From Politics to Product Management
Curious about how our Product Managers found their way into the world of Product Management? 🤔
Tanya, Product Manager, takes us through her unexpected journey—from a gap year to exploring fintech and tackling global challenges along the way. 🚀
"Every decision we make is ultimately grounded in data. This approach gives us a powerful advantage and ensures we're always moving in the right direction."
Tanya Agarwal (She/Her)
Product Manager
Can you tell us a bit about your background?
I took a gap year between school and university to travel and gain experience in the advertising industry, where I was drawn to the impact small agencies had. This sparked my interest in dynamic, smaller companies. I then studied Politics at University of Edinburgh but quickly realised that a career in the UN or EU wasn’t for me. The idea of making an impact over the long term didn’t suit my more fast-paced nature.
During this time, I interned at Code First: Girls (under Entrepreneur First), where I ran the entire initiative due to changes in the team and had the chance to be mentored directly by the EF Founders. This led me to explore tech roles, including Product Management.
After graduating, I entered Product roles and found myself in the fintech field. At a legal tech startup, I saw that financial education was a key barrier for customers, which led me to focus on financial products for small businesses. I later worked on fincrime controls at a global payments company before joining Wise almost three years ago.
What made you apply to Wise?
I’ve been a customer of Wise for years, ever since my year abroad when Wise was the only way I could pay my landlord. When I saw a role focused on sanctions after working on Fincrime in general over the last few years, I knew it was the right opportunity. Having worked in this area at my previous company, I wanted to dive deeper and tackle the challenge on a much larger scale. The constantly evolving regulatory landscape, especially in a fast-growing company like Wise, is something that continues to motivate me, and it’s a challenge I’m excited to be part of solving.
Has anything surprised you since joining Wise?
What continues to surprise me every day is the motivation to make things better for our customers. It’s inspiring to be part of a company where thousands of people across the globe are committed to the same mission— something I truly believe is unique to Wise.
Another thing that stands out is how data-driven our decision-making process is. While we all bring our intuition and experience to the table, every decision we make is ultimately grounded in data. This approach gives us a powerful advantage and ensures we're always moving in the right direction.
What excites you about working directly with financial crime prevention?
The challenge of finding the right balance between delivering an exceptional customer experience and managing risk—is something that no business can ever truly perfect. The complexity of striving for that balance while navigating an ever-changing macro-environment and business growth is what makes it so rewarding.
The possibilities within financial crime prevention are endless. We essentially keep our customers safe by ensuring that money flowing through our systems is not funding sanctioned entities.
We can enhance the product at multiple touchpoints—whether it's on the data input side, the engine side, the case creation and handling side, or even on the operations, analytics, and compliance fronts. The scope for improvement is vast, and that’s what makes it so engaging and dynamic to work on.
What are some common misconceptions people have about Product Management?
With any role, the reality is that it can be tough at times and requires a lot of hands-on work. Sometimes, you need to dive into any domain or team at a moment’s notice. For example, if your team is facing a bottleneck in hiring, you might need to step in and take on sourcing and hiring yourself to keep things moving.
As a Product Manager, you need to be willing to do whatever it takes to get things moving forward, even if it’s outside the typical product-related tasks.
What skills or mindset do you look for when hiring Product Managers at Wise?
Resilience, clear communication and a growth mindset.
Resilience plays a key role because the tech industry is known for its fast-paced nature. Product Managers (PMs) should be ready to tackle curve balls head on and guide their teams and stakeholders towards moving the correct metrics in the most effective way.
Clear communication is important as the role requires working with different types of internal, and sometimes external stakeholders. This allows PMs to convey their product vision, requirements and priorities, as well as bring everyone on the journey together, ensuring that everyone has a clear understanding of the goals and can contribute effectively.
And finally, a growth mindset is key. A fast-paced environment fosters continuous learning, encourages efficient feedback incorporation, and helps individuals view their problem from a broader, long-term perspective.
If you could go back and give your younger self one piece of advice about Product Management, what would it be?
Be curious and creative. Don’t just focus on Product Management books—focus on books that shape your thinking and leadership skills. I recommend Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman and The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli. These books teach critical thinking and decision-making—vital skills for any successful Product Manager.
