Wafiul Haque is the Chief Business Officer at GoZayaan, where he also leads the company’s migrant workers focused business vertical Hometown. Hometown, an app-based platform, allows Bangladeshi migrant workers to book flights and send remittances home. It currently operates in two markets: Singapore and Malaysia and has seen excellent growth within a short period of time. I had a fascinating conversation with Mr. Wafiul in May (read it here) on his work and experience of building Hometown. The conversation offers powerful insights into building products that resonate with your customers. I wrote in the introduction of that conversation:
“Building products for users is tough. Building products for users who are consistently underserved, often exploited, and face unique challenges living far from home, that's a whole different ball game. Not only do you face the usual challenges of product-market fit, scaling, and regulation, but you're often dealing with users who are vulnerable, lack trust, and have needs that existing solutions don't address. Today, we're diving into a conversation that gets right to the heart of building for an incredibly important, yet frequently overlooked, user segment: migrant workers.”
In that conversation, Mr. Wafiul shared his uniquely practical approach to product design and tools he used to build Hometown from scratch. In this short video, we bring you his take on the art and science of creating products that your customers will love.
You can also find a transcript of the clip below. Read the full interview here.
Mohammad Ruhul Kader: You've been working in product for a long time across different companies and verticals. What's the art and science of creating products that work?
Wafiul: First, I never had any formal education related to product management. It all came through trial and error—learning by doing, understanding what works and what doesn't, how to approach things, what's right and wrong.
I faced many setbacks initially at Bongo when designing their products and planning around our user base. That's when I realized: the more I talk to users and understand usability, the easier my product design becomes. I develop a better sense of which user experiences are right for the product.
Many people just sit on their sofa watching TV and think, "Oh, we can start a startup with this, make an app," but it's not that easy. The screen-to-screen transitions need to be very well thought out. Something I like, you might not like. I have to see what the majority of people prefer and what's easy for most users. Then those who initially don't like it will eventually adopt it—it becomes a habit.
You need to make hard calls like, "We'll do it this way, not that way." Sometimes you have to take risks. When we started our flight booking with a broken-down approach—one action per screen—it was a significant risk. We wondered if anyone would book a ticket through such a lengthy process when simpler options existed elsewhere. But this worked for migrant workers. We understood their thinking process, and this approach made it much easier for them.
I did the same thing at Bongo and Inside Maps—understanding the customer, how they behave, what they want. Once you do that, designing a product becomes much easier.
Even our business decisions reflect this approach. At Hometown, we're the only platform allowing partial payments for flights. I once asked an expatriate worker, "Brother, why don't you buy a ticket from Hometown? Why don't you go home?" He replied, "Brother, flight tickets are very expensive. My salary is 800 dollars a month. My return ticket costs over $650. I also send over 90% of my earnings home, so I have no savings. How will I buy a ticket? With one month's salary, it's impossible. I need to save for two to three months first."
That conversation sparked an idea. I approached our operations and supply teams to determine the minimum amount needed for a ticket reservation that wouldn't result in a loss if refunded. We found a sweet spot—initially 30%, then 40%, now 50% down payment. With this approach, users can book a ticket and have until seven days before travel to pay the remainder. Until then, they lock in the price, and it won't increase.
If a worker calls seven days before departure saying, "I couldn't arrange the rest of the money" or "I didn't get leave," we cancel the ticket and refund any money due without incurring losses. We're enabling them to lock a price far in advance. Booking months ahead for occasions like Eid allows them to save significantly. We encourage advance booking with partial payment—with a smaller amount upfront, they can still secure their travel.
This approach is entirely driven by their needs. No other booking site offers this payment model, where users can complete payment up to seven days before departure.
Another product decision: migrant workers typically work 10-12 hour shifts and don't have much time during the day to book tickets. So we extended our payment window—if they find a good rate, they can book it and have until 11 PM to make the payment. Most platforms give 40-50 minutes to hold a price, but we give users until the end of the day. We understand they're busy working all day and can pay with a calm mind when they return home. These decisions are based on understanding users' needs, which makes product design much easier.
Speak to the market you're designing for. You might have an initial idea about what you'll do for a particular customer base, but you need to talk to them and understand their problem statement rather than assuming you already know the solution.
Read the full interview here.
