A Day in the Life of our Implementation Manager

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In this “A Day in the Life of…..” series, we talk to someone from MoEngage to find out what their average workday looks like, from how much coffee they drink and their career aspirations to how they keep their customers happy and engaged. This second edition features Sara Abdul Wajid, Implementation Manager at MoEngage.

What does a day in your life look like?

My daily tasks are driven by what my customers need. And to understand what my customers are looking for, I get on weekly one-on-one calls with them to understand their pain points, their objectives, the hurdles they face while implementing the platform and help make their onboarding process seamless.

To stay up to date, I also get in touch with the customer success managers to understand the current status of each customer, if there are any requirements on use cases that would need my input or if we can schedule training sessions to aid customer teams in optimally using the platform and get the best ROI.

Walk us through your journey to becoming an Implementation Manager?

I have a Bachelor’s in Engineering from MITE, specialising in computer science, after  which I began my career as an IOS developer and published five apps on the App Store. I was in this role for three years, while this was interesting, it was a lot of me sitting behind a desk coding and debugging issues and errors. It was fulfilling, but I wanted to interact with my customers more and understand their requirements and how my code could help them. MoEngage’s commitment to the customer led me to apply for the role of Solutions Engineer here. For two years, I continued working as a Solutions Engineer, helping customers debug issues and provide resolutions. I was still speaking to my customers via tickets or email, I wanted to humanise things a bit more, so I decided to start as an Implementation Manager. This role allowed me to interact with the customer from kick-off until go-live and beyond.

What’s the best thing about your job?

Every customer brings in a new use case unique to them. I feel this presents me with a massive opportunity to learn more and research the best solution for their challenge. There’s never a boring day, and each day brings new opportunities for knowledge and learning!

What about working for MoEngage excites you the most?

MoEngage is a product-based company, we work in tandem to build the same product. We’re not treated as just a resource, the company makes us feel and believe we all have a role to play. The product is built by us, so there’s a lot of hands-on learning that we get, it gives me a huge sense of satisfaction to see what we created being used by happy customers. 

The other thing that makes me happy to be a part of MoEngage is how open to helping the team is here. They are always open to helping, pitching in wherever it is needed and answering questions. If I need something from our CEO, I can approach him, and I know he’d be happy to help. 

The fact that the team is so approachable and accessible is one of the best things about working here. As an implementation manager, I have technical questions about new features we’ve released. We recently released WhatsApp Business Integration. Since it is new, not many people in the company have worked with this feature, but it was easy to walk up to the team that built the feature to understand how they did this. These values make the work environment very productive.

What’s your favourite way to unwind?

I enjoy cooking and find it very relaxing. I started cooking after moving out and living on my own. But necessity soon turned to passion, and I started experimenting with food. I also love eating out and trying new cuisines. Going to new places and weekend getaways is also a great way for me to unwind.

During the week, I work out to keep my mental and physical health in tiptop condition. This is always was an excellent way for me to go out and start my day right.

What are some of the books or series you’d recommend to our readers?

I love binge-watching Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones. I also enjoy watching crime documentaries. 

Two of my favourite books of all time are “The 48 Laws of Power” by Robert Greene and “The Shining” by Stephen King. 

The debut non-fiction book by Robert Greene outlines the art of indirectly obtaining power based on the rules set forth by successful men and women for thousands of years. These are compilations from the writings of strategists as great as Sun Tzu and Clausewitz, statesmen as illustrious as Bismarck and Talleyrand, and some of the other powerful personalities to have walked the earth. The premise of the laws is that certain acts inspire power while others curtail it.

“The Shining” is another book I can never put down. The book is a horror thriller with a masterfully delivered pace. The book combines natural, supernatural elements and complex characters in one story.

As we wrap up if you had to share golden rules that help you deliver the most value to customers as an Implementation Manager, what would they be?

In this role, everything revolves around the customer and rightly so, keeping in touch with your customer to understand their challenges and unique needs are key to succeeding in this role. The end goal should always be to maximise value and ROI for the customer. 

Your efforts should be to reduce time to revenue recognition and provide customers with a fast and effective onboarding experience. And internally to ensure continuity between sales and CSMs.