

Discover more from Cognity Labs: All things Southeast Asian Tech
Cognity Labs Accelerator Round-Up
What's happened so far?
In the first week of our cohort accelerator, we were joined by Dianna Yau, Product Manager at Facebook, and Jackson Wang, Data Science Lead at Airbnb. They offered their ideas on building meaningful outcomes through understanding users and data. So how exactly do we become better at understanding?
💡 Knowing what your why is (or your north star metric) and having a framework to back it up is crucial. These elements when fused together can create a roadmap that both challenges and guides you.
💡 Learn how to break down problems, figure out the best ways to solve them, create a solution, and repeat.
💡 Immerse yourself in the process and be conscious of the way you work – essentially, it's your execution that matters not the idea or tool.
Be paranoid to ask yourself 'do I understand my users enough?' – Dianna Yau, Product Manager @ Facebook
On building for other people
Our program and community sessions with Noah Bond, User Experience Research at LinkedIn, and Kevin Gabayan, CEO at Plentina, tackled the process of solving broad problems through research and ideation.
👉 Noah shared the idea that building a great product comes from knowing what people need and what people want. To be able to do this, conduct your research by recruiting the right participants and asking the right questions.
👉 Kevin and his team found a problem in the financial space of the Philippines, thus they started a fintech startup that serves the emerging middle class through AI. Through sharing their ideas, the company finds itself well underway in creating a significant impact in the Southeast Asian markets.
Why we're excited about Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is a bustling region with a young workforce, a growing middle-class, and active consumers. The region is seeing more enthusiasm with high-profile investors, collaborating with government institutions, and rising in internet users and funding.