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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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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