1:1 Mentoring · Product · Fintech & AI

Hi,
I'm Hinh.

Uncle of 23 kids Math · Physics · English tutor Product Executive Product Lead
Senior Product Manager changed my answer 4 times, still learning

Almost 10 years in product. 12 years of teaching. Stuck on a product problem or a career question? Let's sit down 1:1 and work it out together.

f(x) = learn + build
Hinh smiling while running a 30 km trail race
hi, that's me Δ = 10 years
12years of teaching
~10years in product
4kinds of company: e-wallet, regional tech group, AI startup, digital bank
1:1my favorite way to mentor
My journey

Not exactly a straight line.

From tutoring desks to fintech and AI products.

scope of work ↑ 2014 2017 2020 2025 now help 1 student get it 1 funnel many partners from zero credit
x = year · y = size of the problem2014
University · UIT2014

Math · Physics · English tutor

A first-year Computer Science student. My first lesson: find where the student is stuck, then explain.

MathPhysicsEnglish
lesson #1
MoMo2017 – 2020

Management Trainee → Senior Product Executive · Growth

My first product job. One big question: after people open the e-wallet, do they really use it?

ActivationPromotionA/B testingLắc Xì
Sea · ShopeePay & Shopee2020 – 2025

Product Owner · Partnership & Engagement

Bill payments, top-ups, movie tickets, insurance, affiliate. I learned how to keep many partners happy at the same time.

PaymentsPartnershipAffiliateEngagement
AI startup2025

Product Lead · AI for Enterprise

Built AI products for businesses from zero: CS Tech and Chat for Enterprise. Coached 3 product owners.

0 → 1AICS TechCoaching POs
TimoNow

Senior Product Manager · Timo Credit

Building credit products at a digital bank.

FintechCredit
to be continued
Why a tutor ended up in product

Teaching and building products are more alike than I thought.

Back then, teachingfind where the student got it wrong
Now, in productFind where users drop off
Back then, teachingexplain it in a different way
Now, in productTry another option and measure which one works better
Back then, teachingmark tests to see progress
Now, in productRead the data to see if the product is getting better
In the news

Code is not the goal. Solving real-world problems is the mission.

"It's fine to be wrong, as long as you're wrong fast, learn fast and fix fast."

From my interview with UIT, my university · Oct 2025 Read the article (Vietnamese) ↗
Selected work

Product cases, without the secrets.

Real problems I worked on at MoMo, Sea and an AI startup. Internal numbers and details stay private. The problems and the approach are real.

Domain

Showing all 18 cases

MoMo · 2017–2020Growth

From install to first payment

Sounds like you?People download your app, but many never finish setup or make a first payment.

How I approached it
  • Mapped the whole funnel: install, sign up, link bank, top up, first payment. Found where people dropped.
  • Fixed tracking first. Some events were wrong, so some decisions were wrong too.
  • Tested onboarding changes one at a time: fewer intro slides, clearer trust messages, better timing for permission requests.
  • Tied welcome gifts to each setup step.

ResultActivation went from 13% to 35%. Time to activate dropped to 3 days.

GrowthA/B testingE-wallet
MoMo · 2017–2020Growth

Reminders that bring people to the next step

Sounds like you?Users stop halfway through setup and forget about you.

How I approached it
  • Built email, SMS and push journeys for each step: link your bank, top up, use your gift.
  • A/B tested the message, the channel and the timing.
  • Asked for notification permission at moments that made sense to the user.

ResultA reusable set of lifecycle messages the growth team ran every month.

GrowthA/B testingLifecycle
MoMo · 2017–2020Growth

Keeping users who only use one service

Sounds like you?Many users try one feature, then go quiet.

How I approached it
  • Split users by how many services they used and how likely they were to leave.
  • Suggested a next service based on what similar users did.
  • Called users who left to hear why, before building anything.
  • Priced each offer as cost per retained user, not cost per click.

ResultA clear list of retention levers, each with its cost and expected effect.

GrowthRetentionCross-sell
MoMo · 2017–2020Growth

Referral and Lucky Money (Lắc Xì) campaigns

Sounds like you?You need a burst of new users at a key moment, at a cost you can defend.

How I approached it
  • Referral program where users and partner staff earn rewards for bringing in active users.
  • A Tết campaign with rules to block fraud and reward abuse.
  • Watched acquisition cost every day and changed reward schemes fast.

