Hi, I'm Deborah. You may have read a bit about my role and my experience in our 'Meet Mono' series. Here are some of the lessons I learnt during my internship which ended on Jan 5th 2021. Enjoy!
Ship Ship Ship!
One thing I learnt from Mono’s CEO Abdul, is that in startup life you have to move quickly! Abdul can often be found on slack asking you ‘how far?’ when he’s chasing up a deliverable. This drive to solve our customers problems quickly and efficiently really rubbed off on me. If it can be done now, do it now!
Everyone MUST understand the product
At Mono all employees must understand the products in their entirety, from customer success to designers to marketers and beyond. Prior to the internship I’d never worked in an organisation where this was the case. It meant that anyone at anytime can talk about the product which helps with any role you’re in. If you don’t understand the product it’s hard to build a rapport in customer success or be empathetic in design or build better products and so on.
Customer success is important
When users troubleshoot our products on the website, they’re not talking to bots they’re always talking to real people on the team. These questions aren’t just answered but analysed to ensure other customers can benefit from them moving forward. Customers could literally be speaking to the CEO when they ask a question! All teammates should be interacting and learning from customers ultimately, you work to make their lives easier.
Downtime is vital
All work and no play...you know the rest! Mono has achieved so much in so little time, from the new connections to the new territories but in order to still have some gas in the tank for it all some much needed downtime is key! We often had conversations that had nothing to do with work on calls and on slack had channels for random things like tech products, songs and dances. It’s important to take a breather and enjoy life as you solve problems.
Know Better, Do Better
In a startup you’re constantly learning more not just about your space or your customers but your role and its requirements. In the early days of a startup (I joined when there were only 4 other people 😅) teammates wear loads of different hats. Roles can be far more ambiguous, giving you the freedom to make them what you want or potentially leaving you overwhelmed or uninspired by the lack of clarity. As the startup develops and you become more aware of what your customer wants and what your vision is for solving their problems at scale, roles become more defined and you have to be comfortable with this rapid pace of change.
Ultimately, interning at Mono has been one of the most gratifying experiences of my extremely young career. I’d encourage anyone to apply for internships here in the future if they’re willing to be stretched, challenged and join what is undoubtedly a rocket ship.
Mono is the easiest, fastest and best way to get access to your customers financial accounts for account statements, real time transactions, income & much more! 💫Interested in using our API? Request access to get started for free. Stay in touch on our socials so you know when our internship applications are live! 🙌🏾
