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🚀 Manifesting the Future: The Human Art of Product Management

In the fast-paced world of tech, we often obsess over the latest AI models or the newest frameworks. But according to Nilan Peiris, Chief Product Officer at Wise, the true heart of product management isn’t found in a line of code—it is found in the human ability to gaze into a crystal ball and manifest a future that does not yet exist.

Nilan has spent 15 years at Wise, helping it grow from a two-person dream into a global powerhouse where 5% of the world’s money moves through its rails. Last year alone, Wise saved customers £2 billion in fees compared to traditional banks. With £20 billion in deposits and partnerships with giants like Monzo, N26, and Standard Chartered, Wise is a masterclass in product-led growth.

Here is how Nilan and his team move beyond spreadsheets to build products that change the world. 🌍✨

📊 The “Excel Trap” and the Cost of Wrong Assumptions

Every Product Manager (PM) is in the business of predicting the future. We live for that magical moment: deciding what to build. To mitigate the high cost of engineering, we often turn to Excel to size opportunities and track KPIs across tribes, squads, and teams.

However, Nilan warns that every feature hides a dangerous assumption about user behavior. 📉

The Auto Top-up Reality Check

Wise once identified that 6% of card payments failed because of insufficient balances. The team built a “revolutionary” Auto Top-up feature, predicting a 10% increase in transaction volume.

  • The Prediction: 1 in 10 customers would use it.
  • The Reality: Only 1 in 10,000 actually did.

The team forgot to account for the friction of setup. Even if the math works in a spreadsheet, if a customer cannot be bothered to click a button, the impact is zero. 🛑

💡 Building Conviction Over Split-Testing

How do you avoid the “1 in 10,000” failure? You build conviction through deep customer empathy.

Nilan shares the story of “Ben,” a PM tasked with increasing virality. Instead of mindlessly split-testing subject lines, Ben spent a week talking to customers. He discovered a shocking truth: customers loved Wise, but they did not believe the savings numbers shown in their emails. 📧🤔

The Coffee Shop Method ☕

Ben didn’t wait for a high-fidelity prototype. He and a designer:

  1. Sketched mockups on paper.
  2. Went to a local coffee shop.
  3. Iterated daily based on visceral customer reactions.

They realized banks often hide a €14 fee inside an exchange rate while only claiming to charge €6. By redesigning the email to visually prove the total €20 saving, Wise drove a 300% increase in referrals. Ben didn’t just guess; he built conviction.

🏗️ From Predicting the Future to Creating It

The top 1% of PMs don’t just build slick interfaces; they create experiences that customers did not know were previously possible. This is how you achieve an NPS (Net Promoter Score) of 9 or 10.

Solving the “Unsolvable” Problems 🛠️

  • The Central Bank Gambit: To make transfers 10x cheaper, Wise realized they needed to bypass commercial banks and go straight to the source. They spent three to four years lobbying the Bank of England for a settlement account. They had to change regulations and laws. Today, 70% of Wise payments are instant because they replicated this in eight countries.
  • The War on Hidden Fees: Wise spent years lobbying the European Council. While they initially failed in the UK, their persistence paid off last month when Europe passed legislation making it illegal to hide fees in exchange rates. 🏛️⚖️

The biggest impact comes from taking on the challenges that everyone else says are impossible.

🗣️ The PM as the “Original Influencer”

As a PM, you have zero direct agency. You don’t write the code, and you don’t design the UI. You are the Original Influencer. 🤳✨

Nilan emphasizes that if the product is “rubbish,” it is the PM’s fault—even if they didn’t do the work themselves. Your job is to:

  • Inspire: Give engineers and designers a vision worth building.
  • Minimize Friction: Organize teams into autonomous squads to reduce the number of people you need to “manage” to ship code.
  • Own the Hard Stuff: Don’t view compliance or tech debt as blockers.
    • Compliance: If the product isn’t compliant, there is no product. Prioritize it. 🛡️
    • Tech Debt: Debt is created the moment you ship because your vision has already moved past what was built. Manage this through honest conversations within the team, not through top-down mandates. 🏗️

🎯 Final Thoughts

Predicting the future is hard, but manifesting it is possible. By moving away from pure data and toward human conviction, PMs can solve “unsolvable” problems and build products that feel like magic.

Stop just shipping features. Start creating a world that your customers didn’t know could exist. 🚀🦾🌐

Speaker: Nilan Peiris, Chief Product Officer at Wise.

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