TrianglZ Projects
Background
Kuzlo is an Egyptian start-up on a mission to help local supermarkets and retailers expand their businesses and achieve operational efficiency through an online wholesaler-retailer marketplace. This platform would allow retailers to explore diverse product offerings from various wholesalers, removing availability and price limitations. Additionally, it aimed to provide wholesalers with inventory management tools to fulfill orders efficiently.
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​As an early-stage start-up, they chose our company as their tech partner to build a solid product strategy, produce a long-term roadmap, and develop the first iteration of their marketplace app and inventory management system for wholesalers. They had been operating with a basic website, manually capturing and processing orders, and updating product inventory. And, I was selected to look after this partnership as the lead Product Manager.
My Role & Responsibilities
As the Product Manager, I was responsible for:
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Leading the product strategy and roadmap development
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Collaborating with cross-functional teams to define and prioritize features
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Managing stakeholder relationships and expectations
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Overseeing the development and launch of the marketplace app and inventory management system
Deliverables
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Marketplace mobile app (iOS and Android) for retailers to browse products, place orders, and track deliveries
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Web-based Inventory Management System for wholesalers
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Training materials for internal teams to onboard wholesalers and retailers
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Product roadmap covering phase 1 features and future phases
Process
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Collaborated with our business analyst to capture requirements from the founders, then strategically scoped them into phase 1 and future phases.
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Partnered with our delivery lead and tech lead to build the project team, successfully allocating the right resources to release phase 1 within the agreed timeline.
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Worked closely with the UX designer and tech lead to translate business requirements into a comprehensive user journey. Identified problems, gains, and jobs to be done within each stage, ensuring a user-centric approach.
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Developed the first draft of the PRD, covering the user journey scoped for phase 1. This document served as the foundation for our development efforts.
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Led the project kick-off with the team, where I presented the main purpose of the apps, user profiles, user journey, and the PRD. I also introduced high-level user flows to align the team on our objectives.
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Collaborated with the tech lead to break down the work into digestible tickets that could be developed and tested independently. Due to the project's size, I conducted regular backlog refinement sessions to resolve dependencies and ensure team alignment.
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Managed weekly working sessions with the founders to share progress updates, discuss business strategy alignment with product strategy, and capture necessary changes. I then prioritized these changes with the tech lead and UX designer, making informed decisions about their inclusion in phase 1 scope.
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Communicated prioritization outcomes back to the founders, ensuring alignment and managing expectations effectively.
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Executed UAT and held regular demo sessions for stakeholders, where I gathered feedback and iterated on the product accordingly.
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Produced demo and training videos for the Kuzlo's employees, facilitating smooth adoption of the new systems.
Tools and Methodologies
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Agile/Scrum framework
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Jira for project management and ticket tracking
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Figma for collaborative design
KPIs and Success Metrics
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North Star Metric: Number of fulfilled orders per week
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Number of new retailer sign-ups per month
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Number of abandoned baskets per week
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Number of failed orders per week
Results
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Successfully launched the Marketplace app and Inventory Management System within the agreed timeline
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Increased the start-up's average weekly orders by 50% within the first month of launch
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Secured a long-term partnership between the start-up and our company due to the quality of our work
