports

8. Converts Trials/POCs to paying customers
(Sales)
Faster Deployment Model
Self-Service Trials
New Integrations/features to be build
Solution-ing
Above depends on how high touch your Product is.
If you want to scale, find how can you distribute efficiently

9. Strategic Product and Features (CPO/CEO)
Differentiation from competition
Creating stickiness
Expand the target market
Strategic product and features are crucial, more so at early
stage of company

10. Output FN
Keep current
customers happy
(Customer Success)
Tech
Strategic Product & Features
(CPO/CEO)
Convert Trials/POCs to
paying customers
(Sales)
How to execute Fast & Efficiently ?

11. Execute Fast & Efficiently
Scalable Design
Reduce Tech Debt
Build vs Buy
Minimise operational issues
Time and Cost are primary constraints

12. My Learnings
Create a culture in engineering to have bias towards thinking Output than
Input and do only things which help:
- Keep current customers happy
- Convert Trials/POCs to paying customers
- Strategic Product and Features
- Execute Fast & Efficiently
There is no such think like a best design/architecture. It depends on stage
of your company and product.
Do not underestimate the operational issues. Tech Operational issues
drain the energy of the whole org.