Last month, we celebrated WeLab’s 7th anniversary. Over the past 7 years, we have achieved many milestones together that we are extremely proud of – building the leading online lending platforms in Hong Kong and China, then expanding into Indonesia, getting a digital banking license as the only standalone Hong Kong fintech company. We built a fintech unicorn from what was just a 7-person team cramped into a tiny office the size of a Tokyo ramen shop. However, no single individual can take full credit for any of these accomplishments – it is a team effort! We are extremely lucky to have a team that shares the same intense level of passion and commitment in building and making WeLab successful. Therefore, one of our proudest achievements to date is none of the milestones I mentioned above, but building an amazing team of individuals who are ambitious, team players, results-oriented, innovative and persistent. They come from diverse professional backgrounds, such as banking and technology, different age groups and nationalities. I often get asked by ex-colleagues from traditional banks and business partners, “How do you keep the traditional guys and the tech guys from going at each other’s throats all day long?”The answer: culture.Culture is the unspoken norm within a society or organization. When the culture is strong, a new joiner will know exactly how to behave simply by observing the rest of the team. We believe when the culture is strong, it acts as a self-reinforcing mechanism that encourages the right kinds of behavior. Culture, however, is also very fragile and shouldn’t be taken for granted. We first started noticing that we needed everyone to focus on building our culture when we expanded from our first office in Hong Kong to our second office in Mainland China. We had a new team in Mainland China and when the two teams met, it was as if they came from two completely different companies. As a company that started with only a handful of people in one tiny Hong Kong office that has grown rapidly across multiple markets with over 900 employees, solidifying our culture becomes a colossal challenge. With new faces joining the company every week, how do we ensure that we can keep that same level of cultural intensity we had when it was just a couple of us?A few months back as we began to build our fourth business unit, WeLab Bank – one of the first licensed digital banks in Hong Kong, the WeLab management team sat down to study how great companies promote and strengthen their cultures. We read countless books and articles on building and maintaining high-performance cultures. We formed a new “Culture Committee”, consisting of our strongest culture carriers that represent different functions, age groups and backgrounds, responsible for generating innovative initiatives to reinforce company culture.One challenge that every fast-growing company will experience is the pressure of hiring a lot of talent within a very short period of time. I often get asked by fellow entrepreneurs, “What happens if you find a candidate who checks all the boxes on experience, technical skills and qualifications, but is the wrong cultural fit? Should we still hire this person and lower the bar on cultural fit so we can meet our resource demand?” For a CEO, this is a tougher choice than you could imagine, especially when you see that the existing team is already spread to their thinnest. Some companies may believe that new hires who are weaker culture fits will miraculously self-correct after joining, but our experience tells us that is untrue. In fact, the cultural weak links will demoralize and confuse the existing, well-functioning team. To prevent this culture-crippling scenario, one of the first initiatives the Culture Committee rolled out was the culture interview process, where every candidate will have to be assessed for cultural fit by a certified culture interviewer from a different function. If you don’t pass our culture test, then you won’t get the offer no matter how great of an engineer, product manager or marketer you are – as simple as that. Because culture is so fragile, we must be strict about protecting and nurturing it.We also reflected on ourselves as a company on what has and hasn’t worked in the past 7 years. We wrote down a long list of attributes and behaviors that we absolutely loved about our colleagues, and wanted to see more of and more consistently across the company. We summarized these behaviors into 14 catchphrases that we hear in conversations and see in action in our office every day. Taking inspiration from other companies known for distinct and strong cultures (i.e. Netflix, Zappos), we created an extensive 90-page culture guide. (Yes, 90 pages – since we want to be very explicit and comprehensive.) It once took me two hours to present and go through the entire guide to the company! We reference very specific examples so that everyone who steps in through our doors knows what is expected and become culture influencers within and outside of WeLab. We believe that every point is essential to a strong culture that will allow a fast-growing company to scale in this tech age.By no means are we naïve enough to think that just by writing a culture book our culture becomes magically perfect, but writing things down helps crystallize intangible behaviors and holds us all accountable to demonstrate them. This is just one of many things we have planned to continue to invest in our culture and our people. We believe that by getting the culture right, everything else will follow.Our culture book is for everyone, with the intention to inspire:<ul><li>the new joiners, who may be unsure about how things work and how to interact with their new colleagues on their very first day at WeLab;</li><li>our existing employees, who may need to be reminded about how to continue to be our culture carriers;</li><li>you, the curious soul who wants to take a peek at how we do things at WeLab. Perhaps it can give you some inspiration and motivation in your day-to-day work or make a change to your company.</li></ul>We want to make sure every person at WeLab lives and breathes the culture book in real life so these catchphrases are not just words plastered on walls, published on our website or stays in a slide deck. These words should come to life every day. In the following weeks, we will be sharing insider perspectives to explain each of these behaviors as well as personal experiences on how we do things at WeLab. We hope by sharing our stories on our cultural journey, we can also help other entrepreneurs and companies navigate the challenges of building and sustaining a strong culture in this tech age.Building and solidifying culture is an ongoing process, and as a result the content of the book may change and grow over time, expanding beyond 14 behaviors and 90 pages, as we continue to improve and grow everyday as well in this everchanging organization.Happy reading! Feel free to share with your friends and family, because sharing is caring😊.The 14 WeLab catchphrases – check out our culture book for details!<ol><li>Never “not my job” – We have roles and responsibilities, but no boundaries. There are no boundaries, because it’s everyone’s job to make WeLab better – with more responsibilities, comes more power.</li><li>Grow faster than the company – We embrace a growth mindset and love to learn and tackle new challenges.</li><li>Experience isn’t everything, embrace the change – We love bringing experience andnew, innovative ideas together and when we do that, outer space is the limit!</li><li>Always find a way – We don’t shy away from challenges even when we get a “no”, we always push through. We say we will find a way and we always find a way</li><li>Do something about it – We are the do-ers, not just complainers. We present a problem AND a solution.</li><li>People first – We start with people in everything we do. Happy employees, happy customers!</li><li>Do everything 10x better – Whatever we are thinking, we think BIGGER because we aim to make everything exponentially better.</li><li>“What does success look like?” – We ask ourselves “what does success look like?” in everything we do because we are results-oriented.</li><li>Get sh*t done, but do it right – Coming up with ideas is easy, but execution is everything.</li><li>Say hi &amp; be kind – We want to create a work environment filled with kindness and encouragement for collaboration. Kindness is contagious!</li><li>Data is your best friend – We are obsessed with being data-driven, because data don’t lie!</li><li>Just ask, there is no secret – We believe in transparency because we understand access to information is crucial in an agile, fast-paced working environment.</li><li>Radical collaboration – We collaborate fiercely because we want to get the best outcomes and most unique results.</li><li>Get comfortable with being uncomfortable – We know for a fact magic happens outside of our comfort zones.</li></ol>

