Rifqi Fadhlurrakhman

The "Senior" reflects scope, not headcount. I'm responsible for multiple products within StickEarn's supply-side (SSP) business arm and report directly to the VP of Product. We don't have a managerial track here. Everyone's an individual contributor, and seniority is about the complexity of what you're building.

I'm building a supply-side DOOH platform that lets publishers sell billboards the way websites sell ad space. The platform includes a programmatic ad exchange (OpenRTB-based), ad server, screen apps for Windows and Android, a CMS, and a publisher portal for managing inventory and campaigns. Basically, we're opening up programmatic revenue streams for OOH media owners who've been stuck selling manually for decades.

Before SSP, I led a team building scalable measurement systems for OOH advertising. We developed methods to provide near-real-time audience reach and impressions for 25,000+ screens across Indonesia. The system utilize mobile location data combined with demographic and geospatial data to analyze movement patterns and build audience personas. Unlike traditional OOH measurement, which relies on outdated traffic counts, ours updates constantly.

Building measurement is a research work that requires scientific validation and rigorous methods. Building SSP is different. I ship features and functionality for end users. Different problems, different teams, different rhythms. I've learned to switch between "prove this scientifically" mode and "ship this for users" mode depending on what the product needs.

I jumped into Ed Tech in 2019, right before COVID, because I wanted to build technology for blended learning that actually focused on learning science, not just digitizing classrooms. It was a natural extension of my earlier work designing curriculum and learning experiences at Lingkaran from 2017-2019. Turns out, becoming a PM in Ed Tech when you've already designed learning systems makes a lot of sense.

Both industries required building products without clear market templates. Lots of research, prototyping, validation, and figuring it out as we went. When I decided to switch to Ad Tech, I spent time learning the industry lingo, market landscape, and technical fundamentals before jumping in.

Trust first. I start by making sure everyone understands our goals and how we contribute to the bigger picture. Then it's about communication—not just PRDs, but concept maps, prototypes, whatever makes the idea clear. The "make it visual" principle from design thinking has carried me through my entire PM career. Engineers appreciate it. Honestly, most people do.

I studied IR purely out of curiosity about how the world works. But my technical foundation came earlier, I attend vocational high school in Network Engineering, plus freelance graphic design through college (posters, book layouts, and web design before "UI/UX" became popular). The technical skills got me hired. The politics degree taught me how systems and people interact. Both turned out useful.

These projects find me. People I've worked with reach out when they need help with a product or problem. I help when I can, in whatever capacity makes sense. Now I only take non-profit projects that align with what I care about: civic tech, education, and arts. This experience has enriched my capacity for understanding problems, providing solutions, and communicating with different types of stakeholders.

I got my boss and almost the entire engineering and product team at StickEarn switch to Arc browser. Pure persuasion and conviction. No BRD, no PRD, no metabase dashboard.