​Lending - a thousands of years old practice that opens up otherwise impossible outcomes for those who use leverage well. This post isn't about the borrowing side though as much as it's about the lending side from an operational standpoint. Lending is one of the most valuable subsectors within fintech and operationally it's true to say that a lot has changed and nothing has changed as lending has moved online and beyond. 

Many companies who want to begin participating in lending or already do participate in lending get stuck on the how. They should really start with the what and the why. 

Lending is just a game of rules, checklists, and probabilities. 

Who are you lending to? Are you sure the applicant is actually the borrower?
Is there any reason you cannot not to lend to them? Any reason you should not lend to them?
What will they do with the money? Is there any reason they can't or shouldn't do that?
Progress Tab <> Verifications tab until complete.
Do you have good reason to believe they can and will pay you back?
What recourse do you have if they don't pay you back? Do you have collateral? How accessible and liquid is that collateral?
Do you have any data to project portfolio performance over a statistically significant sample size of deals? 
What are your input costs? What is your risk adjusted return once you account for default rate and loss rate?
Can you track portfolio health? Can you predict and get ahead of defaults?

Other questions.
Is lending your main business? Or a hook offering for cross selling efforts? 
Can your version of lending be profitable? Or are you just looking for customer/ecosystem acquisition? Are other market participants in agreement? Or do they see lending as loss-leading?

As IC (as anyone really but especially as an IC), be curious. This means learn your industry, competitors, company, product, customers, history, etc as deeply as possible. Ask questions. Learn the why. Keep asking why. Don't settle for answers that don't make sense or sound like because that's how it has always been done. If you hear something you don't understand, ask about it, make a note to look it up later, etc. Anything but glaze over it and ignore the knowledge gap. That is easier in the moment but denies an opportuity for improvement and opens up Look for other companies or industries where you can borrow great ideas. Learn the rules so you can break the rules. Disolve down to the molecular level and rebuild better. Faster. In parallel. More modularity. Become the best at your craft.

Management. Higher leverage were the objective is levered team output. High output management. Learn about your team. Teach and facilitate the sharing of knowledge - especially best practices and common issues. Topics meetings + one on ones to help with indivudal level work. Clear blockers. Secure resources. Provide context. Offer guidance and support and career structure. Negotiate for the team with other managers and leadership. Important to know how other functions operate and come together. Don't revert to IC work out of comfort and subject matter expertise - that's easy to do and justify but expensive.

Director. A lot more leverage. Now, it's important to be a systems builder. Knowing how the parts form the whole is not enough - you need to see where the whole is today as well as where it needs to be in a year or three or five and chart a path. Observe patterns. Have opnions. Validate with data. Manage the managers. 
 

Higher. Make strategic and existential decisions. Set the vision. Establish taste and brand. Win key hires. Secure funds.

As you climb, work becomes less about the actual thing the company does (you need to understand whatever that is inside and out but that's just a default expectation) and more about building systems, managing people, communicating effectively, making sound decisions, and influencing behaviors and outcomes. Influencing behaviors and outcomes is enormously valuable and can help at every level. If you want to be paid well, master this. If you want to do this out of the gate, go into sales.

​As a PM, you have a lot of leverage - you control the user experience design process and determine how some of the most expensive resources and personel in the company will be deployed. Anyone can have product ideas. only a few should make product decisions. As you climb, you are paid to not only make decisions but have strong opinions, great intuition, and excellent taste. You need to say no a lot. Focus and refinement are key. Don't let anecdotes become overweighted - squeeky wheels get grease but might not reveal real issues.