Product

Let's talk about company culture

Too often, you hear companies say they value innovative ideas, they want to see more out-of-the-box thinking and encourage employees to be a bit radical and transform the way they work. But, you rarely see these verbal wishes materialize – walking the talk is not always easy. However, within my first week at WeLab, I saw how innovation and crazy ideas came to life and how people make things happen around here. It comes down to 3 essential foundational elements that have to be in place, which I will get to in just a bit.I joined WeLab about 4 months ago, so I’m considered a relative “newbie”. After spending over 10 years in traditional MNCs, I decided to take the leap and try something new. I joined WeLab as the People Strategy Manager to develop people initiatives and employee engagement strategies with an aim to build and maintain a strong and agile company culture and employment brand across different employee touchpoints. The WeLab Culture How-To Guide was only finalized 8 days before I joined, but within my first week, I was tasked with the mission to promote all 14 behaviors to the entire Hong Kong office (with ~200 people)!There were three of us in a room trying to brainstorm ideas on how to start building awareness for our cultural behaviors. The pre-WeLab me would have just stayed quiet and observe how others would approach this. I was really nervous about sharing any of my ideas, worried that my new colleagues may find them too wild or impractical and judge me for it. This was only my first week and I didn’t want to start off on the wrong foot. However, after observing them bounce ideas back and forth, I found their energy and creativity infectious, so I took the leap and shared my idea: “What if we turned this into a company-wide challenge? We can come up with weekly tasks that represents each of the cultural behaviors that people would have to complete and earn points toward a final prize!”As soon as I suggested that idea, my heart stopped a bit, expecting to hear the typical “No, that won’t work here”, “You can’t do things like that”, “That’s not how we do things”, “I don’t think people will like it”, “Good idea, but will need to check with so-and-so whether we can do it” – the typical phrases that have put many fun, crazy ideas into the grave. Instead, I heard “That would be so much fun!”, “We could even have a leader board so people know how they are doing each week, “We can give out weekly prizes to keep people engaged!” They just kept on layering more and more ideas on top of mine. Throughout the session, I didn’t hear any words such as “no” or “cannot”. Instead, they rode on my ideas and gave me practical recommendations and constructive feedback on how we can make this work. Once we agreed on what we wanted to do, how we wanted to roll it out, and sought some additional input from other colleagues, we went straight into execution mode. And that’s how our 7-week culture challenge was born only after an hour of brainstorming (probably the most productive brainstorming session I’ve ever had!).This is how the 7-week culture challenge works (in case you would like to replicate it for your company):<ul><li>Challenge lasted for 7 weeks (hence, the name). Each week we would announce two cultural behaviors with tasks to be completed associated with those behaviors. Tasks included things like sharing examples and stories of a time you tried something for the first time and stepped out of your comfort zone (behavior #14: Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable), how you always found a way no matter how difficult the circumstances are (behavior #4: Always find a way), how you used data to help you make decisions (behavior #11: Data is your best friend) or even nominating a colleague who you thought went out of their way to take responsibility over something that was not part of their job description (behavior #1: Never not my job). For one of the tasks, we even ended up creating a Christmas tree from the post its people used for their submissions since it happened to be the Christmas holiday.</li></ul><img class="fullwidth" src="/media/images/0.2e16d0ba.fill-433x577.jpg" alt="0.jpg" />(photo: Week #5: We value executional excellence at WeLab and believe everything comes down to execution. We asked people to submit on a post it note an idea that they’ve executed at WeLab that they are the most proud of.)<ul><li>Employees were grouped into teams to compete for individual and team prizes. We even tried to be innovative with our prizes (beyond just the typical gift vouchers): a private massage session followed by mango sticky rice and herbal tea, a pizza party for the team or a hearty breakfast in the office (can you tell we love food?).</li><li>We utilized our existing communication channels as a way to encourage more sharing and engagement with each other. In the challenge, everyone had to submit their completed tasks (these were often in the form of pictures or anecdotes) through our #7weekculturechallenge Slack channel. This way, we were all encouraged to share with each other how we are bringing our best selves to work and also outside of the office. This was the first-ever initiative of this kind at WeLab – focused on culture and encompassing sharing, recognition, teamwork and creativity. Everyone (yes, 100%!) took part in the challenge. There were nearly 1,700 submissions (on average 9 submissions per employee) throughout the course of 7 weeks!</li></ul><img class="fullwidth" src="/media/images/0.2e16d0ba.fill-657x677.png" alt="0.png" />(photo: Left - Submissions and nominations during week #2 for when we were promoting the behavior “Experience isn’t everything, embrace change&quot;; Right - Week #7: Colleagues trying something new outside of work together – bouldering for the first time!)One of my favorite submissions which captures the WeLab spirit very well was when our Group CAO said, “No matter where you are, on the streets, or near a garbage bin, when the time comes to get work done as long as there is WiFi, we will do it”.<img class="fullwidth" src="/media/images/0-1.2e16d0ba.fill-1847x772.png" alt="0-1.png" />(photo: Left - Group CAO working on the street; Middle - During a company offsite to Taipei, our Deputy CFO found a spot to deal with urgent work matters; Right - Group Head of Strategy still working on a Friday night while out for drinks. )In the week for culture behavior “Experience isn’t everything, embrace change” the challenge was to share a statement in the predefined format of “From my past experience, I used to…but now….” In that week, I received the following which made my efforts all worth it: “From my past experience, I used to think reinforcing company culture is slow and ineffective. But this Slack channel speaks for us and our culture. It just blows my mind!”.<ul><li>At the end of each week during our regular Friday afternoon teas, we announced the leader boards and the winners. We saw the competitiveness of our colleagues come out, but it was healthy competition!</li></ul><img class="fullwidth" src="/media/images/0-2.2e16d0ba.fill-1901x470.png" alt="0-2.png" />(photo: Weekly winners and leader board announced every Friday)At the end of the challenge, besides achieving our objective of getting the whole office to familiarize themselves with the cultural behaviors and promoting the culture book internally, we also discovered other benefits of conducting this challenge and why you may want to consider something like this for your company:<ul><li>We got to know our colleagues much better and discovered some interesting facts based on the hundreds of photos that were submitted. E.g. there’s a growing shoe collection under a lot of our colleagues’ desks, we have colleagues who have a special talent in fixing air conditioning and we have colleagues who go above and beyond to care for one another – including tying shoelaces, feeding and washing dishes.</li></ul><img class="fullwidth" src="/media/images/0-3.2e16d0ba.fill-1095x1117.png" alt="0-3.png" /><ul><li>On a serious note, we found that this culture challenge increased engagement as it created another opportunity for colleagues to bond and have fun in the workplace with one another. Especially since we have been outgrowing our office and people are split across different offices across different floors (a real growing pain a lot of fast-growing companies go through), it was important to have this initiative as another opportunity to bring people together.</li><li>We discovered who our culture influencers were. There were colleagues who we didn’t expect that naturally became leaders of their teams to get everyone organized and get them to participate. It was refreshing to see them exude the WeLab values and encouraging others to do so as well.</li><li>We also noticed that our culture was already strongly and naturally ingrained into a subset of our colleagues because they didn’t think what they were doing day-to-day was worth advertising. They saw their actions and behaviors as a very natural part of their job and who they were and didn’t think what they were doing was that special. This was the very reason why we wanted to push out this challenge because although a subset of them naturally exhibited these behaviors, we needed to ensure new joiners understood it as well. This was a great awareness building exercise.</li></ul>Although the culture challenge only lasted 7 weeks, that doesn’t mean we stopped exhibiting the behaviors after the challenge ended. The purpose was to raise general awareness for these behaviors – first by writing them down explicitly via the culture book, then by getting everyone to recognize and understand them explicitly through this challenge. We hope by doing this, people are clearer on what our values mean and how to exhibit them day-to-day.All of this from ideation to launch took a mere 7 days. The whole challenge was completed within 8 weeks of me joining WeLab – I hadn’t even passed my probation period yet! In the process of rolling out this initiative, I realized 3 things had to be in place in order for something like this, or any initiative, whether it&#x27;s internal or external to happen in a short amount of time:<ol><li>Individuals themselves have to feel safe and empowered to come up with ideas and share them openly</li><li>Others have to be open to embrace new ideas. What I realized is simply removing or limiting the usage of words like “no” and “cannot” helps make people more open to change and thus recognize opportunities that others don’t.</li><li>The organization has to structurally allow for people and teams to execute on the ideas. Give people the space and tools to run.</li></ol>If either one of these foundational elements were missing, I wouldn&#x27;t have been able to roll out this initiative. (1) I wouldn&#x27;t have shared my idea to begin with if i didn&#x27;t see that others were also freely sharing their ideas. (2) Even if I had shared my idea, but my colleagues weren&#x27;t supportive or constructive, then we would&#x27;ve gone with a traditional approach to promoting culture. (3) If the three of us all agreed on the idea, but if we had to run it through layers of formal approvals, then we wouldn&#x27;t have been able to execute it as efficiently as we did. At WeLab, we make sure these 3 stars are aligned so the sky can be our limit. Crazy 10x ideas are achievable – you just need the right mindset, the right support group and the space to run with it.If you are interested in learning more about who we are, what we do and the way we work in WeLab, please follow our <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/welab-limited/">WeLab</a> LinkedIn page.

