How Carousell runs its product team

This week, Tech in Asia Jobs shares insights into how successful companies operate, hire, and more.

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You launch a mobile app on camera mode, and pan it across your room. The app suggests items you could get rid of, and the exact price you can sell them.

You see an iPhone you no longer use. You snap a photo of it with the app, which identifies it as an old iPhone 6. It suggests you list it under the “mobile phones and tablets” category, and that you can sell it for $700. A couple of taps later, your phone is up on the online marketplace.

Carousell is working to make this vision a reality. I sat down with Andrius Baranauskas, VP of product at Carousell, to find out how.

Carousell

Carousell is a mobile classifieds marketplace with a vision of inspiring everyone in the world to start selling. Launched in Singapore in 2012, the company now has over 180 employees, including 70 in the product and engineering team.

The product team at Carousell

“Our team is responsible for the user experience that starts when you hear about Carousell from someone, and ends when you tell someone about Carousell,” says Baranauskas.

The team wants to create an experience that caters to the needs of the layperson. “We are the platform for everyday people,” he says. “Few of them are professional sellers. They don’t know how to sell. But almost all of them have bought things they don’t need.”

This is where they start – by solving user problems like ‘I don’t know what to sell’, ‘I don’t know how to price things’, or ‘I want to sell as quickly as possible’.

Product team structure and dynamics

The product team

Led by Baranauskas, the product team consists of 14 product managers and product designers in Singapore. The team is split into various product delivery teams.

Product delivery teams

Alignment of goals

Process of building products

What’s in the pipeline?

Areas for improvement

Hiring