What is a good product?
That’s a million-dollar question! A good product is one that delivers business value to your company while being used and loved by your customers. A good product is easy to understand, functional, and effective for the end user. Every product creates a brand touchpoint with your customers, and, at the same time, it also creates value for your company – for example, by generating sales, creating leads, or boosting subscriptions.
Offering a good product and an engaging user experience means building a stronger relationship, and a stronger bond with your customers.
What was your path to product?
I originally started as an Academic Researcher and then I went to work at Saint Gobain, a manufacturing company. I started as a product specialist and then became a product manager. Being Saint Gobain an offline company, the role of a product manager may seem quite different from the roles we are discussing today, but, if you look at it from a high-level perspective, it’s pretty much the same. After Saint Gobain, I joined a consulting company and eventually went to Cuponation, now Global Saving Group, a Rocket Internet venture in Munich. After some years in Munich, I moved to Berlin and joined the company where I am now, home24, where I started as a CRM Lead, then as Marketing Director, and now as VP Product.
Why is the product function important for your organization?
Home24 was born as an online-first company. Our digital products, like our website or our mobile apps, are critical to distinguish ourselves in the market that’s why we have always considered the shopping experience and product a key differentiator. Our Products are helping us to reach millions of potential customers every year, and we do our best to improve their experience on a daily basis.
From a business perspective, we need also to consider that an efficient product means efficient marketing campaigns, and the possibility to scale and reach more customers in an economically sustainable way.
What is your single most important KPI?
It’s hard to talk about that “one” single KPI. Internally, we have had this discussion millions of times as well. In the end, it all comes down to increase the customer lifetime value. But to be honest, I’m trying to keep myself focused on something I can control. Thus, I strive to create efficient teams that can deliver results in our P&L while achieving customer satisfaction with every single iteration.
In addition, I try to make sure that each team is following a single KPI that is aligned to what they are doing and to what they can directly influence. For example, if we are talking about the team that is managing the product page, I am measuring them on what is add-to-cart of the product page.
But there are several areas too, where responsibilities are split across departments. Therefore, it’s difficult to say this is something that is only under my control. That’s the reason I prefer to have specific KPIs bound to the domain as well as to the team I am managing and then work together with them.
Ultimately, my responsibility is to create efficient teams with balanced costs that generate the highest return on investment possible.
What is the future of the product function?
Usually, Europe is following the dynamics that emerged in the US or Asia, just some years later. Lately, we have seen some movements to transform companies into product-led organizations or developing always more towards the cross-pollination of departments, and the creation of fully cross-functional teams along the stream of the value of a given organization. I believe product is evolving from an isolated technical function to an integral part of the company’s commercial or marketing organization.
Lately, a lot of effort actually has gone into making sure that common ground is created with business stakeholders and technical departments. This is a great development for everyone working in product because one of the biggest concerns that you could have observed in the last 15 years was often departments like technology or product working in silos. The advantage of this convergence is great for companies because it creates less friction, stillness, less costs while also making sure there is more knowledge sharing and collaboration to create really impactful solutions.
“Product management is…”
… tough and beautiful.