Culture

How to launch something in 7 days that would otherwise take 2 years

You will likely spend more than 90,000 hours at work over your lifetime. That translates into about 10 full years and even more if you are living in a city like Hong Kong, which is one of the cities with the highest weekly working hours <a href="https://www.chinadailyasia.com/hknews/2016-05/25/content_15439024.html">(~50 hours per week</a>). <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/2017/10/18/weve-broken-down-your-entire-life-into-years-spent-doing-tasks_a_23248153/">After sleep, work is the top activity we spend our lives doing – more than eating, vacationing and exercising COMBINED.</a> Our work shouldn’t be the only thing that defines us, but if we are spending the majority of our waking hours at work, then how we act at work does reflect who we are as people and it would probably be a good idea to try to spend those 90,000+ hours in a happy and healthy workplace.Humans are social beings. We were born into social groups and wired to live our entire lives as part of a families, communities and societies. Therefore, having social ties at work plays a big part in determining our happiness level during those 90,000 hours we spend working in our lifetime. Feeling unwelcomed, lonely and isolated at work not only negatively impacts our happiness but also prevents us from fully integrating ourselves into the company, ultimately affecting our work performance. This is why at WeLab, we spend a lot of time trying to build a happy and friendly workplace because we understand the subtle power it has on our emotional well-being, which is strongly linked to our physical well-being, and of course our quality of life. Here’s how we do it at WeLab:1. Make it everyone’s job to build a happy workplaceAs part of the People &amp; Culture team, I spend a lot of my time brainstorming and planning different initiatives to create a healthy and happy workplace, but building a happy workplace doesn’t have to be a single person’s or team’s responsibility.As a working mom, my 4-year-old daughter always enlightens me with the saying from her all-time favourite Paw Patrol, “No job is too big, no pup is too small”. How often do you feel like you are too unimportant or new to make an impact to the company? To build our happy workplace, we see each WeLabber as a key player in defining and creating better workplace for all of us. No one is too small to make an impact. Even something as simple as a warm smile or saying “hi” can make a difference to someone who is having a bad day. This is why we always encourage everyone at WeLab to “Say Hi and Be Kind”, which we deliberately made as one of our core cultural behaviors. We shouldn’t underestimate our power as individuals to create the environment we desire to live in.<p class="image-container text-center" data-img-alt="Kind Blog- Say hi and be kind" data-img-format="center" data-img-max-width="0" data-img-src="/media/images/IMG_2951_1.width-500.jpg" element-type="image"><img alt="Kind Blog- Say hi and be kind" src="/media/images/IMG_2951_1.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: “Say Hi and Be Kind” is a cultural behavior we take so seriously we had it printed on one of our office walls since we want everyone to be reminded to say hi and be kind every day in the office.)2. Make a deliberate effort to show your kindnessBeing kind not only brings happiness to the recipient of your kind act, but each time you engage in an act of kindness, your brain will release a “feel good” chemical, dopamine, which boosts your mood and motivation. By making others happy, you also naturally become happy!<a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2010/02/25/0913149107.abstract?sid=269b1a48-0549-4109-998c-da1be87ed3c7">Research</a> has also shown how kindness and generosity can be contagious and creates a ripple effect. When we are kind to one person, that person becomes much more likely to be kinder to others they meet going forward.So, what are ways to show your kindness in the workplace? Here are some simple, random acts of kindness that we encourage WeLabbers to do every day. Most of these are low investment and will cost you nothing to do. In return, you will help create a positive, friendly workplace and even help brighten up your own mood.<ul><li>Smile – even at those you may not know. Research shows that when you smile, you send signals to your brain that you are happy even if you are in a bad mood. When you smile you also release endorphins, which are chemicals that reduce stress and give you a sense of happiness.</li></ul><img alt="Kind Blog- Smiles" src="/media/images/IMG_20191216_123619.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: Busy days at work don’t stop us from smiling and feeling festive each and every day.)<ul><li>Say “Good Morning” or “Hi” with a warm smile to anyone you see, even if you don’t know them personally</li><li>Buy coffee for someone when you get one for yourself. At WeLab, we even subsidize coffee dates between colleagues to encourage people to get to know each other better.</li><li>Stop and ask someone how they are doing and really listen to the answer. This could be at the end of a meeting or when you just happen to walk by their desk, bump into them by the coffee machine or even in the bathroom. We intentionally designed our office with open spaces and areas to encourage these spontaneous collisions to happen so people can have more of these coffee-machine conversations, even if it’s just for 1 minute.</li></ul><img alt="Kind Blog- Coffee" src="/media/images/Image_from_iOS_59.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: Making coffee at work with some wholesome conversations.)<ul><li>Open the door for others and say &quot;Thank you&quot; when someone does the same for you</li><li>Spontaneously help a stressed colleague when you see them struggling to meet their deadline</li><li>Give a compliment – a kind and genuine compliment can turn someone’s day around instantly. Even a simple compliment will do the magic like “I like your outfit!”, “I like how you structured your presentation! You nailed it!”</li><li>Give your time as freely as you can. It’s easy to get caught up in your day and we know you are busy. At WeLab, no one is never not busy! However, when colleagues reach out to you for your advice, feedback or just need someone to talk to, try to put your work aside for a couple of minutes and give them your attention. Never underestimate the impact you may have on others when you carve out time from from your busy schedule to have a conversation with them. One day, a peer came to me for advice on furthering her studies and continuing education. At the end of the conversation, she told me she gained so much clarity after the chat. To me, it was just a conversation but I didn’t realize how much she appreciated the fact I stopped what I was doing to engage in that conversation with her. I underestimated the impact I could bring to the other person just by spending time to share my 2 cents.</li></ul>Like ripples in the water, kindness can be spread to positively affect others around us. It’s never too late to be kind and bring positive change to your work environment. I challenge you to take action this week to commit to these acts of kindness in your own workplace and start spreading those “feel good” chemicals!

