Closing the retirement savings gap involves a lot of moving pieces across many different teams. At Micruity, the heavy work of connecting those pieces falls to our Product Management Team. They bridge the gap between clients and product, and transform the needs of our users into software solutions.

For this installment of the Micruitian Corner we sat down with two key members of our Product Team: Vanessa Khuong and Ellery Fuliere. Both these team members have different – but complementary product experience that help drive our solutions engine. We asked them about their thoughts on product strategy, the relationship between product need and user experience, and the future of retirement income solutions.

Vanessa Khuong

How did you get started at Micruity?

I started my journey at Micruity about three and a half years ago, back in our proof-of-concept days. What drew me to Micruity back then was it was an opportunity to merge my experience in different disciplines – I actually started University in Actuarial Science before moving to Statistics and Computer Science. Before that, I worked in areas like tech consulting and business intelligence so the transition to product management was organic. Since then, it has been an exhilarating ride.

What does it mean to be a Product Manager at Micruity?

My role at Micruity is very hands-on – whether I’m shaping our product suite, collaborating with our stakeholders on integrations, or designing and testing releases with our engineering team. From day one, I got to wear many hats to support our start-up from 0 to 1 takeoff.

As the company grew and we officially launched our first cohort of clients late last year, my role has evolved to focus on refining our current offerings and strategically planning for new solutions. I’m extremely fortunate to work alongside a talented team that includes Ellery, our other Product Manager. Every achievement has been a testament to the collective vision and hard work of everyone at Micruity.

What does the future hold for the Retirement Income space?

One of the most rewarding aspects of my work is the opportunity to shape the institutional retirement space and the potential for tangible impact on our communities. We’re not just building products, we’re enabling people to feel secure about their financial future.

And there are great challenges – or opportunities – that keep me going. One is ensuring that our technical solutions meet the rapidly evolving needs of our clients and the market. As concerns about the cost of living and market volatility drive up the appetite for guaranteed income products, product builders will look to broaden their toolbox and cater to more complex retirement profiles. What does this mean for our existing infrastructure at Micruity? How can we sustainably scale our product stack in anticipation of these needs?

Looking ahead, I believe the future of our industry will be shaped by a convergence of technological advances, regulatory changes, and evolving participant expectations. We’re always looking for ways to serve our clients better. How can we accelerate our client’s product design and deployment? How can we further simplify plan management, or enable our clients to easily customize the participant experience? These are the things that will have a direct impact on our clients and their ability to support plan participants along their entire journey – from savings through retirement.

Every day at Micruity brings new challenges and opportunities, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What are your interests outside work?

Outside of work, I enjoy immersing myself in different cultures through travel and cooking. I’m an avid home chef who loves hosting pop-up dinners. When there’s time, I also like to revisit my educational background in data science and learn more about the rapidly advancing applications of LLM and the Generative AI space. Maybe there is a use case here for chatbots trained on a retirement knowledge base that can better educate participants!

Ellery Fuliere

What does it mean to be a Product Manager at Micruity?

Being a product manager means wearing lots of different hats. At its core, it’s about understanding the needs of our users to design products that help them do what needs to be done. We act as the bridge between all our internal and external stakeholders and the technical team, bringing them all together to build a product roadmap.

At Micruity, this means conducting extensive research and interviews with industry experts in Recordkeeping, Insurance, Asset Management, and Defined Contribution. It also involves a lot of data analysis, and discussions with the product and engineering teams to integrate the feedback into a roadmap that takes ideas all the way from concept to launch.

For me, few things are more energizing than solving complex problems, and this is at the heart of Micruity’s mission: how do we help everyone build a more safe and secure retirement? I’m grateful I get to do this every day!

How did you get your start in Product Management?

Before joining Micruity, I was working with an eCommerce startup, managing the roadmap for a B2B white labeling business. My focus was on launching omnichannel partnership and data integrations with sports governing bodies, technology partners, and philanthropy divisions of major banks. That work helped define my growth-experimentation mindset and refine my data-driven analytical skills to lead teams through successful product launches.

How do you see the Product Manager role evolving?

AI tools will be deployed into every stage of the product development lifecycle. Internally, it can offer efficiency and speed in analyzing large volumes of usage data, user feedback, and market research to deliver insights that facilitate more rapid prioritization and robust roadmaps.

As part of my UX focus, I also see the growth of generative AI as a means to increase engagement, retention, and conversion. AI can offer more personalized experiences that deliver greater value and reinforce the importance of user-centered design. Some examples of this could be personalized insights to help customers move down a decision funnel; conversational chatbots trained to support CS, pre-sales, and onboarding; and dynamic UIs that are personalized to the user.

What keeps you up at night?

How can I deliver a thoughtful, accessible, user centered interface that simplifies complex financial products and gives users confidence when making major financial decisions.

We have a real obligation to our clients and the ultimate end-users, plan participants.

What’s your favorite thing about working here at Micruity?

I love systems-oriented solutions to solving big problems – Micruity keeps me busy on all fronts! With Micruity I have a clear mission, with a tangible impact.

What are some of your interests outside of work?

I love to hike, experiment with many manners of fermented things in the kitchen, play tabletop games, grow food, and tinker with my Arduino.