Tags
Roles you might be interested in
Salary
115000 - 145000 GBP Annual
Location
London
Team
Product
Locations
London
Description
This is a great opportunity to build a 0-1 product and scale it massively. You would be building products to help small businesses get paid internationally. Today, we process over £5B per month for sm
Reference
c523652f-9d96-4412-8592-dd8d43f61218
Expiry Date
01/01/0001
Salary
SGD 114,000 - 139,000 Annually + RSUs
Location
Singapore
Team
Product
Locations
Singapore
Description
We’re looking for a Product Compliance & Risk Manager to work alongside our Wise Platform Product team, to support an expanding team of Product Managers, Engineers, Implementation Managers, Business D
Reference
8fddc8c8-1ac2-459e-bcf2-39f609cb71cd
Expiry Date
01/01/0001
Salary
Location
Singapore
Team
Product
Locations
Singapore
Description
A bit about the role:The role is based in our Singapore office, but you will also work closely with the Regional APAC and Global Wise Platform teams based in our offices around the world. You will wor
Reference
cbfc2891-509a-4cb1-842a-ff7e86783a0e
Expiry Date
01/01/0001
Salary
$225,000 - $284,000
Location
Austin
Team
Product
Locations
Austin
Description
We are seeking an experienced and dynamic Senior Business Development Manager to join our Wise Platform team in North America. In this role, you will help deliver world-class API payment solutions to
Reference
7d807887-26bf-4d6c-9549-702eb904ae91
Expiry Date
01/01/0001
Salary
-
Location
London
Team
Product
Locations
London
Description
We are looking for an experienced individual to ensure audit readiness across the global business. This role will be instrumental in coordinating financial crime-related audits, including regulatory,
Reference
4961ff81-3b5d-468d-899c-3379b01fc4a8
Expiry Date
01/01/0001
Salary
-
Location
Austin
Team
Product
Locations
Austin
Description
We are looking for an experienced and strategic Senior Business Development Manager, to join our Banking Vertical within the Wise Platform team in North America. In this role, you will help deliver wo
Reference
254ecaf2-8da6-4474-8862-e3f2a1e56757
Expiry Date
01/01/0001
Salary
115000 - 145000 GBP Annual
Location
London
Team
Product
Locations
London
Description
We’re looking for a Product Lead to join our growing Growth Marketing Product team in London. Your mission is to lead 3 Product/Engineering Teams, working with Marketing and product marketing to help
Reference
2e3fa236-e077-4d82-81f9-51bacab8a142
Expiry Date
01/01/0001
Salary
-
Location
London
Team
Product
Locations
London
Description
We’ll look to you to help drive our growth objectives while consulting closely with our product, sales, and delivery teams to design solutions that we can deliver efficiently and with quality.As a Sen
Reference
97ba7bc6-f42f-4e37-83a9-22dc73657421
Expiry Date
01/01/0001
Salary
SGD 156,000 - 216,000 Annually + RSUs
Location
Singapore
Team
Product
Locations
Singapore
Description
We are looking for a Senior Implementation/Program Manager to join our team in Singapore and play a crucial role in growing Wise Platform by delivering our highest impact partner integrations. You’ll
Reference
ec5a6c2c-cd55-4aec-b71c-f51cecaf6eed
Expiry Date
01/01/0001
Salary
-
Location
London
Team
Product
Locations
London
Description
Your Mission:In this pivotal role, you'll be working as part of the Europe and UK regional team. This role will focus on the effectiveness of our controls to prevent financial crime. You will work cl
Reference
6241cc2c-394c-449c-acf7-c18e7bee8ec7
Expiry Date
01/01/0001
Articles you might like
.jpg)
Teaser
People profileContent Type
BlogPublish date
01/06/2025
Summary
From managing a 200-person crew on a Bollywood film set to leading Product teams at Wise, Surendra Chaplot, Product Lead in Singapore shares his unique journey into the world of Product Manageme

by
Verona Hasani
+(1).jpg)
Teaser
People profileContent Type
BlogPublish date
11/29/2024
Summary
We sat down with Asya Kuznetsova, Product Manager at Wise, to hear about her career journey as well as all things product at Wise. 🚀 “What really sets Wise apart is how close we are to our

by
Sapphire Birmingham
.png)
Teaser
Our workContent Type
BlogPublish date
08/18/2024
Summary
Introducing our first ever Product Academy At Wise, we're committed to fostering innovation and growth, not just in our products but in our people. This year, we launched a new
.jpg)
Teaser
Our workContent Type
BlogPublish date
05/04/2023
Summary
Meet Ankita D’Mello, one of our Product Senior Managers here at Wise.Ankita joined Wise in March of 2020 but started out as a customer back in 2013. While she was an international