Life is too short to spend it in a toxic work environment. How to bring happiness and kindness to the workplace.

1. Get rewarded for drinking waterAt WeLab, we love a good challenge. I remember the first day I joined WeLab, we were in the middle of our 7-week culture challenge based on the <a href="https://www.welab.co/files/culture/WeLab%20Culture%20Book%20v10.pdf">WeLab Culture Book</a>. I saw the intense team spirit and competitiveness of my new colleagues as everyone was completing tasks related to our cultural behaviors so they could win individual and team prizes. Read more about this challenge <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-launch-something-7-days-would-otherwise-take-2-years-charity-hui/?trackingId=jTCLKfUBTM2R7W0tk5x4pg%3D%3D">here</a>.A recent challenge the WeLab People and Culture team came up with was the Water Challenge. For 14 days straight, everyone participating in the challenge had to download an app to track our daily water intake with the goal of consuming no less than 2,000mL of water each day. We each then picked our own buddy to keep us motivated, and at the end of the challenge, if we both met our goals, we received a HK$100 coupon of our choice – each!Not only did the challenge help me reach the daily recommended water intake, but with drinking more water, this also meant more frequent trips to the bathroom, where I bumped into more colleagues (likely because they were also participating in the Water Challenge and ended up frequenting the bathroom more like me). This created more unexpected bonding moments or “collisions” as described by Zappos founder, Tony Hsieh, who believed random serendipitous encounters away from our desks promotes innovation and productivity. Who knew drinking water not only could win me a prize but also helps create a healthy and creative company culture! (I did, however, end up using that HK$100 coupon to buy myself some wine which might’ve canceled out the hydration I gained from the Water Challenge.)Work life tip: Challenges like this help inject some excitement into the office and is a great way to build stronger bonds between colleagues. A little healthy competition can also help keep people motivated.<img alt="1.jpg" src="/media/images/1.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: The rules of the game for our 14-day Water Challenge.)2. Get a military style workoutEvery Wednesday at 7pm, it’s not uncommon to see ten or so brave souls all in sports gear head over to our social area, where they will endure a military-style exercise bootcamp led by our fearless Head of Cybersecurity, Samuel, who previously served in the Royal Malaysian Army.Here’s a quick rundown to help you get a sense of how intense our workout is:- For 45 minutes straight, we’re in a circle, doing countless burpees, pushups, sit ups, jumping jacks…and many more repetitions of different high-intensity movements. During one session, I’m pretty sure we each ended up doing more than 100 push-ups.- Samuel monitors and scrutinizes our movement (probably in the same manner he combats cyber-attacks) and screams “That didn’t count – do it again!” or “You guys didn’t do it together – again!”- We all find ourselves lying on our backs, gasping for air at the end of each session.While we’re all exhausted and glad to still be alive after the 45 minutes, we somehow still leave looking forward to next week’s torturous bootcamp. I guess working at WeLab has built up our tolerance and ability to work through intense pressure and pain!As someone who values fitness, I love having this opportunity to take time even while I’m at work to push myself in a different way and it’s an easy way to incorporate my fitness goals with work. At WeLab, we like to remind each other to “get comfortable with being uncomfortable” and my fellow bootcamp participants and I have definitely pushed ourselves outside of our comfort zones and have come out stronger (both physically and mentally)!Work life tip: Find ways to break up your monotonous work week with physical challenges like our 45 min bootcamp. Teams who workout together, stay stronger together!<img alt="2.jpg" src="/media/images/2.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/><img alt="3.jpg" src="/media/images/3.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>3. Get a summer bod at workThere is something for everyone at WeLab. If the military style workout sounds too intense for you, there are also many other less strenuous alternatives.In order to get that golden tan and summer bod, we started doing 15-minute daily workouts, targeting abs and glutes to get everyone in shape and have some chiseled abs to show off! Our People and Culture team even procured some yoga mats for the office to help us stay active in the office. If the weather’s nice, we’ll even go to our office rooftop for some sunset workout sessions (we’re fans of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCgLoMYIyP0U56dEhEL1wXQ">Chloe Ting</a>’s YouTube workouts).We also have our Wednesday Stretch &amp; Relax sessions, where colleagues take turns leading a 15-minute stretching session every week. Not only is it a great way to take a break mentally from work and stretch out those strained office bodies without leaving your desk, it is also a chance to bond with colleagues!Work life tip: Fit in some easy exercises into your daily work schedule, even if it’s just 15 minutes – that’s all you need to release some of the stiffness from sitting all day in front of a computer. You’ll also get a good laugh when you hear the cracking sounds from your colleagues’ knees, shoulders and necks!<img alt="4.jpg" src="/media/images/4.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: Enjoying some sunset yoga on our rooftop after a hard day&#x27;s work.)<img alt="5.jpg" src="/media/images/5.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: Coordinated Zoom stretch while practicing safe social distancing measures in our office.)<img alt="6.jpg" src="/media/images/6.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: The first time I successfully led a Stretch &amp; Relax session with the entire company!) 4. Have a picnic up on the office rooftopAfter spending seven years in our old office in Sheung Wan, we moved to a new office in April this year. Not only do we have a lot more space to fit all 200 of us, but we also have a lot of great facilities that we love to make use of.For example, a colleague recently suggested we take advantage of our office rooftop before summer heat in Hong Kong became too unbearable. A few of us jumped on the idea immediately and started planning the menu for our picnic feast. We each had to contribute a dish we cooked ourselves. Some of us were clearly a lot more competent than others when it came to cooking and made more elaborate dishes such as tom yum shredded chicken (冬蔭公手撕雞) and enoki mushrooms and asparagus wrapped in sliced beef (金菇露荀牛肉卷). Others, on the other hand (mainly myself), went for much simpler options – I ended up buying three cucumbers, a bag of carrots and some celery, as well as some hummus and yogurt dip for our picnic. It might have been a somewhat odd combination of food for a picnic, but the food was delicious, the view was gorgeous, and we had such a great time just getting to spend a relaxed afternoon with one another away from our computers for once.We promote “radical collaboration” at WeLab since we believe it helps us achieve something bigger than ourselves when we work together. What this picnic demonstrated was that with our diverse (cooking) skillset, ideas, backgrounds and experiences, we were able to achieve something much bigger than what we were able to do on our own – an eclectic yet delicious feast.Work life tip: Instead of the usual takeout meals at your desk, planning a picnic or potluck with your colleagues is fun way to get to know your colleagues (and their cooking skills).<img alt="7.jpg" src="/media/images/7.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/><img alt="8.jpg" src="/media/images/8.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>5. Launch one of HK’s first virtual banksJuly 30, 2020. A day I’ll never forget.After 477 days and a total of 11,448 hours filled with blood, sweat and tears, we successfully built and publicly launched WeLab Bank. In the months leading up to the launch of our bank, we assembled a team to help organize a media launch event to celebrate this momentous occasion. With contributors pulled from all different departments across the company including Tech, Product, Growth, Marketing, Business Intelligence, and more, the team was so ecstatic to be a part of this launch event, despite the additional man-hours that it added to everyone’s individual workload. Seeing as it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to launch a virtual bank, I, of course, wanted to help as well.During our brainstorming sessions, we came up with a host of exciting, innovative ideas for the event, including building an entire cha chaan teng (a traditional Hong Kong café) experience powered by the WeLab Debit Card; a wall of custom-made WeLab Bank related minibus signs; and a WeLab Bank minibus stop made from an industrial funnel, a pipe, a couple of spray cans and some foam boards.<img alt="9.jpg" src="/media/images/9.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: The backdrop where we hosted our virtual livestream for WeLab Bank launch.)Unfortunately, the third wave of COVID-19 in Hong Kong hit in the middle of our planning period. A few days before our public launch event was scheduled to take place, Hong Kong experienced the highest number of confirmed cases so far this year, and it quickly became clear that it was not going to be safe to host a large-scale media event during this time. We had only a couple of days to quickly pivot and figure out an alternative solution to our physical launch event. With the team’s focus and dedication, in just a few days, we managed to turn our launch event to a virtual livestream – we fixed up all the decorations, changed the rundown of the event, and sorted out all the technical kinks required for a livestream. Somehow, we pulled off the impossible.The virtual event ended up being a success and served as a great start to the first chapter of WeLab Bank. Plus, as a virtual bank, it was quite on-brand that we launched virtually! Although it wasn’t the launch event we initially planned for, we worked as a team to push through the challenges (perhaps the military-style workouts trained us for high-pressure, intense moments like these) and still found a way to make it happen. I feel very fortunate and proud to have been a part of this journey. Through this, we demonstrated some of our core cultural behaviors:- “Always find a way”: We didn’t let the last minute, unexpected change deter us. We put our heads together to come up with a new format, persevered and figured out a way to continue with our launch.- “Never not my job”: Although the launch event was a PR event, we didn’t see it as just the PR team’s job. At WeLab, we believe it’s everyone’s responsibility to do what it takes to get the job done and therefore 12 of us from across various teams dedicated extra time beyond our usual office hours to make this event happen and made it a success.- “What does success look like?”: We’re a result-oriented group at WeLab and for any project or any task we always visualize first what success looks like to us and just focus on getting there. Since we all knew what we needed to deliver and what outcome we were aiming for it was easy to get everyone coordinated to execute toward that same goal of getting the launch event ready.Now with WeLab Bank officially launched to the public, I can’t wait to have more unexpected experiences at WeLab!Work life tip: Step up to the plate and raise your hand to get involved in milestone projects, even if it may be outside of your day-to-day role and responsibilities. You won’t regret it when you see the fruits of your labor bring an impact to the business. You can also have lots of fun doing it with the most amazing colleagues!<img alt="9b.jpg" src="/media/images/9b.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/><img alt="9a.jpg" src="/media/images/9a.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: A sneak peak behind the scenes of our virtual livestream.)

