Putting the “Pro” in Product: An Exclusive Interview with the Sertifi Product Management Team

Brad Boyer – Vice President of Product

Eric Hockman – Lead Product Manager (Payments, Travel Authorizations, Integrations)

Tony Michals – Senior Product Manager (e-Signatures, Credit Card Authorizations)

Rich Harris – Product Manager (Travel Company Authorizations)

Sydnee Greenberg – UX Designer

Sam Allen – Technical Writer

Tony: When I started at Sertifi about seven years ago, I was drawn to the exciting challenge of working at a small, fast-growing company. As the first member of the product team, I had the opportunity to be involved in everything the company was working on, from strategic decision-making to day-to-day operations. Fast forward to today, I still love shaping the direction of our product and working with incredible people, including our customers.

Eric: I’m part of team Sertifi because I love the hospitality industry and the role Sertifi plays within it. It’s become a fast-paced, rapidly evolving industry, which makes it a thrilling space to work in. As for Sertifi, the experience is equally rewarding. We have a fantastic culture and plenty of opportunities to make a direct impact.

Rich: I used Sertifi in previous roles, as Sertifi’s authorization solution is very ubiquitous in the hospitality industry. What keeps me here is our company's ability to optimize our resources and produce a worthy product. When I first started, having known the product beforehand, I was shocked by how small our company is. I thought that the team was at least five times bigger, which shows how hardworking Team Sertifi is.

Brad: SertifiPay has grown substantially, and we are continuing to see strong transactional growth. From credit cards to ACH payments and our newest feature, surcharging, we're listening to our customers and reacting to their feedback. It’s great to see the quick pace of adoption.

Eric: Since I started, we’ve narrowed our market reach, which has allowed us to deliver more targeted solutions. For example, SertifiPay has been a significant benefit to both our customers and the industry. We’ve also integrated with other companies, achieved the highest level of PCI compliance, and expanded our platform to include a range of workflows that serve a wide variety of customers – from small businesses to enterprise-level organizations within the hospitality space. It’s been an amazing, transformative journey.

Tony: The biggest change I’ve seen was with our next generation user experience. Going from an idea on a whiteboard to turning it into a reality was no easy task. But from there, we’ve also seen a lot of changes to our platform that next gen allowed. 

Brad: We are doubling down on delivering customer outcomes that spark strong, positive reactions from our customers. It shows we’re on the right track, listening to their needs and acting on the right feedback. A recent example is the launch of our new surcharging feature. Recognizing how fees are impacting our customers, we introduced surcharging, which was met with significant market demand. As a result, surcharging revenue has grown rapidly. Our product team finds a lot of energy in launching outcomes customers find high value in, and I want to create a lot more moments like that.

Eric: Having happy customers is the number one outcome. We strive to build a product that our customers will want to use. So, for me personally, making and releasing products that help all our customers, no matter the persona, complete their work in an easier, more efficient, and cost-effective way is what I call a win.

Sydnee: I feel accomplished making our platform more enjoyable to use. That includes making common workflows easier to complete. If customers can complete their tasks faster, that means that the experience is really usable – and if I can deliver meaningful benefits to address our customers’ key challenges, I know I’ve done my job right.

Brad: First, you have to really understand the value you're trying to deliver. From there, you have to be willing to fail while validating your hypothesis and continuously evolve your product based on your findings. When you combine the power of a user feedback loop with years of domain expertise and passion, you can create a high-end, delightful product.

Sam: Developing a great product isn’t just listening to the customer but anticipating what they need. A customer can give any type of feedback, and we’ll do our best to accommodate their requests, but it’s important that we think about the specific outcome. That way, we can be sure that we are creating a product that our customers find valuable.

Rich: To me, it’s about usability. The product should be frictionless, making the end user’s job easier. For Sertifi, this means automating contracts, payments, and more so our customers can focus on revenue-driving tasks.

Eric: I think it’s our focus and dedication to building tailored solutions for our customer’s unique needs. For example, how we approach payments is completely tailored to how they are handled within the hospitality industry, letting us fill a gap no one else is filling. We're not trying to solve every industry's problems; we're solving the hospitality industry's problems. 

Rich: Whether you’re a large Hilton or a small bed and breakfast, we treat everyone equally and offer unwavering support – and because of the degree of support we offer, as a trusted name in the industry, customers feel comfortable sharing their input with us. We trust our customers to help us improve, and no issue is ever overlooked. 

Sydnee: For us, it’s about empathy and value. We understand the complexity of our customers’ workflows and the many systems they use. Many of our team members come from the hospitality industry and are familiar with the tools our customers rely on daily. We’ve brought that expertise in-house to build a solution that perfectly meets the needs of hospitality professionals.

Brad: To innovate and quickly adapt our product to meet customer needs, we are ensuring every process within our platform is measurable and flexible. This allows us to launch small experiments and gather feedback quickly. That way, if we like the result of the experiment, we can scale those changes seamlessly across the platform. 

Sam: Everything that I create, I create based on the hypothetical 2:30 a.m. emergency scenario. Those are the situations where the quality and the brevity of our support materials will count the most. I do this to make sure our customers have the information they need to get their job done quickly and efficiently. The additive of stress is not what you need in a crisis, and I want to make sure our customers feel comfortable relying on us. 

Tony: I’m really excited to see more usage of our next-generation platform. We just helped over 8,000 properties from a big hotel brand migrate from the classic version of our platform to the next-generation version, and it was a huge success. So, I’m excited to help more enterprise customers do the same. 

Eric: More payment innovations! Payments is a huge focus area for us, and there's a lot of opportunities for us to help our customers get paid faster and more securely with less fraud risk. 

Rich: I’m excited to start working on adding more integrations to the platform. We know there are a lot of other tools out there that hospitality professionals rely on, and the more connected we can all be, the better.