Arun Preethi Pillai
Bangalore
Summary
Driven by strategic leadership and analytical thinking, I significantly contributed to Razorpay's growth by instilling a research-driven culture and synthesizing insights for cross-functional teams. Designed strategic studies like market potential and validation for Razorpay's entry into new product segments (presented to the Founders and Razorpay Board for funding opportunity). Helped structure product development roadmaps with product and feature prioritization techniques. Enabled pricing model shifts for our flagship payment gateway product. Created various value differentiation studies for positioning products for business/growth marketing teams. Developed tools for sales enablement.
Overview
9
9
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Associate Director, Research Insights
Razorpay
Bangalore
09.2021 - Current
- Built a research culture in Razorpay that encouraged teams to take a primary research driven decision making to business problems
- Synthesized research findings into actionable insights for product teams.
- Designed high-impact research studies for cross-functional teams (product, design, marketing, business, sales) that enabled business growth for Razorpay, as well as empowered teams to achieve their OKRs
Types of projects at Razorpay
- Built Razorpay's first-ever Brand Track.
- Created various segmentation, persona creation (ICP), concept checks, and positioning studies, pushing the boundaries of these in the B2B tech space
- Product Lifecycle Studies - Feature prioritization (Kano) and pricing (Van Westendorp) when Razorpay was at the cusp of shifting from a transaction-based pricing model to a subscription-based model.
- Authored various thought leadership studies in fintech.
- Impact (Data Driven Decision Making)- Unearthed need spaces and whitespace opportunity areas for 0-1 products, sales enablement models for PMMs for 1-10 products, and positioning routes for 10-1,000 products.
- Impact (Research first culture) - Pushed product and business teams to steer away from a gut, intuition, or secondary research model to a primary consumer research approach
Insights Manager
RSB Insights
Mumbai
09.2018 - 08.2021
- Conceived and developed an innovative thoughtware with prosumers, which helps differentiate RSB
- Extensive work with Google Products in India as part of their "Next Billion Users" strategic roadmap
- Managed various Google-related studies across various markets as a Key Account Manager (U.S., U.K., Indonesia, and India).
Type of studies
- Foundational/Exploratory studies on impact of smartphones primarily for SEC C and D audience for products like Google Search and YouTube Go
- Usability Testing for Google Lens, GPay, Visual Search Mode, Google Search Engine, and YouTube Go
- Exploratory studies on AI and use cases for AI in lower SECs
Senior Research Manager
Kantar
Bangalore
04.2016 - 07.2018
- Conducted qualitative and quantitative analyses of customer data.
- Created reports summarizing key findings from research projects.
- Managed a team of junior researchers, providing guidance and support as needed.
Types of Projects
Brand tracking, Equity and positioning studies
New Product Development
Trend Forecasting
Exploratory, Usage & Attitude, Diagnostic Studies
UX/UI testing studies both in the lab and digitally during the.
pandemic
Projective techniques (Needscope, Metaspace) to map.
brands
Select clients serviced
Google, Flipkart, Amazon, YouTube, IMDb, Vedantu, and Rummy Circle, ITC Stationery, Pidilite, Freecharge, Westbridge Capital
Education
MBA - Marketing
Amrita School of Business
Coimbatore04-2016
Bachelor of Science - Psychology
Ethiraj College For Women
Chennai04-2014
Skills
- Strategic leadership
- Qualitative and Quantitative Research
- Strategic Product Roadmap
- Pricing Studies
- Innovation Workshops
- Design Thinking Workshops
- Relationship building
- Decision-making
- Critical thinking
- Project methodology
- Diversity and inclusion initiatives
- Recruiting and interviewing
- Analytical thinking
- Verbal and written communication
- Reporting and documentation
- Professional networking
Affiliations
- Strategic workshops at Razorpay during AOP planning to account for research driven product roadmap development
- Research workshops for Product Managers educating them on best practices in research
- Research forums to instill a research culture with senior leadership (Founders, CXOs) at Razorpay
- Various women initiatives at Razorpay (Mentorship programmes, Diversity Council) to discuss, implement a inclusive environment for women in tech startups
Accomplishments
- Titan Progamme, 100 Most Valuable Employees at Razorpay
- RT30, 30 under 30 programme at Kantar
- Best Individual performer (South) GOLD Award for Best Project (All India) - Generational Research for Toyota, Kantar
- Member of Talent Review Board - Grooming next gen leaders, Kantar
- Silver Medalist, MBA
Certification
Design Thinking - From Insights to Viability
Stanford University Graduate School of Business
Issued Dec 2021
Credential ID 12897-2504045
Languages
English
First Language
Tamil
Proficient (C2)
C2
Hindi
Elementary (A2)
A2
Thought Leadership Reports for Razorpay
- Authored and published thought leadership reports for various 0-1 and 1-10 products at Razorpay
- Ideated and modeled self-reported assessments along with these reports that served as a sales enablement tool. Empowered sales teams along the path of B2B consultative sales
Links to reports
- India's first Checkout Benchmarking Index launched at Razorpay's D2C Summit - https://online.fliphtml5.com/tatrf/jves/#p=10
- Payables Blindspot Detector to launch Razorpay's Source to Pay product at FTX 2024 - https://online.fliphtml5.com/tatrf/kzqj/#p=1
- Payroll Maturity Index to scale Razorpay's Payroll product in the Enterprise Segment at FTX 2023 - industry https://online.fliphtml5.com/tatrf/prpl/#p=1
- Consumer Expectations on Omnichannel, launched to cross-sell Razorpay's omnichannel product suite to D2C Internet first merchants - https://online.fliphtml5.com/tatrf/kkwh/#p=1
- UPI Excellence Assessment to enable various merchants to upgrade their UPI product suite - https://online.fliphtml5.com/tatrf/rzin/#p=1
References
References available upon request.
Timeline
Associate Director, Research Insights
Razorpay
09.2021 - Current
Insights Manager
RSB Insights
09.2018 - 08.2021
Senior Research Manager
Kantar
04.2016 - 07.2018
Design Thinking - From Insights to Viability
Stanford University Graduate School of Business
Issued Dec 2021
Credential ID 12897-2504045
MBA - Marketing
Amrita School of Business
Bachelor of Science - Psychology
Ethiraj College For Women
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