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8/13/2019 01b Binary Bliss

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At Flipkart, our Engineering, Digital

& Payments and Product teams

incessantly creating and buildingnew technologies that are aimed at

improving the lives of our customers by

working on new innovations that solve

real world problems. We dont believe

in being told what to do. We see a

problem and we fix it.

Its our passion for technology that

drives us to make a solid impact andmake life easier for our customers.

This is how Vinod, Parvathi and Suraj

came to know about the impact of

what they do at Flipkart.

Binary Bliss


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Dude! Check out Flipkarts new user review

format!

Damn! Theyve made it all concise!

The caf in which Vinod sat was mostly empty

and he could clearly hear two boys chatter away

at the next table. They were huddled around a

laptop.

Yeah, now you get a gist of what peopleare sayingeven at a glance! You think they

outsource their reviews to an agency for

summarizing?

Im sure theyve hired a team of people to sift

through the reviews all day and night to makethem easier on the eyes! Theres no other way

they could do it so efciently

Vinod worked at Flipkart and he chuckled to

himself, because he knew that there was no

Engineering: Vinods story


4/14

team that was working away at making user

reviews more readable. He knew this because he

was the one doing it... Or at least the technology

he built was doing it. The two boys hadnt even

realized that it was technology that was rening

the reviews...and it wasnt just any technology,

it was something he had worked on with his

colleague, and that too as a hobby!

It was a self-driven project that Vinod and

his colleague Dinesh had undertaken, simply

because they believed that the user reviews

could do with improvement. After all,

technology at Flipkart was built to address realworld problems. Being an expert at building

technology wasnt enough; he had to be an

expert at understanding the world as well.

They experimented with text visualization

techniques, tag clouds stop-words ltering,

nGram extraction. Before they knew it, the wordhad spread and congratulations were pouring in

from all corners of the ofce. It was a great step

forward!


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After that, things began to move very quickly.

What began as a hobby had now been

implemented on the website. Facebook, twitter

and the other social media platforms were buzzing

with approval. Vinod smiled to himself. He was

working on other things at Flipkart now, but as

he left the caf he couldnt help but feel a sense of

pride. It was a feeling he would have to get usedto, he knew that. It went hand in hand with loving

what you do.


6/14

As Suraj got off the bus at the Coimbatore

bus stand, it brought on a wave of nostalgia.

The familiar mixture of a hundred different

smells, good and bad, brought with it a host

of memories. It was the rst vacation he was

taking in a while. Ever since he began workingat Flipkart he hadnt felt the need for one. Hed

never imagined that time would y by so quickly,

especially when he was at work! But Flipkart

wasnt like any other ofce.

The amazing vibe, the open atmosphere andthe spirit of his coworkers on the tech team

incessantly motivated him. Hed been so

engrossed with work that it was nice to take a

break for his sisters marriage which was why

he was now on his way back home. Now, he was

no longer in work mode. It was like he had beentransformed into that nineteen-year-old boy who

left home a couple of years ago, eager to sink his

teeth into his mothers cooking.

When Suraj entered his home, he found his

entire family huddled around the computer.

Payments: Surajs Story


7/14

Curious, he went to see what they were up to. In

his excitement, he completely forgot that he was

planning to surprise them and had told them that

he would only be arriving a day later. Naturally,

there was pandemonium the moment his mother

and sister saw him. He was now the centre of

attention.

When his family had had their ll of, youvebecome so thin! and dont you ever shave? he

asked what he wanted to ask since he had set foot

in the house, What were you guys doing glued to

the computer?

His sister said, grinning mischievously, I thinkyou should ask dad! His father smiled sheepishly

and said, We were doing some last minute

shopping for the wedding...


