Interview with Dominic Perry, head of Product at TravelLocal

1. Could you share with us your journey to becoming the Head of Product at TravelLocal? What key experiences or roles have shaped your career in product management?

I joined TravelLocal as their first product person in 2018. Being a new role, this came with a variety of responsibilities, I’d be writing detailed user stories one day and thinking of a longer term vision the next. But after introducing some good best practices and having grown the team to also include UX & design, I’m now lucky to lead a great team that plays a key role within the business. Before TravelLocal I worked as a Senior Product Manager for the food delivery company Just Eat where I spent 7 years, having initially started as a QA Engineer. But going even further back I actually started my career as a travel agent selling holidays, so the travel sector was where it all began (and it’s by far the best sector I’ve worked in!). I think having worked in a number of different roles has helped me greatly in Product Management as I can see other people's perspectives much easier as I’ve actually been in their shoes.

2. As Head of Product at TravelLocal, what are your primary responsibilities? How do you approach balancing user needs with business objectives in your product strategy?

As part of the leadership team, I mainly focus my efforts between strategy and cross team alignment to ensure we’re moving in the right direction as a business. In my role as Product team leader, I’m responsible for essentially ensuring my team have everything they need to succeed and deliver on our strategy, but I still also like to get my hands dirty in our data where I can. Balance is such a key word and is something we say all the time. There are 100’s of ways to improve and evolve our customer journey, so as a Product team we try to bring all of that together in a cohesive and focussed way that works for our customers and our business. Working with our Engineering team, we speak to all of our core users types and internal stakeholders to figure out where we need to be focussing our efforts. This is an ongoing activity which can be pretty overwhelming at times, but the team does a fantastic job of hearing all opinions and managing expectations - which includes saying ‘no’ a lot!

3. The travel industry has undergone significant changes, especially with technology playing a larger role in how consumers plan and experience travel. How has TravelLocal adapted its product offerings in response to these industry trends?

Technology is always evolving and that certainly impacts how we look at building our products. There have been some big changes recently that will fundamentally change a lot of things in travel. We have to use these technology advancements in a smart way that gives value to our customers and partners, and not just from a vanity perspective. We have to keep up to date and be mindful of how technology evolves, but we need to balance that with our user needs and if we discover something that makes their lives easier, then we absolutely go all in on it. For example, we can’t simply ignore the current AI developments, and we are using certain aspects of this, but we also don’t want to use it if it adds unneeded complexity or just isn’t relevant for what we are doing.

4. Leading a product team in a dynamic field like travel requires constant innovation and adaptation. Can you discuss how you foster creativity and productivity among your team members?

Product management is essentially problem-solving with an outcome to deliver value, so within the team I encourage a culture of thinking things through and deeply understanding the problems we’re trying to solve (which could be a customer pain point or a business objective). We do this through both qualitative research (e.g. surveys & user interviews) and quantitative data (e.g. business performance reporting and A/B testing). We look at what our competitors are doing within our sector but also look at products outside of travel to get ideas for best in class UX patterns that we can apply to our customer journey. For example, which company has the best payment flow and what could we take from that to improve our own.

5. What advice would you give to someone aspiring to a career in product management within the travel industry? Are there specific skills or experiences you believe are crucial for success in this field?

Having experience in the travel sector is useful, but by no means essential. The product discipline is pretty transferable, so if you’re already experienced in that then you should already be good to make the move. However, if you’re new to Product, it can be tricky to know where to start. The wider Product community is very active in terms of meet-up events, conferences, books and podcasts where you get to meet and hear from people working in a variety of Product roles which always provides insights and new perspectives on the discipline. I would encourage looking for a strong Product coach or mentor to help guide you and get you on the right path early. In terms of skills and experience, I’d always be looking for people with strong communication skills and high levels of comfort working with data. Pragmatism, empathy and general curiosity are also beneficial behaviours to have.