Getting a Fresh Perspective

Tracy, how do you inspire innovation on your team to stand out from the competition because there are a lot of players in the fashion industry online?

That’s a really good question. When I interviewed for key roles in my team, one path could be, look for someone who’s done it before, look for a typical skill, someone who’s been in e-commerce or who’s been in same thing, you know, new company.
And one way in which I really like to bring innovation to the team is, for some roles, I don’t require prior experience. Because the tricky part about bringing people who are experts is that they’re experts in the way it used to be, right? And so that actually can stifle innovation.
So, where I think that you can really bring on fresh perspective is people who are passionate about the customer, who have their eyes and ears open. That are willing to say, our customer needs that change. And I am interested and curious about talking to the customer to fully understand what it is they want, and what has changed for them.
Because if you understand the true need, then I think solving the problem is the easy part. But I find that a lot of innovation is stifled because we make assumptions about what the customer needs, we make assumptions about, “Oh, this is the way it’s done. This is the way it’s always been done.” And that is the first thing to have great work and to instill innovation in our team.