Combining world-class engineering with industry-leading sleep research, Emma Sleep has made its name in award-winning mattresses but it’s far from a sleepy business and its expansion plans call for moves into related markets and even apps. CTO Andreas Westendörpf is conscious of what is being asked of him: “[We need to] scale up, expand in different ways at the same time. Missing opportunities in business development [would be] a big problem.”
Creating a tech strategy that drives business
Technology should be a business enabler of course, but Westendörpf inherited a legacy back-end that could stymie plans to create a platform supporting the revenues Emma dreams of, beyond the billion Euro threshold. Essentially, he decided to take a “high-altitude” view to revamp the existing business and defined business domains through a more flexible software architecture that supports scale and change.
While many take the one-stop shop path of least obstruction, Westendörpf wanted more.
“We looked to find a best-fit solution for each business domain … we didn’t [want to be], conflicted by a monolithic, highly integrated approach. Our approach for every domain was best-purpose-fit to enable our business development and origin to make AND rent technology on a case-by-case basis.”
Fortunately, in today’s cloud and SaaS times, to evaluate and test a proof-of-concept (PoC) for feasibility on those platforms is usually very fast (hours to days to provision) and free of charge. This is very different to 5 or 10 years ago, when PoCs were expensive and taking weeks to months to start developing - if there was even this option with the evaluated vendor..
Says Westendörpf:
“The old technology stack couldn’t handle the order volumes we needed but the real reason for [transformation] was that changes took a long time to implement, weeks or months, so business development was blocked.”
MACH supports change at speed
Adopting the MACH playbook in 2020 allowed Emma to begin moving faster and more flexibly and to begin building a platform for expanding beyond the core business of selling mattresses – four million units so far, and counting.
“We were able to do more concurrently,” he says. “This was a strategic investment. Our idea is to grow this company, double it in 12 to 24 months and develop it beyond a billion.”
Doing so meant adopting a lean stance different to the old IT operations question of ‘rent or run it yourself’.
“’Rent and make’ is the whole idea of composable services and the badge of honour is to run the smallest team possible and make the business agile. The smaller you can set up your team, the less complex your technology architecture will be,” he argues.
MACH supports change at speed
Adopting the MACH playbook in 2020 allowed Emma to begin moving faster and more flexibly and to begin building a platform for expanding beyond the core business of selling mattresses – four million units so far, and counting.
“We were able to do more concurrently,” he says. “This was a strategic investment. Our idea is to grow this company, double it in 12 to 24 months and develop it beyond a billion.”
Doing so meant adopting a lean stance different to the old IT operations question of ‘rent or run it yourself’.
“’Rent and make’ is the whole idea of composable services and the badge of honour is to run the smallest team possible and make the business agile. The smaller you can set up your team, the less complex your technology architecture will be,” he argues.
Challenge the status quo
Westendörpf says he is attempting to avoid the strictures of Conway’s law where companies design their IT systems to mimic their organizational structures. Better, he contends, to ask searching questions and ensure these business operations and structures are fit for purpose rather than risk slow processes that match operations. “If you’re at this size of business you have established a way of doing things [but] is the problem we have the right one? Challenge yourself if you want to challenge the status quo.”
What challenges did he face in rebuilding technology at Emma?
“Expectation management is sometimes tough in a company like ours that didn’t start as a technology company,” he concedes. “Explaining technology product management is tough when someone may say ‘the mattress is the product’. Making stakeholders understand why things aren’t easy [is key]. You need solid and sophisticated software development capabilities. You need to plan and have an agile mindset, and to keep stakeholders in the know.”
Product discovery needs to involve software engineers too, he believes. They may not see it as part of their role but it will help them understand the mechanics of the overall business.
A certain ruthlessness is also needed and Westendörpf says that when Emma decided to go “composable-first” it had to be prepared to “kill your darlings” in the form of “beautifully customized” but still restrictive Magento legacy modules.
Adopting MACH isn’t a free hit, he cautions, and a strong software engineering culture must support and inform plans but when done right it can act as a dynamo for business growth. Nobody can be asleep at the wheel but that innate flexibility allows leaders to dream and succeed.