Ruby Sung, Product Manager

Joined in Jan 2024, from 🇭🇰

Ruby and Rose on Ruby Tuesday

Hi! I am a Product Manager in the Marketplace Team, creating solutions for Strategy Teams to grow traffic, revenue and referrals on Lalamove’s platform.

What led you to become a product manager?

Impact and growth.

Impact-wise, I can solve problems to make one’s life easier. As a Marketer-turned-Product Manager, I believe product-led growth is the most powerful way to sell. No matter how good your marketing is, the return on investment is limited if you splash money on something not many people want to pay for. When a product fits the market needs, more users flock in. Lalamove exhibited this secret sauce when the on-demand delivery market was a blue ocean.

Growth-wise, I can learn diverse skills to make things happen. PM is like an octopus 🐙, you need to learn knowledge fast. The journey is challenging and fulfilling, from research to product design and development to data analysis. Alongside product lifecycle management, soft skills like stakeholder communication, prioritisation and decision-making foster my personal growth. I used to struggle with time management, but I am in control with checklists & time blocks now!

What does your typical day look like?

My motto is to invest in myself and bring my best to life✨.

Here is my usual schedule:
[Morning]

• Meditate, write & groom
• Read
• Exercise - Functional training
• Work

[Afternoon]

• Write newsletter
• Lunch with colleagues
• Nap
• Work

[Evening]

• Listen to podcast
• Family dinner/ Run public speaking club/ Bouldering/ Explore with friends
• Journaling

Name three people or things you feel inspired when creating a product

I follow 3 principles. They are like the lighthouses in the ocean.

1. Know your users

Understand your user’s needs, problems and behaviours. Don’t just hear their words, ask “Why” 5 times to know their purposes. Don’t just hear their words, observe their behaviours to know their priorities. When you understand the users better than others, you can leverage your strength to serve the missing gap and win the market as the first mover. For example, though Pepsi & Coke are the dominant players in the beverage market, new entries like Liquid Death and Monster Energy still get much funding as they target Gen Z’s needs for healthy social drinks.

Another angle is to think from your stakeholder’s perspectives so you reach a consensus and get buy-ins easier. What are their KPIs? Engineer cares about cost, designer cares about user experience and business cares about profit. Talk in their languages so they feel understood. For example, I once liaised with the Marketing Team to promote services via the hot zone over the navigation dropdown. This allows users to navigate better and business teams to sell services.

2. Less is more

Focus on the basics that solve problems in your minimum viable product (MVP). Ditch the noises to launch your MVP fast for validation. Using a simple page with apartment pictures and prices, Airbnb secured 3 guests with USD240 sales in their first launch and mined the gold.

A simple page is good enough to test your idea

When designing the user interface, make it simple and easy to use. Which feature matters to users the most? Put it up front so users taste the “aha” moment and return. Compared to Uber, the home page of Lalamove’s consumer app is more succinct. Consumers can enter locations directly for delivery.

Locations and car types are seen on Lalamove’s Home page

No route planner on Uber’s Home page

3. 80/ 20 rules

Focus on 20% of clients that bring 80% of revenue. You don’t need everyone to love you, all you need is a few who love you deeply. Serve your raving fans relentlessly to scale and sustain. BTS, the blockbuster Korean boyband, boomed in the States by interacting with fans constantly on social media. Most fans listen to BTS as a form of self-care.

When designing products, keep serving the most valuable personas to maximise the customer's lifetime value. This also sustains the business. At Lalamove, many cost-conscious SMEs use our app as it is more affordable than competitors. Besides, many Southeast Asian riders use our app as Lalamove is one of the few options to earn money via motorbike.

What would your self-portrait look like?

I’m a versatile lady who wears many hats and loves smiling.

• Colourful hats: I wore many hats like Product Manager/ Public Speaker/ Content Creator/ Tutor.
• The smile: It is my gimmick after I wore braces. Someone asked me to do TV ads for toothpaste!
• Dress & dumbbell: I love being versatile, choosing to be feminine or muscular whenever I want :)

What do you want to promote or plug?

• My newsletter: I share fresh insights to think fit and live rich for readers with a proactive & growth mindset weekly.
• My public speaking club: I run Hong Kong’s first Toastmasters club as the President, leading a committee with 15 professionals to help people speak better on stage in fun ways.
• My PM portfolio: Some of my past work on biotech apps, service marketplace and MarTech now!