Rajat Patwa

While running SRE at Zomato, one thing stood out very quickly: Delivering a great user experience at scale requires an extraordinary amount of discipline. Zomato puts an insane amount of effort into quality. In practice, almost 30–40% of the time before a release goes into carefully verifying every part of the app, making sure no bugs reach users. That investment is deliberate. At that scale, even small issues show up immediately and matter to real customers. From an engineering point of view, it’s natural to ask: Why not automate more of this work? Tools like Appium and Selenium existed long before AI, and teams explored them seriously. But what became clear over time was that the ROI of end-to-end mobile automation using traditional frameworks was close to zero. Not because teams weren’t capable. But because the problem itself was hard. Mobile interfaces change frequently. End-to-end tests were brittle, expensive to maintain, and often failed to provide the confidence teams actually needed. What this experience highlighted wasn’t a gap in effort or intent. It highlighted how difficult reliable verification really is. Later, working with fast-scaling teams, I kept seeing the same pattern: strong engineering teams, fast release cycles, and a large amount of human attention devoted to making sure things felt right. That accumulation of experience eventually led us to start Zenact AI The idea is simple and modest: Verification should behave like a careful human reviewer - but be easier to sustain, earlier in the cycle, and continuous. Not more tests. Better assurance. We’re still learning what that looks like in practice, and we’ll share what we learn as we go. #EngineeringThoughts #SRE #ReliabilityEngineering #FounderPerspective #B2BSoftware #ZenactAI

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Swiggy and Zepto are facing attention after a petition by Mission Accessibility revealed their apps weren’t compatible with screen readers, excluding visually impaired users. Despite legal requirements under the RPwD Act, 2016, the platforms failed to meet accessibility standards. This issue underscores the importance of ARIA and accessibility. It’s not just about compliance, but ensuring all users, regardless of ability, can access digital services. Prioritizing accessibility creates a better user experience, broadens the audience, and builds trust with customers. In a world that’s becoming increasingly digital, inclusion matters, it’s not just the right thing to do, it’s good for business.

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"How Startup Life is Rewiring My AI PM Identity After Microsoft" 🎯 Series: The Unfiltered Startup Diary of a Microsoft Convert (Post 2/3) One of my Vedantu colleagues - an ex-Zomato ops guy - once saw his perfect 0% order delay record at risk. His solution? Went to the restaurant and delivered the order himself! That's startup life in three words: You own it. At Microsoft, I had a clear charter and incredible teams to execute with. Everyone had dedicated lanes, structured roles, and the space to innovate deeply within their domain. In start-ups, PMs do analytics + GTM + content + ops. Engineers jump on customer calls when needed. Because if a task needs doing and you can do it, it's your job 💪 My Yesterday looked like this: 📞 Morning: Strategy call on product priorities 🔍 Midday: Analyzing Ved's market sentiment through user research 🤖 Afternoon: Updating our AI model for next release 🚀 Evening: Planning GTM execution steps Here's what I'm learning: If you thrive in environments with clear structure and deep expertise in one domain, corporates teach you to excel in your craft 🔥 If you're an AI PM who's equally comfortable diving into GTM strategies, user research, and launch coordination - startups unlock a version of yourself you didn't know existed ✨ What's the most unexpected thing you've done at work that was technically "not your job"? 👇 #StartupLife #Microsoft #Vedantu #AIProductManager #ProductManagement #CareerGrowth #StartupCulture #CrossFunctional #AIPM

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Shantanu Narayen’s 18 year tenure as CEO at Adobe is a reminder of how rare long-term stewardship has become in Silicon Valley. During his time with the company, the company’s stock increased more than 6x and its business model fundamentally changed. The most important decision of his tenure was moving Adobe from selling boxed software like Creative Suite to a subscription platform through Creative Cloud. At the time it was controversial. Today, it is considered one of the most successful SaaS transitions in the history of enterprise software, turning Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat into one of the most profitable recurring software ecosystems ever built. The respect he commands across the industry says a lot about how difficult that transformation actually was. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella even posted publicly congratulating Narayen on a “legendary run,” praising both his leadership and the way he expanded what creators and businesses could do with software. In an industry that is often intensely competitive, that kind of recognition from peers is not given lightly. There are only a few CEOs in the world who truly get to define one era of software and then help set the stage for the next. Narayen did it by turning Adobe into a SaaS powerhouse. However, the next leader will have to answer a harder question. What does a creative software company look like when AI becomes part of the creative process itself? #Adobe #Leadership #SaaS #AI #Technology

