You learn a lot by doing

✨ More hints about POs work at Revolut from James Gibson, Head of Revolut Business ✨

Product Owners at Revolut are constantly working with other people. Weekly meetings with other POs, business reviews to look at metrics, product reviews to go through designs, demos to review what’s been built.

Today, we talk to James Gibson – Product Owner, Head of Revolut Business, who joined Revolut in 2017 and has seen it all.

James – you’re 4.5 years in with us.  What are you most proud of in terms of your achievements at Revolut?

When I joined our company, Revolut Business had just been launched. I started working with the Business team shortly after the product launch – it wasn’t easy at the beginning!

We started with a very limited product used by a relatively small number of businesses. Nowadays there’s considerably more functionality, and thousands of people use our Business Products every day, trusting us and letting us help grow their businesses.

Seeing what we’ve managed to build and the feedback we get from our customers is what I'm most proud of.

How did you start your career as PO at Revolut?

I joined as a Business Development Manager initially, and it quickly became clear to me that Revolut was a product-focused company – product was the key to early success. I was fascinated by the product-building process – I really wanted to learn how a team could create something from nothing. So I worked hard to become a PO on the Business team, and was soon given the opportunity to start leading areas of our product.

What's unique about being a PO at Revolut?

First, you’re never bored. Every day has something new, and you’re constantly being challenged on absolutely everything.

Second, you really get a lot of ownership. At Revolut, while you work as part of a big team, you’re given a lot of responsibility early on. If you’re someone who’s ambitious and likes having responsibility, this is great.

Tell us about the product life cycle from scratch.

The product life cycle starts with a customer problem, and – when it goes well – results in a simple and elegant solution. As a product owner, you’re responsible for this end-to-end process and the ongoing management of your products, too.

We work in fairly autonomous teams. This means as a product owner, you can really own the whole lifecycle and get yourself and your team organised to deliver efficiently.

In order to keep ourselves on track, we have a number of key meetings: weekly design reviews, weekly business reviews where we assess metrics, and biweekly demos, where we see what’s been built.

Individual teams then have all the usual rituals, like grooming, standups, and internal demos. We try to move as quickly as possible while maintaining the high quality standards our customers expect from our product.

How do you motivate people?

Most people at Revolut don’t need to be actively motivated too much – the work itself is what drives them forwards. People who enjoy working here are generally motivated by the feeling of delivery and sense of achievement when we solve our customers' problems.

What is an onboarding process for new joiners?

We believe you learn more when you’re actually doing work, rather than listening to others talk about their work. So we put people on teams very quickly so you can learn ‘on the job’.

Of course, we want to make sure people are supported, so we give our new team members a functional manager – a more senior product owner – to give guidance on building products in general. We also give them a line manager, who’s normally another person working in the product team, who gives direction on what needs to be achieved. You also get a buddy, who’s there to give you informal guidance and help.

Revolut is known for hiring top A-players. Why do you think they want to be a part of our rocket ship?

Revolut's great for people who want to work in a company which has big ambitions, be given plenty of responsibility, and be challenged a lot. If that resonates with you, and you want to play a key role in pushing boundaries and building amazing products – then Revolut’s a great place for you.

I also think people are attracted by our culture and diversity. When I joined, I was probably the only British person in the office! It’s really rewarding to work with incredible people from so many different countries and cultures.

Interested in joining James in Revolut's Product team? Check out our open positions and become one of our Product Owners 🚀