Our partner in this case wanted to build a dedicated digital function due to a period of sustained ecommerce growth. They wanted to completely rethink and redesign the look and feel of their brand across all channels and touch points ranging from eCommerce through to more physical, store-based experiences. This leader was required to have extensive experience across both product management and user experience in an omni-channel retail setting. Ideally, they would have a strong grounding in mobile commerce, given the changing landscape of retail and would also need to have the ability to build a team from the ground-up.
We agreed that this search needed to focus on retail and would require someone from an omni-channel business, given the layers of complexity that come with owning product and user experience in a physical setting as well as a digital one. While quality of candidates was key, this search also required speed, given the digital channels were experiencing a surge in demand and this team was being built from scratch.
The result was one of quality, speed and flexibility. The search was delivered in five weeks, including extensive market mapping across the retail sector with more than 400 candidates identified and engaged. We delivered a diverse shortlist of five candidates. The successful candidate was a female from a comparably sized, industry leading, omni-channel retailer.
We were retained to find a VP Product Development for a speciality brand retailer. Our partner was seeking a leader who could be charged with owning product management, user experience and program management for the services arm of the business, reporting directly to the President. This individual would be charged with piecing together a number of outdated legacy systems which meant that they needed to be technical in background, with the ability to own engineering teams.
This assignment required a more focused and narrow approach when considering a list of target companies. The reason for this was that the client provides tailored services into the education sector. As such, we decided that consumer services would be the target market. The successful candidate would also own engineering within our partner’s product team and any potential candidates needed to have an engineering or technical background.
This search was an exercise in thorough market mapping. The client was very detail oriented and wanted a complete picture of the market. Given the niche requirements, we focused on a refined list of companies across various sectors, including banking, education, consumer technology and eCommerce. We mapped over 550 candidates over the course of eight weeks, delivering a shortlist of five candidates. The successful candidate was a female leader from the consumer cards division of a well known financial services company.
Our partner in this case was going through a period of significant transformation. We were hired by the CIO to bring in a Chief Product Officer to completely transform the look and feel of the entire company. The business operates a number of ecommerce sites while also partnering with individual vendors around the United States to sell their goods in physical locations. They also provide all of their POS and back-office technologies. This individual would own both product and user experience across all of these channels as well as all of their internal facing technology.
We agreed with the client that our primary focus would be the retail and eCommerce sector. The client wanted us to map the product and user experience leadership for the entire retail sector in the United States. They were concerned with raising their brand profile and so we purposefully targeted a number of particular brands that were known for their prowess with digital product and user experience. While we were conducting this search across the entire United States, there were also a number of strong target companies in the local area which gave us an immediate focus.
We extensively mapped the retail and eCommerce market and identified over 800 candidates. We were asked to focus on diversity within this search and presented a strong shortlist of six candidates from companies of well-regarded retailers with 75% diversity. The successful candidate was a local female candidate.