How to Live Your Best Work Life and 5 Things I Didn’t Expect to Experience at WeLab

<ol><li>Get interviewed at a coffee shop</li></ol>When you are interviewing with a pre-Series A startup with only 10 employees, don’t expect to walk into a Grade-A office building with a receptionist who will walk you through a pristine hallway and into an interview room. BEWARE: If you do actually end up interviewing with an early-stage startup in a nice office, you should question whether this company is actually spending their money wisely.Back in 2014, I was invited for an interview for a position of HR Manager with WeLab, which may be a household name today in the Hong Kong fintech scene, but it was literally unheard of six years ago. If you mentioned WeLab in a conversation, people would respond with “Oh! Is that part of WeChat?” or “Is that the coworking space?” (they were thinking WeWork).Instead of meeting at an office for my interview, I met one of the Co-Founders and the General Manager at that time at a coffee shop because the office was too small and didn’t even have a meeting room where I could be interviewed. What I remember most vividly during the entire interview process was not the unexpected interview location, but my interviewers’ passion and their vision and aspirations for this budding online lending platform called WeLend (now, the largest pure online lending platform in Hong Kong). Not only were they transparent about the company’s strategy and shared their knowledge on the budding fintech industry, but they sounded genuinely interested in my experience and valued my ideas on how I can help the company grow. A job interview is not just for a company to find the right employee, but also for the employee to find the right company to grow with and in that short one-hour interview, I felt I had already formed a strong and deep connection with the company and my interviewers. Shortly after, I got the offer (startups make quick hiring decisions!) and made one of the most uncomfortable and scariest decisions in my life: to leave the comfort of a large company with a structured environment and join a startup that no one has heard of and didn’t even have enough office space for me to be interviewed in. Little did I know I was just starting to exhibit one of the core WeLab cultural behaviors – get comfortable with being uncomfortable.<img alt="2013 11 02.JPG" src="/media/images/2013_11_02.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: Our initial modest office in Sheung Wan without an interview room.)<ol><li>Make life-long friends</li></ol>Startups are tough. Therefore, it’s important to make sure you actually enjoy the people you work with, especially in a tight space. In those early days we would have our lunches together every day and the co-founders would treat us to daily afternoon teas. These little moments of chatting over a meal add up and you end up naturally forming close friendships with everyone. Till this day, I still feel the special camaraderie and bond with my fellow early colleagues – we still laugh and smile as we reminisce about the times in our first office.<p class="image-container text-center" data-img-alt="Our scrappy team using the ping pong table as a substitute for a dining table" data-img-format="center" data-img-max-width="0" data-img-src="/media/images/4febd56f-d9e0-468f-83e5-35bdaed2ceee.width-500.width-500.jpg" element-type="image"><img alt="Our scrappy team using the ping pong table as a substitute for a dining table" src="/media/images/4febd56f-d9e0-468f-83e5-35bdaed2ceee.width-500.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: Our scrappy team using the ping pong table as a substitute for a dining table.)<ol><li>Make a direct, visible impact on the business</li></ol>A lot of times, the HR department in larger companies is just a support function and isn’t seen as a function that has direct impact on business outcomes. Since I joined WeLab when there was only a dozen people, I was able to expand my horizons and not only focus on the people issues of the company and establishing the HR function from scratch, but I got to work closely with the colleagues running the core business functions. I was very much involved in the everyday struggle to build up the company, participating in our all-hands meetings at the ping pong table (which we used as a meeting table) alongside marketing, risk and product colleagues to discuss how we will reach our ambitious business targets. This gave me context on what I needed to deliver from the HR side to enable our people to achieve these targets.<p class="image-container text-center" data-img-alt="Early employees would gather around the ping pong table for all-hands meetings" data-img-format="center" data-img-max-width="0" data-img-src="/media/images/53eb97cc-a38a-4a6b-b107-049534f870c5.width-500.jpg" element-type="image"><img alt="Early employees would gather around the ping pong table for all-hands meetings" src="/media/images/53eb97cc-a38a-4a6b-b107-049534f870c5.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: Early employees would gather around the ping pong table for all-hands meetings.)<p class="image-container text-center" data-img-alt="Our ping pong table has travelled through three different offices in the last seven years and is still being put to good use" data-img-format="center" data-img-max-width="0" data-img-src="/media/images/11baa2d7-33d7-4509-8d15-f85a5d455075.width-500.jpg" element-type="image"><img alt="Our ping pong table has travelled through three different offices in the last seven years and is still being put to good use" src="/media/images/11baa2d7-33d7-4509-8d15-f85a5d455075.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: Our ping pong table has travelled through three different offices in the last seven years and is still being put to good use.)When you are a small team in a small space (we had the smallest unit in the building), every issue when it comes to your employees is significant and if left unattended can affect the whole team morale and productivity. When you have limited resources, every new hire was a big decision. One bad hire in the early days, can make or break your business. I worked closely with the CEO and General Manager on all the people issues and hiring decisions. For the first time in my HR career, I saw how my role as HR was a key factor in the success of the business.My favorite moments of being part of the early team was celebrating every new customer we acquired and new loan that we were able to approve along with the rest of the team. While I may not have been the one approving the loan, or the one that executed the marketing campaign, I still felt I had played a part in the growth of the company and saw the direct impact on the business. This is a rare feeling to have especially when you’ve worked in large companies with very structured environments your whole life.As the company evolved, we realized the HR function had to as well so we no longer use the term “HR” but we are now the People and Culture team. We saw the need for our roles and responsibilities as a team to extend beyond the traditional HR duties of ensuring compliance and managing liability issues and focusing only on execution and being reactive to issues rather than proactive, which actually contradicts our WeLab culture values of being ambitious and innovative. Today, the People and Culture team proactively rolls out initiatives that we believe can enable WeLab to run faster and healthier with motivated and purpose-driven individuals. We’re strategic and data-driven in the way we think about identifying people problems and come up with targeted approaches to address each of them.I am proud to say that I have witnessed the growth of the WeLab Hong Kong business from only 10 employees to 300 with the barest of resources (for a long time it was just me and my first HR hire). Helping to grow this baby company, WeLab, into its current size and scale is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and gives me the courage to face any new incoming challenges, no matter how uncomfortable or daunting it may seem. By stepping outside my comfort zone (leaving a large company), I have developed more during my 6 years at WeLab than at any other point in my career! If you are willing to jump out of the comfortable corporate environment and try something that makes you feel uncomfortable, who knows? You may stumble upon some incredible experiences like I did.<p class="image-container text-center" data-img-alt="6 years later… WeLab Hong Kong is a 300-strong team" data-img-format="center" data-img-max-width="0" data-img-src="/media/images/Image_from_iOS_67.width-500.jpg" element-type="image"><img alt="6 years later… WeLab Hong Kong is a 300-strong team" src="/media/images/Image_from_iOS_67.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: 6 years later… WeLab Hong Kong is a 300-strong team.)

Early Employee Series | What to expect as the first HR hire at an early-stage startup

