I joined Lokal in December 2018 as the first analyst and second product hire, when the product had a few thousand users and no real analytics stack. Over 4.5 years, I moved through data, product, and growth, eventually leading product strategy as Senior PM when we crossed 7M Monthly Active Users.

Building for the next billion internet users requires a different kind of discipline. Our users were navigating the internet for the first time, on low-end Android devices, on spotty 3G connections, and in regional languages. You cannot design for them using conventional UX assumptions. We had to go on-ground, run 100+ user calls, conduct three field studies in Tier 2/3 towns, and build from what we actually observed.

We operated with extreme constraints and moved fast. I shipped features the way F1 teams change tyres: deliberate, nothing wasted, and every decision optimized for marginal gains that compound at scale. That discipline is something I carry everywhere.