Aadi Hirurkar

Product Manager · Phoenix, Arizona

Built for one client. Designed for every client after.

I turn complex, regulated data problems into products. For 18 years that has meant state agencies, education platforms, credit cards, and digital banking.

ProjectsClient-funded work, one at a time
PlatformWhat every client needs, built once
ProductsConfigured and shipped to many

Range

Three industries, one kind of problem.

Government

Statewide data platforms for five state agencies, and four years as a Product Manager inside one.

Education

Standards-based data exchange, APIs consumed by third-party products, and partner certification across 20+ vendor systems.

Financial services

Card acquisition and personalization at American Express. Internet banking, SWIFT payments, fraud detection, and a digital wallet at ICICI Bank.

Selected work

How I think, drawn out.

Client names and confidential details are left out. I'm glad to go deeper in conversation.

Product strategy · Government data

A playbook for turning client projects into products

Build with clients, not ahead of them.

A services firm earns its revenue one custom project at a time, and most of that work is never used again. I wanted every engagement to leave something reusable behind, without asking the business to fund speculative products.

  • Defined a three-stage maturity path: a custom project, a reusable platform abstracted from it, and a branded, documented, supported product.
  • Set a five-part screen for any candidate: repeatability across clients, pain intensity, domain fit, extendability, and ease of packaging.
  • Built it into delivery. Product managers and analysts flag reusable patterns during requirements, teams generalize existing code into prototypes, and new clients see them as proven accelerators.
  • Added governance: a recurring productization review, a shared backlog, and one or two components packaged per quarter.

Key decision

Clients fund the build; the company funds only the branding, documentation, and hardening. Nothing gets branded until it has worked in at least two client implementations.

Outcome

A family of reusable products grew out of client work, including a configurable workflow engine, a data import and validation tool, and a master data management platform, with identity and finance interoperability frameworks in the pipeline.

Project becomes platform becomes product, screened by five tests and gated by proof in two client implementations. MATURITY PATH Project client-funded build Platform reusable components Product branded · supported Gate: proven in 2+ clients FIVE-PART SCREEN Repeatable · Painful · In our domain · Extendable · Packageable WHAT CAME OUT Workflow Data import Master data + in pipeline
Client work funds the build. Proof in two clients earns the brand.
AI in product delivery · Team leadership

Rebuilding a product team's delivery process around AI

Requirements were the bottleneck: slow to write, slow to clarify, and expensive to fix after release.

I lead a cross-functional team of five product and business analysts supporting state data platforms, with long feedback loops between stakeholders, analysts, and developers.

  • Introduced AI-assisted user story writing connected to Azure DevOps, with a consistent structure and prioritization.
  • Set up agent pipelines for repeatable analysis work.
  • Rolled out adoption by use case, starting with three concrete uses per person rather than a general mandate.

Key decision

Sensitive client data stays local. Privacy-sensitive work runs on a local retrieval setup, so the team gets AI help without sending client data out.

Outcome

Faster requirements turnaround, fewer developer clarification questions, a shorter stakeholder feedback loop, and fewer changes after release.

Stakeholder input flows through an AI draft and analyst review into Azure DevOps; sensitive data routes to a local model. Stakeholder input AI drafts story structured · prioritized Analyst review Azure DevOps Developers FEWER QUESTIONS BACK Sensitive client data runs on a local model
AI drafts, people decide. Client data that is sensitive never leaves.
Fintech · Personalization

Personalized card acquisition at American Express

A card application should feel like it was built for the person filling it in.

As Technical Project Manager for American Express, through Cognizant, I worked on card acquisition, where generic offers and landing pages left value on the table.

  • Led the launch of a small business credit card from requirements through release.
  • Delivered an application journey that presented member-specific Membership Rewards points offers.
  • Built landing pages that matched each visitor to the most relevant card using cookie data.

Key decision

Two audiences, two signals. Existing members saw offers tied to their rewards; new visitors were matched to a card from their browsing behavior.

Outcome

A launched small business card, and an acquisition experience personalized from the first page through the application.

Existing members get rewards offers; new visitors are matched to a card by cookie data; both arrive at a personalized application. EXISTING MEMBER Recognized Rewards offer NEW VISITOR Cookie signals Matched card page Tailored application ONE JOURNEY, TWO WAYS IN
Personalized from the first page, not just at checkout.

Career

18 years, drawn to scale.

Product Manager, EdWise Group

2022 to now · Phoenix

Product delivery for statewide data platforms serving five state agencies. Led the project-to-product strategy, owns a statewide credentialing platform roadmap, and leads a team of five.

Product Manager, Arizona Department of Education

2017 to 2021 · Phoenix

Led the statewide Ed-Fi implementation and delivered products for school finance, grants, CTE, special education, early childhood, and federal reporting.

Technical Project Manager, Cognizant for American Express

2014 to 2017 · Phoenix

Small business card launch, personalized application journeys, and card-matching landing pages. Earlier, Lead Business Systems Analyst on card acquisition.

Internet Banking Product Owner, ICICI Bank

2011 to 2013 · Mumbai

Personal internet banking portal and digital wallet launch. Implementations in Canada, the UK, and Germany. SWIFT payments and fraud detection.

Executive MBA · University of ArizonaProduct Manager Certificate · Product SchoolB.E., Information Technology · University of Mumbai

Contact

hello@aadityahirurkar.com

LinkedIn

Glad to connect with anyone working on data, interoperability, and AI in regulated industries.