People Behind Products: Meet Khrystyna Svarychevska, Product Manager at ImmoScout24

Hi Khrystyna, how does the day of a Product Manager at ImmoScout24 look like?

Khrystyna: Part of my everyday routine is certainly a daily standup with my team that will be followed by regular as well as ad-hoc exchange with various teams. Every other morning, I will dedicate 30 minutes glancing through the key app performance metrics as well as reading the latest app reviews. Most of my off-meeting time I would be busy with rationalising various datapoints that will lead to the conceptualisation of various app retention strategies as well as continuously updating delivery backlog.

When is a product a good product?

Khrystyna: A product that delivers a comprehensible solution that leaves the consumer feeling enabled instead of overwhelmed when attempting to proceed with their next activity is an excellent product to me.

One of the products you have helped develop is the feature Shared Shortlist which helps users search for a home together with their friends and family by sharing their shortlist. Why did you decide to build it and what is special about this feature?

Khrystyna: After thorough research, we have realised that more than 70 per cent of our users are searching for their new home together. Therefore, we have decided to support our app users' home search journey by offering a Shared Shortlist feature. After inviting a partner and merging two Shortlists into one, both parties can view their liked properties in one place. We will notify each partner in case someone has favorited another property by sending a push notification onto their mobile device. This is a wonderful way to keep home search aligned, according to our users, who are searching for their new home together.

What has been your biggest highlight at the company so far?

Khrystyna: Throughout 3 years in the company, I have been involved in various projects and initiatives. If I had to pick one big highlight, I would choose the strong and smooth collaboration with my team of hard-working, proactive, and engaging colleagues. The growth and connectivity which my team has achieved in the past couple of months has impressed me. Working on the top company priority project that involves rebuilding app user's login and registration flows, data storage as well as processing, where we ensure full compliance with the European data protection regulations has been and still is impressive. In a brief period as well as expected uncertainty due to the complexity of the project and number of teams involved, we have achieved more certainty with our plan of actions than initially anticipated. Other meaningful achievements worthy of mentioning would be launch of the Shared Shortlist feature in apps, as well as ensuring our users are informed with push notification about the previously saved search results on the market in real time.

How does ImmoScout24 differ from other companies in terms of product management?

Khrystyna: In comparison to other companies, I have worked with by far (Zalando, Rocket Internet), as well as exchanging with my peers in product management from other prominent companies and startups, I would highlight the importance of having remained thoroughly attentive to our user’s voice. In fact, this mindset didn’t even change when we could have solely been focused on “revitalising” business goals during the time of the Corona pandemic. We are lucky to take full advantage of a strong collaboration with our UX guild that advocates for a “consumer first” approach.

What do you appreciate most about working at ImmoScout24?

Khrystyna: This may not be the most unique answer out there but is certainly an obvious one to me. I find my team mates incredibly inspiring. Finding solutions to complex problems together is challenging but  a lot of fun too. Every Friday my team has a small tradition of extending our daily standup to exchanging what we feel grateful for professionally and personally. I enjoy these little chats where we may share about new hobbies we picked up, recipes we have mastered or failed, planned travelling destinations and even little family moments of joy, etc.

Having the ability to work in the top-notch newly built office does not hurt much either :)

Which other projects are in your focus now?

Khrystyna: I am currently working on assuring the compliant, secure, and scalable solution for our app users when they are registering and logging in on their iOS and Android devices. My other ongoing projects are also touching on the topics of retention, which includes the optimisation of tooling for the app communication activities, e.g., push notifications.

What are the next big things in product management?

Khrystyna: I am hopeful that product managers will continue asking themselves all the WHYs before investing resources into building a scalable product. Having a strong objective as well as narrowing down the right KPIs will be crucial when it comes to remaining flexible and adjustable to all the upcoming uncertainties that will certainly be a part of any product development journey in future.