The Challenge

PrettyLittleThing needed to clear markdown inventory without diluting their premium brand positioning. The solution required a completely separate eCommerce experience that could operate independently while leveraging existing infrastructure, a complex technical and strategic challenge.

The Solution

Led the creation of pltoutlet.com, an independent drop-based marketplace that enables strategic inventory management through technical separation while maintaining operational efficiency through shared backend services.

My Role

As Product Owner for product data and feeds, I was responsible for shaping the solution from concept to go-live. I led cross-squad delivery for all backend data services, defined the product identification strategy, coordinated integration across multiple platforms, and ensured that reporting pipelines could support Outlet as a fully independent product channel.

Scoped & Defined the Data Strategy

• Established how Outlet products would be flagged within our PIM and filtered across backend systems.

• Authored and prioritised a full set of engineering tickets to manage data flow across feeds, including logic to prevent outlet products from surfacing incorrectly on the main site.

• Aligned stakeholders across merchandising, BI, and engineering on how product drops would be triggered, surfaced, and tracked.

Led Delivery of Technical Separation

• Oversaw the configuration of isolated environments and service accounts that allowed Outlet to operate independently, while still benefiting from shared infrastructure where appropriate.

• Coordinated the setup of dedicated queues, topics, and config changes across multiple services, ensuring data routing, product eligibility, and image handling all worked as intended.

• Supported the integration of a new site catalogue and ensured correct delivery of data to third-party tooling.

Enabled Independent Reporting & Monitoring

• Delivered a strategy to support BI reporting through custom fanouts and extended data pipelines, enabling Outlet-specific product attributes to surface in BigQuery reporting tables.

• Worked with DevOps and engineers to safely duplicate messaging streams (e.g. via SNS/SQS filters) while maintaining operational integrity.

• Drove QA-readiness by ensuring key metrics and safeguards (like Outlet flags and error monitoring) were clearly represented and testable.

Unblocked Cross-Squad Dependencies

• Acted as the glue between squads, resolving blockers between Akeneo, product services, feeds, and analytics.

• Paused BAU development work to protect capacity and delivery velocity during critical sprints.

• Handled documentation, stakeholder updates, and escalations throughout the pre-launch period.

The Outcome

PLT Outlet launched on time and with full technical independence from the core PLT site enabling:

• Strategic control over markdown stock, without confusing core customers.

• Quarterly drop cycles, built on a scalable and maintainable backend framework.

• Clear analytics visibility via BigQuery and downstream pipelines, with no data bleed between brands.