#CandidsAtJar — Meet Rajan
Jar brings you #CandidsAtJar, a series to bring our team members (read : pennies in our Jar) — in the spotlight. We chit-chat with folks from different teams to get a glimpse of what goes behind the scenes at Jar.
Meet Rajan — Senior Product Designer — a live wire with a peppy and charming personality. Always yearning for learning, this creative individual has been a part of Jar since its inception. We caught up with him this week to learn more about how he created Jar and his journey so far.
Tell us something about yourself?
Oh, well. I would say that I’m a very fun person to talk to. I have no idea how to have serious conversations. I always like to keep things fun and light. Besides, I’m into fitness and movies, as well as bike riding and playing the flute. I have a little bit of programming knowledge and interest in it too, so that’s another thing that I like to do.
Professionally, I’ve been working as a product designer for the last five years. I’ve always worked on Indian apps, ones that are suitable and tailored to the Indian market. Like vernacular apps, through which I got to learn a lot about Indian audiences — what they like and what they don’t. All that I collected and put everything in Jar. Wherever I worked earlier, they all were targeted at an Indian audience. Taking all of that knowledge and integrating it into a single app was a fascinating experience for me. That’s why I had so much fun creating Jar.
What does a typical day look like for you at Jar?
Should I include the meetings or leave them? *laughs* It’s fun, of course. And every day is a new day. We have a lot of brainstorming sessions with the Product Managers, and we come up with new ideas almost every day. Everyday we have some new interesting challenge to tackle or solve. Like, we go through whatever feedback we collect everyday and continually brainstorm new ways to improve the product. That’s what the interesting part is.
There are a variety of minds gathered in a place, and everyone of us has a unique perspective. We all put our points on the table. We come up with random and odd ideas — some very very cool ideas, some very very dumb. Everything is listed and then we decide what we want to work on and what we don’t. These sessions are intriguing and enriching everyday. There are some things which I don’t know. There are a few things that another person in the brainstorming session may not be aware of. A lot of knowledge sharing happens almost everyday. That’s the coolest part.
Tell us more about your team at Jar?
I don’t have a dedicated team. Instead, I’m a part of every team at Jar. *grins* I work with the product, growth, marketing, SEO and social media teams. Basically with everyone. And all the teams are pretty interesting.
If I talk about the product team in particular, again, there are a lot of new brains on board and when we start brainstorming, we come up with some mind-blowing ideas. It’s a blast working with them. I get to learn everyday — both from seniors and juniors. It feeds my curiosity.
Any favourite project that you’ve worked on?
The Gold Gifting Feature! It has got to be one of my favourites because we got to experiment on things. I tried to change the transactional flow of every app present in the fintech ecosystem. Typically, transactions are carried out in a very fintech and bank-like manner. You put the amount, choose the beneficiary, confirm and send. I wanted to see what would happen if we didn’t do that. What if we have a chat-based interface? That’s how I got the opportunity to experiment in Gold gifting, which was a good experience for me. If you check out the feature, it is exactly like a chat — complete with bubbles and questions like — “Who do you want to send this gift to?”, “How much do you want to send?”. It’s interactive and works well. People are no longer perplexed.
Any memory that you cherish while working here in Jar?
I have quite a few memories in the office but the Goa offsite experience would top the list. We all worked and stayed together in a resort in Goa for a few days last year. That was the time when we all mingled and got to know each other more closely — even the new hires who joined just 3 days back. We bonded not just as colleagues, but as good friends. Even though we all knew each other from before, due to working remotely during the pandemic, this offsite experience gave us the opportunity to get more comfortable with each other. We worked during the day and unwind at night. The rush and energy was next level. Hence, it was a pretty good experience and now a fond memory.
What do you feel is the best thing about working at Jar?
Transparency.
Long back, I read a line somewhere which really hit me and has stuck with me ever since. ‘If it is a good place to work, you don’t need to prove that you are working.’ That’s exactly what I found in Jar. You don’t need to show up everyday and say that I’m working on this or that. Everything is visible and transparent — including our efforts and work. Everybody sees and acknowledges it.
On another note, as I said before, I’ve worked mostly with the Indian audience. That’s because, in contrast to US or UK companies, which typically require a minimalist design, you need to consider a lot of things when it comes to the Indian audience. Like — our Indian culture, the diversity, our habits, our thought processes and the little things we do. If you mix them all up and make a product, it will grow. That’s again one of the most intriguing aspects of working with an app like Jar, which caters to the Indian audience.
