Firstclub
Product Design Manager · founding team
[TO VERIFY] dates
From a feature request to a product opportunity
Your strongest story about changing what the team was solving, rather than how it looked. Replace this line with one sentence a CEO would understand.
- Role
- Product Design Manager · founding team
- Company
- Firstclub — quick-commerce, launched in Bangalore
- Team
- [TO VERIFY] N designers, N PMs, N engineers
- Timeline
- [TO VERIFY] dates
- Outcome
- [TO VERIFY] the headline result
Write the thesis like this
- Weak: “I redesigned the X flow.”
- Strong: “The team was about to build X. I reframed the problem around Y, which changed what we prioritised and shipped instead.”
- One sentence. Name the change in direction, not the artefact.
Context
What was happening at Firstclub when this started.
Answer these
- What was the product area, and what state was it in?
- What did the business need from it?
- Who was involved — which PM, how many designers, how many engineers?
- At an early-stage company, who else had an opinion? Founders count.
The initial ask
What Product, business or a founder originally wanted.
Answer these
- Quote the original request as closely as you can. A feature name is ideal.
- What assumption was buried inside it?
- Why was it reasonable for them to ask? Being fair here makes your reframe stronger.
What I saw that changed the brief
The observation the story turns on.
Answer these
- What did you notice that others hadn't — in data, support signals, an order, an operational reality, a session?
- What question did you ask that opened it up? Write the actual question.
- What was the user genuinely stuck on, as opposed to what the request assumed?
My role
Using your contribution taxonomy.
-
Owned
[TO VERIFY] — problem framing? product direction? a specific flow you designed yourself?
What you directly owned and executed. -
Co-owned
with which PM or designer, and on what exactly?
Jointly owned with someone else. -
Influenced
what did you change someone's mind about, and what did they think before?
You materially changed the direction without executing everything. -
Enabled
name the designer, what they owned, and what you supplied — context, critique, a constraint removed?
A team member executed it; you gave direction and support. -
Team outcome
what should be credited to the team rather than to you?
The result belongs to the wider team.
Ownership language
- Your labels: I owned · I led · I partnered with · I coached · I influenced · I reviewed · I designed · the team explored · another designer led.
- Avoid “we” where personal contribution matters, and avoid “I collaborated with” entirely — it says nothing.
- Name the other designers and what they owned. A strong manager says “my designer designed this, here is how I helped them get there.”
What made this hard
Constraints and competing goals.
Answer these
- Who stood to lose something if the direction changed?
- What was already committed — a roadmap, a date, a launch, a partner promise?
- What technical or operational constraint shaped the options?
- How much runway did the decision have? Early-stage constraints are a legitimate and interesting part of the story.
How I navigated it
How the reframe actually landed.
Answer these
- What did you do first — a working session, a journey map, a data pull, costed options?
- Who did you have to convince, and what did they push back with?
- How long did it take, and what nearly derailed it?
- What did you deliberately delegate?
Key decisions
Three to five.
-
Name the decision
Decision State it in one sentence, in plain language.Alternatives What else was genuinely on the table?Rationale The actual reason, not the tidy retrospective one.Trade-off What did it cost? A decision with no cost is not a decision.Consequence What happened because of it? -
Name the decision
Decision State it in one sentence, in plain language.Alternatives What else was genuinely on the table?Rationale The actual reason, not the tidy retrospective one.Trade-off What did it cost? A decision with no cost is not a decision.Consequence What happened because of it? -
Name the decision
Decision State it in one sentence, in plain language.Alternatives What else was genuinely on the table?Rationale The actual reason, not the tidy retrospective one.Trade-off What did it cost? A decision with no cost is not a decision.Consequence What happened because of it?
Outcome
Product, team and process impact all count.
Any of these that are real
- Product: adoption, conversion, retention, revenue, support volume.
- Team: the designer took on larger scope; fewer review cycles; more autonomy.
- Process: Design involved earlier; the roadmap reorganised; a faster decision.
- Business: engineering effort avoided; a feature you talked the team out of building.
- No number? Say what changed and how you know. Never estimate.
Reflection
What you'd do differently.
One honest paragraph
- Where did the reframe cost the team time it didn't need to?
- What would you do earlier next time?
Evidence standard — from your knowledge base, §21
- Verified — explicitly stated in your source material. Safe to publish.
- Strongly supported — derivable from several source statements. Safe to publish.
- Inferred — a reasonable reading, not stated. Use as a prompt for you to confirm, never as copy.
- To verify — missing. This is what the dashed blue text on this page is.
- Portfolio copy uses only the first two. I have written nothing above that standard.