From the startup hustle of Delhi to the structured precision of Berlin, Srishti Shah has built products across continents, cultures, and company sizes. Today, as a Staff Product Manager at HelloFresh, she drives strategy for products used by millions of households worldwide.

In this interview, she shares the lessons she’s learned navigating different product cultures - from building empathy across borders to mastering timing, scrappy execution, and AI. Her experience proves one thing, adaptability isn’t for a PM, It’s her superpower. Her experience proves one thing: adaptability isn't just a PM skill, it's Srishti's superpower.

Building Empathy Across Borders

“As a product manager, your job is to step into your users’ shoes,” Srishti begins.

Having worked in Delhi, Barcelona, and now Berlin, she has experienced how people live, think, and use products in radically different ways.

“Someone in Delhi has completely different expectations than someone in Berlin or Barcelona. Experiencing those cultural differences firsthand made me a far more empathetic PM. It taught me to design for specificity, not assumptions.”

For product leaders, this is a reminder: empathy isn’t about personas on a slide. It’s about deeply understanding user context, whether you’re building for a hyper-local niche or a global audience.

The Cultural Shock of Product Work

Moving from India to Germany didn’t just mean a new country, it meant a totally different product culture.

“In India, we’d come up with a feature on Monday and ship it by Friday. If a release had to go live, we’d stay until 4 a.m. to make it happen.”

Speed and hustle mattered more than process.

“And in Germany, if a Thursday release slips, it moves to Monday. There’s more planning, more research, more focus on strategy - and a healthier work-life balance.”

Her takeaway is that the best PMs practice a dual-speed model of product work:

• Move fast when testing assumptions or chasing product-market fit

• Slow down when the stakes are high and insight-driven decisions matter

The Power of Jugaad Thinking

There’s a Hindi word Srishti swears by: Jugaad.

“It means finding a way forward - even if it’s hacky. If something should take five weeks to build, an Indian team will figure out how to ship a scrappy version in one.”

This mindset is invaluable for resource-constrained teams. Instead of waiting for perfect execution, Jugaad helps you:

• Validate ideas quickly with lightweight experiments

• Keep momentum when resources are scarce

• Build a culture where blockers spark creativity instead of stalling progress

Even in Europe, she sees this mindset in action:

“Indian colleagues will never just accept a blocker - they’ll always find another way.”

From Startup Hustle to Staff PM

Srishti’s role at HelloFresh today looks very different from her early days in India.

“In my first startup, there were 10 PMs total. I was in every key decision. At HelloFresh, there are around 50+ PMs, and I now own high-impact products that directly shape customer experience across markets.”

The biggest difference is scale and trust:

• Direct communication with senior leadership

• Full ownership of strategy

• Reviews only quarterly - because her judgment is trusted

This shift shows the trajectory for PMs: from tactical execution to owning outcomes at scale.

Timing is Everything in Product

One of Srishti’s most formative lessons came from a feature that flopped, at least at first.

“We built a feature that only 2% of users adopted. It wasn’t a bad feature - the timing was wrong. Four years later, the same feature became core to the product.”

Her framework:

• Validate what to build, but also when to build it

• Prioritize by current user needs, not just long-term vision

• Revisit old ideas when markets evolve

Even the best execution can fail if timing is off.

AI as Your Assistant, Not Your Replacement

Srishti is deeply pro-AI - but realistic about its role.

“I pay for multiple AI tools myself. They save me hours of competitor research and industry reading. I have AI agents that send me weekly summaries of exactly what I care about.”

But she’s clear on one thing: AI won’t replace PMs.

“Someone still has to decide what gets built. AI streamlines the work, but the strategic decisions remain human.”

For indie PMs juggling multiple hats, AI can be a force multiplier, freeing up time to focus on vision and customer insights.

Creating a Culture of Ownership

Even at a massive company like HelloFresh, Srishti believes the best teams operate like small startups.

“I want my team to feel ownership: ‘Hey, do you see this feature? We built that.’ When designers, analysts, and engineers feel like co-owners, they think holistically - not just about their piece of the puzzle.”

She drives this with:

• Team workshops to co-create priorities

• Shared OKRs across functions

• A culture where anyone can directly reach out to each other

The result: motivated teams that move fast without waiting for top-down direction.

The Uniqueness of Building Food Tech

At HelloFresh, Srishti gets perks most PMs can only dream of.

“I work directly with culinary teams - it grounds me in the product and connects me to our end users in a very real way.”

And despite its size, HelloFresh still runs lean.

“If I need to move faster, I can walk up to an SVP. There’s no heavy bureaucracy slowing us down.”

On Leadership and Mentorship

One of Srishti’s biggest influences is her former CPO in India, who remains her mentor seven years later.

“He gave me independence, but also feedback when I needed it. I try to lead my teams the same way: empower people, but don’t micromanage.”

This approach paid off when she managed PMs at Glovo - many older than her. “When you trust people to do their jobs, they thrive.”

Advice for PMs at Different Stages

For small startups:

“Don’t overthink it. Build fast, fail fast, learn fast. Done is better than perfect. You’ll learn more from shipping than from planning.”

For larger companies:

“You need a clear vision of where your product should be in 3-4 years. Work backwards to your MVP, and take risks with that longer-term strategy in mind.”

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

Early in her career, Srishti felt like an outsider.

“Coming from India, working mostly with men, and not having a traditional tech background - I felt like I didn’t belong.”

Her advice to others:

“Being different is actually your edge. Stop the imposter syndrome, take more risks. Your uniqueness gives you perspective others don’t have.”

If She Could Build Anything

If failure weren’t an option, Srishti’s dream is simple: combine her two loves, food and tech.

“I’d create a startup that optimizes healthy living - then open a restaurant from it. Food and tech together, that’s where my heart is.”

Final reflection

Srishti’s journey offers three powerful lessons for PMs:

• Balance speed and strategy: move fast to validate, slow down to scale.

• Timing matters as much as execution: even great features can fail if launched too early

• Your uniqueness is your strength: cultural and personal differences fuel better product thinking

Srishti’s career shows that adaptability is the ultimate PM skill. Whether you’re navigating cross-cultural teams, leading with limited resources, or betting on a new feature, the key is to embrace difference - both in your users and in yourself.

As she puts it:

“Being different isn’t a liability. It’s your superpower.”

Thank you Srishti! 💙