Sripathy Ramesh
Head of Zoho Sheet, Zoho PageSense, and Zoho LandingPage
Years with Zoho
Years with Zoho
What did you want to be while growing up?
An engineer.
A leader that inspires you
Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
Your go-to comfort food?
Bisibele Bath(a South Indian rice-based dish).
Describe your current role in the organization.
I currently serve as Head of Product, overseeing Zoho Sheet, Zoho PageSense, and Zoho LandingPage. In this role, I define the product vision, identify the key capabilities to be built, and work with my team to execute them effectively while ensuring an exceptional user experience. I collaborate closely with cross-functional teams—including engineering, design, and marketing—to bring this vision to life with seamless execution.
What role does Zoho’s company culture play in your identity and the work that you do?
Zoho always gives you freedom to execute along with responsibility. As Sridhar Vembu used to say, each Product Manager is the CEO of the product. This trust that the company has in us motivates me to give my best.
What were the highest and lowest points of your journey with Zoho?
In my initial years, based on my performance, I was given bigger responsibilities, and that recognition was one of the highest points in my journey with Zoho.
Low points affected me only momentarily. For example, at one stage, a product we were building was discontinued even before its release. I quickly overcame this setback, as there had been duplicate efforts, and the decision was ultimately good for the company. We then went on to build other new products.
Your most embarrassing blunder?
This was in the early days of SaaS and Web 2.0. We didn’t have failover for our application server back then. I had modified an XML configuration file directly in production and hadn’t tested it after making the changes. The next morning, while I was playing tennis, I got a Site24x7 alert that our product was down. Apparently, the server had restarted for an unrelated reason, and it failed to start because it couldn’t parse the XML file. I rushed to work and fixed the issue. It was a good learning experience for me. Over the years, of course, our stack and processes have evolved, and issues like these are no longer possible.
What are your hobbies or favorite activities outside of work?
My favorite activity outside of work is my passion for music. I play the keyboard and produce my own songs. In fact, my music skills really developed after I started playing in our office band at company events and inter-corporate music competitions.
Words of Wisdom
Stay updated on the latest in tech. Give your team members responsibility and ownership so they can learn and grow. Be there to help when needed.