The best of both worlds

A start up with limitless growth.

 

Callum took a big leap into tech at Tesco four and a half years ago, and he’s never looked back. And with a project like Whoosh, there’s even more innovation ahead. Take it away, Callum.

 

“I joined Tesco on a commercial apprenticeship straight out of school and started as a Buyer’s Assistant, selecting the products we stock in store. I ended up mostly working on buying in dolls for children, which seems funny now and so removed from my role in tech.

I’ve moved roles a few times since then, but it was working in the Online team that got me interested in technology. I was working on developments for the Tesco website, looking at how our products were advertised online. My role was to write the business cases for any changes, and then the Product team on the tech side would take over. They’d speak with Design, Analytics, Optimisation, and Research, to make sure that the work proposed was right for our customers. Then they’d implement the changes, build it, get results, run tests.

I’d watch all this happening from afar and feel like I was missing out on some really interesting, exciting stuff. So I started to take steps towards moving into the Product team. It’s now been four and a half years since I moved over, and I’m still absolutely loving it.

It was a big change at first, and I had a lot to learn. But Tesco really put their faith in me and supported me to upskill. They saw the value in my previous experience and my passion for the work, and over the years, I’ve been able to grow my knowledge on the tech and all the bits that were new to me. I’ve now been promoted and am the Senior Product Manager for Whoosh.

Whoosh is our superfast delivery service which makes it possible to get about a basket-sized amount of groceries delivered to your door within 30 minutes. We designed it to fill a gap in the market for our customers. They could do their big shop virtually already, so this was about the ‘small, emergency shops’. Like if you’ve got friends coming over but forgot to fill up the ice cube tray – using Whoosh you can get that ice delivered no problem.

I was part of the team that launched it, and though it’s working great now, like with any new service, it wasn’t always that way. We had early challenges with in-store operations, the app functionality, and much more. It was a huge undertaking, but seeing the impact of the product makes it all worth it. And it just keeps getting better. We can make changes to the system and our customers are using the new, improved Whoosh within minutes. It’s so motivating to see your work reaching customers that fast.

I also really enjoy testing. Being part of designing something, seeing it made and having the ability to play with it is very cool. It’s fun talking to customers about the product too. They come to us with a problem, and it’s up to us to fix it. We’ll test our ideas with them, and they’ll recommend things to us too. And because of Tesco’s huge customer base, we have so many users. It means when we do make changes, we get so much feedback – millions of people providing the data we need to make even more improvements. It’s rare for businesses to be able to get that much data, that quickly.

What’s most interesting from a tech perspective for me though, is that we operate in the Whoosh team like a start-up – we’re agile and so passionate about the product. But we’ve also got Tesco’s services, reputation and infrastructure to support us. The business is a hundred years old and that puts us in a really great position. We can experiment and try new things with technology, while knowing we’ve got the backing and expertise from the wider business in our corner. It gives us a strong foundation – but it never holds us back.

People say at Tesco that you’re the CEO of your own product. In real terms, that means you’re able to deliver your vision in the way you feel is best. No one’s telling you how to do it. It’s a blank slate – you’re given an area and Tesco will say: ‘what can you make of it?’. It’s inspiring, and we don’t fear ‘failing’. In fact, we’re encouraged to fail. That way we know we’re still trying fresh, new ideas, and not just settling for what we’ve done before.

The interesting tech is a by-product of the level of autonomy and teamwork you’ll find here. There’s no ‘butting heads’ – everyone’s working towards the same goal and supporting each other. We do a lot of looking at data, coming up with creative solutions, sketching prototypes – it’s fun. It’s the kind of job that I used to think – ‘wouldn’t it be great if I could have a job like that’. And here I am.”

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