Meet The Seynators | Ying-Huei Chu, Product Manager

Ying-Huei, Seyna has been lucky to have you as Product Manager for over 6 months now. Could you please start by introducing yourself in 3 words?   

Flexible, Efficient, Empathetic.

Flexible in the sense that I tend to focus more on the objective than on the means to achieve it. I try to understand where I want to get to and see the path that seems most relevant. I don't limit myself with routines or set ways. 

Efficient because I’m rather pragmatic. If we take the example of a weekend with friends, I'm usually the first to take the lead in arranging transport and accommodation. I get stuff done.

Finally, I'm empathetic because of my ability to put myself in someone else’s shoes, but also to project myself. It can be a scenario, a situation, a problem, a discussion... I think I have a fairly “realistic imagination".

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What's your fondest professional memory? With Seyna or not...

That notification telling us we'd just signed our first Defacto loan through Qonto. At the time, I was the only Product Manager. We had started from scratch. The project consisted of integrating our credit-as-a-service product directly into the neo-bank's operations. 

Starting from scratch to land a service as complicated as a 100% digitalized credit, underwritten via an intermediary... it was a great moment of collective pride!
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What made you join Seyna?

Until then, I had always been the first member of a Product team. I was interested in joining a more structured team with expert colleagues who could challenge me and help me grow even faster. 

Otherwise, I liked the slightly esoteric dimension of the mission. Generally speaking, I'm attracted by obscure and very technical B2B issues. 

Creating a SaaS that will transform the underwriting experience and policy management for insurance professionals won’t start the fondest debates at a dinner-party. But in an industry that will be worth $7.5 trillion USD in 1 year's time, the impact is potentially huge. 

I was won over by the ambition of the project and the vision.
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What do you like most about being Product Manager at Seyna?

I like the curiosity that the job requires. The curiosity that leads you to immerse yourself in such a technical and complex subject. On projects like this, my conviction is that you won’t achieve anything if you don't have a real taste for the field. There's such a variety of subjects, structures, customer pains, information systems, decision-makers, etc. that it's impossible to approach it on a theoretical level. 

This is where a solid method comes into play. Start small and efficient, iterate, repeat. Another reflex that sometimes gets lost align the way is to always challenge the status quo. No matter how successful your competitors are, you must always question and validate your own assumptions.

One of the most important ingredients I've learned to value in this process is the commitment of engineering teams. At Seyna, we're lucky to have very expert and committed engineers. By this I mean that the design of the solution is carried out with the whole team. We're constantly discussing pains, UX, technologies... and that's a real strength.
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What qualities do you look for in teammates? And which of Seyna's values resonates with you the most?

I'd say proactivity, perfectionism and resilience. 

As far as proactivity is concerned, as I was just saying, I think it's vital that all team members feel on the same mission. Not to be in a simple execution mode. I think it's healthy to expect all team members to have and defend convictions. 

As for perfectionism, you just can't do without it. We're talking about financial products with major implications for users' business. Between regulation, data protection and business issues, doing things half-heartedly is not an option. So I really value this taste for effort and this intensity that we manage to bring out as a team in the final sprint.

Finally, resilience, because nobody can tell us how to do something that doesn't exist. We're trying to invent a new usage, a new way of working at the scale of one of the most conservative sectors there is. We'll only succeed if we manage to pace ourselves and hold the course over the long term. 

So in terms of a Seyna value, I'm going to say "Insanely Helpful". In this type of project, we all have to do "a little more" than is reasonable. That's the deal that comes with adventure.  
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Your best Seyna team moment to date?

Allianz's green light to roll out our Seyna Sell underwriting journey. Seyna had been in existence for 4 years, 3 since the launch of its technology, and we had just signed up the world's leading insurance brand with €12 billion in sales and 5 million customers. 

That was quite something…
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What's your superpower? What people tell you you can do better and faster than others.

It echoes the efficiency I mentioned at the beginning, but I make decisions quickly. All my decisions follow the same pattern: perspective, remember the objective, verdict. It's not always a good thing, but I think it saves you energy. There's nothing more tiring than staying undecided.
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What do you do outside work that helps you most professionally? (Routine, extra-curricular activities, charity work, etc.)

Learning languages. To date, I can work on technical subjects in Mandarin, French, English and Italian. Adopting a language is more than just learning grammar. Each language comes with its own imaginary world, its own expressions and exceptions... It means you're constantly confronted with new perspectives on life which help you and gain in nuance. I find it very edifying.
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Finally, for someone considering joining our team, what advice would you give them? What do you think makes our company a great place to work?

If they don't come from the insurance world, I'd tell them to be patient. (Laughs) It's a very human sector in which, despite what some might imagine, there's a real dimension of protection behind the subjects. 

On the other hand, it's a rather slow business. This is all the more true when you're creating a new use, which can only happen over time.
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What was the last piece of content that inspired you to take action?

I'd have to say the "Acquired" podcast on Visa. It's amazing to have managed to create a banking network in such a conservative industry. I was very inspired by the vision they managed to build and their ability to activate the right levers to motivate an entire sector to get moving. I really recommend it.