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Came across a great great philosophy of "User Disengagement" in an article by Zerodha In this philosophy, the term engagement has little to no relevance. Business and product decisions are based on utility for the end user with common sense trade-offs for the business to be sustainable, and never on arbitrary “engagement”, “growth”, or valuation metrics. Full Article link: https://lnkd.in/es-9QwKG

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Good UX feels invisible. This new Paytm update? A masterclass. Even my mom used it flawlessly, now that's the design done right. I’m loving the All-New Paytm App. Clean, simple, and easy for users with key icons in the same place, so your muscle memory is safe too. The best part? First scroll = payments. Exactly how it should be. Paytm has always been the OG of payments - from launching QR codes to setting benchmarks with every product. And now, with India’s #1 Payment’s app, it’s raised the bar again in the simplest and effortless way. This is what it solves for: Problem : How can users track expenses, manage finances, and simplify the tax filing process. Scale: UPI has transformed India's mobile payment landscape, making up 83% of total payment volume by 2024. Solution: Paytm UPI users can download detailed UPI statements for specific date ranges or financial years in Excel and PDF format. The feature includes payment notes and tags. Paytm, the pioneer of mobile payments in India, has made it even easier to manage everything around mobile payments perfectly matching how India is moving faster towards UPI for everyday payments. What stood out to me from a product lens: No clutter, no confusion - just thoughtful UX You open it, and everything is exactly where it should be New features like viewing the total balance across all your UPI-linked bank accounts and downloading UPI statements - so simple, yet so useful. Even someone like my mom, who’s not tech-savvy, picked it up and nailed the flow on the first try. That’s what great design looks like, it doesn’t need a user manual. The insight? Good products solve a problem. Great products feel like they were built around you. Curious to know what apps do you guys use for payments and any Paytm enthusiasts here? #UPI #digitalpayments #paytm #productdesign

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𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗹𝗱𝗲𝗻 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗺𝘆 𝘃𝗶𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱 Yash Gawde 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗹𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗼 👇 Yes, the same Yash who’s been all over the internet for that handwritten note he passed to Nikhil Kamath at a Mumbai café. But beyond the headlines, there’s something far more powerful: 👉 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗲’𝘀 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 BeHooked. Yash shares:  • Why BeHooked is more than a video tool — it’s evolving into a Media Operating System  • How he sees AI as a personal creative agent for every founder & creator  • The future of content creation where storytelling is scaled, but never loses authenticity 💡 Whether you’re a founder, a creator, or just someone curious about the future of AI — this is worth your 60 seconds. If this reel inspired you as an Entrepreneur, you will love the whole conversation on 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗜𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗦 𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘄, link in comments #AI #generativeAI #aibros #theaibrosshow #aibrosshow #creatoreconomy #MediaOS #founderstory #startups #theaibrosshow

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🚀 सहज जीवन: probably the first open-source, collaborative, public, and live Marathi book, built transparently on GitHub. 🚀 The first part is a translation of Leo Babauta's "The Effortless Life" in Marathi, and the second part is open for contributions. I’ve already added a couple of chapters there myself. The idea is simple: anyone with useful insights about leading a good life can join and contribute. Contributions are voluntary, no money involved. 💡 Eligibility criteria for contributors: - Fluency in reading and writing Marathi - Basic GitHub literacy (fork, commit, PR). LaTeX expertise is not required - And yes, you must have read almost all of PuLa. That’s non-negotiable 😉 You can either refine the translation of the pending chapters or add fresh chapters of your own. Just fork the repo, add your changes, and send a PR. You can also  your add your name as co-author, thus build your own version of the book into a PDF, print it for yourself, and even publish it for wider circulation. I’m planning to self-publish a slightly updated version via Notion Press, which will naturally come with some costs. Feel free to do the same, the PDF is freely available in the repo. If you want to add a chapter, just place it at the end and submit a PR (Pull Request). If you are not comfortable with LaTeX or GitHub, you can share me the content via Google-Docs or email, I will add that on your behalf. 👉 If you’re interested in this whole “effort,” drop a comment below or message me your Gmail ID. I’ll schedule a short online meet or create a chat group to align next steps. IMO, this is not just a book, it’s a movement: bringing open-source culture to Marathi literature. Imagine being part of a collective that publishes a free, evolving, community-owned book! 📎 Repo name: yogeshhk/SahajJeevan (... on GitHub). 📑 Attaching the partial draft PDF here for a quick taste. (It’s a very rough draft, just to give you the idea.) जय महाराष्ट्र ✨

