Transforming Beauty Booking: Insights from Treatwell's Chief Product Officer

Building a Product-Led Culture in a Sales-Driven Company

Treatwell, Europe's largest hair and beauty booking platform, is on a journey to become more product-led. As Chief Product Officer, Maud is spearheading this transformation while balancing the needs of both the B2B and B2C sides of the marketplace.

The Dual Nature of Treatwell

Maud explains that Treatwell has two key components:

1. The consumer-facing app and website that allows customers to book beauty services
2. A robust SaaS product that powers the marketplace and helps salons manage their businesses

"There's a huge SaaS product behind it to power the marketplace," Maud notes. "It's really a SaaS-enabled marketplace and there's a big B2B team at Treatwell that's building our SaaS connect and helping salons run their businesses and be successful."

This dual nature creates unique challenges and opportunities for the product team.

Balancing B2B and B2C Needs

A key challenge for Treatwell is balancing the needs of both consumers and salon partners. Maud emphasizes the importance of aligning incentives:

"Where it works really well is when you're able to align incentives... at the end of the day your marketplace is really healthy and that flywheel is really going if you're able to articulate to your partners why you're doing that thing that will help the customers which eventually means better outcomes for them."

While they aim for balance, Maud notes they tend to prioritize the customer side when trade-offs are necessary, as long as they can demonstrate long-term benefits for partners.

Transitioning to a Product-Led Approach

When Maud joined Treatwell nearly two years ago, she found a company that was very sales-driven. However, there was recognition that this approach had limitations:

"There was a realization that sales-led could only take us so far and that the competition was moving much faster than we were or starting to really catch up in some areas and that we couldn't just keep hiring more and more and more people to fuel the growth."

This created an appetite for embracing more product-led ways of working. However, Maud acknowledges it's an ongoing journey:

"Is it perfect every day? No. I think the main thing that I realized when I joined is like you can't fight every battle. So picking the battles, letting some things go and being okay with the fact that sometimes you will... it's not going to be perfect every day."

Nurturing Product Talent

To attract and retain product talent in this environment, Maud emphasizes transparency about the company's current state and future aspirations:

"We're very transparent about like what domain they're going to start on... the type of company you're joining and the type of culture that we're trying to bring and the people like the talent that we want to... where we want to get to like where we are today, where we want to get to and like that there's still some ways to go."

She also highlights that the way they approach product is consistent across B2B and B2C teams, with shared practices around data-driven decision making, customer problem understanding, and product discovery.

Leadership Lessons for Product Executives

Maud shares several key insights from her journey to becoming a product executive:

Embracing Not Having All the Answers

One of the biggest shifts Maud experienced was getting comfortable with not having all the answers:

"When I started out I felt like I was expected to have all of the answers and over time I've realized I'm the one who has the least answers. And the more you grow into leadership, the less of the answers you have yourself and the more you rely on people on your team to have the answers."

This realization helped her overcome imposter syndrome and focus on enabling her team's success.

Scaling Leadership Through Others

Maud emphasizes the importance of developing leaders within the organization:

"Constantly looking at backfilling yourself. I think it's the best advice I've ever got. It's thinking about building your bench, growing the people under you to become the best leaders they can be."

This approach not only helps the organization scale, but also creates opportunities for personal growth and strategic thinking.

Asking Questions Instead of Providing Solutions

When giving feedback or addressing problems, Maud has learned to lead with questions rather than jumping to solutions:

"I try to approach it by asking questions like why did you approach why do you think this is the biggest problem to solve? What others data points or observations have you got to back this up or what why did you think that was the best way to solve this type of problem?"

This approach helps team members develop critical thinking skills and often leads to better solutions.

Influencing the Broader Organization

Maud has worked to influence other leaders in the business to bring problems to the product team rather than pre-baked solutions:

"I've managed to influence some of our leaders in the business to think about to come to the product teams with problems rather than solutions. It's not, you know, it's it's a consistent reminder that we have to express. But but in practice they've seen the value of doing that over time."

This shift has helped improve collaboration and outcomes across the organization.

Leveraging AI in Beauty Tech

While the core of Treatwell's business remains deeply human-centered, Maud sees opportunities to leverage AI in several areas:

Customer Support

Treatwell has implemented AI-powered chatbots to improve customer support efficiency.

Voice AI

The company is exploring voice AI for booking appointments when salons are closed, though Maud notes customers aren't quite ready for this yet.

AI-Powered Review Summaries

With a wealth of user-generated content in reviews, Treatwell is looking at using AI to create helpful summaries for customers.

Addressing Customer Anxiety

Maud sees potential for AI to help alleviate customer anxiety around beauty treatments:

"There is some anxiety around I mean not for you Jason when you go and get your haircut you relaxed about it. But a lot of people actually have some anxiety around the results that they're going to get... so there is a need for people to understand that like to feel reassured that this is going to be a place where they get the right results and so I think with there is some things we in that space that I think we can accelerate solving with AI."

The Future of Beauty Tech

Maud is excited about the challenges and opportunities ahead for Treatwell and the beauty tech industry:

"We've got some really fun challenges to solve. Like really meaty opportunities that haven't been solved yet. You've got all of the challenges that come with two-sided marketplaces, but we've also got this amazing industry that we serve on the salons."

She highlights the potential to support female entrepreneurship, as the beauty industry has one of the highest rates of female business ownership in the UK.

With operations across 13 markets and a diverse, international team, Treatwell is well-positioned to continue innovating in the beauty booking space. As they navigate the balance between sales-driven and product-led approaches, Maud's leadership insights offer valuable lessons for product executives in any industry undergoing digital transformation.

Key Takeaways for Product Leaders

1. Embrace not having all the answers and focus on enabling your team's success.
2. Constantly work on "backfilling yourself" by developing leaders within your organization.
3. Lead with questions rather than jumping to solutions when giving feedback.
4. Influence the broader organization to bring problems to product teams, not pre-baked solutions.
5. Look for opportunities to leverage new technologies like AI, even in traditionally human-centered industries.
6. Be transparent about your company's current state and future aspirations when attracting product talent.
7. Strive for a balance between B2B and B2C needs in marketplace businesses, but be prepared to make strategic trade-offs.
8. Recognize that transitioning to a product-led culture is a journey that requires patience and persistence.
9. Don't be afraid to have team members who are smarter than you in specific areas - it's a sign of strong leadership.
10. Stay curious and always look for opportunities to learn and grow, regardless of your level of experience.

Article created from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkSVViAYSwo