John Bettiol
Launching a marketplace on-time: A lesson in taking shortcuts using spreadsheets!
#1about 4 minutes
Facing a 90-day deadline to launch a new marketplace
The team had to build a complex B2B marketplace with a distributed team, a massive backlog, and no clear data on products or sellers.
#2about 3 minutes
De-scoping all internal tooling to meet the launch date
To meet the aggressive deadline, the team decided to build no administrative tools, relying on manual processes to manage the platform at launch.
#3about 4 minutes
Building a spreadsheet tool for seller data onboarding
A custom Excel spreadsheet was created to simplify seller data submission, handling data mapping, legal requirements, and file encoding issues for non-technical users.
#4about 2 minutes
Managing platform configuration with a complex spreadsheet
A single, massive spreadsheet was developed to manage 35 database tables for platform configuration, including categories, translations, and legal attributes.
#5about 2 minutes
Pivoting to Google Sheets after a data loss crisis
When the Microsoft 365 spreadsheet became corrupted from concurrent use, the team bypassed IT policy and switched to Google Sheets to restore their workflow.
#6about 2 minutes
The long-term consequences of taking technical shortcuts
While the spreadsheet solution enabled a successful launch, it created significant technical debt that led to inefficient processes and longer onboarding times years later.
#7about 5 minutes
Q&A on lean management, team morale, and tech debt
The speaker answers audience questions about using lean principles, maintaining team morale after data loss, and securing management buy-in to fix the initial shortcuts.
Related jobs
Jobs that call for the skills explored in this talk.
Matching moments
06:15 MIN
Balancing product development with go-to-market strategy
Business Strategies for Scaling European Tech
03:14 MIN
Scaling a global marketplace with a small team
Single Server, Global Reach: Running a Worldwide Marketplace on Bare Metal in a Cloud-Dominated World
01:25 MIN
The challenge of onboarding new trading venues efficiently
Microservices architecture as a key element in building trading systems for global finance markets
01:32 MIN
How Kalo's marketplace solves key development problems
Kalo: From Code Chaos to One-Click Polyglot Codegen
03:14 MIN
Lessons from a failed internal talent marketplace project
HR Tech: An Essential Ingredient for Tech-Driven Business Transformation
02:08 MIN
Moving beyond infrastructure to a marketplace-centric approach
Platform Engineering untold truths: is just an infrastructure matter?
02:45 MIN
Gaining momentum by focusing on time-to-market
Remote Mob Programming - At home, but not alone
03:10 MIN
Lesson 1: Why great platforms need internal marketing
Hosting a modern justice system
Featured Partners
Related Videos
50:06Single Server, Global Reach: Running a Worldwide Marketplace on Bare Metal in a Cloud-Dominated World
Jens Happe
26:47Let developers develop again
Kai Geißelhardt & Volker Zöpfel
05:11ShapeShift: Reinventing Agile for a B2B SaaS Scale-Up
Milton Leon Rodriguez
22:52How to build the best Food service in the world
Tomáš Čupr
27:19From Vision To Victory - What It Takes to Succeed in Tech Today
Wolfgang Platz
21:39Unveiling the Dark Side: Navigating the Pitfalls of Digital Ambitions
Johannes Hansen
28:39The Art of Becoming a Mature Product Team
Maria Daniela Lica
23:24The Innovation Formula: Fast Prototyping, Data Analysis, and Real User Insights
Nico Seyboth & Silvia Schreier
Related Articles
View all articles.webp?w=240&auto=compress,format)
From learning to earning
Jobs that call for the skills explored in this talk.
Peter Park System GmbH
München, Germany
Senior
Python
Docker
Node.js
JavaScript
PartSpace
Centris Ag
Laupersdorf, Switzerland