For over a year, Zooid was our "secret project" at Easol - a conviction that there simply had to be a better way to handle bidding. We spent over a year gathering insights, tinkering with prototypes, and testing our own hypotheses, but the pace was steady rather than sprinting.
That changed at the start of 2026. As a team, we decided it was time to stop experimenting in the shadows and finally take the leap. What followed was a whirlwind six-week push to launch that was equal parts brilliant and breathlessly chaotic. Paradoxically, we made more tangible progress in those six weeks than we had in the previous six months.
The dust has finally settled, and looking back, the experience was a masterclass in focus. These are the key things I learned on the journey:
Lesson 1: Product Management =/= Project Management
When I first stepped into the Product Manager role for Zooid, I struggled to translate textbook definitions into reality. Initially, I felt buried by the workload until the team reminded me to delegate. But I overcorrected, becoming a "Project Manager" who merely monitored tasks from a distance. It felt hollow, and I quickly sensed something was missing.
The turning point came during a check-in with a colleague who was struggling for headspace. By jumping in to co-work on her tasks, I realised that being a Product Manager requires more involvement, not less. I began touching base properly with our developer and designer, discovering that my previous distance had led to technical misunderstandings. These conversations didn't just fix bugs; they informed my customer-journey mapping and UX logs with a new level of technical clarity.
I now see the Product Manager as the ‘central command’ of the team. It isn't just about oversight; it’s about having a deep, functional understanding of every moving part to hold the project together. In my view, the role exists to maintain a holistic perspective - flagging when critical decisions are needed and holding the core product vision that allows everyone to align and fit their individual pieces together.
Lesson 2: The Importance of Overcommunication
At the start, we were perfectly in sync. We had our meetings, our goals were aligned, and everyone knew the mission. But as the launch deadline loomed and tasks piled up, we inadvertently began to drift. Everyone was doing their job brilliantly, but they were doing them in isolation.
This "silo" effect quickly led to friction. We rushed through new features without enough UX input, which inevitably created usability headaches later. On the commercial side, progress stalled because the team lacked a clear understanding of the product’s technical inner workings. We were moving fast, but we weren't moving together.
It taught me that alignment isn't a "one-and-done" task—it requires constant maintenance. Moving forward, we need to lean into overcommunication. Whether through more frequent touchpoints, sharper task management, or regular "pause-and-review" sessions, we need to ensure that no matter how busy things get, we never stop talking to one another.
Lesson 3: Frontloading and the Power of Parallel Working
One of the biggest realisations I had was just how many ‘hidden’ tasks were lurking beneath the surface. These weren't obvious at the start; they only revealed themselves once the bigger, more foundational pieces were in place. For instance, it was only when we actually designed the customer experience that a whole host of commercial considerations - things we hadn't even thought to worry about, finally came to light.
These ‘artefacts’—the designs, the flows, the prototypes—were the keys that unlocked these blocked tasks. It made me wonder: is there a way to surface these hidden challenges faster?
Common wisdom would suggest "better planning", but I’m not convinced that’s the answer. You can’t plan for what you can’t yet see. Instead, I believe the solution lies in frontloading and parallel working. By getting those key artefacts into development earlier and working across disciplines simultaneously, we can force those hidden issues to the surface sooner, giving us the time to solve them before they become launch-day crises.
Lesson 4: The Blockers are Rarely Where You Expect
Going into the launch, we were certain the primary challenge would be the commercial side of Zooid. It was the least mature part of the project and naturally demanded a lot of attention. However, as we progressed, we discovered that the real bottlenecks were often technical - not because of a lack of skill, but because of how we were sequencing our work.
This is where the lessons of communication and frontloading really converged. Because we were moving so quickly, we hadn't fully surfaced the complexities the development team was navigating. Furthermore, our ambitious timeline meant that the testing phase felt much tighter than I would have liked; a common "rookie mistake" when you're eager to get a product into users' hands.
In hindsight, if I had prioritised certain UX designs earlier, we would have flushed out these technical dependencies long before they became critical. It was a great reminder that the most obvious hurdle isn't always the one that dictates your pace; often, it’s the hidden dependencies between design and code.
The Road Ahead
Launching Zooid wasn't just about shipping code or finalising contracts; it was a crash course in the reality of building something from nothing. Looking back at those six intense weeks, I’ve realised that while the "crazy" moments are inevitable, they are also where the most profound growth happens. We’ve come out the other side with a live product and, more importantly, a much sharper understanding of how we work best as a team.
The transition from a quiet background project to a live launch has fundamentally changed how I view my role. It’s been a journey of finding the balance between strategic oversight and getting stuck in the weeds with the experts. We didn’t get everything perfect, but we learned exactly what we need to do to make the next phase even better. I’m incredibly proud of what the Easol team has built, and I can’t wait to see where we take Zooid next.