Abhinav.pm
Aspiring Product Manager · Payments & Cards

I've worked the back office of a credit card. Now I want to design the front.

I'm Abhinav Tarkar, a mechanical engineer turned banking operations professional. At Axis Bank I processed credit-card loan products against SLAs; before that I handled 500+ customer conversations a month. I turn what breaks in operations into product decisions, and I back them with public data.

Targeting: Product Analyst · APM · Product OpsNoida, IndiaOpen to Mumbai · Bengaluru · GurugramEnglish · Hindi
See my product workGet in touch
Why product

Three things I bring that most PM candidates have to learn on the job

Operations → product

I know where processes break

Validating Loan-on-Product cases at Axis Bank showed me the hand-offs between credit, operations and service where turnaround is lost. Those hand-offs are where product fixes pay off.

Customer care → product

I've done the user research

Thousands of customer conversations taught me how people describe a problem before they know what they need. I reduced response time by 30% by re-prioritising the workflow around them.

Engineering → product

I think in systems and constraints

A B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering trained me to define requirements, respect tolerances and test before shipping. In banking the tolerances are RBI directions and SLAs.

How I work

From a number in a report to something people can click

  1. 1

    Find the signal

    Start with public data and one surprising number. Card base up 7.4%, spend per card down 5%.

    3 dashboards
  2. 2

    Check it with people

    Write down what I believe, how I'll test it and what would change my mind.

    Interview guide
  3. 3

    Prototype the fix

    Build the smallest clickable version and a task-based test plan.

    Dispute tracker prototype
  4. 4

    Measure it

    One north-star metric, input metrics and guardrails, queried from the data.

    SQL workbenchOpen dataset
Product projects · built on public RBI and NPCI data

Each project starts with a real data signal and ends with a product I'd ship

ActivationRBI card statisticsJan–Sep 2026

Card Pulse: banks are issuing cards faster than people use them

Signal
India added 8.65 million credit cards between January and September 2026, but monthly spend per card slipped from ₹17,145 to ₹16,281.
Problem
New cardholders aren't building a habit. Each dormant card costs the bank acquisition spend and earns nothing.
Product
A 90-day activation journey: a first-spend nudge, a category-based welcome offer and a UPI-linked option for small daily payments.
Next
10 interviews with new cardholders who rarely use their card. Guide and hypotheses ready.
Open dashboardDiscovery planCode
+7.4%cards outstanding, Jan → Sep 2026
−5.0%monthly spend per card, same period

Index, January 2026 = 100. Source: RBI bank-wise ATM/POS/card statistics, as reported.

Payments strategyNPCI UPI statisticsJan–Oct 2026

UPI × Credit: where card issuers should meet small-ticket spending

Signal
UPI hit a record 25.47 billion transactions in October 2026 while its average ticket fell to about ₹1,238. Every month it moves roughly 14× the value of all credit-card spending.
Problem
Everyday spending happens at the QR code, but only RuPay credit cards can run on UPI. Issuers on other networks miss that frequency.
Product
A "credit on QR" proposition for a premium issuer: a RuPay companion card, rewards tuned for sub-₹2,000 spends and one shared credit limit.
Next
A fake-door test of the riskiest belief: do premium cardholders want rewards on small QR payments?
Open dashboardDiscovery planCode
25.47 bnUPI transactions, Oct 2026
₹1,238average UPI ticket, Oct 2026

Monthly UPI volume, billions. Source: NPCI monthly product statistics.

Customer experienceRBI Ombudsman reportFY 2024-25

Complaint Radar: designing credit-card disputes out of the ombudsman queue

Signal
Credit cards became the second-largest complaint category at the RBI Ombudsman in FY25, with 50,811 complaints, up 20% in a year.
Problem
Customers escalate when they can't see what is happening to a dispute, refund or charge. I answered these questions every day in customer care.
Product
An in-app dispute tracker with stage-by-stage status, SLA countdowns and automatic refund of credit balances, the issue behind an RBI penalty on one issuer in 2025.
Built
A clickable prototype of the tracker, with a 5-task usability test plan.
Try the prototypeOpen dashboardCode
17.15%share of ombudsman complaints, credit cards
+20.0%credit-card complaints, year on year

Share of complaints received by RBI Ombudsman offices, FY25. Source: RBI Annual Report of the Ombudsman Scheme 2024-25.

Case studies

How I break down a business

Startup · Fintech
CRED: can a rewards app for good borrowers become a profitable lender?
  • FY25 operating revenue of ₹2,735 crore, up 16%, with operating loss cut 51% to ₹298 crore.
  • Engagement is the engine: about 45% of active members use three or more products.
  • My take: lending pays the bills, so the product roadmap should protect trust in credit decisions above new lifestyle features.
Read the case study
Business · Global card network
American Express in India: winning premium customers in a UPI-first market
  • RBI barred new customer onboarding from May 2021 over data storage rules and lifted it in August 2022.
  • Global networks still can't route credit cards over UPI, where most everyday payments now happen.
  • My take: compete on service and travel value at the top, and partner for the QR moment instead of fighting it.
Read the case study
Experience

Where the product instincts came from

Feb 2026 – Jun 2026

Assistant Manager, Retail Operations · Axis Bank

  • Processed and validated Loan-on-Product (LOP) cases linked to credit cards end to end, within defined SLAs.
  • Streamlined banking workflows and maintained adherence to regulatory and internal compliance requirements.
  • Worked with credit, operations and service delivery teams to improve turnaround and client satisfaction.
  • Built MIS reports for leadership in advanced Excel and CRM tools.

Product lens: requirements, compliance constraints, cross-functional delivery.

Apr 2022 – Jun 2024

Customer Care Executive · iEnergizer

  • Managed 500+ customer interactions a month across email and phone while meeting quality and turnaround benchmarks.
  • Cut average response time by 30% by restructuring workflow priorities and channel allocation.
  • Kept audit-ready case histories in Zendesk and coordinated escalations with technical, billing and operations teams.
  • Mentored 7–8 associates on onboarding, process training and quality, and ranked among top CSAT performers.

Product lens: user research, prioritisation, measuring outcomes.

Graduated 2020

B.Tech, Mechanical Engineering · GLA University, Mathura

Product lens: systems thinking, specifications, testing.

Toolkit

What I use today, and what I'm building

Workingused on the job or in these projectsBuildingin active practice

Product

Problem framingWorking
User journey mappingWorking
PRDs & user storiesWorking
Prioritisation (RICE)Working
Discovery interviewsBuilding
Usability testingBuilding

Data

Advanced Excel & MISWorking
KPI & funnel metricsWorking
Python (pandas)Building
SQLBuilding
Power BI / TableauBuilding
A/B test designBuilding

Domain

Credit card lifecycleWorking
Loan-on-Product (EMI)Working
SLA & escalationsWorking
RBI compliance basicsWorking
Customer escalationsWorking
UPI & payment railsBuilding

Tools

Zendesk & CRMWorking
GitHub PagesWorking
Jira & ConfluenceBuilding
Figma wireframesBuilding
Clickable prototypesBuilding
Agile / ScrumBuilding
Contact

Hiring for payments, cards or banking product?

I'm looking for Product Analyst, Associate Product Manager and Product Operations roles in cards and payments, where operations knowledge is an advantage. I can start immediately.

abhinavspambox@gmail.com