In this episode of the DevReady Podcast, host Andrew Romeo sits down with Oliver Wolff, Product Manager at Kinde, to explore his journey from software engineer to product manager, and how his role has evolved in the startup environment. Oliver shares his transition from working at a large Australian logistics company to product management at Afterpay and Kinde. He highlights the dynamic nature of working in a startup, where responsibilities extend beyond product management to encompass sales, support, and marketing. Andrew and Oliver discuss the benefit of product managers being closely involved with sales to better understand customer needs, offering unique insights into the differences between working in a startup versus a scaling organisation.

Oliver dives into the core of successful product management, stressing the importance of focusing on the problem rather than the solution. He reflects on the ever-changing market conditions and technological advancements, noting that understanding the customer’s perspective—especially when selling to engineers—is crucial. He discusses how engineers value detailed, thoughtful information and need time to process it, leading to longer sales cycles. This deep customer engagement allows Oliver to gather valuable insights, which he uses to inform product decisions and keep the team aligned with user needs.

The conversation shifts towards Kinde’s approach to authentication. Oliver and Andrew agree that businesses should avoid building authentication systems from scratch, instead opting for solutions like Kinde’s plug-and-play service, which integrates easily with platforms such as Google and Microsoft. Oliver highlights that, unless authentication is a core part of the product’s value proposition, businesses should focus their engineering efforts on what makes them unique, leaving the complexities of security and authentication to specialists like Kinde. This approach saves valuable resources and ensures products remain secure and compliant.

Oliver further explores Kinde's security-first approach, noting how the company embedded security into its DNA from the beginning by hiring a security engineer as its first team member. While managing security concerns, Kinde balances user experience by ensuring customers remain confident in the platform’s security while also making it easy to use. Oliver explains how Kinde continuously adapts to emerging security challenges and meets increasing demands for transparency from engineers. He also discusses Kinde’s upcoming features, including tiered pricing models and expanded functionalities like user management and billing, designed to streamline workflows for startups.

Lastly, Oliver shares his vision for Kinde and how the platform aims to simplify the complexities of user management, feature flags, and subscription billing. As Kinde rolls out its new pricing models and enhances its offerings, it helps startups manage their systems more effectively, allowing engineers to focus on building value-driven features. Oliver explains how Kinde’s feature flags enable better product testing and controlled rollouts, while the platform’s no-lock-in policy fosters trust with users. Reflecting on his passion for product management, Oliver reveals how customer feedback and seeing real value delivered to users motivates him every day, ensuring Kinde’s solutions are always aligned with the customer’s needs.

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