At the beginning of this summer, I was in Vancouver running in the forest, hiking, going to beaches, and very busy planning road trips for when social distancing restrictions get lifted. There was a lot of uncertainty and chaos because of COVID-19 so when I got the first call from WeLab about the internship I had applied for, I was conflicted and seriously debating whether I should go back to Hong Kong or not.Then I remembered that during my interview for the internship, my interviewer asked me very intellectually stimulating questions that got me to dig deep into product management frameworks and think critically about customer problems and how those would translate into product solutions. She even gave me instant, constructive feedback at the end of the interview on what I did well and what I could improve on. Even though it was a 40-min interview, in that time period I felt I was challenged to think in a different way and I was exposed to a new perspective on designing and launching digital financial products. I thought to myself, “If I was able to learn this much in just a 40-min interview, imagine the kind of experience I would have for two months with this team!” I just knew I had to fly back for this internship, so I braved the 15-hour flight from Canada to Hong Kong in the middle of a pandemic, got tested for COVID-19….twice, quarantined in a tiny hotel for 14 days, and finally, got the opportunity to work with the Group Product team of WeLab as an intern for eight weeks. I can now say in full confidence that it was definitely one of the best decisions I have ever made.Before my WeLab internship, I had never been in a corporate setting and like a lot of newcomers, I had my preconceived notions on what the internship experience would be like. To quote myself, throwback to a humor piece I wrote in 2016 where I said internships are <a href="https://www.thedailystar.net/shout/humour/day-the-life-intern-1267564">“inversely proportional to my university degree”</a>. Turns out, those were all myths and boy was it satisfying to debunk them one by one after my WeLab internship experience.Myth #1 – Your first week is going to be uneventful and you won’t know anyone 🙄At 9am on my first day, I was welcomed by the WeLab tradition where all 200 employees chanted “Go big!” as a reply to “Go big or go home?” during the all-company Monday morning standup. The uplifting energy and company spirit I felt that morning made me think that Monday blues didn’t exist at WeLab.By the time I got to my desk, there was a super cute welcome pack from the company waiting for me with a WeLab T-shirt, handwritten welcome note by my manager Cannas and snacks for me to munch on. I then got a tour of the whole office.<p class="image-container text-center" data-img-alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 1.JPG" data-img-format="center" data-img-max-width="0" data-img-src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_1.width-500.jpg" element-type="image"><img alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 1.JPG" src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_1.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: The WeLab welcome pack.)You would think as an intern, you are just a fly on the wall and people won’t talk to you. The exact opposite happened at WeLab. People would say hi to me in the hallways and in the elevator even though I was new and never met them before. Despite having masks on their faces, you could feel how welcoming everyone was from miles away. Everyone was approachable and it was easy for me to reach out to anyone over Slack or even in-person to have a quick chat or shoot out a project idea. I realized later on, this probably was a result of the WeLab culture and they were simply living and breathing the cultural behavior “Say hi and be kind.” These “events” not only made my first week eventful but I felt I had already started making connections with my new friendly colleagues.Before I get to the nitty-gritty parts of what I did during my internship, let me just fangirl a little bit on how much WeLab values culture – so much so that the company has a 97-page <a href="https://www.welab.co/files/culture/WeLab%20Culture%20Book%20v10.pdf">culture book</a> that I found so fascinating I actually went through the whole thing (very readable because of culturally relevant terms and tons of emojis). I personally LOVE the &quot;Experience isn’t everything, embrace the change” chapter because it inspired me to be creative in my tasks later on even though I was just a tiny speck in the company. What’s cool about the book is that these catchphrases do not only stay in the book, but throughout my 8-week journey, I witnessed WeLabbers really live and breathe these catchphrases!<p class="image-container text-center" data-img-alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 2.jpg" data-img-format="center" data-img-max-width="0" data-img-src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_2.width-500.jpg" element-type="image"><img alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 2.jpg" src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_2.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: The Group Product Team hanging out on the office rooftop!)Myth #2 – You can’t get things done WFH during COVID-19 🤯I was fortunate enough that my internship was in-person instead of virtual (or so I thought) since a lot of my peers ended up with virtual internships this summer. My first week in the office started immediately after my quarantine and at that time Hong Kong was already back to “normal.” However, by the second week of my internship, the third wave of COVID-19 hit Hong Kong and we all had to start working from home. This was extremely unfortunate since I had just gotten out of quarantine and was only able to enjoy one full week living a normal life. The company, however, transitioned seamlessly into the work-from-home (WFH) arrangement as they had done multiple times previously. The office was divided into A and B teams where teams would take turns working from home and working from the office. Even while people worked from home, we experienced little impact on our productivity, thanks to the <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-make-worlds-largest-work-from-home-experiment-work-simon-loong/">tips shared by the group CEO, Simon about staying productive while working from home.</a>As an extrovert who heavily relies on human interactions to stay sane, I didn’t have to turn to my imaginary friends or the four walls in my dormitory for help because we had tools like Zoom, Slack, Miro and Notion to keep our meetings and “social-distancing relationships” fun and engaging. We stayed connected throughout the day and we didn’t miss a beat in each others’ working lives (and personal lives too!) #alwaysfindaway<p class="image-container text-center" data-img-alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 3.jpg" data-img-format="center" data-img-max-width="0" data-img-src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_3.width-500.jpg" element-type="image"><img alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 3.jpg" src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_3.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: Lunch between teams A and B over Zoom.)Myth #3 – Internships are just about getting coffee😳<a href="https://www.thedailystar.net/shout/humour/day-the-life-intern-1267564">I used to think an intern’s job was to get coffee or tea for their supervisor.</a> As a Group Product intern, I was never asked to make or get coffee. Instead, I got the chance to work on all sorts of meaningful projects across different WeLab businesses in Hong Kong, Mainland China and Indonesia. Right after may day one orientation where I learned about the company and the responsibilities of the Group Product team, my first task was to prepare a trend forecasting analysis for WeLab’s products across three markets. I had to look for signals, how they translated into trends and what that meant for the company. It was a great way for me to get introduced some key traits of good product managers: be intellectually curious and always think ahead about changing user behavior and trends. For those who are curious about what trend forecasting is, here is a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U84C5E6h3F0&amp;ab_channel=ProductSchoolSanFrancisco">crash course conducted by the Head of Product of N26</a> at Product School’s ProductCon 2020.Who says interns cannot make an impact? My fellow Group Product intern and I created The Fabulous Ideas Board – a fun project that gave everyone a platform to share and suggest crazy 10x product ideas and gives people transparency on whether their ideas would be considered and executed. We created a Jira board where everyone and anyone in the company could submit ideas and be a part of product innovation at WeLab. I have personally flooded the board with my ideas and I am excited to see if and when they get implemented!