User research across four markets explored redemption friction and willingness to pay with points.
AI product leader. Human at heart.
Complex problems.
Useful products.
I’m Joshane. I turn complex problems into products people use—and help product people find their way.
12+ years of building.
Still curious about what’s next.
Every product starts with a problem
Drag to explore
A useful product is a system of decisions.
The next decision is yours.Step into a decision
Where I’ve
built & learned
Inside a product decision / GrabRewards
People were earning points.
The value was sitting still.
From earning to usingThe friction
Concept illustration · Not a live checkout
Your turn in the product chair
Where would
you look first?
People earned rewards, but using them meant searching a voucher catalog. Points accumulated. The team needed to make them useful in everyday life.
A thinking exercise based on my case study. There is no score; the alternatives below are prompts, not experiments we claim to have run.
The decision / Change the moment
Make points feel like
money already yours.
I led Pay with Points: bringing rewards into checkout, starting with GrabFood in Singapore and expanding across services and markets.
The experience had to feel native to checkout, while the economics worked for Grab and its merchant partners.
Start with one service in one market. Learn before expanding across different behaviours and partner ecosystems.
4×points revenue uplift
8countries
Reported in my original case study.
These are project outcomes, not results of the choices above.
From a question to something you can use
Small moments.
Real products.
Three different problems.
Try a small example of each.
Tollgate / Private beta
Usage has a cost.
Give it an owner.
For teams building AI products: connect usage to a customer, set pricing, and prepare monthly charges as Stripe draft invoices.
Try an illustrative $10 usage record. The example shows percentage markup only; it doesn’t connect to a provider or Stripe.
Explore TollgateSample usage recordIllustration
Raw model cost$10.00
Illustrative charge
Adjust the markup to see the charge change.
A customer call becomes a billable record.
WatchWise Kids / Early access
Before play.
A closer look.
For parents choosing a YouTube video: a first-pass screen of its title, channel, and thumbnail, with reasons to look more closely.
These invented examples demonstrate an explanation, not a safety verdict. The live screener does not watch the whole video.
Explore WatchWise KidsBefore they press playInvented examples
What the sample suggests
A garden story
The title describes a clear topic and the thumbnail has few competing elements. That is a starting point for a parent’s review, not proof of what happens in the video.
An explanation, before a decision.
Hisabo / Android closed beta
A month planned.
One less thing.
For households that already plan on paper: list expenses, mark bills as paid, and carry recurring items into the next month.
Tap a sample bill to mark it paid. Move to the next month to see recurring items return. This example resets when you leave the page.
Explore HisaboThis monthSample expenses
A little more
peace of mind.
Still to pay
A sample list. No bank connection.
The notebook habit, without rewriting the notebook.
Selected work
The thinking.
Then the impact.
A few problems I’ve worked on.
Explore the decisions behind the numbers.
GRAB / LOYALTY↗
Concept illustration
4×points revenue uplift
Grab · Payments & loyalty
From points sitting idle
to everyday spending.
Making rewards feel like money people already have.
The problem
People earned points, but redeeming them meant hunting through vouchers. Rewards accumulated without becoming useful.
My decision
I led a shift from a voucher catalog to paying with points at checkout. We started with GrabFood in Singapore, then expanded across services and markets.
The result
The initiative delivered a 4× uplift in points revenue across 8 countries. The change started with making redemption feel effortless.
GRAB / PERSONALISATION↗
Concept illustration~4%conversion uplift · 8M+ monthly users
Grab · Data & discovery
Millions of people.
A more personal catalog.
Helping each person find something worth ordering.
The problem
Everyone in a city saw the same catalog. Different tastes, routines, and needs were met with the same restaurant rankings and promotions.
My decision
I focused on homepage restaurant ranking first. We used order history, browsing, time, and location to prove personalisation before expanding to other surfaces.
The result
Approximately 4% conversion uplift on a catalog serving more than 8 million monthly users. Focus gave us a useful starting point for wider personalisation.
