How an 8-year banking veteran transitioned into tech product management by building a network across three continents — and landed a PM role through a connection made while shipping payment features in Berlin.
8 years in Traditional Banking – Strong finance background, zero tech product network
Tokyo, Japan
Role: Product Manager
Duration: 60 days (first term) + second term in Brazil
Yuki had spent eight years in traditional banking — she understood financial products deeply, could analyse risk frameworks in her sleep, and had built a solid reputation among colleagues in Japan's banking sector. But she wanted to move into product management at a tech company. The problem wasn't skills. It was network. Everyone she knew worked in traditional finance. She had no connections to the tech product world, no one who could vouch for her ability to build software products, and no way into the conversations where PM roles were filled.
A German fintech SaaS company building an automated accounting platform for small and medium businesses — used by 15,000+ companies across Europe.
A Product Manager to own the payments module — defining requirements, working with engineers, and shipping features that handled real financial transactions.
The Head of Product ran the product organisation. A team of engineers built the payment infrastructure. The Startup Founder connected across the Berlin fintech ecosystem.
Payments were the core of the product. Getting the PM role right meant understanding both the finance logic and the engineering trade-offs — Yuki's banking background was an asset here.
"Banking gave me a finance network. SkilledUp Life gave me a tech product network across three continents. The Tokyo PM who hired me to build their analytics product? Friend of the German Product Head I shipped payment features with."
— Yuki, Tokyo
The German Head of Product's contact at a Tokyo SaaS company was hiring a Product Manager to build an analytics product. He recommended Yuki — someone he had watched manage a payments module, present to stakeholders, and navigate a product organisation. Yuki interviewed, and her combination of finance depth and proven product management experience made her the standout candidate. She was hired.
Banking connections couldn't open doors in tech. Real product work in Berlin created the first link in a network that spanned continents.
Yuki's banking knowledge made her a better PM for payment products — the key was proving it in a tech product context.
Working across Germany and Brazil created network connections that crossed into Japan — each term multiplied her reach.
This hypothetical scenario shows how real product work creates network connections that traditional experience never can. Your path into tech could start today.