Louise Dahlborn Samet

Group Product Manager at Klarna

Stockholm, Sweden & San Francisco, California

@louisesamet | LinkedIn Profile

 

Please describe your ‘journey’at Klarna.

I started at Klarna back in 2010 in the Technical Sales department with another colleague. It was a completely new team at the time. I ran one major project -the integration of a northern European book giant called Adlibris – and a few smaller ones before moving to Germany in January of 2011 to build the Technical Sales group there. After building the team in Germany, I rolled out the structure and processes to the other markets. Eventually – after we created these teams for every market Klarna was in – I ended up managing the entire Technical Sales group and all the teams reported to me. It has been an intense experience across multiple cultures and market demands.

We discussed having to vary your management style with resources in the U.S. as compared to different regions in the EU. Can you summarize the differences and your approach to managing global tech resources?

It’s important to respect cultural differences and the need for localization when it comes to your approach as a manager. In order to manage someone successfully, you need at least a basic understanding of the key principles of their culture. It may be as simple as using very careful, polite phrasing of your feedback or as challenging as providing explicit directness about areas for improvement. You need to be able to adjust your communication style based on how the employee expects you to behave (from their own cultural perspective), so they can understand your expectations. In order for employees to reach their potential, they need a manager who can help them succeed – and that can only be done if you fully understand each other.

What recommendations would you give to others who aren’t necessarily tech gurus but whose roles require them to give feedback to tech resources?

Be honest about your competence and, most importantly, your lack of competence, tell the team what your skillset is and what you need in regards to support from them. You should be working with individuals who are better at what they do then you are. Focus on what should be done and not how they do their work — the outcome is the most important thing and you must have trust in each other. I don’t think it’s about gender - its about reaching a level of trust that allows you to communicate efficiently.

What is your own perspective on the San Francisco FinTech space as compared to London or Stockholm?

I think the main advantage of the San Francisco Bay area is that everyone is here, you have the investors, the founders, designers and engineers around the corner. Everything you need to start and grow a successful company – at least from a technology perspective – is in one place. All other cities are starting at a disadvantage. I think Stockholm specifically has been successful partly because of the welfare system of safety nets (free university education and universal health care), but also because there is an early ambition to expand to other markets since the home market is relatively small.

You mentioned you have a newborn. Any recommendations to new mothers / fathers as to managing their work-life balance?

The only thing I know I’ve done right in this regard is to choose the right partner — someone who will support your ambitions. The rest; my husband and are figuring out as we go.

More about Klarna:

Founded in Stockholm in 2005, Klarna is one of Europe’s fastest growing companies, and offers safe and easy-to-use payment solutions to e-stores. At the core of Klarna’s services is the concept of after delivery payment, which lets buyers receive ordered goods before any payment is due. At the same time, Klarna assumes the credit and fraud risk so that retailers can rest assured they will receive their money.

Klarna Group has more than 1,200 employees and is active on 18 markets. They serve 35 million consumers and work with 50,000 merchants, attracting major international clients such as Spotify, Disney, Samsung, Wish and ASOS. Their goal is to become the world’s favorite way to buy.