Micro-Interview: Rosen Georgiev | Chief Product Officer | eBag
💬 "Perfectionism can be your real enemy."
INTRO NOTE:
Rosen Georgiev is the Chief Product Officer at eBag, Bulgaria's largest food and beverage online retailer. The company owns and operates a comprehensive platform that integrates logistics, transport, e-commerce, finance, and other domains. It is dedicated to delivering orders within 3 hours of placing them.
In under 500 words, he shares:
How he got into product management…
How he starts his mornings for maximum productivity…
Some of his sources of learning…
And more…
Enjoy!
“How did you get into product management?”
I have held various leadership roles that required hands-on involvement in key internal and client projects, covering product management, project management, and account management duties. Although product management hasn’t always been my primary role, I have always considered it pivotal for achieving business goals.
“How do you start your mornings at work?”
I prefer to schedule my meetings in the afternoon, dedicating my mornings to ideation, analysis, and individual discovery work. I review new messages on my way to work so that when I arrive at the office, I can start my day with the most important and complex tasks. I get a cup of coffee and dive into work immediately. I chit-chat with colleagues during lunch breaks or before and after meetings.
“What do you know about product management now that you wish you’d known when you first started?”
Perfectionism can be your real enemy. Instead of investing too much time in initial discovery and development, it’s better to start with a smaller feature set, learn from the market, and polish the product.
“What did your biggest product failure teach you?”
Get feedback from real users as soon as possible. We worked on a product for two years, and while various stakeholders received it well, it hadn’t been released to end users. When the product was finally launched, it was beautiful and powerful but was downloaded only 50 times. It was a massive failure.
“What’s the #1 thing that has helped you shorten your product management learning curve?”
We are fortunate to have direct communication with both external and internal users. We learn from our users through open human conversations and field observations, which allows us to learn and adapt very quickly.
“How do you stay updated on the best practices in product management?”
The public Facebook group ProductTank Sofia and the private community CoTransition Academy are very useful. Broadly speaking, I enjoy a variety of podcasts in psychology and entrepreneurship, such as the Moni Dochev Podcast, Digitalni Istorii, Management Board with Anastas Gogogv, Голям да пораснеш с Мадлен Алгафари. I believe in a holistic approach and seeing the big picture as crucial to successful product development.