Katarina Seach

The B2B reporting tool was launched with 250 financial companies
(worth €10+ billion) for their 2021 financial disclosure in sustainability reporting. I was in charge of planning the roadmap towards launch, scoping the MVP, sprint planning, and go-to-market in three markets. I also implemented a localization infrastructure with Phrase to translate the product and support different alphabets. I carried out design thinking workshops with sales and customer success teams to define the long-term roadmap. And I teamed up with the design lead to automate the design system and increase design efficiency. I also advised Plan A on product development cycles and QA framework implementation.

I was in charge of engineering hiring (team of 11) and budget planning for the marketplace launch. I worked with a design agency and UI/UX designers—leading 20+ interviews and focus groups with musicians—to develop and test two concepts. The winning concept was then scoped to MVP and planned into sprints and other high-impact features on a long-term roadmap. The concept included a track recommendation algorithm for artists to collaborate on. Using machine learning, the engineering team scraped social music platforms, such as Spotify to collect inputs, such as role, location, and streams from over 150,000 songs/week. Together with the marketing team, I was in charge of activation marketing campaigns for the marketplace launch, resulting in +800% engagement on Instagram and TikTok. I guaranteed transparency and buy-in by conducting weekly pitches and updates with the board members.

I led twice agile development teams consisting of developers, copywriters, designers, analysts, and product marketers. With an annual budget of €1.2 million, I managed a suite of products on a platform with 180,000 restaurants in Europe as part of Metro’s portfolio. I created a knowledge platform for 100,000+ restaurants, localized in four languages (DE, EN, FR, and IT). I also outlined a 12-month product vision for a shift planning tool, built prototypes, and interviewed 50+ restaurant customers to identify pain points in their staff management and shift systems. I was in charge of scouting third-party businesses with the investment arm of Metro to integrate into the main app. Finally, I developed a business case for a product servicing 20,000 employees (including P&L, user migration, and go-to-market).

Companies need to provide exciting learning experience platforms (LXP) that meet employees’ expectations and demands. Edtech companies must focus on learners’ engagement and build features that showcase content in different forms like interactive games coupled with fill-in-the-blanks content.

In this project, I redesigned the product to implement a content creation studio with new features backed by AI, helping content creators to think out of the box to create engaging content experiences for their learners. In the LXP, I prioritized features that boosted engagement through gamification, such as badge achievements, certificates, and a buddy program.

We reached 10% daily active users in the quarter following the launch of these features.

Purple Cream is a brand designed to change the relationship between people and their clothes. It is a slow fashion brand, with clothes manufactured regionally and made to order. When a client places an order, the final carbon emission cost is covered by financing projects like forest restoration in Alaska, resulting in carbon-neutral shipping worldwide. Plus, one mangrove tree is planted by Ecologi per each order. Mangrove trees capture 5x more carbon than regular forest trees and the organization supports local communities in Madagascar by creating jobs to grow these mangrove forests. All Purple Cream designs showcase elements of nature we fight to preserve and are born from the collaboration with photographers and artists worldwide. We focused on the ocean and the coral reef in this collection, donating 5% of benefits to nonprofit organizations like the Ocean Clean-Up and the Coral Reef Care foundation.

I founded the business during the COVID-19 pandemic when shopping stores were closed and eCommerce took over the market.

During the first quarter of 2021, sales rose in the Netherlands, Switzerland, UK, Germany, and US. Following three months of the launch, 100 orders were already placed.

SHOLK is a personalized confectionery eCommerce company that was built to send personalized and sustainable gifts. A shop was created to let customers compile chocolate flavors in boxes and choose packaging with a personal message. It was one of the first startups in Switzerland to take chocolate box purchases from door to door entirely online. The company was selected as part of the top 50 startups after one year of launch. I was CEO of the company and built up the supply chain, designed the eCommerce site experience, and was responsible for the company’s strategy with a team of five. We received funding from local banks and broke even within one year.

Designed the experience of shoppers entering an interactive fitting room. The music playing in the fitting room is individual to the shopper’s outfit and adapts to different clothing pieces tried on. The products are scanned with RFID and prompt the music matched with AI and played with the help of a software product. I was in charge of the conceptualization, music selection, production, and user experience. The interactive fitting room will launch as a pilot in one retailer’s outlets in November 2023.