Passionate about helping Adyen's merchants and partners and seeing the team around her grow, Nikki Joon is a prominent product manager at Adyen. She has followed a unique career path from door-to-door sales to FinTech, always searching for challenging and diverse working environments. Before it was a widespread discussion, Nikki has also struggled with work-life balance and found powerful ways to overcome the issue: "You are the one responsible for your well-being, and that was a big challenge I came across." The self-starter, problem solver, and natural leader Nikki Joon sees empathy and recognition as core values and appreciates strong, authentic figures, paying tribute to those who paved the way for us to be here today.

How did you find yourself in Finance Technology?
I enjoy thinking of complicated products as problems to be solved and the challenges they bring me. That is what got me hooked up to the tech side of this business. Curiously, I was not very interested in the beta subjects back in high school. I liked economics a lot more.

As I dove into the more commercial side of businesses and the project management environment while in college, I took a side job in a sales organization, which would go around neighborhoods to get people to sponsor charities. Door-to-door selling is quite interesting, and you learn a lot when you work with it. I had great colleagues (and I treasure the social aspect of working in a team) and an excellent atmosphere; so, I liked it.

At some point, I realized that as much as I found it fascinating, I wanted something more diverse. So, I moved to run a call center with the owner, which is the last part of the lead-to-sales transition. From there, I wondered whether I would eventually wish to leave that environment. That was when I ran into Adyen. People in my network thought I was a good match with the company's culture and suggested having a chat. I did it, and that is how I started working here.

How would you describe your experience at Adyen?
I started in a role that combined operations and commercial, so I truly learned about payments and the company's business in general. Little by little, I took on an internal product management position. I was eventually asked to join the product team and, once I started, I realized that it fit me like a glove.

Our team focuses on enabling Adyen's partners to help our mutual merchants grow together. We focus on both our enterprise businesses (like Netflix) and the mid-market segment with local champions in the Netherlands, like Coolblue. Together with the tech lead, I manage a multidisciplinary team that builds and maintains our products. Together with a tech-focused team lead, I work on prioritizing processes correctly, for example. In summary, it's a combination of constantly deciding what needs to go, when, and how we ensure that we think about all the aspects that come with creating and maintaining a product. My job is to keep an eye on all that to guarantee that nothing falls off the wagon and that we design products that are successful for merchants. 

One of the most challenging parts is to keep everything running smoothly and on time. Many teams and stakeholders are involved, so everyone must always be up-to-date on what you are doing with your product and prepared for whatever happens next. It is a constant game to ensure that we keep that stream of communication transparent and ongoing.

Do you have a good example of a challenging situation you faced throughout your career?
Before working for Adyen, I found myself struggling with work-life balance. I was just so engaged with the company at that time that I forgot about taking care of myself at a given point.

Nowadays, this discussion is more mainstream. Especially now, with everyone working from home, there is a blur in the boundaries between jobs and personal lives during this pandemic. From my perspective, generally, being ambitious and striving for the best results are great qualities to have. But those can also be pitfalls as you might lose sight of the time to stop and take care of yourself. You are the one responsible for your well-being, and that was a big challenge I came across.

To overcome that, the first thing to do is pause and recognize that it is happening. In my case, I worked with a coach through it. Coaches are great at asking questions that pull you out of your circular thoughts and get you on a different thinking track while giving room for you to decide for yourself. Now, when I see people around me following the same path, I try to ask them some of those questions to help them get into a different way of thinking.

What does diversity mean to you?
I see diversity as an essential tool to guarantee you think about everything and cover every base. For me, it has to do with joining people from different backgrounds. That includes more women, of course, but not exclusively that. To have a diverse team or a diverse environment, you just need to create means to build a holistic view.

I was lucky enough to watch Obama speak live, saying that diversity is not charity. According to him, everyone has a blind spot, so if you gather only similar people together, your whole team will have the same blind spot. Therefore, it will completely miss certain aspects of whatever you are working on or thinking about. I agree with him. Diversity is about ensuring that you have dissimilar perspectives, thoughts, and points of view complementing each other.

Who has been your biggest role model throughout your career?
It might be a bit cheesy, but my mom has. She raised two small children as a single parent while studying and working and then started her own business. That showed me that I could do many things and gave me the drive to know that many elements are under my control.

On the other hand, my dad worked his way up the ladder at different tech companies, and I appreciate that. Those are very different experiences, but they show that hard work, continuous effort, and focus get you where you want to be.

I also admire Neelie Kroes, a former Commissioner of the European Union. Like her, there are people who paved the way for us and showed how we could grow from there.

What is the best piece of advice you were ever given?
Trust what you can do, even though you are not 100% sure. I heard that at a conference about differences between men and women. They mentioned that women generally need to be very comfortable with their knowledge of a particular topic or task before saying "yes" to taking on the ownership. Whereas men simply (seem to) think, "I'm gonna give it a try." They might nail it; they might not. But they do it; they go for it. That made me realize how often my thoughts were "I'm not sure if I can do it" instead of "Let me give it a try, and I'm sure I'll work something out." That is how I learned to say "yes" a bit more, even if I am not sure if I can do something perfectly. It is scary sometimes. But it is generally worth it. Nevertheless, occasionally, it does not work out - and that is fine, too. We are all just human.

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