Product at Wallapop by Melanie Niederberger

Automatic Summary

Welcome to the VOP Product Hiring Session

Welcome all to the product hiring session at VOP. My name is Melanie, and as the Talent Acquisition Partner for VOP Products, I am excited to lead you through this informative event. Today, we will delve into three key sections: an introduction to VOP, a look at our product branch, and an insight into our hiring process.

About VOP – Who we are and What we Do

VOP is the leading customer-commerce player in Spain, recently expanding into Italy and looking forward to launching in more countries later this year. As such, it is an incredibly exciting time to be a part of the VOP team.

By the Numbers

  • 16 million monthly active users
  • 74 million items listed on the platform
  • Approximately €12 billion worth of value represented on the platform
  • 92% of our users are on mobile.

Our Mission

We exist to empower people towards a more conscious and human method of consumption. We firmly believe in opportunity, sustainability, and accessibility. Our application is free, easily reachable, and provides numerous second-hand items, promoting responsible consumption.

Navigating the VOP Product Team

The VOP product team’s mission is to create the world's top unique goods trading platform through the provision of outstanding customer value, product excellence, and innovation. Doing so bridges gaps, making second-hand items first choice.

Our Organizational Structure

We have divided our product team into three main functionalities: Product Management, Analytics, and Product Design and Research Team. Each section is essential to our operations, ensuring that we offer quality services that cater to our users' exact needs and ultimately driving our success.

Hiring Process at VOP and Current Opportunities

Our hiring process is designed to determine a potential match between our needs and your skills, aspirations, and experience. This process involves initial interviews, technical tasks or case studies, expertise evaluation, competency-based interviews or leadership assessment, and finally, an offer for qualified candidates.

We currently have openings for the following positions:

  1. Product Managers
  2. Product Designers
  3. Product Design Manager
  4. Product Research
  5. Data Analyst
  6. Data Scientists

Do not hesitate to reach out if you are interested in any of our open positions, or if you have any questions regarding our products, the hiring process, our culture and values, or any more inquiries. We look forward to welcoming you to our team!


Video Transcription

I'm happy to be here today. Um, taking part of, of this, this great event. So my name is Melanie. I'm, I'm, um talent acquisition partner, um, for products at VOP. Um, and welcome All Toops product hiring session today. Hi, everyone. Um All right.So, yeah, basically I'm, um, I'm going through through three parts today. So there's in a, in the first place and an introduction to wallop. Very gene more generically like who we are. What's our mission and how we aim to get there. And then second and the second part, I'll, I'll have more specifically into, into product. So what do we do in product? And how do we organize ourselves? And then as a, as a last, um, the last part, I'll, I'll tell you more about how we hire. Um All right. Um, so I, I suggest to, to, to like, feel free to write the questions during the session in the chat and then I can get back to them in, in the end. So we have more or less 15, up to 10 minutes in the end to, to go through all the questions. So I think plenty of time for that. Um Yes. Ok. So feel free to, to, to, to start write them in, in the, in the chat or if there is any, any urgent um doubt or, or whatever, you can also, you can also um raise um take your microphone and, and that's directly um Bab has the the leading customer to customer commerce player in Spain.

We have also launched our product in Italy last year. So we have embarked on on international expansion which is yeah, a super exci exciting moment for us for wallet pop. Um We are going to to lunch in, in more countries this year in the following years to come. Uh So yeah, um it's definitely a sweet, a sweet moment for, for us. I'd like to perfect Nadia. Thanks for, for, for confirmation. Um All right, so I would like to go through some curious numbers um in the first, in the first place here. Uh So we count with 16 million monthly active users and have reached a super high brand awareness. So here in Spain, almost everyone knows us. Um We have 74 million items listed in our platform which represent the value of approximate approximately €12 billion. And then 92% of our users are on mobile, which is a pretty impressive mobile adoption number. Um 19 and interesting as well for for, for product people. So 19% of our users have used shipping. So and then um so why, why do we exist? So basically, our mission mission, sorry, our mission is to empower people to promote a more conscious and and human way of consumption. So we believe in opportunity. So we offer thousands of millions of unique goods and services. Then we believe in sustainability. So most of our items are second hand and we also believe in accessibility. You can download the app for free and it's, it's accessible for everyone in the markets we operate in. Um then what are the reasons of success?

