Donat Husjainov Podcast Transcript
Donat Husjainov joins host Brian Thomas on The Digital Executive Podcast.
Welcome to Coruzant Technologies, Home of The Digital Executive Podcast.
Brian Thomas: Welcome to The Digital Executive. Today’s guest is Donat Husjainov. Donat Husjainov is the Chief Product Officer of XData Group, a B2B software development company. He is the Product Development Specialist with 10 years of experience in the field of fintech.
He has vast experience in business analysis, developing and monitoring project performance to ensure company success. Donat holds a degree from Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, a preeminent Chinese university in the fields of finance and economics. Prior to joining XData Group in 2023, he worked in two of Europe’s top banks, Citadel and Swedbank, where he was involved in product development.
Well, good afternoon, Donat, welcome to the show!
Donat Husjainov: Hello Brian.
Brian Thomas: Awesome to have you here. I appreciate you jumping on a podcast being eight hours difference calling there out of Estonia, which is great. I’ve only done one other podcast there. So, you’re my second from Estonia doing this traveling across the world virtually.
So, I appreciate that. Donat, let’s jump into your first question here. Your career spans over a decade in fintech, including roles at Citadel and Swedbank. How have these experiences shaped your approach to product development at XData Group?
Donat Husjainov: Yeah, thank you for this question. So, I’ve been working in a big Scandinavian Swedbank and in big also Citadel, it’s Pond Baltic Bank.
And those are enterprises, lots of people, lots of branches, a big amount of clients and a big amount of different kinds of processes. So, if you want to make any kind of product, you should have a good plan. You should have all the metrics. You must get an approach from the business that they want to have this feature.
So, lots of processes. And if you’re speaking about more innovative and let’s say neo banking teams, as are in X data group, we are more proactive. So here we are trying not to bring all this enterprise stuff in scope with processes, and we’re trying to make more products, more design, more prototypes, and to get features faster.
So, in this terms, we have a good understanding on how the products should be built in the enterprise, especially in the banks, how they should comply with all the laws and all the other, let’s say securities and risks, but at the same time, we know how to make all the process faster, quicker, and improve it in a better way.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. Donat. I appreciate that. And I know you’ve, you took a lot of that experience from some of those larger banking organizations and you’re trying to improve the process and your platform at X data group currently. So, I appreciate some of the backdrop around your career and what you’re doing differently at X data group.
Do not at X data group. You’re spearheading the creation of super apps for European banks. Could you elaborate on the concept of a super app and its potential impact on the European banking sector?
Donat Husjainov: Yep. So, the first time when I have seen a super app was in the year 2015 when I was living in China and there I first time see a WeChat pay and or although the WeChat environment where you was able to book a taxi, buy a plane ticket, get an insurance, pay all your, let’s say, household expenses.
All inside one application. And I was amazed and it’s already 20, 24, almost 20, 25. And still we don’t have such kind of super applications here in Europe. Okay. Maybe Revolut is trying also to get there, but still not yet. And what we are trying to do and what we want to do is to get more partnerships.
And to build some kind of like products, which include not only banking and fintech scope, but also some others, for example, like taxi driving, or let’s say planes, ticketing and traveling. So, we’re watching this, let’s say, a scope of development and trying to be the first one who will do that.
Brian Thomas: Thank you. And that’s really cool. As we start to disrupt these industries, I like the fact that you can provide additional services and be diverse in your platform, offering all different kinds of services for your consumers. So I appreciate that do not artificial intelligence is increasingly integral to fintech innovations.
How is X data group leveraging AI to enhance the functionality and user experience of its products?
Donat Husjainov: AI topic is very hot nowadays and a lot of product managers and developers are saying that they’re watching AI and they’re trying to use it somehow. Here in xData we are constantly using AI. We have already tried already different models and let’s say with some partners who have already old banking system, and they do not understand on how some features even inside of their banking system are working on the backend side.
We have developed a specific solution, which helps us to build this connections and to understand how this old course are working. And at the same time, our developers are constantly using AI to enhance their code and to check possible variations of different algorithms which they’re writing. And even in the product management side and AI models just to understand which competitors we have, how they’re dealing with different problems.
Because, you know, previously we were spending lots of time on user research and product research, competitor analysis. And nowadays AI knows more and it’s easier to use than just a Google search. So we’re constantly using different kinds of applications for our development.
Brian Thomas: That’s amazing. And we’ve been really highlighting and discussing AI for the past 18 months, pretty regularly on just about every podcast that I’ve had since then.
I can tell you that using AI can help with some of that quality assurance, that QA work that you do, but also look at, as you mentioned, various ways to write the most efficient code. The most effective code and bringing products to market much faster. So,
I appreciate the share Donat. The last question of the day is with the rapid evolution of FinTech, how do you stay ahead of emerging trends and ensure that X data groups offerings remain competitive and forward thinking?
Donat Husjainov: First of all, all of our product managers and analytics, they’re fond of FinTech’s and they’re personally using different kinds of applications all over the world. So, me personally, I have at least like 30 different applications on my phone just to know which user experience all the competitors are bringing new features, how it’s working on different markets.
And for me, that’s very interesting. And at the same time. FinTech’s are not only about the banking nowadays, because if you want to bring a good user experience, if you want to build some new innovative applications, which could be used by let’s say people who are from the younger generation, for example, right now, 18 to 45 years old, then you should know all the user experience on the market from the applications, which those clients, those people are using in their everyday life.
So you should know how YouTube is working, Spotify. You should know how Instagram works, even how the stories are working. Cause if you want to make and build some kind of a good channel of notifications and how to speak with your auditory, then you can break, for example, stories inside of your application.
And you should not like to build a bicycle here. You can just look for good user experience, which is already proposed by, and used by Instagram. And you can just reuse it and the customers will like you because already new application for them will not be so complicated because part of this user experience they already have received from another applications.
Brian Thomas: That’s awesome. And we’re seeing again, we talked about a little bit earlier, but the integration of the different services within a platform or an application is really a game changer. And the less clicks or the less places people have to go to get that information is way more efficient and obviously serves as building more loyal customers.
So, appreciate you sharing your insights today. Donat, it was such a pleasure having you on and I look forward to speaking with you real soon. Thank you,
Donat Husjainov: Thank you Brian, so much. Bye-bye.
Brian Thomas: Bye for now.
Donat Husjainov Podcast Transcript. Listen to the audio on the guest’s podcast page.