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Prashant'sBlogForIdeas #1 Hello CEO of Zomato (Deepinder Goyal) and fellow readers, Sub:  Idea to Enhance Zomato's User Experience: Faster Deliveries with Data-Driven-AI Insights Here's an idea from a product manager to improve "User Experience" by delivering faster while maintaining quality. I'm not sure if this is already happening in the background, but if it is, this idea could further enhance that experience. Part 1: If we already know from the data how many food orders are being placed at a particular restaurant during a specific hour (frequency: 1 hour), and if we can identify 2-3 top-ordered dishes with higher ratings that are regularly ordered, then we could start preparing these particular dishes as a pre-activity. Additionally, we could employ delivery personnel in advance Part 2: If part 1 is already being implemented, you could also consider adding an ETA on the Zomato app for those particular dishes. For example, an Aloo TikkiBurger could be delivered in 15 minutes instead of 30, whereas a Veggie Cheeseburger might take 30 minutes. Phase 2: Forecasting model which we could help restaurant owners to invest in their best and high frequency dishes. ROI: 1. Reduced Cycle Time: This could reduce the cycle time in delivering food, which has been a game changer since Blinkit. 2. Maintained Food Quality: This wouldn't impact food quality but would rather enhance user experience by delivering the same quality food in less time 3. Optimized Resource Management: Better handling of riders, ensuring they are at the correct location beforehand, which could help in better planning of resources. One downside I could think of (there could be others, open for ideas): Impact on other items in the menu: This could reduce the sale of other items for the restaurant, but that's debatable based on individual choices and preferences. This model is practiced in a lot of industries and especially in supply chain where we perform multiple pre-activities. However, tying it up with specific dishes to give real time ETAs would increase user experience further. #AIinfoodDelivery #AI #fooddelivery #zomato #blinkit Here's a mockup:

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𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱𝐢𝐭𝐲 just made a bold move—offering a 12-month Perplexity Pro subscription (worth ₹17,000/year) for free to its entire Indian user base, potentially reaching 360 million people. Let that sink in. That’s ₹𝟲.𝟭𝟮 𝗹𝗮𝗸𝗵 𝗰𝗿𝗼𝗿𝗲 (~$𝟳𝟯 𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗹𝗶𝗼𝗻) worth of product being distributed—at zero direct cost to users. So, what’s the play here? 𝑰𝒔 𝑷𝒆𝒓𝒑𝒍𝒆𝒙𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒇𝒐𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒊𝒍𝒍? Or is this a smart growth hack—a strategic marketing bet that saves millions in user acquisition? Having worked with 𝙒𝙮𝙣𝙠 𝙈𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙘 and 𝑨𝙞𝒓𝙩𝒆𝙡 𝙈𝒐𝙫𝒊𝙚𝒔, I’ve seen firsthand how telcos can drive massive app adoption by bundling services into their plans. App installs that would cost ₹200–₹300 each via ads can be acquired at a fraction of the cost through native ecosystem pushes. 𝑨𝙣𝒅 𝒉𝙚𝒓𝙚’𝙨 𝙩𝒉𝙚 𝙠𝒊𝙘𝒌𝙚𝒓: when telcos send targeted SMSes and push notifications, the install rates skyrocket. This kind of direct distribution—at scale—is nearly impossible for an app like Perplexity to achieve on its own. This might be Perplexity’s moment—𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙐𝙗𝙚𝙧’𝙨 𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙮 𝙙𝙖𝙮𝙨 in India, when they subsidized rides and drivers to build irreversible habit loops. Today, millions can’t imagine life without it. And with 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅𝗶𝘁𝘆'𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘄 𝗯𝗿𝗼𝘄𝘀𝗲𝗿 launch, this partnership could also be laying the groundwork for a full-stack ecosystem: AI assistant + native browser + telco distribution. 🚀 𝐀 𝐰𝐢𝐧-𝐰𝐢𝐧: --Airtel gets to showcase cutting-edge AI to its users. --Perplexity scales faster and cheaper than traditional routes. --Users gain premium access—no strings attached. 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌—𝒔𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝒐𝒓 𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒌𝒚 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒂𝒘𝒂𝒚? #AI #Perplexity #Airtel #ProductGrowth #TelcoStrategy #AppDistribution #UserAcquisition #Wynk #BrowserWars #FreeBees