So the reason reasons of success is that our app is simple and easy to use in the first place. Then diving into our user journey, we have created a powerful search and discovery experience. We are top in terms of engagement and vibrancy and we build a community through our chat. Um We've recently invested in shipping and payment also and trust and safety is underlying everything we do. So making sure our product is safe and, and, and it is a trustful environment for our users, super key for us. Then what are our are our values? So I'm I'm I'm sure you're you're curious to learn more about our values and culture. So what guides the way we work is that we believe that we are one team feeling strongly identified with our mission. So we're all working towards the same goal, then we dream and deliver. So without being afraid of, of taking risks, um then we always aim for simplicity. We are, we are having um a humble and intentional attitude and are trying to go with the MVP approach. Then we learn and grow from our mistakes and successes is on the way, super, super important as well. So after this more general um introduction to, to a above and who we are, I would like to dive a little bit deeper into the product team. Um who is the product team? What, what are we doing there and how are we structured?

So the product team at VOP exists to create the world's best uni goods trading platform through customer value, product excellence, and innovation. So in doing so, we elevate the second hand to become first choice. So when it comes to the organizational structure, I would like to quickly explain um in detail. So our product team is divided into these three main functions. We start with the product management function in the middle of the slide. Currently, we have three product leads at wop and 10 product managers to help create the customer experiences value for our users and business impact. So as our success grows, um these product managers collaborating with a cross functional team, I'll dive deeper into this this part afterwards.

Um are managing existing product initiatives as well as identifying and spinning up new, new ones, new opportunities. Then we have the analytics team um to help us drive ins inside generation and data driven decisions with a team of data analysts, data scientists and machine learning engineers as well as data engineers. So in total, this is a team of 26 people counting. Then we have the product design and research team and the drives experience coherency and excellence. And this team consists of four product design managers and one head of research reporting directly into our VP of product design. Um We come with three product designers with a generally strong focus on the first assignment. Uh We have two researchers in the team currently um hiring for three more. I I printed that afterwards and two Y writers. So I would like to highlight here that everybody is part of driving and shaping our product culture, our ways of working and is therefore direct impact, impacting our future. So, um on this side, I would like to, to dive into, into our, into how we are organized, which is, it is very key as well. So we organize ourselves to support our amazing user journey into tribes and topics, topic teams.

So topic teams that develop up are, are stands for squats, basically. Um I know that in each company called a little bit different. Um So you see on the slides, there are the different tribes and you see that each tribe consists of the green, um the green circles which, which are the topic teams. So I'd like to like dive a little bit deeper into, into what we are working on. In each tribe. Um So we have um a basic idea on, on what we are, what challenges we are facing. So the connecting tribe is making sure that our users can search and find what they want in a personalized and meaningful way to them. Then the transacting tribe is everything related to once an item is sold. So we have implemented a proper wallet wallet there, for example. Um And we have enabled cross border trading. Coming, coming up with this international journey, we have started then in the pro selling uh tribe stand for professional sellers. Um This is everything related to our professional professional offerings. So all the users who pay for certain services there is interesting because currently we we are strongly focused on empowering partnerships with entrepreneurs. So we want to enable small and medium sized businesses here. Then the caring and protecting tribe I've mentioned trust and safety before.

So this tribe makes sure that our platform is safe for our users. And then the platform tribe that is the tribe that sustains our product, engineering tribes to support our user growth, regards velocity and scalability over the multiple markets. Um All right. So let me again, like take note of your questions. I'm super happy to to go through them. Uh Afterwards, as the last part, I'd like to go quickly through the product hiring process at wallet book and then our current openings. So um we start with an intro call Um this is a call with, with myself to, to focus on, on your experience diving deeper into your experience as well as motivation, aspirations regarding the future, giving you more information about us about the challenge of this, of this, of this role of the team team structure, um et cetera.

And then basically figure figuring out together if this can be a match for both parties. If we see that we are aligned, we'd move forward to a technical task or case study depending on the role. So we have technical tasks for the for the analytical roles, um data scientist roles and uh on the case studies, um product design and product research and product management. So we are, we are usually giving one week to work on this, take home assignment if it looks good to us, um We move forward to an expertise interview stage three uh in the expertise to basically dive deeper into, into the hard skills, assess the hard skills and and assess if this this candidate is is um is capable to perform successfully in, in the role.

So this is in this interview, there's always pre always present the hiring manager. And yeah, you'll you'll have to print to into the your expertise and domain knowledge by discussing um further there. Then stage four is is very key mainly for product management management and product design research just because of what I uh explained previously of the cross functional collaboration So in this interview, we assess how you apply your skill set, collaborating with, with these other functions. Um Exactly.

