This week, I spoke with Jamie McKee, a Data Product Manager at FXC, to learn about a typical day in his life.

Tell us about your journey at FXC so far?

I joined FXC as a Data Analyst at the beginning of 2020 when we only had about 10 people in the office. Since then we have grown by almost 10 times, with many new products to offer. I’ve grown my role over that time, developing into a Data Product Manager. I have worked on a variety of products from consumer FX pricing to market sizing and, more recently, partnership connect. It’s been a really great experience to grow with the company, and exciting to see the company evolve. 

Describe your typical workday?

As a Product Manager my day starts by catching up with the development team during the morning stand-up. Then, I update and prioritise the backlog, as well as join the team for ticket refinements.

In the morning, my fellow Product Manager Francesca and I like to get a coffee from time to time to share ideas and get each other's advice and thoughts. Normally, around 1 pm, I take my lunch break, often going to mass at the church around the corner from the office and then having a spot of lunch. There are some really nice restaurants and cafes around the office and it's nice to catch up with friends or colleagues in the area over lunch.

In the afternoon, I like to dive into tasks that need some more time, like reviewing the product strategy or catching up with Paz (Data Analyst) about our work on developing different data pipelines for the product. As the commercial team in America comes online in the afternoon, I catch up with them and learn how meetings have been going with clients and prospects.

Which of your responsibilities has the biggest impact on FXC as a company?

Being part of a growing company, I have found my work developing products has been rewarding and it’s great to see how this has impacted the company. Over the years, I’ve been honoured to have the opportunity to create new data products for the company and develop existing ones. FXC is a fast-paced and dynamic company to work for, and seeing how new data products have been able to open up our ability to serve new clients or deepen the value our existing products offer is truly one of the greatest and most impactful parts of the job.

What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

One of the great things about being a Product Manager is getting to see your product solve real-world, on-the-ground problems for our clients. We work with a wide range of clients, and seeing the variety of ways our data helps answer their questions is very satisfying. 

Additionally, FXC does a great job at rewarding employees for their hard work. Having been at the company for over four years, FXC offered me the opportunity to take a paid sabbatical for six weeks. This is a great way to relax and reset, and it means a lot as a thank you for all the hard work put in over the last five years at FXC. This has timed very nicely for me as well since I’m getting married and so will be taking a sabbatical for my honeymoon!

What’s the biggest challenge you face in your role?

Understanding what people really need. When making a good product, product fit is key. When we talk to our clients, they have a range of needs and complex problems that they need to solve. FXC’s years of experience working in the cross-border space have given us an expertise that allows us to tackle these complex issues, and while it can be a challenge to understand the right product fit to solve our clients’ problems, this is also what makes it so rewarding and interesting to work at FXC.

What’s a moment you are particularly proud of at FXC?

In 2023, FXC worked with the BIS Innovation Hub to help supply a combination of our FX pricing and market sizing data. This was a really fascinating project to work on and required exploring the interesting space of cross-border payments in Asia across a range of industries. Our data has been used by the BIS Innovation Hub to help with the development and planning of their NEXUS project, which looks to improve cross-border payments by facilitating connections between domestic instant payment systems. I’m really proud of the work we did to supply this data and help the BIS Innovation Hub better understand the space in a data-driven way and to contribute to the industry's drive to make cross-border payments faster, cheaper and better.