Interview with PehKeong Teh, Chief Product Officer at Symend
A conversation about product vision and customer-centric innovation
Key Takeaways
- PehKeong brings deep expertise in product development and customer engagement
- His vision focuses on solving real customer problems with elegant solutions
- Product strategy balances innovation with practical execution
We sat down with PehKeong Teh, Symend's Chief Product Officer, to discuss his vision for our product, his approach to building great customer experiences, and what excites him about the future of customer engagement technology.
Q: Tell us about your background and what brought you to Symend.
"I've spent my career at the intersection of technology and customer experience, working with companies to build products that solve real problems in meaningful ways. What attracted me to Symend was the opportunity to apply advanced technology—AI, behavioral science, data analytics—to a problem that affects millions of people: how companies engage with customers who are facing financial challenges."
"The traditional approach to this problem has been broken for a long time. It creates bad outcomes for customers and businesses alike. Symend's vision of using behavioral science and advanced analytics to create more empathetic, effective engagement resonated deeply with me. This is product development that genuinely makes people's lives better."
Q: How do you think about product strategy at Symend?
"Our product strategy starts with deep understanding of our customers and the people they serve. We spend a lot of time with our customers, understanding their challenges, their workflows, their constraints. We also think carefully about the end consumers—the people who receive our clients' engagement—and how to create experiences that help rather than harm them."
"The best products don't just solve problems—they transform how people think about what's possible. That's what we're building at Symend."
"From this understanding, we identify opportunities where technology can create meaningful impact. We prioritize ruthlessly, focusing on the capabilities that will drive the most value. And we iterate constantly based on data and customer feedback."
Q: What makes Symend's product different from other solutions in the market?
"Several things set us apart. First, our foundation in behavioral science. We're not just applying technology to the problem—we're applying an understanding of human psychology and decision-making. This leads to fundamentally different, more effective approaches."
"Second, our commitment to personalization at scale. Every customer is different, and our platform is built to deliver truly individualized engagement. We use advanced machine learning to predict what will work for each person, not just segments or cohorts."
"Third, our focus on outcomes, not just outputs. We don't measure success by how many messages we send or contacts we make. We measure it by whether we help people resolve their situations while achieving our clients' business objectives."
Q: How do you balance innovation with practical execution?
"This is one of the most important challenges in product development. You want to push boundaries and leverage cutting-edge technology, but you also need to deliver reliable, practical solutions that work in the real world."
"We manage this by maintaining a balanced portfolio. We invest in foundational capabilities that we know work and that customers depend on. We also invest in emerging technologies and new approaches that could create step-function improvements. And we maintain discipline about moving innovations from experimentation to production only when they're ready."
Q: What role does customer feedback play in product development?
"Customer feedback is essential. We have formal programs for gathering feedback—user research, customer advisory boards, regular check-ins. But we also encourage our entire team to stay connected to customers. Engineers join customer calls. Product managers visit customer sites. Everyone sees firsthand how our product is used and what challenges customers face."
"That said, we don't just take requests and build them. Our job is to understand the underlying needs and problems, then design solutions that address them in the best possible way. Sometimes that means building exactly what customers ask for. Sometimes it means building something different that better solves their real problem."
Q: What excites you most about the future?
"I'm excited about several things. Advances in AI and machine learning are opening up new possibilities for understanding and predicting customer behavior. Natural language processing is getting good enough to enable more sophisticated communication. Cloud infrastructure keeps getting more powerful and accessible."
"But I'm most excited about the growing recognition that customer engagement doesn't have to be adversarial. More companies are realizing that treating customers with empathy and respect isn't just the right thing to do—it's better business. This creates tremendous opportunity for solutions like Symend."
Q: What advice would you give to aspiring product leaders?
"First, stay close to customers. You can't build great products from inside an office. You need to understand deeply what problems people face and how they work."
"Second, sweat the details. Great products are built from thousands of small decisions made well. Every interaction, every workflow, every pixel matters."
"Third, build great teams and trust them. Product development is a team sport. Your job as a leader is to set direction, provide context, remove obstacles, and let talented people do their best work."
Closing Thoughts
PehKeong's leadership has been instrumental in shaping Symend's product vision and execution. His focus on solving real problems, commitment to customer-centric design, and ability to balance innovation with practical execution continue to drive our product strategy forward.
We're fortunate to have him leading our product organization as we work to transform how companies engage with customers.
