Priti Saigal, Associate Director on Influential Women

Influential Woman · Banking

Priti Saigal

Associate Director, HSBC

San Jose, CA

12Years experience
3Awards received

Certifications · Degrees · Memberships

Degree Bachelor of Engineering in Electronics and Communication Degree MBA in Finance Cert Product Owner Product Management certification from SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) Cert Scrum Master certification from Scrum Alliance Cert Design Thinking certification Cert Google Project Management certification Member All India Engineers Association (AIEEE) Member Asia Pacific Engineers Association

Her Story

About Priti

I have a strong academic background with an engineering degree in electronics and communication. I started my career working for one of the biggest conglomerates in India, Tata Consultancy Services, the biggest IT solutioning and consultancy firm. After completing my MBA in finance, I moved from information technology into the banking sector. I joined as an analyst working on client reporting and structuring, then found my passion in improving processes in the bank for both internal and external customers. While working on various process improvement projects, I moved up the ladder to becoming a product manager who manages end-to-end deliveries in various markets globally. Today, I work at HSBC as an Associate Director and product owner, leading digital transformation and developing new products and modules that help in the credit and lending journey for banking customers. My typical day involves a series of back-to-back meetings with direct stakeholders including business, risk, controls, legal, and information technology teams to discuss how to build, design, and deliver products that are useful to end users, following the Product Life Cycle Management process.

Her Interview

Ten minutes with Priti

01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?

I think the young girls out there, especially Gen Z, are very aware and alert compared to millennials. They have any kind of information right at the tip of their fingers thanks to AI, social media, and technology available today. It becomes very important for them to be able to analyze what needs to be grasped and actioned over, rather than something that could go into their backlog. Proper prioritization on the vast information available today is a good start, because then it's going to make you align to your goals, be it near-term or far-term goals, and you will have a very clear direction as to where you want to head towards. I especially want to change the perspective in Asia where women and girls are not considered capable enough to drive the science, technology, energy, and management sectors.

02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?

I think there are a couple of challenges in working for a very large global MNC. When you want to adopt a change across multiple countries, it becomes very difficult to make that change overnight, though one is very enthusiastic about that change. That change could be to a process, a product, IT, or a system or application. With human nature being super resistant to change, the entire process becomes very difficult and time-taking. I think one needs to have the right amount of patience and balance to be able to prioritize the user's needs and to make customers happy with a balanced product rather than a perfect product. The biggest challenge is accepting change and adopting change.

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