More on marketplaces, product strategy, and problem solving.Explore all 7 case studies
The lab · A working experiment
Don’t just read.
Try a little thinking.
A useful AI answer starts with a clearer brief.
Make one here, then take it to your favourite tool.
Your clearer brief Ready to use
Act as a thoughtful product partner. GOAL Help new users get to their first useful moment in our app. AUDIENCE Busy founders trying the product for the first time. CONSTRAINTS A small team and two weeks to ship. DELIVER 1. Restate the problem in one sentence. 2. List assumptions and questions before proposing solutions. 3. Suggest three approaches and explain their trade-offs. 4. Recommend the smallest useful next step. 5. Define how we would know it worked. Do not invent facts or results. Flag what needs validation.
Also exploring prompt tools, AI workflows, and team assessments.See what else I’m building
Joshane KelsyAlways a work in progress. ↗
The person behind the products
Curious by default.
Builder by instinct.
I’m a Group Product Manager at Rakuten, leading AI and data products. Before that: consumer products, payments, and marketplaces at Grab, Zomato, and Truecaller.
I started in engineering, took the founder route, and kept coming back to the same thing: understanding a difficult problem well enough to make something useful.
Along the way, mentoring became part of the work. I care about the person making the product as much as the product they’re making.
A Times Square momentMy profile on Topmate’s billboard.The longer story on LinkedIn
Communities I’m part of
Different chapters. Same curiosity.
A few stops along the way.
Starting close to the code.
At Vizury, I worked on ad retargeting and campaign management tools. Engineering was my entry point into building products.
Making money move.
As part of Chillr’s founding product team, I built a banking wallet and UPI app with NPCI, then helped build Truecaller Pay.
Working at the scale of everyday life.
At Grab, I worked on rewards, loyalty, and catalog products. At Zomato, I worked on the RBL co-branded credit card and its first 10,000 customers.
Taking the founder’s seat.
My ventures have ranged from merchant products to biodegradable pots and education for aspiring agricultural entrepreneurs.
Making AI useful.
At Rakuten, I lead AI and data products as a Group Product Manager. Outside work, I keep experimenting with AI tools and mentoring product people.
A principle I come back to
“Ship the proof.
Then sell the vision.”
Good products start with curiosity.
Great teams leave room for it.
People behind the work
You don’t build anything alone.
Colleagues, collaborators and people I’ve mentored.
Different perspectives on the work we’ve shared.
He is a product builder at heart, constantly thinking of delivering better products to the customers and trying to achieve measurable results for the company.
He actively seeks a deep understanding of the root issue that the team is trying to resolve, and will proactively push for solution improvements.
He can help you with a structure & solution to your problems instantly.
Explore all 29 voices
Meet the voices.
Choose a person to read their perspective.
29 voices · 17 LinkedIn excerpts · 12 Topmate reviews
- XiaoJiang XuProduct judgement
- Ritesh AroraWorking together
- Minh TranProduct judgement
- Varun SinghWorking together
- Wilson WangWorking together
- Abhishek SethProduct judgement
- Abraham AdduruProduct judgement
- Artem DiedkovProduct judgement
- Chandrakanth UWorking together
- Nathaniel QuijanoWorking together
- Vaughn FriesenWorking together
- Smriti AggarwalWorking together
- Saymin LeongProduct judgement
- Yan Ting KouProduct judgement
- Terence SitProduct judgement
- Jiahui LiuWorking together
- Arpit JainProduct judgement
- Jay ParidaMentorship
- radhika bansalMentorship
- Tamanna AgrawalMentorship
- Anonymous reviewerMentorship
- Narendra KhudaniaMentorship
- Stuti SharmaMentorship
- Anoop AgarwalMentorship
- Rajat RajurkarMentorship
- Aafreen AafreenMentorship
- Madhav AggarwalMentorship
- VyasMentorship
- Sankalp GuptaMentorship
Read all 29 perspectives
LinkedIn quotes are excerpts from recommendations shared with me. Topmate entries are short summaries; follow the source links for the original reviews. Roles describe our working relationship.
