AMEX work

tl;dr

if you have ever used a contactless form of payment (ie. apple pay, contactless credit card) in public transit (ie. the NYC subway), you can do so because of my project!

THE PROBLEM

As contactless payments in the transit industry became increasingly popular, American Express was looking for a way to position itself as a leader in the industry by entering and acquiring markets worldwide to optimize revenue and product visibility.

However, there was not enough manpower to compile comprehensive research on what the landscape of contactless payments currently looks like in relation to Amex competitors (ie. Visa, Mastercard), and which markets to prioritize where there are opportunities.

task

During my internship with American Express, I worked on the transit team on the Network Product Engagement Team in the Global Network Operations Division. My job was to research markets for AMEX to acquire/hop on and provide recommendations on which markets to enter, as well as forecast the growth of contactless payments in the global transit industry as a whole.

Ultimately, I researched and compiled data about 70+ global markets to create a comprehensive view of contactless, payments pipelines in the transit industry, organized large datasets in Excel, produced data visualization assets with Tableau to communicate transit industry research trends, developed a detailed recommendation for AMEX on which markets to acquire and deepen relationships with by analyzing data and research, and communicated all my findings via PowerPoint in a final presentation.

client

American Express

Role

Product Manager

wins!

I study international relations and asian american studies. My project during this internship was about contactless payments in the transit industry, and researching multimodal convergence solutions in a product manager capacity. I’m just going to go on a limb and say that no one is rigorously studying this in their undergraduate career (I sure as hell am not). However, I learned that though I might not have prepared for this specifically in my academic endeavors, nor was I initially familiar with PM processes and workflows, how I approached the issue and ultimately adapted and overcame it is what defined my success in delivering my final product. Turns out that my knowledge from my studies of the Middle East was extremely helpful as I was able to incorporate relevant discussion points about developments in transit infrastructure and world events (like the World Cup in Doha or 2020 World Expo in Dubai) in the region, which enhanced my research and provided insight into very specific developments that guided my final product. Compare that to someone who is studying management science or economics — they probably wouldn’t have had the same depth of knowledge that I had on the topic.

Furthermore, some technical skills I got to apply to my project was data visualization. I created a map on Tableau of different contactless fare collection projects going on in the world, which I was able to add to my project. This wasn’t a requirement to get the internship or do the job as a product manager, but I was able to hone my skills and make use of them which showed me that everyone has something to give, and ultimately made my final presentation as aesthetically pleasing as it was packed with information.

snippets from my final presentation deck