ResultLắc Xì brought 2–3x more new users at peak. Anti-fraud rules lowered acquisition cost.

GrowthReferralPartnership
ShopeePay · 2020–2022ScalingFeature

Bills, top-ups and tickets from dozens of providers

Sounds like you?You need to connect many outside partners, and each one works differently.

How I approached it
  • One integration pattern for every provider: check the bill, pay, confirm the status.
  • Admin tools so the ops team can add new products without new code.
  • Clear rules for every order status, so a stuck order always has a next step.

Result40+ releases across bill payment, top-ups, movie tickets and entertainment.

API integrationPartnershipPayments
ShopeePay · 2020–2022Scaling

Auto payout and reconciliation for finance

Sounds like you?Your finance team checks partner payments by hand in spreadsheets, and month-end takes days.

How I approached it
  • Matched our orders with each partner's records automatically, every day.
  • Flagged only the orders that don't match, so finance looks at exceptions, not everything.
  • Paid partners automatically on a schedule, once the numbers matched.

ResultLess manual checking for finance ops, and partners paid on time.

FinOpsReconciliationPayments
ShopeePay · 2020–2022Scaling

Alerts, provider switching and routing for ops

Sounds like you?When a partner goes down, you only find out from angry users.

How I approached it
  • Real-time alerts when failed orders jump or a partner's system gets slow.
  • Ops can switch a product to another provider in a few clicks, for example during a big campaign.
  • Routing rules send each order to the provider that works best at that moment.

ResultProblems caught early, and campaigns kept running even when one provider failed.

MonitoringRoutingOps tools
Shopee · 2023–2025Growth

Why new affiliates stop after month one

Sounds like you?People join your partner program, then disappear.

How I approached it
  • Audited every entry point and the full onboarding flow: app, web, Google, YouTube.
  • Read retention cohorts by segment: big creators versus small ones.
  • Used surveys and interviews to find the real blockers: commission withdrawal, tax steps, support.
  • Mapped the habit loops that bring an affiliate back.

ResultA ranked list of activation and retention fixes that shaped the next year's roadmap.

GrowthPartnershipResearch
Shopee · 2023–2025ScalingFeature

Launch affiliate programs without new code

Sounds like you?Every new partner campaign needs developers, so your team can't move fast.

How I approached it
  • Back-office tools: program creator, reward schemes, missions, user management, scheduler.
  • The affiliate side: program list, landing page, mission progress, rewards.
  • Ready templates for livestream, video, social and referral missions.

ResultBusiness teams launch and adjust programs themselves, in days instead of dev cycles.

PartnershipBack-officeGrowth
Shopee · 2023–2025FeatureGrowth

Partner vouchers and subscriptions, from insurance to TV

Sounds like you?You want to sell partner services in your app, but every partner has its own system and rules.

How I approached it
  • Integrated partners from insurance to TV and entertainment through one standard flow.
  • Turned their services into e-vouchers, bundles and subscriptions users can buy in the app.
  • Set clear rules for issuing, using, renewing and refunding, so support and partners see the same status.

ResultNew partner products on the app without building a new flow for each partner.

PartnershipAPI integrationSubscriptions
Shopee · 2023–2025FeatureScaling

A chat platform to manage affiliates at scale

Sounds like you?Your account managers talk to hundreds of partners through personal chat apps, and nothing is tracked.

How I approached it
  • Built one place where key account managers chat with the affiliates they manage.
  • Group messages by segment, for new programs, campaigns and commission updates.
  • Kept every conversation on record, so handovers between managers don't lose context.

ResultAccount managers reach more affiliates with less effort, and the company keeps the relationship.

PartnershipCommunicationAccount management
ShopeePay & Shopee · 2020–2025Team & coaching

Mentoring new product owners

Sounds like you?Your new POs are smart, but it takes them months to work on their own.

How I approached it
  • Built onboarding guides for each product line, so new POs learn the flows, tools and partners in their first weeks.
  • Mentored POs 1:1: how to frame a problem, write a clear spec and work with dev, design and business teams.
  • Reviewed their work and gave feedback early, before small gaps became big ones.
  • At Shopee, led a team of 10+ people across product and partner work.

ResultNew POs got up to speed faster and could own their product areas.

