Partner Tech: Inside Zalando’s journey to create a seamless partner experience
Learn how providing a seamless partner experience is at the heart of the merger between three B2B and B2E Zalando teams.
While the inner workings of a large business might be as complex as the inside of a supercomputer, our role as Product Designers is to make it as simple as possible to interact with. In Zalando B2B and B2E, our vision of a seamless user experience is driving a landmark development: the unification of three related business offerings into an all-in-one partner platform. Partner Program, Connected Retail, and Wholesale recently merged into one organisation: Partner Tech. Their vision: “To empower and excite our Partners with simple, scalable, frictionless, and intuitive technology solutions and maximise value for Partners by unlocking deep insights in a single solution.”
To grow towards their potential, the three cross-functional teams embraced the complexities of change. The merger would require a challenging synergy of tools, systems, ways of working, and community rituals. Crucially, these connection points would have to bridge the physical gap between the teams’ locations, Berlin and Helsinki, and cultivate a broader team identity. United as Partner Tech, the three teams could increase efficiency, innovate faster, and most importantly, work towards their shared goal of a seamless partner experience.
How did they make it happen? They set out a 100-day transition period, focused on bringing the new team together under a shared purpose. At the end of this crucial milestone, read on for some key learnings from four leading figures of the Partner Tech Product Design & Insights wing: Marion Fröhlich, Head of Product Design, Marja Ojala, Product Design Manager, Matias Ferrero, Product Design Manager, and Andrea Brinkmeier, Principal Product Designer.
Common problems, common solutions
While each team provides different business offerings, they have overlapping use cases. Partner Program makes Zalando’s e-commerce platform accessible to brands and merchants. Connected Retail enables brick-and-mortar retailers to sell directly to Zalando customers. And Wholesale drives partner- and internal-facing wholesale business. The teams were established at different times and operated with distinct ways of working and design systems. As such, their commonalities were not represented in the partner experience. As partners often interacted with more than one of these platforms, they had to learn to use multiple tools.
“We could come together to maximise our impact and invest in excellence instead of doubling our work.”
Marion explains, “To unify the partner experience and leverage our combined knowledge, we moved away from three teams structured around the individual partner offerings towards one centralised team, organised along the partner journey.” Andrea adds that, “This way we could come together to maximise our impact and invest in excellence instead of doubling our work.”
Great connection, great collaboration
The first step of coming together was finding connections. “Through conversation, we sought to uncover our similarities and understand how we could find each other horizontally,” says Matias. “We wanted to retain our distinct operational areas, which already functioned very well, while defining the aspects we could add and remove holistically to unite our efforts.”
“As a bigger unit,” Marja explains, “we can benefit from a large pool of expertise. And when it comes to actions, responsibilities, and stakeholders, we can divide and conquer to increase efficiency and build our networks.” To synergise design approaches and facilitate mutual learning, new design pairings were formed across teams. The merger would also open up opportunities for individuals to flexibly develop skills and interests in other areas, furthering career development.
The structural interconnectedness of Partner Tech would rely a great deal on human connection. “We strove to create a sense of team from the very beginning,” Matias explains. “A big milestone for us was to come together in person. We could discuss our plans for the future, ask questions, and get to know each other through group conversation.” A team manifesto was also created early on, defining common expectations, ambitions, and design passions.
“I feel we have retained a sense of intimacy to deep dive within smaller groups while embracing the broader team identity through which we approach overarching trends and patterns.”
Since then, the teams have invested considerable effort in creating shared team rituals and redefining existing ones, further cultivating the feeling of togetherness and shared purpose that drives effective collaboration. “It’s refreshing to see that there are so many approaches and ways of working,” Andrea reflects. “We are combining the things that worked well in the past while creating and redefining formats.”
Matias says that through this ongoing process, people are getting into the rhythm of being a ‘shared house’ of smaller teams nested within a big team. “I feel we have retained a sense of intimacy to deep dive within smaller groups while embracing the broader team identity through which we approach overarching trends and patterns. Within Partner Tech, we are a product design team of over 25, including user research and content design. In large teams, people can feel alienated even when hierarchies are low. Our smaller units consist of four or five people, ensuring everyone has a voice and can make an impact.”
Presenting as Partner Tech in the Campfire, the monthly Zalando product design all-hands, further encouraged the mental shift required to form a strong team identity while promoting visibility on the community level.
Crafting the go-to partner platform
To craft the desired all-in-one partner platform, the tools and interfaces partners interact with will have to look and feel the same. “Right now, partners need to talk to Zalando Wholesale, Zalando Partner Program, or Zalando Connected Retail,” says Matias. “Why not just talk to Zalando? Our aspiration as Partner Tech is to create one place for them to go and do everything they need to do.” Marja adds that “To set the foundation for this change, we are also unifying the systems behind the scenes. We are moving towards one ‘mothership’ design system, one tech foundation, and one brand to make the partner experience more cohesive.”
“It’s exciting, and also challenging, to have a broader scope for design exploration and the variety of working within the different business models of Partner Tech.”
“This organisational change will enable us to invest more time into designing the future of our tooling, creating richer and more automated experiences for our partners,” says Andrea. “It’s exciting, and also challenging, to have a broader scope for design exploration and the variety of working within the different business models of Partner Tech.”
The more we share, the more we learn
With over a hundred days checked off the calendar, what have Marion, Marja, Matias, and Andrea learnt from the initial stages of coming together as Partner Tech? And how might these learnings inspire other design teams or organisations currently synergising their processes?
Embrace change
“Setting up a centralised Design and Research team for Partner Tech was a key milestone to help transform Zalando’s partner business,” says Marion. “And while change has been a constant in product design on the leadership level, the merger showed that individual communication is needed to support each team member to trust and embrace the new structure.”
Invest in personal connection
“The personal aspect of our work is so important,” Andrea reflects. “We are still getting to know each other and starting to feel at home within the new organisation. It takes time, especially because the three teams felt like team homes. The opportunity to come together on-site, despite being based in different locations, and to exchange and connect personally has made such a difference. We also did some fun team excursions, visiting the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin and going mushroom picking in Helsinki!”
Meet complexity with understanding
“We went from having to understand one complex business to three,” Andrea explains. “Assessing where our offerings overlapped and how to transform our infrastructure was challenging. We are on a great journey to simplify the partner experience.”
Be a team player
“A key part of establishing normality was not only helping fellow designers to adapt but also the other product development disciplines within our cross-functional setup,” Marja shares. “As designers, we can lend our skill sets, for example, in creating ways of working, in favour of the larger unit.”
Check in with each other
“In a business environment, we focus a lot on the results of change, but on a people level, change is hard,” says Matias. “People have different personal timelines for that change. We cannot determine that after a hundred days, everyone will have acclimated to a different setup. Designers tend to embrace change. Still, it is important to remember that we are humans first and to check in with those we work with.”
Have you experienced a similarly transformational development in your product design team or organisation? We would love to hear your perspective in the comments. Next, learn more about how shared rituals brought Partner Tech closer together.
