Trailblazing Women in Product Management: Millie Zah, Head of Product at DAZN

For our next installment of our Women in Product Management Series, I interviewed 

Millie Zah, Head of Product at DAZN.  

Nicole: Welcome Millie, thanks for joining us to share your insights and experiences in the world of Product Management.

Millie: Thanks so much, Nicole, extremely excited to be here. 

I’d love to start with your educational background in Business Management and Art, which is such an interesting combination. How did you start there and move into Product Management? 

I started out in the Business Management side of university education. The art actually came in after I already started Product Management. After university, I got into the marketing side of things and growth which slowly navigated into Product. I realized that growth essentially really is Product. Then we were approached by the Royal College of Art because what we did in the tech world was synonymous with what they were doing in the art world. They invited me to come learn about architecture, how they build things, how they design things, how they design things for people with disabilities and what art looks like from a wider perspective. That’s how I navigated into the art world. Some of what I took from that experience over ten years ago is still so valuable today. For example, I think about how someone will perceive what I’m designing and what I’m building? How someone with a disability like myself, I’m dyslexic, will perceive what I’m building for them? 

Perhaps people with a creative background can see themselves shifting into Product Management. What would you say is really inspiring you in the world of Product Management today? 

What’s really inspiring me is growth. I’ve always focused on how we can reach as many users as possible. Now I think, how can we reach as many different types of users as possible, whether they’re neurodivergent or different races or ethnicities. It’s really globalization. Building a product that you can then adapt to different languages and into different countries and regions with different needs and policies is really exciting to me. At DAZN I look after our boxing proposition, which was initially for the UK, the US and Canada. Now it’s very quickly evolving to Mexico and Saudi Arabia, where sports is really taking off. The way we have to think about the product in those regions is completely different. The core offering is the same, but the product has to be very different. What’s exciting is the globalization and localization part while keeping that personalization region per region. Even though we’re developing products that millions and millions of people are using, how can every single one of those individuals feel like they’re having a personalized experience? 

What are you learning in this process? Is there something you can share that you’ve learned about a particular market or geography as you’re expanding? 

In the world of sports, Saudi Arabia is up and coming. A lot of football, golf and boxing is taking place there. The way we communicate with those users is very different. First of all, we need to design completely differently from being left aligned to being right aligned. The text and characters they use are so different, so our design elements need to be really different. There are different policies we need to think about, and certain things we would communicate later in the product journey, we now need to communicate earlier. It’s been really exciting understanding that landscape, communicating with people within that region, communicating with people that live there, but aren’t necessarily from there and having so many different use cases. It’s been interesting, but the challenge is how do we communicate our message, but in a completely different language on a product that is completely different. You don’t think about things like the button you click when you’re signing into Netflix. You’re always expecting that button to be in the same place. You’re expecting the text to be in the same place. It’s completely different in this market, a completely different UX and people expect different things from the product. That’s a real challenge, but an interesting problem to solve. 

Were you involved in market research around that to discover what needed to change?  

Yes and no. That’s always the challenge. We’ve signed some big contracts; we need to get some things out. But we also need to learn and develop quickly and iterate really quickly. I would have loved more time to do that research and speak to users and understand them. Having to do that in parallel with building and launching was a challenge, probably a challenge that a lot of people in Product Management encounter. We don’t always have the luxury to do deep research before launching something into the market. We’re a year into working in that particular market, and still learning every single day and trying to adapt as quickly as we can.  

As the Head of Product, how do you navigate your team working through this process? 

Whenever I work with my team or stakeholders, I want to understand everybody’s motivation in whatever we do. When it comes to localization and building things in different markets, can I impart the message to them around why we’re expanding into these markets? I make sure they understand the “why”. When everybody’s motivated and I understand everyone’s motivation, it’s easier to solve certain problems. For example, some team members are more interested in the policy side of things and understanding what the market looks like, while some designers are interested in the challenge of designing in a slightly different way. We need the right people working on the designs. There are lots of challenges, but understanding everyone’s motivations and where everyone may best sit in the process and making sure we’ve got all the right stakeholders involved is what makes it work. 

What is your favorite part of this growth process? 

What I absolutely love about Product Management is actually seeing the growth after I launch something that I’ve been working on for a really long time. There are hundreds and thousands of people that are using this feature I developed, especially in what I do at DAZN. We’re working on some of the biggest fights with Fury and Usyk, with AJ and Canelo. All my family and friends are sharing things on Twitter, they’re actually using features and tools that I’ve worked on and developed. That’s what really excites me, seeing that growth. Now there are people in Spain, India, Poland, and Taiwan using these features as well. I’m excited when I see people around me using this product. I want people in other regions to feel that way when they’re interacting with the product we developed. I want to know, is that what they’re expecting to see? Can we introduce new things to the market? Can we learn new things from the market? The growth side of things really excites me. 

When you’re building your team, is there something in particular you look for when hiring Product Managers? 

There’s always this divide between measuring hard skills and soft skills. I lean more towards soft skills. Are they motivated? And are they really interested in what we’re trying to achieve here? A lot of the methodologies and processes around being a Product Manager can be taught, but if that foundation is there, that person really stands out. How well do they communicate? If they don’t know something, can they communicate that too? Are they comfortable asking questions? Are they curious and inquisitive? Eager to learn? Do they take the initiative to map out what they want to achieve? Or are they floating around trying to figure out what they want to do? I don’t necessarily know exactly what I want to do next, but I’m proactive in exploring different things to help me figure that out. It’s really important that they take control of what they want to achieve. Then I’m eager to have them on my team, and I want to help them. 

Is there specific advice you have for women considering a career in Product Management?

I approach my career as if it’s a product and I’m developing a roadmap. I’m finding out where the problems are and I’m finding solutions to those problems. If you are early in your career, think about what type of workplace you want to work in. Would you thrive in an environment that’s more entrepreneurial where you develop your role with more flexibility and slightly less process and product structure? Or do you want more structure where you learn those processes and somebody says this is where we need to go and what we need to do to get there? The stage of the company is important as well. There’s a big difference between being a Product Manager in a startup, a medium-sized business, and a large global business. Being in a smaller company, you can sit closer to finance, or marketing, or the operations team and learn more from them. That’s what I did early on in my career. Now at a bigger company, I understand what other departments are doing. Think about where you are, what you want out of your next steps and what type of environment will help you achieve that. That’s what helped me in the past.

That’s great advice to help our audience think about what they want from their career and where they’d like to see themselves. Thank you so much, Millie.

Thank you, it’s my pleasure.