10. Product Operations at OLX - How to Measure Success

To provide a Brazilian case study, let's delve into the experience at OLX, where Thiago Belluf led the creation and management of the Product Operations team. This case offers insights into how OLX established and measured the success of their Product Ops function, serving as a practical guide for understanding the lifecycle of a Product Operations area.

Overview of Product Operations at OLX

When Thiago Belluf joined OLX, the company already had a large presence in the Brazilian market, but its product structure was still relatively small. Belluf was the fifth PM to join OLX, working in a minimal structure with a flat hierarchy. The product team consisted of five PMs reporting to a Head of Product, and the entire product function was divided into just five squads.

However, by mid-2018, OLX underwent rapid growth, scaling from five squads to thirty and later reaching fifty squads by 2019. This accelerated growth introduced several operational challenges that OLX had not previously encountered.

These challenges made it clear that a dedicated Product Operations team was necessary. The creation of this team aimed to address inefficiencies and provide a more systematic approach to managing the complexities that came with scale.

Key Challenges That Led to the Creation of Product Operations

  1. Strategy and Process Challenges:

    • OKRs: Initially, the company used OKRs to define its strategy, but as the company scaled, this process became time-consuming and inefficient. It often took three to four weeks to define OKRs, leaving only two months for execution. This lag reduced the effectiveness of the planning process.
    • Lack of Strategic Clarity: Many PMs struggled to articulate the medium- and long-term strategy for their products. Instead, they were focused on short-term, tactical goals. The lack of a clear, long-term vision often resulted in teams prioritizing immediate outputs over strategic outcomes.

  2. Recruitment and Talent Development:

    • As OLX grew, the need for new PMs increased dramatically. However, Brazil's product management talent pool was (and still is) limited, making it difficult to hire quickly enough to meet demand.
    • There was also a lack of structured career development for existing PMs, leading to dissatisfaction and frustration among team members seeking long-term career growth.

  3. Communication Gaps:

    • The Product team at OLX was responsible for driving innovation and growth, but there was often a disconnect between what the product teams were working on and the expectations of other departments, such as sales and marketing. This misalignment led to inefficiencies and a lack of collaboration across teams.

Creation of Product Operations at OLX

To address these challenges, OLX formalized a dedicated Product Operations team. This team initially consisted of one member, which later expanded to five members. The mission of this team was to step back, evaluate the product structure systematically, and improve processes, efficiency, and communication across the organization.

The Six Pillars of Product Operations at OLX

The OLX Product Operations team focused on six key pillars, each designed to address specific pain points:

  1. User Centricity:

    • This pillar aimed to ensure that product decisions prioritized user needs over business needs. The team introduced processes that ensured product managers focused on solving user problems first, leading to more user-friendly products.

  2. Strategic Deployment:

    • Although the Product Operations team did not define product strategy, they were responsible for ensuring that each squad's strategy aligned with the overall company strategy. They created systems to synchronize individual strategies, ensuring that all product teams were working toward a common goal.

  3. Communication and Alignment:

    • While PMs were still responsible for communicating product goals, the Product Ops team introduced tools and ceremonies to facilitate better communication and alignment between teams.

  4. Process Development:

    • With the rapid growth of the product team, it was crucial to spread best practices across teams. The Product Operations team worked to ensure that lessons learned by one team were shared efficiently across the organization, creating a culture of continuous improvement.

  5. People Development:

    • In partnership with HR, the Product Operations team launched initiatives such as mentorship programs, a Product University for training, and a Ladder Program to onboard and quickly develop junior PMs into autonomous product managers.

  6. Program Management:

    • The Product Operations team also introduced Program Managers to oversee topics that required cross-functional collaboration, such as monetization, risk management, and vertical-specific strategies (e.g., for cars and real estate). Program Managers ensured that these key initiatives were synchronized across multiple teams, improving efficiency and coordination.

Measuring Success in Product Operations at OLX

One of the critical components of Product Operations at OLX was measuring the impact of the team's initiatives. Success was measured through several key performance indicators (KPIs) across the six pillars, including:

Conclusion

The case of OLX demonstrates how a dedicated Product Operations team can play a crucial role in scaling product management processes, improving strategic alignment, and enhancing operational efficiency during periods of rapid growth. By focusing on the six pillars of user centricity, strategy deployment, communication, process development, people development, and program management, OLX successfully addressed the growing pains that came with expansion and maintained a high-performance product organization.

This case also highlights the importance of measuring success through clear KPIs and feedback loops to ensure that Product Ops delivers value across the organization.