Tell us about yourself!

I grew up in rural Germany with two siblings, hustling with various student jobs to earn pocket money – from heavy warehouse work to graffiti artist and dance teacher assistant, to name a few. I moved to the UK from Germany in 2004 for a gap year that never ended!

I’m a passionate advocate for Charity: Water, a non-profit organisation that provides drinking water to people in developing nations.

I’m now living in Cambridge with my wife, daughter and two lazy cats. I love running on the treadmill, pointless action films, the occasional poker night with friends, and trying out tiramisu in restaurants!

What’s your role at Legl?

Having initially joined to manage our payments product, my role quickly transitioned to leading our Product & Design function. In that time, I’ve seen the team grow in size, skills and knowledge as we increased our product velocity, impact contribution and moved further towards autonomous teams. Recently, I spend most of my time either supporting my team to achieve their objectives, learning and understanding what other teams are working on to ensure we are collaborating, or learning from our customers on how they use – or want to use – the solutions Legl builds for them.

What made you join Legl?

I’ve worked in smaller companies before, and larger, always with an entrepreneurial context. Legl is somewhat in the middle size-wise, and I find it fascinating to learn this part of a growth journey. The energy, authenticity and humour I’ve observed in the people I’d met during the interview process convinced me that this was the right environment for me.

What have been the most enjoyable aspects of your life at Legl?

Legl is super collaborative. We work in a low-ego, high-learning culture where people are confident to make their own decisions and to ask for help. As a result, it’s easy to see why we evolve so quickly with our products externally, as teams internally, and as individual professionals. The opportunity to grow your career is exceptional and the exposure you receive across the business helps develop your holistic approach to impact.

What advice would you give anyone looking to follow in your footsteps?

Learn to become more comfortable with understanding problems rather than figuring out solutions. Like many other product professionals, I have a bias towards solution-finding. However, my job is instead to understand and crystallise the business context, issues and complications we face or the goals we try to achieve – then steps aside to let the team define the way forward. Our teams apply their knowledge for smart decisions, create impactful solutions and deliver them for our customers. In other words, give me problems, not solutions – and let the team deliver their own path.

Connect with Sikander on LinkedIn.

Interested in working at Legl? Check out our open positions on our Careers page.

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