I have a PhD in researching and finding things out. Okay, not an actual PhD, but a curiosity that drives me to understand, in-depth, the nuances of any problem I’m working on, and burrow into the possibilities and solutions that may be applied to the problem. This has, over time, helped me develop a keen sense of technical experimentation, failing fast, and applying practical solutions, all leading to a life of Product. 

This short piece is an attempt to take you into how I became this research nerd today, and how it’s shaped my career.

Let me go back to the beginning.

When I was a tad younger and trying to shape my career, I was bent on studying Architecture but couldn’t seem to navigate my way into it, so I ended up doing project management. I had assumed studying architecture was the optimal way to explore my passion for designing and building things and seeing them come to life.

Eventually, I decided that my love for intricacies and design could be fulfilled by studying computer science. I, therefore, went back to school to study Computer Science! I fell in love with the design and principles behind how computers work, how the Software Development Cycle works, and how to solve problems. 

My first job was at a mobile payments company, in their Research & Development(R&D) department as a junior engineer. And I’m pretty sure that was how my obsession with research kicked in. Soon, I was working directly with the head of R&D on both the hardware and the software side, building prototypes for what we saw was needed in the market. 

When I left that company,  a couple of us came together to run a business. I ran the technical aspects, honing my love of research and development and answering the question, “How do we solve a problem most optimally?” 

I then went on to consult for various startups trying to build products that needed market and architecting solutions to achieve their MVP. Those were the first 6-7 years of my career. 

Arriving at this (Monie)point

After the first 7 years, I evolved into core systems and startup architecture (yay, architecture). I’ve therefore spent time on the board of a few startups, where I served as an advisor. My role involved guiding their roadmaps; what products to use, and how to design their system using open-source and cloud-hosted technologies.

I went on to be a systems architect at a very up-and-coming IoT business in Africa that was owned by Vodafone; optimising what they had and how to future-proof the solution for the next five to ten years. 

I did this until I saw the call to join Moniepoint as Technical Product Manager, R&D. I found it exciting and decided to join the team.

Life as an R&D Technical Product Manager

My current role as technical product manager in R&D is to coordinate and build out solutions that will create new products for the business. I’m also looking to solve current growing pains that none of the departments can solve by themselves, which affects the entire business as a whole. 

For example, one problem that we're working on now is solving a pain across the entire organisation and no one has time to actually concentrate and focus on it. The other is building a completely new business unit. 

So, between my VP and I, we work hard in researching and carving out new markets, to push the business into new areas while also solving issues that have held different departments back from achieving their goals. It sounds a bit tricky swinging between these two major bull’s eyes, but that’s the crux of what we need to do.

Why R&D?

Now, you’re probably wondering why my obsession with Research is unrelenting, and I’ve decided it's because of the rapid prototyping approach that it gives me. I'm a big fan of the fast approach to building things - try something, try it quickly, and if it works, then perfect; if it doesn't work, can it and find something else.

I have an inbuilt mental model premised on the process - “don't be afraid of failing, but if you fail, make sure you fail fast, don't waste a lot of resources trying to prototype something”. 

That mental model, combined with my academic perspective getting honours in artificial intelligence and the research that went into that. I enjoy applying throughout any kind of product that I design and figuring out what would be the best principles to apply while achieving the goal in the shortest time.

Looking ahead - what impact do I want my work to make?

I would love my contribution to have made a dramatic change in how the business operates and the products we can deliver as a whole in quality, robustness, and scalability. 
As a bank, we need to deal with vast amounts of data with pen testing security issues, all of which play a role in what my products need to solve and protect against. I therefore want to look back one year from now and be excited about all the problems I’ve solved across departments and company-wide.

What do I do when I’m not geeking out on Products or GTM strategies?

I have a 4x4 vehicle that I take out to obstacle courses with my friends and see how far we can push the car before damaging it. We're a group of friends, usually doing four to ten cars that then tackle the obstacle course and see how far we get.

In addition to this, I play golf a lot! 😅😅

You’ve read Nicolaas’ curiosity-driven career path. We’re always hiring people who are driven by problem-solving and curiosity. If that sounds like you, join us at Moniepoint.