Hi all,
It took me 3 months to compile the complete list of my application material. I appreciate all the advice and insights shared in this forum. Could anyone please help review my application and provide feedback? Thanks.
My skills include: Entrepreneurship, Technical Background Product Manager
Application category: Exceptional Talent
Recommendation Letters
LOR 1 is from the General Manager of the fuel retail business sector at a global FinTech Company, who was my client in 2019.
LOR 2 is from a digital expert working at an F50 firm, which has been my client since 2009.
LOR 3 is from the CEO of my previous startup company, who was also the angel investor of my company in 2014. We have been working together for over 9 years, and she was my direct reporter.
Mandatory Criteria ：
MC - I co-founded and led the growth of a product-led digital company; developed and published multiple platforms successfully.
1). Shareholder agreement
Evidence includes the Shareholder agreement, total money invested in company and breakdown of investors and founders shares and the statement provided by the company confirming that I am the company’s founder.
2). Core role in the startup company, evidenced by organizational chart and important projects I worked on. One reference letter further solidifies my value in leading product and technology: it is from the sales director of a digital payment company, the top 10 largest payment company in China.
3). The SaaS platform I led, supported by evidence like a product wireframe, a product feature mind map, system workflow diagram, system architecture diagrams drawn on the whiteboard, physical Kanban boards I initiated, technical troubleshooting records, selection of digital payment partners, patent, confluence record, and jira tickets.
4). The important role at my current UK IT company, as evidenced by the employment contract and organizational chart. I led the delivery of the demo product by conducting meetings and maintaining req. scope, developing milestone plans, writing the req. doc, managing the Jira board tickets with screenshots provided, and coordinating showcase meetings supported by emails sent to directors.
Optional Criteria
OC 1 - Evidence of innovation/product development; I co-founded and led the technical and product design.
Evidence:
1). Audited accounts/revenue of my startup company in 2022.
2). Patent. I provide a detailed description of the patent, explaining its innovative aspects and the processing flow.
3). Two innovative products.
The first product platform implemented for a Fortune 50 firm, which is used by 20M+ users. I include an email I sent to the client detailing the system architecture design, along with a description of the innovation.
Additionally, the second product platform was deployed for another F50 firm, serving 30+ offline stations. I provide a technical system design proposal, product wireframes, a sales contract, and an explanation of its innovative features.
OC 3 - I demonstrated that I have made a significant entrepreneurial and technology contributions to the field as a founder of a product-led digital technology company; I was founder and co-founder of a company for more than 10 years and led the technical and product development.
1). Impact of my Patent: I provide a technical matrix of the significant performance improvement. A reference letter from my previous company’s CTO outlines the savings in technical costs and the overall impact of the patent.
2). Impact of two products
Impact of my first product platform. I provide product screenshots, user data, news clipping (it only mentions the product itself and I am not mentioned), and a sales contract. The impact is mentioned in LOR 1 by the client as well.
Impact of a SaaS Platform. I provide a historic increase in user data and revenue. The impact is also mentioned in the LOR 2 by the CEO. => As most evidence like the architecture diagram, and wireframe is provided in the MC part, I only include the user data, contract, and revenue in this section.
3). Supporting evidence: a reference letter from the CTO of my current UK company. I have worked with him for 10 months. He talks about my impact on the company. Other evidence includes an email from a director, which highlights my excellent work and its contribution to improving the customer’s work efficiency.
Questions:
1. MC
a. Do I need to include CVs of my additional referrers for the reference letters, beyond the three required ones? Should they have worked with me for at least 12 months? Is it sufficient to provide a screenshot of their signed reference letters, or should I request them to use a digital signature service like DocuSign?
b. Can I utilize the reference letter from my startup to highlight my achievements and contributions to the company? Since the letter is issued by the company itself rather than any specific individuals, it effectively circumvents the restriction against reference letters from direct managers, colleagues, or friends.
- OC1
a. In terms of OC1, I have an innovative product that I led in 2017, which is still active in the market. Can I use it as evidence of innovation? If so, the system architecture diagram and prototype were created five years ago. Do they still count?
- OC3
a. Do I need to include the CVs of the referees for all reference letters in this section? Is it required that they have knowledge of my work for at least 12 months? Can I request the direct manager to write the letter, or should I adhere to the guidelines that discourage direct colleagues and managers from providing reference letters in the MC section?
b. Can I use 2 of the three required LOR as evidence to support the OC3?
- Translation related questions
a. Since each piece of evidence is limited to a maximum of three pages and max. of 1000 words, what if the file exceeds the three-page limit if I include two language versions of diagrams or tables? => It is mentioned in the forum that the translation is not counted and it is on top of the 3 pages.
b. If the evidence I provided is a diagram drawn on a whiteboard, do I also need to have it translated into English by an authorized translation agency?
- Others:
a. Is it necessary to provide my salary history? Given the significant downturn in business revenue due to COVID, my salary also decreased accordingly. Providing my salary history may undermine my application, as it does not accurately reflect my value to the company.
b. Should I choose which route, the Business or Technical Route? My work in the startup required me to do both.
c. How can I demonstrate that I created the wireframe if I only have a file?
d. Can I use emails and meeting notes as evidence?
e. Do I need to provide a brief introduction of the company to demonstrate that it is product-led?
f. In terms of revenue, is it sufficient to provide revenue with the company’s stamp on it, or should I provide audit reports? Since I left my startup company in 2021, would it be acceptable to provide the audit report of 2022?
g. Regarding user data, would it be adequate to provide a screenshot of the dashboard along with a descriptive table summarizing the dashboard’s data? If certain products lack dashboards, can I generate an Excel table and populate it with the relevant data? To authenticate the data, should I request the company to provide a stamp?