Product Manager · Mumbai

Mohammad Rafique Khan

I turn messy business processes into software people use. Requirement, prototype, approval, spec, launch: I carry the product the whole way.

11
products prototyped
8
built by developers
4
live
7 → 3
days, request to order

Scroll. This is one product's story.

Stage 1 / 6

From WhatsApp, Excel, email, phone to one clear requirement

It starts as noise

A perishable-goods business bought through WhatsApp, Excel, email and phone. Quotes were typed in by hand, and buyers chased directors for approvals. A purchase request took about seven days to become an order.

My first job: sit with them and turn that noise into one clear requirement.

Stage 2 / 6

From requirement to clickable prototype

I build it before anyone codes it

A prototype that looks and works like the finished product: vendors quote in their own portal, every quote is compared with the market price, and approvals go to the right person by order value.

Stage 3 / 6

From prototype to client approval

They use it, then they sign off

The client clicks through the real flows with realistic data in demos. We change it until they approve it, so they sign off on something they have already used.

Stage 4 / 6

From approved prototype to spec

Then I write it all down

Every rule, screen and approval, written from the approved prototype so developers never have to guess. Each test is tied to the rule it proves.

0
modules
0
business rules
0
test cases
Stage 5 / 6

From spec to working software

I stay while it's built

I answer the developers' questions, check their work against the prototype, run the testing, and review every change before it merges.

0
pull requests reviewed before merge
Stage 6 / 6 · Live

From about 7 days to 3 days

It went live, and it works

Beforeabout 7 days

Live3 days

First live buying cycle, October 2026: 190 products, 22 purchase orders, 18 vendors. Request to order took 3 days.

Pull back

That was one line. I've drawn eleven.

Each line is a product, drawn as far as it went through the four gates. Eleven prototyped, eight built, four live. Point at a dot to see it; click to open it.

Prototype and spec Built Live

Four lines that reached the end

Live, and in daily use

Your turn

Now you approve one

The same screen from the story, working, with sample data. You are the finance approver. Approve it, or send it back with a reason.

PO-0142 · Fresh vegetables

Waiting for you
Vendor (sample)Rate / kgvs market ₹21.00
Green Valley Traders · awarded₹20.601.9% below
Sunrise Agro₹21.401.9% above
Kisan Fresh Co.₹22.808.6% above

800 kg (300 kg tomato, 500 kg onion) · ₹16,480 · lowest quote awarded, so no reason is needed.

Approval chain · by order value

  1. Procurement managerApproved at 10:12
  2. Finance head (you)Waiting for you
  3. DirectorNext, after finance

History

    Posted on the wall

    Six rules I don't break

    House rules
    1. 01

      The approved prototype wins

      If the written spec and the prototype the client approved disagree, I fix the spec, not the prototype.

    2. 02

      No guessing in a spec

      Every field has its rule, its format and the exact error message the user will see.

    3. 03

      Nothing is added quietly

      Anything outside the requirement is an open question for the client, not a feature I slip in.

    4. 04

      Done means seen working

      Tested on the real screen, not "it should work". No sign-off with a caveat attached.

    5. 05

      Every choice is A or B

      With the cost of each and my recommendation, so a decision takes minutes, not a meeting.

    6. 06

      Bad news goes first

      What is wrong or missing comes before what is fine. Agreement has to be earned.

    Where the thread starts

    Support, then delivery, then product

    Seven years fixing what broke for customers taught me to care about what happens after launch, not just before it.

    1. 2015 – 2022

      Technical support

      Education software, banking hardware for customers in the UK, US and Europe, then a payments product. I learned where software breaks for real people.

    2. 2022 – 2025

      Project Manager and Scrum Master, Think9

      Ran sprints and releases for product, QA and DevOps teams, and set up Jira automation that cut manual follow-up by about 30%.

    3. 2025

      A career break

      My role ended in a company layoff.

    4. 2026 – now

      Junior Product Manager, Calibric

      The only product owner on two business platforms, plus nine client products. Eleven lines, four of them live.

    B.Sc. Information Technology, S.M. Shetty College of Management Studies, Mumbai · Certified Scrum Master

    Built for my own work, with AI

    I build my own tools too

    AI skills for spec and QA

    About 40 skills and 10 automatic checks. Closing a module went from about 50 manual steps to one command.

    Daily engineering report

    Reads every company code repository and emails leadership a PDF each morning. It refuses to send if any data is missing.

    Product starter kit

    Starts a new product with 18 automatic checks, shared screen components and a page-speed limit.

    Work diary

    Notes by typing, photo or voice in English and Hindi, turned into a list of who is waiting on whom.