Category Manager Aastha Shah’s eventful year at Meesho involves crash courses on hustling and the passion to be part of all exciting, new projects
For a Category Manager like Aastha Shah, who is obsessed with her work and committed to growth and learning, there is no better way to learn than on the job. Having joined Meesho in August 2019 as an Assistant Category Manager, Aastha understood that she had to imbibe the same urgency as the rest of the company in putting out good, quality work that would help make our entrepreneurs successful. And, she did exactly that, almost immediately and with great enthusiasm. And within no time this self confessed workaholic was entrusted with a whole lot of responsibilities.
Over the last one year at Meesho, Aastha has managed various categories, led teams during crucial periods, and scaled projects by exemplifying the Meesho core value of Company >Team> Individual. Be it lending her voice for Meesho product ads, hosting art workshops for Meesho entrepreneurs, or collaborating with the HR team for employee engagement campaigns, Aastha’s overarching goal has always been to have an impact on the company as a whole. And, if you thought that took up all her energy and time, you don’t know Aastha well, because she also somehow manages to make art and sell it, and take care of animals in and around her home as well.
Read on to find out why Aastha, who devotes her life equally to “animals, art, dancing, voice-over and category management,” describes her life at Meesho ‘very eventful’:
I grew up in Ahmedabad as a studious, and competitive student. I was always pursuing various goals and more often than not excelling at them. But, it wasn’t until I moved out to Mumbai to pursue B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering and then, MBA in Marketing from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies that I realised how devoted I am to working.
Finding different ways to be productive
I always needed to have my hands on multiple things and that is how I started taking up various part-time jobs and making pocket money along the way. I also found my footing as an artist during this period. I sold many of my paintings and got recognised for it as well, which felt amazing because painting is also my source of refreshment and strength. Truth be told, it is also evolving into an alternate career/retirement plan as well.
Unsurprisingly, I kept it up when I entered the workforce as well. While working as a consultant at Jones Lang LaSalle in Mumbai, I would conduct art workshops on photorealism, and brush up on my Bharatanatyam as well. It was during this period that I heard about Meesho and its success story, and I could not stop myself from researching about the company and its goal. Not much later, I knew that I wanted to hop onboard the Meesho rocketship as well.
So, a day after Independence Day, in 2019, I joined Meesho as an Assistant Category Manager for the home & living category. A month later, though, the team broke up into three separate categories — soft furnishing, kitchen utility, and home utility. I was the Assistant Category Manager for the home and kitchen category,
Crash course in Category Management
For the first couple of months while we were waiting for a new Category Manager to join us, I took on various responsibilities like ensuring the smooth running of sales, getting sufficient assortments, stocking all top-selling products, and other day-to-day operations. It was basically my personalised and customised crash course in category management.
I was lucky enough to have great mentors like Milan [Partani; Director — Farmiso] and Nivedan [Rathi; former Category Manager], who guided me through the various tasks. By the time Jeesha [Jindal] joined the team as the Category Manager, we were equipped to run a whole lot of experiments in the home utility and kitchen utility category and many of them turned out to be successes and are being productised as well.
And this was just the beginning. The last year at Meesho has been very eventful to say the least. Everything I have done and learned feels like a crash course. When the lockdown began, for example, Meesho launched a new category for daily essentials called Meesho Mandi, and Milan and UK [VP & GM — Business] gave me the opportunity to lead it. Thanks to the support of a great team, I did something I had never done before — help launch a category from scratch in a record time of 10 days.
I am extremely proud of the work that we did with Meesho Mandi, which started as a category for fruits and vegetables. At the time we did not have the infrastructure to tie up with other companies or even sell it ourselves. But, in true Meesho fashion we were thinking 10X to ensure that our entrepreneurs got the opportunity to keep their business going during the lockdown period. We built everything from scratch and now, this concept has become its own entity called Farmiso and is functioning under the Meesho umbrella. Once the lockdown was lifted for e-commerce, I went back to working at Home Decor and Furnishings.
Entrepreneurs first. Always!
This is one of my favourite things about Meesho. All of us are committed to our work and the growth of our categories, but when the time calls for it, we are able to prioritise the overall growth of the company. It is possible only because we follow the core value of Company>Team>Individual.
When I look at a problem statement, I don’t linger on the hours I am spending or even wonder if it’s worth my time. I look at how beneficial it would be for the company, and then evaluate how it would impact my category and finally, I think about myself. Most of us at Meesho function this way.
Take sale days for example. Every year during Diwali we hold sales for our entrepreneurs because we want them to acquire more customers and ensure that they make good revenue. Above and beyond discounts, we run competitions and other engagement activities to keep them motivated. During the one-month Diwali period, we want our entrepreneurs — even the ones who weren’t able to make a single order — to feel motivated to do more.
For this process, all our category managers work together and focus on the overall business that the company would make, and the sales our entrepreneurs would make, rather than our individual teams. It is an extremely interesting and empowering process, and in 2020 especially we did exceptionally well. We broke all our previous records in terms of sales.
My responsibility in this collaborative effort was to lead community engagement, which was a great experience. The idea was to engage with our entrepreneurs and to interest them in spending as much time on the Meesho app as possible so that they would not miss out on any of the deals, discounts, or competitions.
Thriving and growing while hustling
During my time at Meesho, I cannot recall many days I haven’t worked for about 12 hours, because exciting things are happening every so often and I want to be a part of them all. Every day brings with it a new set of opportunities to experience and learn, and it has been wonderful. My growth at Meesho is incomparable to anywhere else, which was my hope and intention when I joined the company.
I was honestly a little intimidated by how fast-paced everything is at Meesho and even wondered if I would be able to keep up. But, thankfully, I have been able to not only keep up, but thrive here.
Along with work, I have also been able to focus on my two other loves, which are caring for animals and creating art. I imagine a future where I am making art and am surrounded by at least three dogs and two cats. But, for now, a fulfilling work-life at Meesho, creating paintings on the side, and taking care of my two cat babies — and other animals who live in the neighbourhood — would suffice.
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Want to join Aastha Shah and the rest of the category team in empowering anyone in India to start a business with zero investment? See if we are hiring for your profile here.
