Adamya Chandra

The primary challenge was onboarding the healthcare category, which faced resistance due to skepticism about the reliability and accuracy of the ML algorithms used for replacement recommendations.

One option I had as a PM was to exclude the healthcare category from the scope. Despite this skepticism, I did not favor this approach since healthcare accounted for approximately 30% of subscription orders. Healthcare customers are also the most impacted, as their items are often critical and time-sensitive.

To address this, I organized open dialogue sessions between teams, conducted educational workshops featuring ML experts to explain the model's workings and reliability, and even secured advocates from my leadership. Still, I couldn't secure their buy-in.

Nevertheless, as customer insights and data indicated, my focus remained on solving customer problems. So, I proposed an alternative approach of manually curated replacement recommendations for healthcare products.

RESULTS
Overall, the replacement rate was approximately 14%, benefiting around 10 million Autoship orders per year and translating to $30 million in incremental annual revenue. This initiative also increased overall SKU coverage for replacements from 10% to 92%.

Through an industry report, I discovered that 18% of travelers hesitated to book flights due to high cancellation fees. To address this pain point and improve top-of-funnel conversion rates, I proposed to launch an industry-first product called Flight Protection, where paying a nominal fee at the time of booking, customers will be insured from cancellation penalties if they cancel their flight booking. This initiative faced uncertainties regarding business viability and user adoption, casting doubts on its feasibility and potential success.

I took proactive steps to build trust and secure executive approval. First, gathered customer insights to assess demand and willingness to pay for the product, discovering that roughly 45% of customers were inclined to use the Flight Protection feature.

Additionally, I analyzed the industry and internal data to understand cancellation patterns across cohorts and their potential impact on overall profitability.

Finally, I developed mitigation plans to manage potential losses, such as implementing caps on waivers.

RESULTS
We achieved a 4.5% increase in overall conversion rate, contributing approximately 1.5% to total revenue.

Customers faced challenges when reordering and missed savings due to Autoship exclusion on healthcare products. Insights showed that approximately 50% of healthcare customers made repeat purchases within six months, highlighting the potential for a subscription model.

I pursued the vision of transforming Autoship into a comprehensive pet health management platform, driven by an 11% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in the pet healthcare market and strong customer demand.

Securing buy-in from leaders and resources was challenging due to apprehensions about potential ROI and customer benefits. To address concerns and earn trust, I took several steps:

• Developed a compelling business case, including a problem statement, customer impact, industry growth, and competitive landscape.
• Created a robust 3-year roadmap for healthcare category development, starting with a pilot to validate our hypothesis. This phased approach garnered support, enabling validation of customer value and business impact with minimal investment.

As a result, by enabling healthcare items on Autoship, we acquired 0.5 million customers (5% of the Autoship base) in three months.