Building HABBITZZ: A Premium eCommerce Marketplace from the Ground Up

Launch Date: May 2018

Context

PCCW Solutions, a division of a major telecom group in Hong Kong, aimed to launch a premium marketplace offering a personalised and tailored user experience. The project was structured like a startup, building everything from the ground up while leveraging the investment and support of the parent group. I joined as one of the first 20 employees and played a key role in launching the new marketplace using Magento as the core eCommerce platform, ensuring scalability and flexibility for future growth.

Role:

I didn’t just fill one role in this project; I took on many. Initially hired as a Product Manager to build the product and set up the team, I quickly evolved into Head of Product and assumed additional responsibilities, including UX Lead and Scrum Master.

Goals:

As the first product member at HABBITZZ, my key goals included:

• Define the product vision and create a strategic roadmap for the HABBITZZ marketplace in Hong Kong, aligning with the company’s vision and market needs.
• Build and lead a high-performing product team, including recruiting product managers, designers, and developers, to ensure a collaborative and effective product development process.
• Establish and implement a structured development process, creating a solid framework that guided the product team and streamlined the execution of our projects.
• Deliver the HABBITZZ MVP within three months of joining, ensuring the eCommerce marketplace was launched on time and met key business objectives.

Challenges

Many challenges awaited:

• Joined as the first Product Manager and second person on the team after the lead engineer. At the time, there were no development or design resources available.
• Product and engineering teams were distributed across two locations: Hong Kong and the Philippines.
• Lack of a brand identity and brand name made it difficult for the team to connect with the brand.
• Other teams were being set up in parallel without middle management, which made collaboration with stakeholders challenging.
• As we were building a new product, there was no existing data to guide decision-making.

Strategy and solution

• Establish temporary brand guidelines for the MVP that can be easily replaced with the final brand tones once they are developed.
• Hire external resources to ensure there are no delays while we onboard our in-house team, enabling us to meet the project timeline.
• Define the MVP scope by analysing best practices and features from leading marketplaces in Asia and Europe.

Execution

Establishing the Development Framework

Wearing the hat of an Agile Coach, I established a development framework based on Scrum to ensure the timely delivery of the MVP. I crafted a comprehensive presentation outlining the framework’s principles, ceremonies, and roles, ensuring clarity across the team. To onboard new team members, I conducted weekly training sessions focused on Scrum best practices, user story writing, and the framework’s application. These sessions were mandatory for all new joiners in the product and development teams.

Following Scrum Ceremonies

We implemented Scrum ceremonies, including backlog refinement and story point estimation using the Fibonacci sequence, running two-week sprints. Although stabilising velocity and refining the burndown chart were challenges, we iteratively improved the framework through regular retrospectives.

Defining the User Experience

To define the user experience and align with the product vision and company strategy, I collaborated with an agency. They focused on key pages like the homepage, product detail page, and category page. Simultaneously, I hired a freelance designer via Upwork to design straightforward pages such as the login page, shopping cart, and checkout funnel.

Building and Structuring the Product Development Team

Working closely with the lead engineer, I defined the product development team’s structure, introducing squad teams, each with a dedicated focus area. I participated in recruiting the Scrum development team by drafting job descriptions tailored to our resource needs and conducting hiring interviews. Additionally, I hired senior and junior Product Managers, a Scrum Master, and a product designer in both Hong Kong and the Philippines, building a data-driven and customer-centric team culture.

Hands-on Product Management

While building and onboarding the product team, I took a hands-on approach as a Product Manager. I created a user story map for the marketplace storefront, identified the MVP, and used Jira and Confluence to manage user stories and documentation, leveraging the synergies of the Atlassian ecosystem. I adhered to BDD principles and the INVEST framework to write detailed user stories.

Fostering Collaboration and Transparency

To foster transparency and collaboration, we held regular demos with the group CEO and broader company stakeholders, showcasing progress and incorporating their feedback.

Outcome

• Delivered a shippable MVP within just 3 months (6 sprints) across Web, iOS, and Android platforms, ensuring the marketplace was ready for launch on multiple devices.
• Achieved a 4-star rating on both the App Store and Google Play Store, reflecting high user satisfaction and product quality.
• Released more than 40 features during a 2-year period, including key functionalities such as Referrals, Personalisation (using Dynamic Yield), and Search (powered by Algolia), driving engagement and significantly enhancing the user experience.
• Built a strong, customer-centric product team, recruiting 4 product managers and 4 UX designers, fostering a collaborative environment focused on delivering value to users.

If you’re interested in learning more about this project or exploring how similar strategies can be applied to your business, feel free to reach out. Let’s chat about the possibilities!