Working at Explorado Romania, a local startup, was a journey filled with challenges, learning, and growth. As part of the product management team from day one, I had the opportunity to build a cutting-edge e-commerce platform from scratch, overcome obstacles, and create a resilient and adaptable team. In this article, I’ll delve deeper into each aspect of my experience at Explorado and share valuable insights.
The Challenge of Changing Priorities
In the fast-paced environment of a startup like Explorado Romania, it’s common to face shifting priorities as the company grows and evolves. The ever-changing priorities of our founders and investors presented a significant challenge, impacting the way we managed our resources, developed our product roadmap, and executed our plans.
- Resource Allocation: Changing priorities made it difficult to allocate resources effectively. As priorities shifted, we often had to redirect our team’s efforts and resources to new tasks or objectives, which could disrupt our work and impede progress.
- Product Roadmap: Creating a clear and consistent product roadmap was a challenge, as the evolving priorities often led to changes in our product’s direction and scope. We had to constantly reassess our goals and strategies to ensure that we remained aligned with the company’s vision and objectives.
- Execution: As priorities changed, we were required to pivot quickly and adjust our execution plans accordingly. This could be demanding on the team, as they had to adapt to new tasks or objectives, sometimes with limited time or resources.
To overcome the challenge of changing priorities, we implemented several strategies:
- Effective communication: I maintained open and transparent communication with stakeholders, including the founders and investors, to gain a clear understanding of their priorities and expectations. This enabled us to align our goals and strategies more effectively, minimizing the impact of shifting priorities on our work.
- Prioritization techniques: We employed various prioritization techniques, such as the MoSCoW method (Must-have, Should-have, Could-have, Won’t-have), to help us better understand the relative importance of tasks and objectives. This enabled us to allocate resources more effectively and ensure that we were always working on the most critical tasks.
- Agile methodologies: By adopting an agile mindset and implementing agile methodologies, we were able to respond more effectively to changing priorities. We focused on delivering smaller increments of value more frequently, allowing us to pivot more easily and adapt our plans as needed.
- Regular reviews and retrospectives: We held regular reviews and retrospectives to assess our progress, learn from our experiences, and identify areas for improvement. This allowed us to continuously refine our approach and respond more effectively to shifting priorities.
By implementing these strategies, we were able to navigate the challenge of changing priorities, ensuring that we remained focused and aligned with the company’s vision and objectives.
The Demise of the First CEO and the Departure of Key Team Members
The unexpected departure of our first CEO and some of his close friends resulted in the loss of valuable professionals and created a significant void in our team. To fill these gaps and ensure the continuity of our work, I had to act quickly and decisively.
Recruiting, Onboarding, and Iterating
When I became the head of product management at Explorado Romania, I was one of two Product Owners (POs). Shortly after, my colleague also stepped up and took on the role of eCommerce Director. One year later, our team had grown significantly, consisting of two senior POs, two mid-junior Business Analysts who were learning from their senior peers, and one senior Business Intelligence (BI) Analyst.
Building and expanding the team presented its own set of challenges, especially when it came to recruiting, onboarding, and continuously iterating on these processes.
Recruiting
- Identifying the right candidates: It was crucial to determine the essential skills, experience, and cultural fit when recruiting new team members. We had to assess not only their technical abilities but also their capacity to adapt and grow in a dynamic startup environment.
- Selling the company, product, and job: During the recruitment process, it was essential to present the company, product, and job in an accurate yet compelling manner. We wanted to attract top talent without overselling or revealing sensitive information. This required striking a balance between sharing exciting opportunities and setting realistic expectations.
- Learning from each recruitment cycle: As we continued recruiting, we learned more about what worked and what didn’t. We iterated on our recruitment strategies and tactics, improving our ability to identify and attract the right candidates.
Onboarding
- Developing an effective onboarding process: We understood the importance of a smooth onboarding experience in helping new team members become productive and engaged quickly. We designed an onboarding process that provided them with the necessary tools, resources, and support to succeed in their roles.
- Mentorship and guidance: To help new team members grow, we paired them with more experienced colleagues who could provide mentorship, guidance, and support. This approach allowed junior team members to learn from their seniors, while senior team members had the opportunity to share their knowledge and expertise.
- Iterating and improving the onboarding process: As we onboarded new team members, we collected feedback and observed their experiences to identify areas for improvement. We continually iterated on our onboarding process, making adjustments to better support new team members and help them quickly become valuable contributors.
Through effective recruiting, onboarding, and iterating, we were able to build a strong and cohesive product management team at Explorado Romania. This enabled us to overcome the many challenges we faced, ultimately contributing to the success of the company and our product.
Building a Cutting-Edge E-commerce Platform
At Explorado Romania, our mission was to create an innovative e-commerce platform that would stand out in a competitive market. To achieve this, we had to develop a cloud-native, microservice-based architecture using cutting-edge technologies such as React.js, Node.js, Go, PubSub, REST APIs, PostgreSQL, and Elasticsearch. In addition, we aimed to integrate live, interactive shopping functionality into the core of the platform, making it fully functional right from the start.
Architectural Decisions
- Cloud-native approach: By designing our platform to be cloud-native from the ground up, we were able to take full advantage of cloud computing capabilities, ensuring scalability, flexibility, and high availability.
- Microservice-based architecture: Adopting a microservice-based architecture allowed us to develop, deploy, and scale individual components of the platform independently. This approach improved our development velocity and made it easier to maintain and evolve the platform over time.
Selecting the Right Technologies
- Frontend: We chose React.js for its efficiency, flexibility, and strong developer community. This powerful JavaScript library enabled us to create responsive, high-performance user interfaces that were easy to maintain and update.
- Backend: We opted for Node.js and Go to build our backend services due to their performance, ease of use, and strong support for asynchronous programming. These technologies allowed us to create efficient, scalable, and reliable backend systems that could handle the high levels of traffic and data processing required by our platform.
- Data storage and retrieval: PostgreSQL and Elasticsearch were selected as our primary data storage and retrieval solutions. PostgreSQL provided us with a robust and reliable relational database management system, while Elasticsearch gave us a powerful search and analytics engine to help users quickly and easily find the products they were looking for.
- Communication and APIs: We used PubSub for event-driven communication between microservices and REST APIs to expose data and functionality to the frontend and other services. This allowed us to create a loosely coupled system that could easily adapt to changes and new requirements.
Integrating Live, Interactive Shopping Functionality
One of our key differentiators was the integration of live, interactive shopping experiences directly into the core of the platform. We developed features such as live video streaming, real-time chat, and interactive product showcases, allowing customers to engage with sellers, ask questions, and get personalized product demonstrations. This interactive approach created a unique and engaging shopping experience that set us apart from other e-commerce platforms.
Building a cutting-edge e-commerce platform from scratch was a challenging yet rewarding experience. By making strategic architectural decisions and embracing modern technologies, we were able to create a powerful and unique platform that met the needs of our customers and positioned Explorado Romania as a leader in the e-commerce industry.
Lessons Learned
My experience at Explorado Romania taught me invaluable lessons about overcoming challenges, building a strong team, and embracing change in the unpredictable world of startups. By fostering a culture of resilience and adaptability, we were able to navigate these challenges and build a successful product management team. These lessons have shaped my approach to product management and continue to inform my work in this dynamic and rewarding field.
In conclusion, working at Explorado Romania provided me with the opportunity to build an advanced e-commerce platform, navigate startup challenges, and create a resilient product management team. By focusing on adaptability and collaboration, we were able to overcome obstacles and develop a successful, innovative product.