<p class="image-container text-center" data-img-alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 4.png" data-img-format="center" data-img-max-width="0" data-img-src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_4.width-500.png" element-type="image"><img alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 4.png" src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_4.width-500.png" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/><p class="image-container text-center" data-img-alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 5.png" data-img-format="center" data-img-max-width="0" data-img-src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_5.width-500.png" element-type="image"><img alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 5.png" src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_5.width-500.png" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: The Fabulous Ideas Board!)Myth #4 – You can’t learn or do much in just two monthsNot going to lie, I was a little nervous walking into the WeLab’s office with little knowledge about product management and fintech given my engineering and design background. However, after hearing about my manager’s personal and crazy experiences at WeLab (e.g. she was an accounting major and had to teach herself about conversion optimization and conducted a training on it during her first week at WeLab; built the community program and started an Instagram account for WeLab Bank with zero social media experience, etc.), I understood how experience isn’t everything here at WeLab and I was encouraged to be proactive and ready to learn at all times. I was given crash courses on topics like conversion funnels, consumer lending, building product virality, how to be a great storyteller and the list goes on. On top of that, I got to do UIUX research, I was a speaker at a WeLab Bank community event, I created wireframes and prototypes and presented to our colleagues in Indonesia. There was never a dull day at WeLab and it felt amazing to be making some impact in this fast-moving environment.<p class="image-container text-center" data-img-alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 6.jpg" data-img-format="center" data-img-max-width="0" data-img-src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_6.width-500.jpg" element-type="image"><img alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 6.jpg" src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_6.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/><p class="image-container text-center" data-img-alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 7.jpg" data-img-format="center" data-img-max-width="0" data-img-src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_7.width-500.jpg" element-type="image"><img alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 7.jpg" src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_7.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: Sharing the WeLab Bank’s 477-day journey in building a bank to our Indonesia team.)WeLab’s Chief Product Officer once shared with me her goal for Group Product interns. She wanted to design the internship in a way that ensured that interns can work on impactful and meaningful projects, thrive within a short time of eight weeks and leave WeLab with skills and learnings that can benefit them in whatever they want or dream of doing in the future. This is definitely how I felt throughout the whole internship. If I had to choose the top three personal development areas that significantly improved during my internship with WeLab, they would be time management, application of design thinking principles and presentation skills.Myth #5– It’s only about “work, work, work, work, work” 🤒Unlike the Rihanna song, it wasn’t just “work, work, work, work, work” at WeLab. Other than my everyday duties, my manager created a fun bingo challenge for me to get the most out of the internship experience – exercise my creativity, step out of my comfort zone and push me to meet as many people as I could across the company. Some of these included hosting a company-wide sharing (check ✅) and playing ping pong with someone from the tech team (check ✅). This was a fun way to ensure I had a holistic internship experience and it was probably why I was able to make so many friends at the end of my internship.<p class="image-container text-center" data-img-alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 8.png" data-img-format="center" data-img-max-width="0" data-img-src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_8.width-500.png" element-type="image"><img alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 8.png" src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_8.width-500.png" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: WeLab Bingo.)I became great friends with all the other interns (there were 11 of us) and they made my eight weeks at WeLab even more fun!<p class="image-container text-center" data-img-alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 9.jpg" data-img-format="center" data-img-max-width="0" data-img-src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_9.width-500.jpg" element-type="image"><img alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 9.jpg" src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_9.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/><p class="image-container text-center" data-img-alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 10.jpg" data-img-format="center" data-img-max-width="0" data-img-src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_10.width-500.jpg" element-type="image"><img alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 10.jpg" src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_10.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/><p class="image-container text-center" data-img-alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 11.jpg" data-img-format="center" data-img-max-width="0" data-img-src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_11.width-500.jpg" element-type="image"><img alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 11.jpg" src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_11.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: All the fun times I had with my fellow interns at WeLab.)Internships shouldn’t be just a line on your resume, it is actually a great way to get a sneak peek into the real working world! So my tip for all those looking into internships, don’t hesitate to ask your interviewers what your typical day as an intern will look like and in case you want to hear more about my experience at WeLab, give me a shout and I am happy to chat if my blog post hasn’t convinced you I had a blast interning at WeLab!P.S. I want to give a big shoutout to the Group Product team for recruiting me and letting me have a great time at WeLab. Here’s a <a href="https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6jVBij6Dst2mt8Sp9hiYcR?si=IrPBaIYwRa-0yNb04jsQyQ">playlist</a> I made for the team cause I thought the titles of the songs echoed the wholesomeness of everyone in the team! 🖖🏽<p class="image-container text-center" data-img-alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 12.jpg" data-img-format="center" data-img-max-width="0" data-img-src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_12.width-500.jpg" element-type="image"><img alt="Mashiat Blog-Photo 12.jpg" src="/media/images/Mashiat_Blog-Photo_12.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: Spotify playlist that says it all about the Group Product team.)

