Welcome to My Kiwi story, an ongoing series involving our dedicated employees and their lives at Kiwi.com. In this episode, we get to know our VP of Consumer Product, Michal Šindelář (Šindy). Michal shared with us how the mantra “do, fail, learn, repeat” helped him excel in his position, and how working for Kiwi.com allows him to fulfill his childhood dream.
Hi Šindy, would you like to tell us something about your journey in Kiwi.com?
I was born in this very city of Brno and joined Kiwi.com (at that time Skypicker) at the beginning of 2015, as a Frontend Developer. I focused mainly on our Booking page initially. I was very eager to develop this critical touchpoint across the entire ‘customer Journey’ where the vast majority of our turnover was generated.
I received a couple of promotions while my scope grew incrementally. Back then, I took the responsibility not only for the technical aspect but also for the product side too. I soon realized that I was more valuable to the business on the Product/Business side. Therefore, we narrowed my focus to this area. Currently, I am in the VP of Consumer Product role, covering the full digital Customer Journey from a Product and Business perspective.
Here at Kiwi.com we like to say “do, fail, learn, repeat”. Can you recall a situation when you failed and learned from your experience?
Sure! From the day I joined I failed in my attempts many times! In the engineering roles, I can remember a couple of production incidents that impacted sales, as customers were unable to pay for their bookings or access their reservations. We definitely made some bad calls on the product side too. They may not have been visible in the sales numbers but resulted in medium/longer-term implications. Anyway, my point is we are used to taking risks at Kiwi.com and we’re also prepared for the inevitable failures that this can yield. What is important is that we learn from these mistakes. Without this approach, we wouldn’t be able to grow as fast as we have. These days, we are using all the lessons learned to improve our internal processes, as a result, we’re minimizing the number of mistakes.
We still support this type of ethos which is aligned to our grand ambitions for the company. In order to have this spirit in the company, there is a critical need for senior leadership support. Anytime I made a mistake, I was supported by others around me and I certainly learned from these experiences and this ultimately helped me to grow professionally.
How do you personally relate to the company vision of providing transport from point A to point B anywhere in the world?
Since I was a child, I always wanted to have a meaningful job in which I could help people. Although it may not be directly visible in my current job title, I believe I have fulfilled my goal. Kiwi.com is disrupting the conventional way of travelling with our Virtual Global Supercarrier vision. We want to ‘ease the load’ for travellers and offer our customers a seamless travel experience.
As a travel-tech company, thanks to our wonderful team we have had the opportunity to achieve our ambitions and change the world of travel for the better. I believe we can provide all the necessary services related to travel under one roof, namely Kiwi.com. Our motto “From travellers to travellers” fully resonates with me and I am extremely proud and excited to collaborate on our vision and bring it alive for our customers!
If you’re inspired by Šindy’s mantra “do, fail, learn, repeat” and you would like to join us, check our locations for open positions and let us know about you!