About

I joined electrical engineering in 2009 because everyone else was. But I always loved networking, talking to people, hearing their stories, and trying to do something that impacts their lives in one way or the other. So during my degree, I stayed involved in many activities and took several small initiatives to bring change in local circles. It was all volunteer work, but it made me feel happy. In my first year, I started writing technology blogs to stay close to the industry I wanted to be in. By the end of the degree, I had picked up good soft skills and knew how to handle teams and communicate better.

A first attempt at a startup with friends didn't work out. We were too young and knew too less. That was useful in its own way.

I joined Discretelogix soon after as a Scrum Master, helping the team adopt agile practices and become more lean. Early on, I worked under Fahim Akhter on a Kickstarter campaign for leather products that raised around $40K in a month. Watching the way customer, story, and product fit together is when I knew I wanted to build delightful products that made people happy. I started putting my heart and soul into every project we got after that.

I had a decent grasp of technology and business by then. Design was the missing piece, because a good PM, in my understanding, sits at the intersection of technology, business, and design. So I took a full-time design role and spent the next six years building EdTech for schools in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kenya, the UK, and the US. The title was design, but the actual work kept growing into stakeholder management, delivery, cross-functional collaboration, and user feedback. Essentially a PM role.

Working with teams across the US, UK, UAE, and Kenya from Pakistan has taught me something important. Different cultures bring different norms, work ethics, and styles of getting things done. Learning where coworkers are coming from and understanding what is important to them helps a great deal in avoiding misunderstandings and building real connections, both professional and personal. What colleagues might say about me, if I had to guess: I try to be there for any team member who needs help, even from a different team, and I try to keep my calm and composure when things get tough.

The current AI wave is shifting what PMs need to do: articulate business requirements faster, build quick prototypes, validate ideas, and keep things moving. That's the direction I'm pointing now. On the side, I'm building a small productivity tool for PMs that automates competitive analysis and daily monitoring of competitor products, so staying close to discovery doesn't take hours every week.

A few things I've learned that I carry into every product decision:

1. A good product is one that doesn't require explaining.

2. The system should answer the user's first question, not present them with the options to find it themselves.

3. Don't make institutional buyers learn your metrics. Adopt theirs.

4. Question design is research design.

5. When you can move work out of the user's hands into the system's, do.

Outside of work, I travel mostly toward the mountains and quieter places. Star gazing at the side of Attabad lake in silence, listening to the water splashing, is one of those memorable moments for me. I read about finance and investments in my free time, and spirituality is something I keep wanting to explore more of. I also play football a couple of times a week to keep myself fresh.

I'm based in Islamabad, Pakistan, and work with teams across the US, UK, UAE, and South Asia. Reach me at farrukh.jamal91@gmail.com or on LinkedIn.