This new series aims to share with Brazil and the world how companies are structuring their Product area to build increasingly better products. I hope that this and other articles in the series serve as a benchmark for any company at any stage, as we will be talking to companies of different sizes.
In this edition we will talk about Zé Delivery with the help of Tiago Divino , who is Head of Product, Rodrigo Medeiros – Tech Program & Portfolio Lead Manager, and also Patricia Pacheco , Group Product Manager.
Thank you for sharing and helping the Brazilian Product community, Patrícia, Divino and Rodrigo ?
This interview was separated into 4 aspects:
Team
Planning
Ceremonies
Tools
The Product area at Zé Delivery
1. Team
How many PMs do you currently have?
A: 52 considering PMs , APMs , GPMs and Product Heads .
How have you structured your teams? Around pro dominican republic mobile phone number ducts, user types, user journey, metrics, or a mix? How has this changed over the years?
A: We have just undergone a transformation that prepares us to scale the product, in which we have moved from the actor-based vision, the types of users that make up our business model, in which each tribe focused on developing products targeted at each persona , to working on a journey-based vision aligned with the problems/opportunities of each stage, in which we direct our efforts to promote integration and a systemic vision in the tribes. In this way, we understand that our execution capacity would be more aligned with our strategy.
Do Product and Design report to the same person? Has it always been this way or has it changed?
A: They currently report, but this was a recent change. A few months ago we had different leaders for each area.
What is it like to manage Product and Design at the same time? Do you see any advantages in this structure? And what about engineering management? Is it a partner of product leadership?
A: Today, our format is also similar to CTO and CPO , with Fernanda Faria as product and design director and Thiago Lechuga as engineering director. But to ensure alignment, we have routines in common with all teams.
Does Zé Delivery have a career in Y? If so, how does it work?
A: Yes. We are still in the early stages of this structuring, but we already have a team of specialists and principals/staff in Product, Software Engineering and Program Management. In these cases, in addition to the progression from junior > full > senior, there is the possibility of choosing between a specialist career or a management career.
2. Planning
To what extent (date/period) do you plan things?
A: We have different processes for planning demands within our ecosystem. Looking at the global business we are part of, we have annual planning, as well as 1, 3, 5 and 10-year planning, aiming to promote continuous alignments for the future for the entire organization.
In the short term, we build annual roadmaps , which we call P1A (1 year plan ), which are further developed and iterated upon every quarter, and detailed in delivery plans to monitor our programs. These roadmaps are built before the turn of the year and rolled out at the beginning of the following year.
Do you use OKRs or any specific methodology to help with planning and alignment?
A: We use OKRs as a tool to structure and document our product planning, which we use to monitor during the quarters and are directly connected to the core business metrics. Every quarter we have a strategic iteration to assess whether they still make sense, and we can define them if they do.
3. Ceremonies
How do product review meetings work ?
A: We don't have a specific product review ceremony , but we have a weekly roadmap monitoring dynamic , in which each context shares new releases, impacts and learnings that serve as a guide during the quarter to assess whether our Objectives and KRs are aligned, as well as ensuring that we are avoiding rework.
Who participates in these meetings? How often and who runs them?
A: It's open to everyone from product, UX, tech , data and business , and led by Heads and GPMs.
And design critiques, how do they work? Do PMs participate?
A: These are not separate ceremonies, but rather part of the validation flow that we have in the planning and development dynamics of the squads. In addition, we have a habit of asynchronous collective validation via Slack, in which we standardize communication in a channel called “ design review ”, where designers post what they are doing so that people from different contexts can give feedback and critique.
4. Tools
A: Today, the tool that concentrates most of the information – such as discoveries, documentation and flows – is Notion.
And which others do you use?
A: In general, we use information management and structuring tools such as IRA, Confluence, Notion, Google Sheets, Docs, as well as Slack for asynchronous communication.
Is there something unique, perhaps even cultural, about the way you create and improve products?
A: Understanding the pain points and needs of consumers. We are constantly striving to better understand our users’ behavior, from app usage to consumption occasions and opportunity triggers.
Thanks for the answers, Divino!!
To learn more about Zé Delivery, visit the website , connect on LinkedIn with Divino and Rodrigo Medeiros , or see the open positions at Zé Delivery !