Team profile: Meet our product branding manager Ivan

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your role at DH. How long have you been a Hero, and what were you doing before joining the company?

I’ve done a wide variety within the tech space—from development to design to venture growth to product management. I was deep into the startup space, having been the Head of Product for two different startups in Singapore before taking a different fork in the road and doing an MBA. Right now, I’m still a fairly fresh-faced hero at about 4 months in as Product Branding Manager where I manage the projects of the Product Designers here and act as a bridge between Brand and Product.

2. Walk us through a typical day in your working life.
   

Our team is pretty tight, so after catching up on slack and emails (and a little day planning), we have our morning chats standup and just brief each other on how we are doing and the progress of our projects. Depending on the projects I am working on, the rest of my day is split between meetings, documentation, planning and research. I’d give more details but no day is a typical day here.

3. Why did you take this career trajectory? And were you considering a different line of profession altogether?

After taking an MBA, I was considering a few career options and even did an internship as a Strategy Consultant. However, I knew I still loved working in Tech and Product. I also found that I gravitated towards Branding-related topics in school, and when opportunity comes knocking…

4. What are the common challenges that you face as a product branding manager? What about the rewards?

The key challenges are around bringing structure, order and clarity to the various projects we are working on. This could be in the form of diving into documentation, making concrete steps or aligning the different stakeholders. We aim to deliver solutions here and the icing on the cake is when my team feels enabled to be their best self at their job.

5. If someone wants to be a part of the product team in the brand team, what are the skills and experiences that they’d need in order to succeed in their role?

It obviously depends on the exact role but succeeding will always require curiosity, tenacity and a product-focus.

6. What has been the most interesting project you’ve worked on so far, and do you have any favorites?

We were working on a consumer app playbook that was a culmination of best practices across the organization. It was great to get involved and also because you know it’s the start of a much wider conversation on what lies beyond best practices.

7. What are the best things about your job?

My team. If I saw (or in this case speak) any further, it would be on the shoulders of caring and all around fantastic giants.

8. As a creative working in a dynamic environment, where do you usually draw inspiration from?

As a product person, I find inspiration from the design of everyday things. For example, I could look at a power socket and do a tear down of what elements make it usable, well designed and goal fitting. The abstraction of those elements make for a great starting point for inspiration to flow from.

9. If you can take on an entirely different role in DH for a day, which one would it be and why?

I’d love to be a data analyst for a day in one of the logistics platforms. I imagine it must be fascinating to piece something together or make observations based on the vast amount of data of routes and orders at Delivery Hero.

10. What are the lessons you’ve learned from your time at DH?

Culture matters.