How Denise Visser spends the summer
Today Denise Visser will share her summer plans. She shares some great book resources.
About: Denise is Product Manager Experimentation at bol.com, the largest online retailer of the Netherlands and Belgium. She leads the award-winning team that is driving experimentation with bol.com. Follow Denise on LinkedIn
How does your summer look like?
I love the sunny weather. That already energizes me. Also because everybody is in a holiday mode; the vibe is good and everybody is relaxed. I am not the type of person that is really longing for a holiday break. So you won't find me at the school with a packed car to pick up the children right away. We like to defer our holiday until the end of the school holiday. That way we have more time to look forward to it.
The kids are off for 6 weeks. My wife is a doctor and therefore she doesn’t have too much time off. We go on holiday for 2 weeks. The kids are enjoying summer (sport) camps as well.
Are you trying out new things?
This year we were invited by our neighbors to come over to Tenerife. They were staying there at a great surf spot. They are fanatic windsurfers.
I never tried windsurfing before but I did attempt to learn wave surfing. The great thing about Tenerife is that the great waves are endless so you can keep on practicing. In the end I was able to stand on the board but I couldn’t release my hands yet so I have to go back another time.
I think the experimentation profession made me more open to try new things. In a way it lowers the barrier of the first result. It doesn’t have to be perfect at once. It gives you the opportunity of growth. So every attempt in itself is already a success. Made my life a lot easier!
Are you going to read any books?
During holiday breaks I always take some work-related books with me, although I am often not able to finish them. Books I recently read are related to ‘product-thinking’. As bol.com we are transitioning towards a product-led organization. Already old news for the more Silicon Valley type of organizations, but a new perspective for bol.com. It extremely fits the mindset of experimentation so I think it is a great new phase for bol.com and for (my) Team Experimentation
- Continuous Discovery Habits by Teresa Torres
- Escaping the Build Trap by Melissa Perri (I also like her podcast)
- The product-led organization by Todd Olson
What about reading email during holiday?
I keep on reading my mail. My out-of-office reply is on so nobody is expecting any response but I like to read how colleagues are getting more involved in experimenting and asking my team for support. It makes me want to start working again after the holidays.
Any plans for the rest of 2022?
As Team Experimentation at bol.com we are only a small team but can make a lot of impact by making others lives easier. This second half of the year we focus on improving our result page on our home-built experimentation platform (you might have seen my LinkedIn-post about it). Very happy to learn from others and make others smarter :)
Summertime is not over yet. Keep enjoying the lovely weather!
Thank you Denise, for sharing your summer stories.