The myths of being an intern – debunked!

Wondering what working at WeLab is like? Or would you like a peek into the roles and responsibilities of a Product Manager (PM)? Let’s take a look at a typical day for Brandon Wong, a Summer Group Product Intern at WeLab. He works at K11 Atelier in Quarry Bay. Read on as he walks us through his day. 6:20AM: I shut off my alarm and run through my morning routine. It takes me about 50 minutes to get to the WeLab Quarry Bay office from where I live in Sai Kung. Once I get to Quarry Bay, I typically spend a little over an hour at a nearby local gym before walking 10 minutes to work.9:15AM: For our Hong Kong office, our various business units include a leading digital bank (WeLab Bank) and the top online lending business in Hong Kong (WeLend). The company is growing extremely fast; we have businesses in Hong Kong, Mainland China and Indonesia! The best thing about being a Group Product Intern is that you work on projects that cover multiple business units. It’s not at every company that you get a birds-eye view of the entire company and work on projects which optimize synergies for the entire group.I start off my day by checking my e-mail and Slack while I eat the fruits I brought from home. There’s usually a number of quick tasks I can complete, like responding to queries from our Design team or follow-up on progress with other PMs on tasks to complete for the day. It feels great to get these out of the way in the morning so that I can focus on high priority items for the rest of the day. 10:30AM: I head downstairs from the 23/F to our 22/F office for weekly stand-up on one of the new, innovative products which we will be launching to market. During our stand-up, representatives from each business team (including product, tech, risk, finance, legal and ops) will share progress on the latest updates and developments from their respective workstreams. This allows everyone to gain a holistic view of all the current workstreams, promotes full transparency across the teams, and also allows for an opportunity to escalate any potential blockers. For this specific project, I found the legal discussions to be particularly interesting. I learned how our legal team negotiates with counterparties to minimize risk for the company. It was particularly interesting to participate in the discussion on how performance metrics and accountability would be carved out and assigned to the various parties through contractual agreements. The exciting thing about being a PM is that you get exposure to all parts of the business because the product IS the business. Every business team plays an important part in defining what the product looks like and how it works. As a result, being a PM requires understanding of how to execute on business objectives and the greater company vision. If you enjoy thinking from the customer’s perspective, have a knack for technology, and understand how to make trade-offs/prioritize, then being a PM could be the right role for you!10:45AM:I return to my desk right opposite Ernest, the Group COO for WeLab. I spend some time creating Figma wireframe mockups for early-stage projects in our pipeline.On the table behind me sits my team: fellow Group PMs Michael, April, Cannas and our Group CPO, Jenny. It’s a cozy corner where the group team sits. The Group Product team is super friendly and helpful; whenever I have a question, I make a 180 on my swivel chair and fire away with questions. I take away what I needed, and a bit more, from every single conversation I have with my team – if you’re looking for a place to grow, WeLab is somewhere you can truly be empowered and mentored! Lunch @ 12:15PM: There are so many hidden gem restaurants around Quarry Bay. I discovered them by having lunch with different people across the company, and asking them to take me to their favorite spot. I highly encourage future interns to proactively chat with as many people as possible across different teams! I learned so many things about the business, and also received genuine career advice. The guidance was enlightening and continues to give me direction. 1:15PM:In anticipation of the food coma, I grab some tea at Arabica coffee shop before heading back into the office. I attend a design critique lead by the WeLab Bank product team. In this meeting, we go over the latest updates to the Bank’s UI. These updates are driven by our understanding of the customer. We observe and analyze customer behavior to identify trends, patterns and opportunities that may help us in improving the overall experience. After the design critique, I conduct 3 usability tests for an upcoming product. The goal of usability testing is to understand how real users interact with your website/app and make changes based on the results. These tests are fascinating because you tend to discover that things you find obvious may not be obvious at all to the typical customer! If there’s time, I might also spend some time studying PM concepts from a course provided by Jenny. She is an extremely knowledgeable mentor who gives fantastic actionable and candid advice. During my time at WeLab, I realized the people here are your best resource. 6:00PM: As the day draws to an end, the entire Group Product team heads up to the office rooftop. We catch the beautiful sunset and chat for a bit before I make my way home. <p class="image-container text-center" data-img-alt="Brandon blog-group body pic.JPG" data-img-format="center" data-img-id="265" data-img-max-width="0" data-img-src="/media/images/Brandon_blog-group_body_pic.width-500.jpg" element-type="image"><img alt="Brandon blog-group body pic.JPG" src="/media/images/Brandon_blog-group_body_pic.width-500.jpg" style="width: auto; height: auto; max-width: max(100%, 0px)"/>(photo: The Group Product team, from left to right: Cannas, Brandon (me), Michael, April, Jenny)Every day at WeLab is action-packed with different interesting problems to solve. You’ll have ownership and be joining one of the fastest growing startups in Hong Kong. If you can see yourself working and growing here, just like Brandon, <a href="https://www.welab.co/en/careers/">visit our page</a> to learn more about internships and any open opportunities!

A day in the life of a WeLab Group Product Intern

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