XiaoJiang XuLinkedIn
Joshane is a really good product manager, he is able to define and drive the product from scratch.
Engineering collaborator
View LinkedIn recommendationsRitesh AroraLinkedIn
Joshane has a 'Go-Getter' attitude at work. I have always seen him finding ways to solve complex problems while collaborating with multiple teams across the business and engineering spectrum.
Cross-team collaborator
View LinkedIn recommendationsMinh TranLinkedIn
He is a product builder at heart, constantly thinking of delivering better products to the customers and trying to achieve measurable results for the company.
Design collaborator · Grab
View LinkedIn recommendationsVarun SinghLinkedIn
The reason he is able to do this, is because he is willing to walk the extra mile, to really understand the problem, do his research and brainstorm with the team.
Engineering collaborator · Grab
View LinkedIn recommendationsWilson WangLinkedIn
He co-ordinated across business, engineering and design to ensure timely delivery of high-quality product.
Design collaborator
View LinkedIn recommendationsAbhishek SethLinkedIn
He helped Engineering team to understand product requirement & product impact. He co-ordinated between Product, Engineering & Operations teams to ensure timely delivery of the products/features.
Cross-team collaborator
View LinkedIn recommendationsAbraham AdduruLinkedIn
Artem DiedkovLinkedIn
His open minded ideas has shown me a lot of new perspectives of looking at products and features that bring value to both our customers and company.
Data science collaborator
View LinkedIn recommendationsChandrakanth ULinkedIn
He is someone who keeps the morale of the team up and tries to go above and beyond his means to ship the product. I would be glad to work with him again.
Cross-team collaborator
View LinkedIn recommendationsNathaniel QuijanoLinkedIn
His attention to details in every product he is working on, his communication and leadership skills are the key factors on why we have achieved a lot in GrabRewards.
Team collaborator
View LinkedIn recommendationsVaughn FriesenLinkedIn
He took ownership of each project and did everything he could to make sure it was successful, no matter how difficult it was or how tight the timelines were.
Engineering collaborator · Grab
View LinkedIn recommendationsSmriti AggarwalLinkedIn
Joshane is wonderful to work with, and has an exceptional expertise in leadership, coaching and motivation.
Team collaborator
View LinkedIn recommendationsSaymin LeongLinkedIn
His technical insights and analytical thinking have contributed significantly in every meeting with various stakeholders. His projects have helped to streamline and identify potential opportunities for the business.
Commercial collaborator
View LinkedIn recommendationsYan Ting KouLinkedIn
As a Product Manager, Joshane has a strong understanding of business needs and is able to communicate these accurately to the product/engineering teams.
Strategy and analytics collaborator
View LinkedIn recommendationsTerence SitLinkedIn
He actively seeks a deep understanding of the root issue that the team is trying to resolve, and will proactively push for solution improvements.
Senior collaborator · Loyalty
View LinkedIn recommendationsJiahui LiuLinkedIn
He is a great team player and is able to work well with multiple stakeholders. He also has a very warm personality and is always willing to help others.
Product collaborator
View LinkedIn recommendationsArpit JainLinkedIn
Joshane is the go-to guy for anything Loyalty or Rewards related in his team. He is not just diligent and structured in his work but also very easy to work with.
Data science collaborator
View LinkedIn recommendationsJay ParidaTopmate
radhika bansalTopmate
Tamanna AgrawalTopmate
He can help you with a structure & solution to your problems instantly.
Mentee
Read original reviews on TopmateAnonymous reviewerTopmate
Narendra KhudaniaTopmate
Stuti SharmaTopmate
Anoop AgarwalTopmate
Rajat RajurkarTopmate
Aafreen AafreenTopmate
Madhav AggarwalTopmate
VyasTopmate
Sankalp GuptaTopmate
A conversation is a good start