And then we have the competency in trio competency, competency based in Rio and our leadership assessment. This stage is about understanding how we operate in the work base based on our values and based on our leadership principles. So if it, if it's a management role, if we talk about people management, we are also assessing the leadership skills there. Um a leader mainly the how the the leadership skills fit with our leadership principles at VA O and well, if all this goes well, we'll, we'll then move forward to, to the offer. All right. Um Then last but not least our current openings. So we are hiring for product managers and product designers and funnels. This means that we have, we are basically always looking for these, for these profiles. Um Then we have a product design manager opening, we are looking for two X researchers, we're looking for one quantitative researcher.

You're looking for a product design ops, we're looking for research shops. We are looking for a data analyst to help um on the international expansion side. And we are hiring currently for three data scientists. So you see there's a lot of, a lot of things going on on the hiring front. Um We are, we are now almost a 300 people team and basically, we have, we have tripled our head counts within two years. So we, since COVID, we haven't stopped, we haven't stopped hiring, we haven't stopped growing our team. All right. So I've talked, I've talked a lot. I would very much like to go through questions from your side. Um Feel free to, to write a question in the chat directly or, or take off your mi microphone and, and directly ask, feel free to ask about hiring specifically if you have a question about one specific role, like what is the challenge of this, of this role of the team? What's the day to day or more about the product structure or something about general generally about valet Bob our culture, our values. How do we work, whatever, whatever comes to your mind. Thank, thanks Nancy for your question. Um Nice to have you here. Um So remote roles is a good question. Um Very good question actually. So we are currently Barcelona based. So this means that the ideal scenario is that that people are living in Barcelona are based in Barcelona area.

So I'll explain why this is basically because we have decided to not become 100% remote as we very much value to, to come together in the office. Um And, and share, share time, um spend time together, uh collaborate as well physically in, in the office. So, so what we have um according on the company level is a policy of four days per month in the office um which in most of the teams is broken. Well, it is ending up in meeting in the office once per week, one day per week or two days every second week. So this, this depends a lot on each team's dynamic. Um And, and this basically the end the session lies within the team as long as it's the four days per month. So also important to know is that this is the first situation. Um We are you're iterating on this, on this model like it, it has been, it has been, we needed to take a decision to start with something. We have just implemented this, this model, flexible model in April. So we are, we are keen to iterate on it like we want to gather feedback from the employees and see if, if this is working well for the majority of us. Um saying that we don't offer 100% remote roles, unfortunately. Um at least not now.

And yeah, we, what we do is help um with a generous relo relocation package. So if you're, if you're living abroad, um we are helping with uh monetary support as well as support on, on paperwork. Um um Yeah, on, on, on all the paper work and, and work work permits uh side as well. So also we are transmitting visas, for example, for people who don't have the the European work permit. So we are, we are super happy to happy to help with that. Um but yeah, basically we need you to, to, to relocate to, to Barcelona area. I hope this, this has uh clarify your, your question, Nancy. Amazing. Amazing. What else? Anything else? Any, any doubt, any, anything? Thanks, Nancy. Yeah, I'm happy, I'm happy to connect also. I'll, I'll send an invite right after the, the session. Thanks and that to see this international audience, people from, from other part of, of the, of the world. That's, that's great to see. Also um letting you know that there are more, there are more uh talks from, from wallop actually. So there's my colleague, uh Jerry tomorrow um talking about engineering at VOP. So if, if it's for your interest, um there's also our head of product Julia um talking in this event. Um She's talking, I think, let me check what day on Thursday? Yeah, she's talking on, on Thursday. Um It's 12:12 p.m.

ce T and there's also our, our VP of product design in Laura talking, let me check when she's talking tomorrow tomorrow, Wednesday at 12 P MC T. So if you are interested to, to learn more about uh pro product design, product management, this, this could be very interesting um sessions to, to, to attend as well. Well, I'll, I'll, I'll, I'll remain connected for a couple of more minutes. If there comes up any other questions, I see some people connecting. Now, let me know if, if you have any specific questions, any doubts. All right. Um Well, I it was a pleasure having you having you here. So thanks a lot for your, for your participation in this session. Um Have a great rest of the day. Enjoy the, the rest of the talks and conferences and I hope to, to connect with you um and then feel free to, to reach out.