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I just went through Razorpay’s "Fix My Itch" database. The EdTech section isn't just a list of complaints. It’s a crime scene investigation of the Indian Education System. We are selling the "Indian Dream" to students, but delivering a "Quality Illusion." I analyzed the data, and the contradictions are screaming at us: -The "Paper Tiger" Graduate: Why do students with 9.0 GPAs lack the practical coding skills to ship a single feature? -The "Gatekeeper" Algorithm: Why are qualified candidates failing ATS filters just because their resume lacks a specific keyword? -The "Answer" Trap: Why has tutoring stuck to "answer-giving" instead of shifting to "skill-building"? -The "Commission" Crisis: Why are college choices being influenced by referral fees instead of actual student aptitude? We have built an ecosystem that rewards Memorization, while the economy is screaming for Application. The numbers back this up. Globally, companies spend $1.3 trillion on recruiting every year. Yet, 74% of new hires underperform and churn quickly. Why? Because we are forcing students into expensive annual subscriptions just to test a platform, while ignoring the fact that 80% of Indian employers are now prioritizing skills over degrees. If you are building in EdTech, stop building "Content Repositories." Start building "Outcome Engines." The market doesn't need another video course. It needs step-by-step kits, regional language support, and accessible analytics for the students who can't afford premium coaching. There are 10,000+ real problems like this waiting to be solved. Explore the full list here: https://lnkd.in/gJUaKXRU Founders, which of these "itches" are you scratching? Students, which one hurts the most? Let’s discuss. 👇 #EdTech #India #Startups #FutureOfWork #ProductManagement #Razorpay

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One of the best things about building at WorkIndia is watching engineers own problems end to end. Ishan Saini just wrote about something our team quietly solved and it's worth reading! Search sounds simple. User types a query, results show up. Done. Except when your users are searching "baby care" whereas they intend to look for a caretaker. Or "cafe staff" implying restaurant staff. And they're in a Tier-3 city where supply is already thin. A bad search result doesn't just frustrate them; it ends their session. That's a real business problem. Instead of reaching for fancy ML, Ishan and team went to the data first. Turns out just 1,800 queries drive 70% of our search volume. Fix those well, and you move the needle for most users on the platform. They built a simple query expansion system, ran it on 10% of users, and got: → 18% drop in zero-result sessions → 3.6% lift in 7-day retention Clean thinking. Fast execution. Real impact. Proud to have engineers like Ishan Saini on the team. Go give his article a read; link in comments!

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For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been heads-down working on delivery tech at Badho. The goal is simple to say, but hard to execute: Badho will be delivering 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺, pan-India. What that really means in practice: • Designing systems that scale beyond a single courier or partner   • Making the system configurable, extensible, and resilient from day one   • Treating delivery as a core platform capability, not an integration A lot of the work isn’t visible on the UI. It’s in the architecture, the edge cases, and the “what happens when this breaks at scale?” questions. Still early days, but 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁. More learning than shipping right now and that’s exactly how it should be. #engineering #deliveryAtScale #systemDesign #architecture

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