MentoringOnboardingTeam lead
AI startup · 2025–2026PMF

An enterprise AI assistant, from zero

Sounds like you?You want to launch an AI product, but there are no customers yet to tell you what to build.

How I approached it
  • Wrote the product–market fit story first: problem, audience, value, business model, success metrics.
  • Started with the teams that feel the pain most (HR, legal, operations), with a plan to expand.
  • Built the core: a chat assistant, a company knowledge base with cited answers, and connectors to other systems.
  • Tested trust first: accuracy, citations, permissions.

ResultSeveral releases live, with a clear way to check trust before scaling up.

AI solutionsRAGB2B SaaS
AI startup · 2025–2026Feature

Connect any system without writing code

Sounds like you?Customers want your AI to use data from their CRM or ERP, and every integration needs a developer.

How I approached it
  • Admins upload an API document, and AI turns it into ready-to-use actions.
  • Added support for MCP tool servers.
  • Authentication, permissions and logs for every call.

ResultIntegrations that customer admins can set up themselves.

API integrationAI agentsMCP
AI startup · 2025–2026PMF

AI customer support for growing businesses

Sounds like you?Your support team answers the same questions all day, across web chat, Facebook, Zalo and email.

How I approached it
  • Took over an existing AI support platform and reshaped it for new markets.
  • One inbox for website chat, social channels and email, plus an AI bot trained on the business's own knowledge.
  • Ticket routing, and order lookup from online stores like Shopify and WooCommerce.

ResultA no-code support product that a business can set up on its own.

CS techChatbotOmnichannel
AI startup · 2025–2026Scaling

A quality system for AI answers

Sounds like you?Your AI demo looks great, but you can't prove it's correct, safe and private.

How I approached it
  • Defined quality per feature: correctness, citations, permissions, speed.
  • Built test sets with normal, tricky, "should refuse" and permission cases.
  • Named each type of failure, so each one has a clear fix.
  • A release checklist: no AI feature ships without passing its tests.

ResultEvery release is judged against the same tests, not by "it seems fine".

AI evalsQualityRelease gate
AI startup · 2025–2026Team & coaching

Building the AI product team

Sounds like you?You need to hire product people fast, and quality depends on who writes the spec.

How I approached it
  • Recruited product owners: defined the role, ran interviews, and used a clear competency framework to decide.
  • Built an onboarding program: company and team structure, daily tools, how a product cycle runs, AI evals, writing proposals.
  • Trained and coached the team in regular sessions, with shared standards for PRDs, epics and user stories.
  • Led the AI branch: 3 product owners in a squad of about 17 people, with an AI-assisted workflow.

Result5 MVPs shipped in 10 months.

HiringOnboardingCoaching POs
Timo · NowCurrent

Credit products at a digital bank

What I can shareI'm Senior Product Manager for Timo Credit. Details stay private while I work there.

Happy to talk aboutHow I think about credit products in general: risk, user trust, and clear terms.

FintechCreditDigital bank
Start from the problem

Who has it, what they are trying to do, and what happens if we don't fix it. Features come later.

Fix the data first

If tracking is wrong, every decision after it is wrong too.

Change one thing, then measure

Test, compare, then ship, roll back or keep going.

Talk about your product →

Want the long version of a case? Ask me in a 1:1.

How I can help

Four ways to work together.

Pick the one closest to your situation. Not sure? Start with 1:1 mentoring.

How it works

Three steps. Nothing fancy.

1

Pick a session

Fill in the form below and choose what you need.

2

Share some context

Where you are now, what is blocking you, and what you want to leave with.

3

Meet online

We go straight to the point. After the call you get notes, so you know what to do next.

For students · free

Still a student? Your first chat is free.

I started tutoring at university, so I remember how confusing it is to choose a path. If you study IT, business or economics and you're curious about product, book a free call.

  • 30 min · online
  • a few slots each month
  • no CV needed
Book a free student session →
Book a session

Shall we talk?

Leave a few lines. I'll reply within 2 working days with some free time slots.

no need to prepare anything fancy
What do you need

60 min · online · for people moving into product or new POs/PMs

Where you are now

Your goal

How and when should we meet?

Contact method
Pick at least 3 time slots · starting 3 days from today · GMT+7 · weekdays 7 – 10pm · weekends 9am – 9pm
0 / 3 picked

Draft: this form isn't connected yet.