Varun Khanna

Applied: SPMRank #5 of 15 SPM applicantssquad_2@pg27.mesaschool.co+91 97393 82014spm_20_varun_khanna.pdf

SPM

Review

Shortlist

Brief · SPM

The candidate is a product professional with nine years of experience across logistics management consulting and freight-tech, most recently serving as VP Product building a transportation management system product from concept to 30 paying clients. The candidate ranked fifth with a 70/100 review score because of strong senior-most ownership in establishing the product function from scratch as the first product hire and maintaining deep field immersion through quarterly embedded visits at transporter yards and shipper dispatch points. The candidate's biggest gap against the rubric is in people development, as there is no evidence that any of the three product managers they managed were mentored into promotions.

Probe in interview

Can you share a specific example of a product manager you directly managed, detailing the specific development areas you coached them through and the promotion or advancement they achieved under your leadership?
Can you describe a specific time when you had direct line accountability for day-to-day logistics operations and dispatch execution, rather than observing and auditing operations as a product manager or consultant?
Can you provide a specific example of a product discovery practice or framework you introduced that continued to run and deliver outcomes entirely without your direct oversight or active intervention?

SPM rubric (applied role)70.0 / 100Review

Criterion	Score	Weight	Points	Evidence	Rationale
SPM-1 Hands-on logistics operations experience	3/5	25%	15	Runs quarterly embedded visits at 2 transporter yards and 2 shipper dispatch points: 2 days minimum, observing how freight is planned, loaded, and tracked without technology intervention	Extensive field immersion and site visits in consulting and product roles, but never held an operations role.
SPM-2 Senior-most owner, no one above them in the function	5/5	25%	25	Built the product function from scratch — first product hire; grew to lead a team of 3 PMs	Led the product function from scratch as the senior-most owner (VP Product) with end-to-end decision-making.
SPM-3 Turns fixes into standing practice	3/5	20%	12	introduced the team's first structured discovery practice and feature measurement framework	Introduced practices adopted by the team, but candidate remains present and leading the team with no evidence of it operating without them.
SPM-4 Judgement under pressure, stated plainly	5/5	15%	15	Killed a mobile app for drivers in 4 weeks post-launch: adoption was 3% of the target, the real problem was dispatcher-side, not driver-side	Plainly described a hard call to kill a product post-launch, providing specific failure metrics and root-cause reasoning.
SPM-5 Grows people who then get promoted	1/5	15%	3	none	The CV mentions managing a team of 3 PMs, but provides no evidence of mentoring or team members being promoted.

PM rubric (other role)77.0 / 100Shortlist

Criterion	Score	Weight	Points	Evidence	Rationale
PM-1 Hands-on logistics operations experience	3/5	30%	18	Spent an average of 2 days per week at client plant, warehouse, or distribution centre sites — not just data analysis from the office	Matches anchor 3 as the candidate worked closely with ops teams on site but never personally held a hands-on logistics operations role.
PM-2 Builds from observed pain; peers adopt it	3/5	20%	12	introduced the team's first structured discovery practice and feature measurement framework	Matches anchor 3 with one example of introducing an internal practice and framework for their own team without named peer adoption.
PM-3 Sole ownership with no layer in between	5/5	20%	20	Designed and shipped the company's TMS product from concept to 30 paying clients over 3 years — no roadmap existed before I joined	Meets anchor 5 as the sole owner who designed and shipped the TMS product from concept to 30 paying clients with outcomes directly attributed to them.
PM-4 Discovery directly with operators	4/5	15%	12	Runs quarterly embedded visits at 2 transporter yards and 2 shipper dispatch points: 2 days minimum, observing how freight is planned, loaded, and tracked without technology intervention	Clear evidence of frontline operator discovery in the field, but falls short of anchor 5 because no specific measurable product change is tied to it.
PM-5 Candour: kills, post-mortems, owning what went wrong	5/5	15%	15	Killed a mobile app for drivers in 4 weeks post-launch: adoption was 3% of the target, the real problem was dispatcher-side, not driver-side	Meets anchor 5 by naming an explicit product kill within 4 weeks of launch, specifying the metric failure (3% adoption) and the root cause lesson.

Interview invite draft

draft

SubjectBody ([NAME] is replaced with the candidate's name when sent)

Redacted CV (exactly what the model saw)

[REDACTED] [REDACTED]
[REDACTED] · Mumbai
[REDACTED]
Professional Summary
Senior Product Manager with 9 years of experience — started in logistics management consulting (field-based, not
strategy-desk), moved into product at a freight-tech company, and built the company's TMS product from the
ground up. Deep understanding of how road freight, FTL/LTL, and carrier operations work in the Indian market —
built from 3 years of plant visits and ops audits.
Work Experience
VP Product (Senior PM-equivalent)
Blume Logistics Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (TMS & Freight-Tech, 80 employees), Mumbai · Aug 2019 – Present
— Built the product function from scratch — first product hire; grew to lead a team of 3 PMs
— Designed and shipped the company's TMS product from concept to 30 paying clients over 3 years — no roadmap
existed before I joined
— Road freight dispatch, carrier rate management, trip sheet automation, and freight audit are the 4 modules I have
owned end to end from inception
— Runs quarterly embedded visits at 2 transporter yards and 2 shipper dispatch points: 2 days minimum, observing
how freight is planned, loaded, and tracked without technology intervention
— Killed a mobile app for drivers in 4 weeks post-launch: adoption was 3% of the target, the real problem was
dispatcher-side, not driver-side
— Manages a 3-PM team; introduced the team's first structured discovery practice and feature measurement
framework
Senior Consultant – Logistics & Supply Chain
Praxis Global Alliance (Management Consulting), Mumbai · Mar 2016 – Jul 2019
— Led supply chain and logistics optimisation engagements for mid-large industrial, FMCG, and e-commerce clients
— Spent an average of 2 days per week at client plant, warehouse, or distribution centre sites — not just data analysis
from the office
— Led a road freight network redesign for a major cement company: spent 6 weeks visiting 8 plant dispatch points,
riding along on deliveries, and interviewing transporters at truck terminals before drawing a single recommendation
— Delivered INR 40Cr in freight cost savings across 4 major engagements over 3 years
Analyst
Praxis Global Alliance, Mumbai · Jul 2014 – Feb 2016
— Supported senior consultants on supply chain and operations projects in FMCG and retail sectors
— Built data models, process maps, and client presentation decks; led client site visits in the junior analyst role
Education
MBA, Operations & Supply Chain · IIM Bangalore · 2012–2014
B.Tech, Civil Engineering · IIT Roorkee · 2008–2012 · CGPA 7.8/10
Skills & Certifications
Product strategy · TMS & freight-tech · Road freight operations · Supply chain consulting · JIRA · Figma · SQL · Miro ·
Excel (advanced)
CSCP – APICS (2015) · SAFe 5 Product Owner/PM (2020)