[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":77},["ShallowReactive",2],{"layout-home-shell":3,"site-home-decide":31,"page-home":47,"home-stories":53},{"id":4,"brandName":5,"contactLabel":6,"contactPath":7,"extension":8,"footerTagline":9,"linkedin":10,"meta":11,"navAriaLabel":19,"navLinks":20,"skipToMainLabel":27,"slug":28,"stem":29,"__hash__":30},"homeLayout\u002Flayouts\u002Fhome.md","Jani Rostoll","Say hello","\u002Fcontact","md","Senior product manager.","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fj3noriginal",{"body":12},{"type":13,"value":14,"toc":15},"minimark",[],{"title":16,"searchDepth":17,"depth":17,"links":18},"",2,[],"Primary",[21,24],{"to":22,"label":23},"\u002Fwork","Work",{"to":25,"label":26},"\u002Fabout","About","Skip to main content","home","layouts\u002Fhome","brLUdx_GTKbsDLNtg8EHGH-VMTIGJP404rrBlKZJgOQ",{"id":32,"decide":33,"extension":8,"headline":34,"intro":35,"meta":36,"metaDescription":41,"ogDescription":41,"ogTitle":42,"pageTitle":42,"path":43,"portrait":44,"slug":28,"stem":45,"__hash__":46},"homePage\u002Fpages\u002Fhome.md","I start by using the product myself, the way a new person would. Then I frame the problem, say the trade-off out loud, and keep everyone aimed at the one outcome that matters.","I help teams decide what to build, and what to cut.","I'm a senior product manager. Most of my work has been with technology that was new to the people who had to use it, from a robot for children to card machines for merchants. Technology like that lives or dies on trust, and trust is the part I work on.",{"body":37},{"type":13,"value":38,"toc":39},[],{"title":16,"searchDepth":17,"depth":17,"links":40},[],"I'm a senior product manager. From a robot for children to card machines for merchants, I work on the part of new technology that decides whether it lands: whether people can trust it.","I help teams decide what to build, and what to cut","I started in design, sketching screens for that robot in Centurion. From there I moved into UX, then into owning the product at Barrows, and then spent about five years looking after in-person payments at iKhokha. These days I'm at Spot Money, learning a consumer banking app the way a new customer would.","\u002Fimages\u002Fjani-portrait.webp","pages\u002Fhome","M5-aG3MK8x67ZMD3EbB_7EItQ814rCvX6oskO0NVWSs",{"id":32,"decide":33,"extension":8,"headline":34,"intro":35,"meta":48,"metaDescription":41,"ogDescription":41,"ogTitle":42,"pageTitle":42,"path":43,"portrait":44,"slug":28,"stem":45,"__hash__":46},{"body":49},{"type":13,"value":50,"toc":51},[],{"title":16,"searchDepth":17,"depth":17,"links":52},[],[54,63,70],{"slug":55,"title":56,"stakes":57,"decision":58,"outcome":58,"thumbnail":59,"thumbnailAlt":60,"thumbnailAvif":61,"thumbnailAspect":62},"barrows","Building a team that didn't need me","When I joined Barrows, the software team had only just become a team, and updates still went live over FTP. Instead of writing the rulebook myself, I asked them what good looked like, and by 2020 they were shipping through a pipeline they'd designed. And when the servers went down for two days, we planned the next release with pens, printed phone templates and sticky notes.",null,"\u002Fimages\u002Fwork\u002Fbarrows-sketch.webp","A hand-drawn sketch of a software team standing around a whiteboard story map of sticky notes and phone sketches.","\u002Fimages\u002Fwork\u002Fbarrows-sketch.avif","16\u002F9",{"slug":64,"title":65,"stakes":66,"decision":58,"outcome":58,"thumbnail":67,"thumbnailAlt":68,"thumbnailAvif":69,"thumbnailAspect":58},"ikhokha","Rebuilding a payments platform while it's live","Merchants were taking payments on iKhokha card machines while we rebuilt the platform underneath them. When rushed releases sent complaints spiking, I turned my attention to the support team taking those calls. By the final phase, I'd staged the change so they got it first, and it landed quietly.","\u002Fimages\u002Fwork\u002Fikhokha-thumb.webp","Sketch of a customer tapping a card on a handheld card machine at a coffee shop counter","\u002Fimages\u002Fwork\u002Fikhokha-thumb.avif",{"slug":71,"title":72,"stakes":73,"decision":58,"outcome":58,"thumbnail":74,"thumbnailAlt":75,"thumbnailAvif":76,"thumbnailAspect":62},"roboni-i","Where I learned to build products","I'd just finished studying 3D animation when I started designing the software for Roboni-i, a programmable robot we built from nothing in Centurion. Play-testing showed us people wanted to play against each other, so we changed direction. Later, at the Rand Easter Show, I watched children who'd only ever kicked a soccer ball around an open field light up as the scoreboard went up.","\u002Fimages\u002Fwork\u002Froboni-i-sketch.webp","A hand-drawn sketch of the Roboni-i robot with its game remote and the Command Center software on a laptop.","\u002Fimages\u002Fwork\u002Froboni-i-sketch.avif",1791314776254]