Finding PMF, Growing from 0 to 10,000 Paid Daily Orders in 2 Months
Ruby’s Role
Product Lead
Cross-Functional Collaboration: Worked with 2 Designers, 6 Engineers, and 1 Data Analyst.
Roadmapping & Vision: Established and maintained the consumer-facing app product roadmap, aliging priorities with overall business objectives, and guiding feature development.
User Research & Validation: Led user interviews and testing.
Stakeholder Alignment: Communicated strategy and progress across departments, and executive teams.
Release Management: Planned releases from concept to launch; managing sprints and collaborating cross-departments.
Data-Driven Experimentation: Setup and trained data analytics team. Defined key metrics and dashboards to measure outcomes. Leveraged insights for continuous improvement.
Growth & Marketing Lead
Team Leadership: Managed a growth squad of 3 and marketing team of 6, setting goals and processes for initiatives.
Growth & Marketing Strategy: Led growth and marketing strategies focused on user acquisition and retention.
Data-Informed Experimentation: Established a culture of rapid, data-informed testing.
Managed Rebrand: Led collaboration with an external agency to manage Plum’s rebranding.
Championed Vision Company-wide
Evangelized “critic-rated meals delivered daily,” ensuring alignment company-wide across teams including logistics, menu selection and marketing.
Conducted company-wide workshops and interdepartmental strategy sessions.
Authored the company culture handbook, codifying values and aligning them with key business drivers.
Context
Plum, a nascent 3-month old, 30-person company, aimed to disrupt the food delivery landscape in Hong Kong, a market dominated by well-established players like Food Panda and Deliveroo. The founder’s vision involved delivering a daily rotating menu of five dishes from a variety of restaurants around the city to working professionals in key business districts.
Main Challenge
Despite the initial strategy of acquiring users by offering free meals, Plum struggled to convert users into paying customers. At peak, the team had 1,000 unpaid daily orders and negligible paid orders.
What I Did
#1 Crack product-market fit
Recognizing the local foodie culture's preference for exclusive and high-quality meals, I proposed a pivot towards a gourmet-focused value proposition. This involved sourcing critic-rated dishes, which differentiated Plum from competitors.
We tested this idea by changing the messaging on our flyers and immediately saw an increase in paid orders. Following this success, we modified our meal sourcing strategy to focus on critic-rated dishes.
Within 2 months, Plum achieved product-market fit, scaling from 1,000 daily unpaid orders at peak to 10,000 daily paid orders and boosting retention from a stagnated 17% to 46%.
Plum’s original marketing message lacked a unique value proposition whilst offering free meals.
We tested our new “gourmet meals delivered” value proposition by updating the message on our flyers. This update quickly gained traction and helped us grow from zero to 10,000 daily paid orders.
#2 Ensure strategic vision is executed company-wide
Executing on the strategic vision of “critic-rated meals delivered daily” required coordination across the entire organization, from menu selection to product development to operations.
To ensure company-wide alignment, I regularly organized workshops and departmental strategy sessions. These meetings were designed to identify opportunities to manifest our vision at every user touchpoint and to assess the effectiveness of past initiatives.
For example, I led our menu selection team in developing a data-driven methodology that guided dish selection in support of specific business goals such as acquisition, retention, and branding. I also created a company culture handbook, which helped both new and existing employees embody our values and deliver on our promise at every touchpoint, from delivery to customer service.
#3 Product development, growth and branding
As product and growth lead, as well as advisor to the marketing team, I mentored team members and ran weekly strategy review meetings.
Key product initiatives:
Collaborating with design and engineering on development of mobile app
Labelling Michelin-recommended dishes with Michelin logo, resulting in 237% increase in orders.
Conceived and championed a menu selection strategy, driving over 11.8% month-over-month growth in orders.
Instigated by cost cutting and revenue generation motions, we became the first food delivery app in Hong Kong to implement a feature allowing users to select their desired tip amount and opt out of receiving cutlery.
Set up and trained first data analytics team member, guiding team on which metrics to track and how. Defined company OKRs and analytics dashboard. Created retention cohort charts.
Key growth initiatives:
Loyalty program
Referrals program
Daily notifcations to place orders
Notifications for wishlisted items
Additionally, I managed Plum’s rebrand in partnership with an external agency.
Before Plum’s rebrand
After Plum’s rebrand
Impact
Found product-market fit in 2 months, growing from 1,000 daily unpaid orders to 10,000 daily paid orders.
Scaled to serve 130k users and 10k daily orders within 6 months in Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, and New York.
One of Hong Kong’s 10 most popular apps in 2018.
As seen in SCMP, The Standard, Retail News Asia
