The product team is one of the most critical aspects of any startup. If an organization is to succeed and be self-sustaining beyond initial funding, it must maintain execution speed while simultaneously evolving its workflows to accommodate growth — responsibilities that largely fall on the shoulders of product managers. Pearce Dolan has overcome these challenges twice. At digital banking platform Revolut, he joined as the brand’s first dedicated product manager and launched features like bill-splitting functionalities and GIF payments before they became standard in fintech. He’s now the head of product at payroll and HR service provider Deel, where he built a product team that delivered a global HR platform in just six months (compared to the industry standard of 1–2 years). His experiences offer a wealth of insight into developing product teams that can build and maintain momentum through rapid growth. From Technology Enthusiast to Product Leader From Technology Enthusiast to Product Leader As a child, Pearce Dolan was dreaming about creating technology while his peers preferred to consume it. “At a young age, I would buy technology magazines and read them cover to cover,” he recalls. “My ambition was to one day work for technology companies and help them strategize on how to make the best products in the world.” Pearce Dolan Though he was born in England, his family moved to Hong Kong when he was 10, then to Dubai a couple of years later. He didn’t realize it at the time, but these global experiences would prove invaluable when it came time to build products for worldwide audiences. “Spending my formative years in international settings really influenced my view of the world,” Dolan reflects. “Now, it’s where I feel most comfortable — in an international setting.” He went on to study computer science and business management at King’s College London, planning to work as an engineer before transitioning to product management. But when the opportunity came early, he seized it. Expanding Revolut’s Digital Banking Services When Dolan joined Revolut as its 250th employee, the company was just starting to expand its offerings beyond its core currency exchange service. It was a hire that the organization had needed to make for a long time: While prior engineers had served in the role out of necessity, Dolan was the organization’s first dedicated product manager. He ran the company’s first sprint, conducted its first A/B test, pioneered customer interview processes — he basically created the entire product culture. The focus was speed. With traditional banking notorious for its slow, bureaucratic development cycles, speed would be Revolut’s greatest advantage. To this end, Dolan focused on creating systems that would allow the company to iterate faster than its competitors, including lightweight approval processes, direct customer feedback loops, and rapid testing protocols that garnered feedback in days rather than months. The result was a suite of features that redefined what users expected from financial applications: Bill-splitting functionalities, making dividing expenses frictionless
Shareable payment links, eliminating the need for bank details
QR code payments, launching long before widespread European adoption
Group and username-based payments, simplifying transactions Bill-splitting functionalities, making dividing expenses frictionless Shareable payment links, eliminating the need for bank details QR code payments, launching long before widespread European adoption Group and username-based payments, simplifying transactions But one of Dolan’s most innovative additions, and one that would have ripple effects throughout the sector, was the ability to pay alongside GIFs — an industry first that added an unprecedented emotional connection to financial transactions. “The idea came to me while walking down the streets of London,” Dolan says. “I still have the doodles!” The feature was built in just two weeks, and in testing, Dolan and his team saw an increase in payment frequency and that one-third of all payments were sent with a GIF. After launching and achieving widespread popularity, the feature was later adopted by major payment platforms globally. Over the next two and a half years, in part due to Dolan’s innovations and streamlining of product development, Revolut’s user base exploded from 3.5 million to 10 million. Its revenue nearly tripled, achieving decacorn status with a $10 billion valuation (a figure that would later climb to $45 billion). Building a Global Team at Deel Dolan’s next challenge came at Deel, a SaaS company that empowers businesses worldwide to hire, manage, and pay talent globally — a challenge that became particularly urgent as remote work expanded. When Dolan was brought on as the brand’s 20th employee, the existing infrastructure was minimal: “There was me, a first-time designer they found on Reddit, a CTO, eight engineers, and no QA.” This lean structure demanded breakneck speeds from Dolan and his team. If Revolut’s product culture was fast-paced, Deel’s was practically frenzied in its infancy. “The culture was hyper execution driven,” Dolan says. “We moved fast and broke things. Literally. We would build things in crazy rapid time, push it to production with no QA, and crash the site multiple times a day.” This pace wasn’t recklessness — it was strategy. Deel was solving a completely new problem as it defined what a global HR platform should be from scratch. Speed wasn’t just an advantage; it was fundamental to the organization’s success. It was a strategy that paid off in spades. Deel built the world’s first global human resource information system (HRIS) in just six months — a process that competitors would typically take 1-2 years to complete. Building upon this momentum, Dolan oversaw the rapid development and deployment of other vital features like: Global immigration services, helping migrant workers secure their visas
Employer of record, a service that employs workers on behalf of companies in countries where they don’t have legal entities
Contractor of record, an industry-first solution with advanced compliant controls, shielding employers from risk and empowering them to hire and pay contractors around the world Global immigration services, helping migrant workers secure their visas Employer of record, a service that employs workers on behalf of companies in countries where they don’t have legal entities Contractor of record, an industry-first solution with advanced compliant controls, shielding employers from risk and empowering them to hire and pay contractors around the world As a result, Deel became the fastest-growing SaaS company in history, reaching $100 million in annual revenue just 20 months after hitting $1 million. The product team expanded to over 1,000 product managers and engineers, distributed across 150 specialized teams. Finally, the company scaled to 5,000 employees operating in more than 100 countries — all without establishing any physical offices. fastest-growing SaaS company in history fastest-growing SaaS company in history While this explosive growth speaks to the virtues of speed and feature development, Dolan stresses the importance of adapting your product strategy as you go. At Deel, for example, Dolan began to prioritize high-level strategy as he fine-tuned his vision for the product org. While singular focus and breakneck speeds were what propelled Deel to initial success, it wouldn’t be a sustainable practice at scale. This meant the critical transformation from a monolithic product to specialized teams — that is, evolving from having a single product team working on one platform to having multiple teams focusing on different verticals. “Each stage of the journey has required a different approach and behavior," Dolan reflects. What works at 50 employees won’t work at 500, and what works at 500 won’t work at 5,000. The best teams, therefore, are the ones that adapt the fastest. Achieving a Balanced Approach to Product Excellence Pearce Dolan’s success demonstrates that the companies that thrive aren’t necessarily those with the best ideas or most resources. Instead, much of the impressive growth that Revolut and Deel achieved can be attributed to Dolan’s work in establishing a strong foundation of product practices early on, prioritizing speed of execution over perfection, and creating adaptable systems that can evolve as the organization scales. The product leaders who master this balancing act create the foundation for sustainable growth that outlasts any single product feature or market trend. That’s what effective product leadership in high-growth companies requires — and it’s something that Dolan has demonstrated throughout his career.

This story contains new, firsthand information uncovered by the writer.

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