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A wave of bewilderment washed over Suraj,On the internet?! Seriously?, he asked. When

he saw his father looking a little embarrassed,

he continued, Oho! From what you told me

last time, I was under the impression that you

did not trust online shopping at all! Remember

the last time we spoke about this? You told me

about Sharma Uncle who lost a couple of lakhs

just by entering his credit card number on some

website. Suraj wasnt very fond of Sharma

Uncle. He was always lling his fathers head

with nonsensical ideas.

His father bashfully replied, Son, all those

problems are not there anymore. I spoke to

Shyam and he works in America no? He assured

me that Flipkart has now made everything very

secure and safe. They guarantee the security of

our information. They are certied! Technology

is too good these days, no?Dad has been going completely crazy! Last

month he even ordered a mixer-juicer-grinder

from Flipkart! Nobody uses it only! Now his

favourite hobby is browsing Flipkart, searching

for great deals as he calls it, his sister was in

splits.


9/14

As his family continued chuckling and gigglingaway while they resumed their positions around

the computer, Suraj made his way upstairs. As he

entered his old room and stood face to face with

a poster of his childhood hero, the actor Ajit. He

was immediately reminded of the ghts he had

with his rivals those who supported the actor

Vijay. But he couldnt think about it for too long.

His mind was far too preoccupied with what he

had just witnessed. His father was practically

the poster boy for online shopping in his

neighbourhood! He couldnt help but take some

of the credit for it he immediately went back to

those days when he was working along side his

tech team feverishly to get PayZippy working.

Those hours of hard work put in to get the

stringent PCI DSS security approval certicate to

ensure safety of bank and credit card information

and that beautiful, gratifying satisfaction he felt

after completing it. He knew that what he wasbuilding was a boon to all those using it. But, to

see the impact of his work on his own familyit

was impossible to put that feeling into words.


10/14

I think youre on the right track! From

whatever we can see, youve taken the best

possible route the meeting with the leaders of

Flipkarts Category Management team had just

come to a close and Parvathi hurried out of the

conference room. She had quite the day ahead ofher.

Dont walk so fast, youll rip a hole in time!

laughter erupted in the conference room behind

her. Paravthi smiled to herself and walked on. As

a Product Manager at Flipkart, she was expectedto understand the ecommerce ecosystem - she

needed to have an insight into customer needs

and what drove business. She now had to analyze

the market and ascertain what were the hottest

cameras out there not an easy task, considering

the huge variety of cameras that were availableon Flipkarts marketplace.

This is exactly what Parvathi had done. She had

spent hours talking to photography enthusiasts

and interacting with photography forums online

and shed developed a fairly comprehensive

Product Team: Parvathis Story


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understanding of the new set of camera and

also . She also came to understand where all of

them shop online. But that was just step one.

Shed spent quite some time after that, analyzing

quantities to stock with our marketplace sellers

might be more like it, after which, she would have

to discuss her plan with the business leaders.

Innovation was the key to product managementat Flipkart and the fact that the structure was

absolutely at anyone and everyone in the

organization was approachable only made it

more exciting. Product managers and their tech

counterparts drove innovation in the company!

Creating a plan wasnt as easy as it sounded.Parvathi had put together a roadmap that ranged

from the next two weeks to a year ahead, for

the new cameras. She had to anticipate how the

market would change and how it would impact

the customers mindsets what would they want?

Would newer models be introduced? What are theother existing products that can be coupled with

these new ones? In the future, what new products

will affect these ones?


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It was most certainly a tense period, but after

the meeting with the business leaders, Parvathi

was more at ease. She was on the right track. She

couldnt help but grin to herself. She felt quite like

the superstar.

There was still a lot of work to do. She still had

to work with the cross-functional stakeholders of

technology and design in order to make sure her

plan was implemented. It was a delicate task, but

time was also of the essence. Parvathi had never

felt so productive before! The best part was, she

would see the impact it had on the photography

enthusiasts a group that she was now very

familiar with, all thanks to her hours of research.

But she knew she would do it. She would make

shopping for cameras a lot more delightfulfor

everyone!


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