Meet ShopBack’s VP of Product and discover the 1 crucial word that’s kept this unconventional tech leader going

It wasn’t until recent years that tech startups grew to prominence in Southeast Asia. But for ShopBack’s VP of Product Isaac Tay, his journey as a seasoned tech leader and entrepreneur started more than a decade ago. With his roots in software engineering, he started his own company in 2010 and since then have been building product management and engineering teams.

We spoke with him on how he found himself in Asia-Pacific’s top Cashback platform, managing remote engineering teams from diverse languages and cultures, and what has always kept him going over the years.

What made you decide to join the ShopBack team?

Henry, Joel, Candice, and Justin were the four reasons I joined ShopBack. Henry and Joel are the founders. They sold and I bought into their mission to build the largest shopping and rewards platform in this region.

Candice is our Chief Commercial Officer and Justin is our Chief Product Officer. They are whip-smart, imbued with an insane work ethic, and principled. Iron sharpens iron, and I just felt I could learn and grow working with this team.

What’s your role in the Product team, and what does your team look like?

I’m responsible for the team building the ShopBack Online Cashback product which is ShopBack’s first value proposition to our users. In Singapore, we now have (offline) In-store Cashback and Price Comparison features to provide more ways for our users to find great deals, save money, and earn Cashback - these are led by Justin.

My role is to work with Justin to recruit, retain, and groom the product managers. We have people from diverse backgrounds. It is my personal opinion that the best PMs are those who have excelled in other functional domains. For example, one of our top performing PMs is a former head of marketing.  

We’ve heard horror stories of leaders managing remote engineers based in other countries, with physical distance, cultural barriers, and language differences coming into play.

What are your top 3 tips for leaders managing a remote overseas team?

I think there are different strategies depending on whether everyone in the team is remote or whether the team is remote but are sitting in the same physical location (before COVID allowed us to all work from home).

Mine was to find a local leader and trust him totally. Trust here refers to whether he is competent, reliable, sincere, and honest. You need someone who ticks all four checkboxes.

I have noticed that working with a remote team is smoothest when people over communicate and provide explicit signals. For example, if I message you on Slack, are we in asynchronous or synchronous mode? To make it easy for the counterparty, I remind myself to add labels to the start of the message such as “[Important][Not urgent]” or “[Important][Urgent][Need it by 12pm]”.

Another thing is to let team members be comfortable with going offline. For example, we have been trying to get people to block time off in their calendars for lunch and dinner.

What are some fun rituals or habits that have developed across your team?

Emojis, gifs, and memes have become a means for people from diverse cultures and who speak different languages to communicate. It is actually quite fun. I have also noticed a hat tip culture developing with tools like PraisePal. Such a tool does make it less awkward to randomly give kudos to teammates and highlight good work that happens behind the scenes.

Life in a fast-growing global startup can get tough. What keeps you and your team going?

I can’t speak for my team so I’ll just share what keeps me going. Bills.

In all seriousness, in Singapore where most of us are blessed not to worry about the lower two levels of Maslow’s hierarchy, life to me is about learning and growing with others to become the best versions of ourselves. A fast-growing global startup is but just one crucible that allows us to change.

What are the upcoming things keeping you and your team busy?

ShopFest 2021 is keeping us busy now. We are working to provide the best experience for our users to start all their shopping with ShopBack. Among other things, we have been iterating on a watchlist feature to ensure our users never miss a great deal from their favourite merchants. We’re also always on the lookout for new team members to join us in this mission and support our growth.

Schools don’t prepare you for a product role in startups. Good product folk grow by learning on the job, with the help of a good leader and teammates.

What would your advice be for people looking to join a team like yours?

I think the best product managers are people who are obsessed with details and who are relentless in trying to understand how something works. Be interested and be interesting. One of the best product managers I have ever worked with is also one of the best bakers whose cakes I have had the privilege of sampling.

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