Zalando Boards
Project Overview
Zalando is evolving beyond a traditional e-commerce marketplace into a destination for fashion inspiration and discovery.
As a Freelance Senior Product Marketing Manager within the Inspiration & Entertainment team, I supported the growth of the Boards and Profiles products, features designed to help users curate outfits, discover trends, and engage with fashion in a more visual and social way.
My work focused on increasing adoption and weekly active usage through product storytelling, lifecycle campaigns, and creator led initiatives that helped position Zalando as a place not only to shop, but to find inspiration.
Deep dive
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Zalando has been evolving beyond a traditional ecommerce marketplace into a destination for fashion inspiration, discovery, and community.
Within the Inspiration & Entertainment division, products such as Boards and Profiles were designed to allow customers to curate outfits, save inspiration, follow creators, and explore fashion ideas in a more visual and social way.
The core objective of my engagement was to:
• Increase adoption of Boards among Zalando users
• Grow weekly active usage of inspiration driven features
• Support the positioning of Zalando as a destination for inspiration, not just transactions
• Build campaigns and product storytelling that encouraged customers to return to the platform for discovery and ideas.The target audience included Zalando’s fashion engaged customers across Europe who were interested in styling, outfit inspiration, and trend discovery.
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I joined Zalando as a Freelance Senior Product Marketing Manager, embedded within the Inspiration & Entertainment team, focusing primarily on the Boards product and later supporting Profiles.
My role was to bridge the gap between product development and user adoption by ensuring new features were launched with clear messaging, strong campaigns, and measurable growth strategies.
Key responsibilities included:
• Leading go to market planning for product updates and campaigns
• Developing lifecycle and CRM strategies to drive feature engagement
• Designing creator led campaigns to showcase how Boards could be used
• Leading the launch campaign enabling all Zalando users to create their own Boards
• Creating a new product video to demonstrate the feature and communicate its value to usersThe product video and campaign assets were very well received internally and praised by Zalando’s SVP of Design for their clarity and storytelling.
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Driving adoption of a new product experience required close cross functional collaboration across multiple teams.
I worked closely with:
• Product Managers shaping the roadmap for Boards and Profiles
• Product Design teams responsible for the user experience
• Engineering teams building and releasing new features
• CRM and lifecycle marketing teams activating user engagement
• Paid marketing teams supporting growth campaigns
• Retail and commercial teams aligning inspiration with shopping
• Data and analytics teams tracking feature performance
• Content creators showcasing real world use cases for BoardsThis collaboration ensured product updates were supported by strong marketing narratives and measurable engagement strategies.
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To drive adoption and engagement, the work focused on three key pillars.
1. Clear Product Storytelling
A major focus was helping users understand why Boards existed and how they could use them.
Messaging positioned Boards as a tool to curate outfits, organize inspiration, and discover new styles within Zalando.
2. Lifecycle Engagement
CRM and lifecycle campaigns were used to consistently bring users back to the feature through email, in app placements, and campaign moments.
These initiatives reinforced the value of Boards as a recurring destination for fashion inspiration.
3. Creator Led Inspiration
Collaborations with creators helped demonstrate how Boards could be used in real styling contexts, making the feature more relatable and aspirational for users.
This content helped bridge the gap between ecommerce functionality and inspiration driven discovery.
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• Go to market planning for Boards product updates
• Lifecycle and CRM campaign strategies to drive feature engagement
• Creator led campaigns showcasing Boards use cases
• Launch campaign for enabling all users to create their own Boards
• Product storytelling assets, including a new product video
• Internal alignment and strategy materials for cross functional teams -
The work contributed to significant growth in adoption and engagement for the Boards product.
Key outcomes included:
Growth of Boards from approximately 70K to 825K weekly active users
Increased visibility and understanding of the feature through campaigns and storytelling
Strong internal reception of product storytelling assets and launch materials
Establishing repeatable campaign and engagement frameworks for future initiatives
This growth resulted from collaboration across multiple teams to expand the feature’s reach and relevance within the Zalando ecosystem.
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One of the core challenges was that Zalando is primarily known as an ecommerce platform, while products like Boards require users to adopt behaviors more commonly associated with social and inspiration platforms such as Instagram or TikTok.
Encouraging customers to return to Zalando not only to shop but also to discover ideas and inspiration required a shift in user perception and habits.
A key insight was that showing real styling use cases and creator examples helped users understand the value of Boards more quickly than purely functional explanations.
When positioned as a tool for curating personal style inspiration, the feature became more intuitive and engaging for users.
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• Product marketing strategy
• Go to market planning
• Growth and adoption campaigns
• Lifecycle and CRM marketing
• Product storytelling and positioning
• Cross-functional collaboration
• Creator and content-driven campaigns
“Cindy is one of those rare contractors who shows up like an owner. While she supported us in a product marketing capacity, she contributed across multiple workstreams (not just campaign execution) and consistently helped unblock teams, drive alignment and land outcomes.
She’s thorough, fast, and politically intelligent in the best way: she understands how organisations work and uses that to move initiatives forward with minimal friction. Most importantly, her work translated into tangible business impact, not just activity. I’d hire Cindy again in a heartbeat and recommend her for senior roles that require strong cross-functional leadership and end-to-end delivery.”
— Arman Shirani (Principal Product Marketing Manager, Zalando)
