[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":112},["ShallowReactive",2],{"layout-home-shell":3,"site-home-decide":31,"page-about":47},{"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":48,"body":49,"extension":8,"heroEyebrow":26,"heroTitle":100,"limitationsEyebrow":101,"limitationsTitle":101,"meta":102,"metaDescription":103,"ogDescription":103,"ogTitle":104,"pageTitle":104,"sectionEyebrows":105,"sectionTitles":101,"slug":109,"stem":110,"whyEyebrow":101,"whyTitle":101,"__hash__":111},"aboutPage\u002Fpages\u002Fabout.md",{"type":13,"value":50,"toc":95},[51,55,58,61,66,69,72,75,78,82,85,89,92],[52,53,54],"p",{},"I take the work seriously. Myself, a lot less so. I work with empathy for my team and the people we build for, and I want to know the work adds value.",[52,56,57],{},"For years a quiet voice kept asking whether I was adding value or just output. Product thinking gave that feeling a name, and the question turned out to be the job.",[52,59,60],{},"People say I bring a calm clarity. I go deep on a problem, find each person's secret sauce and connect it to the work. At home it's the same curiosity, just quieter: learning something new, and being calm with my cats.",[62,63,65],"h2",{"id":64},"the-path","The path",[52,67,68],{},"My early work was about people more than technology. I designed software for an educational robot for children, tested an electronic health record at Discovery as a usability analyst, worked on insurance and rewards at Momentum, and set up a formal UX research practice at Derivco. Each time, the job was the same: make something unfamiliar usable for the person who actually had to use it.",[52,70,71],{},"At Barrows I moved from designing the product to owning it, first as Product Owner and then as Software Development Manager. The questions got bigger. What would we build, what would we cut, and did the people doing the work have a way to grow?",[52,73,74],{},"Then came iKhokha, and about five years accountable for in-person payments. Merchants' livelihoods ran on those card machines, and the domain I looked after sat behind the majority of the company's revenue and active usage. I led people across UX, QA, engineering and analysis to keep it that way.",[52,76,77],{},"Now I'm at Spot Money, part of Ignition Group, on a consumer banking app. I started by walking it as a new customer would, then used AI to get oriented faster, so the conversations with my team could be about judgement, history and risk.",[62,79,81],{"id":80},"where-i-studied","Where I studied",[52,83,84],{},"I studied visual communication at Open Window, first a BA and then an honours degree in narrative. Later came an MFA in Technology and Virtual Reality at AFDA, about how emerging technology changes story and media. After that I picked up a CSPO, the UCT\u002FGetSmarter product management certificate and Reforge. They were useful, but they were never the main thing.",[62,86,88],{"id":87},"how-i-work","How I work",[52,90,91],{},"Payments is where I've gone deepest, but design is still the craft I lead with, and the things I build still start as a sketch. I moved into product management so I could own the problem and the priorities, not only the screen.",[52,93,94],{},"AI is changing how this work gets done, so I'm relearning the craft as it changes, and I check what the models give me before I trust it.",{"title":16,"searchDepth":17,"depth":17,"links":96},[97,98,99],{"id":64,"depth":17,"text":65},{"id":80,"depth":17,"text":81},{"id":87,"depth":17,"text":88},"I started with the screen. Now I own the problem.",null,{},"I started in design, sketching screens for a robot in Centurion, and moved into product management so I could own the problem, not only the screen. Now I'm a senior product manager at Spot Money.","About me",[106,107,108],"Path","Training","Practice","about","pages\u002Fabout","FqrLCJS97qr4Ywh79BS5krdFC_z2gCbDlWGQKNNbHtk",1791314776256]