Christian Bick

Former Technology Lead, ShareTheMeal [United Nations WFP]

Deborah joined ShareTheMeal as Head of Product when the team prepared the app for a global launch. Within 3 month, she and the team compiled all the learnings from the test-launch into a complete redevelopment of the app including an entirely reworked user experience. Deborah worked closely with a team of designers, developers, translators, marketers and the leadership team to deliver a high-quality mobile app that qualified for a Global Feature in both the Google Play and Apple App Store.

With only limited opportunity for user testing, Deborah’s experience and intuition was crucial for building an app that establishes the trust and simplicity required to achieve high activation, retention and referral rates. With her hypothesis-driven approach, the team was able to combine data-analysis with well-designed experiments to quickly optimize the app during the early launch period and to generate valuable learnings for the following product decisions.

Her pragmatic and direct approach enabled the team to iterate in small cycles and to (in)validate hypotheses quickly. Always open for suggestions and feedback, she seamlessly moved between product and technology aspects to identify the best viable solution within the project’s tight constraints.

The global launch was a great success for the United Nations World Food Program: The app got covered by major media worldwide (e.g. Spiegel, Le Monde, NY Times, CNN). Exceeding Google’s and Apple’s expectations during their app store features, a close collaboration with both companies followed after the launch. More than 100 Million meals have been donated through the app which has been continuously developed until today.

Deborah has a big part in this success story. I thank her for the great collaboration and hope to work with her again on a project in future.