As Lead PO, it is Udo's task to further develop the Commerce Suite as an overall product and to incorporate market developments into the product strategy. The B2B proof of concept (PoC) is currently a particular focus, as the Commerce Suite is also to be established in the B2B market in the future. This requires a roadmap that creates transparency about team workloads and enables a clear weighting of topics.
In addition to product development, Udo's role also involves acting as an interface between the product owners and management. This position is definitely new for Udo, as in his previous role the focus was primarily on technology. Now it's all about designing feedback loops, discussing overarching topics with the teams and managing their implementation.

Before becoming Lead PO, Udo was a DevOps Engineer in the Platform Engineering team, where he also took on a leading role - that of PO. As there was no dedicated Business Owner in this team, Udo dealt intensively with market developments and strategic decisions - which now benefits him greatly in his new role. His ability to independently familiarize himself with new topics, solve complex problems and link technical developments with business requirements also qualified him for overall responsibility for the empiriecom Commerce Suite. The desire to take on more responsibility came from his own initiative.

For Udo, managing the Commerce Suite as a complete product means keeping an eye on a complex system consisting of numerous teams with different focuses. Basic technical knowledge is a prerequisite for understanding the interrelationships and driving development forward in a meaningful way. And this is precisely where Udo's greatest advantage and at the same time his greatest personal challenge lies: flipping the switch from technical problem solver to strategic decision-maker. Because although he is required to solve problems, it is no longer up to him to find and implement the technical solutions.

The aforementioned B2B PoC is currently Udo's main focus. In collaboration with our partner Adesso SE, we are investigating how business processes in the B2B sector can be better mapped - including order approvals or the management of multiple shopping baskets. These are challenges that previously played no role in the end customer sector and therefore require completely new technical solutions.
A project like this requires several teams to work together: the Platform Engineering team is responsible for providing the infrastructure, while the Inspire team works on configurability for the customer and the Order&Inspect team is responsible for the actual sending of emails.

At the same time, the fundamental question arises: what is our core product? The empiriecom Commerce Suite must be clearly defined - which functions are standard, which are add-ons? This differentiation is crucial in order to use resources efficiently and to position ourselves optimally on the market.