Johanna, Junior Product Manager

Hi, I’m Johanna and I’ve been working at CHECK24 in Frankfurt since October 2020. Straight after my Master’s degree, I joined the Legal Expenses Insurance department as a Product Manager, or more accurately the Customer Journey team.

CHECK24 particularly appealed to me as my first job due to the organisation of the company and the fact that each comparison product has its own specialized Product Management team. For me, this means that I can take on responsibility for projects, make quick decisions and learn enormously as a result.

My main task is the data-based development of concepts for new website features, especially for new customers on desktop, mobile or the CHECK24 app. Our goals are mainly to improve the customer experience and expand the product range. Another part is analysing data and new features using Tableau, for example for A/B tests, in cooperation with the Analytics team in Frankfurt.

My morning starts by catching a train from Frankfurt Central Station. Our location is very central so it’s just a 15-minute walk to our beautiful new office right on the Main. I then start the day with a coffee and check my emails, my to-do lists and our tracking dashboards. These show us how well our request process is working for our users. Since the customer is our highest priority, it’s extremely important to keep track of the dashboards.

We start with daily stand-up meetings with both the ‘Web Customer Journey’ and ‘App’ IT teams, where we discuss various matters. This could include discussing releases and updates or questions about tickets. Since we work closely with the IT department and implement decisions quickly, this daily discussion is essential. For a newbie like me, these meetings are very interesting, because I learn about a wide variety of topics and challenges and find it really exciting to see the solutions implemented.

After the meeting, I then put the tickets created by our Developers to the test. This then involves giving the Developers feedback as to whether they meet the necessary requirements and can be released or whether they need further development.

Part of my role also involves creating new features and tickets while always keeping our goal in mind: offering better products and an improved customer experience for our clients. That’s a great motivation for me, particularly since I can put forward my ideas and work through them from A-Z. The concept also involves thinking about the design and evaluating its technical feasibility which I manage pretty well thanks to my knowledge of our systems. If I’m ever unsure about anything, I can always ask my colleagues in IT. We often discuss ideas about new features to find the best solution.

Now it’s time for a break. I usually meet up with various colleagues from the Legal Insurance team. This doesn’t just include Product Management but also people from IT and Customer Advisors. I often prepare my lunch at home beforehand, except for our sponsored pasta day where we get a free lunch every two weeks.

After lunch, I dive straight into a meeting with my colleagues. The afternoons are often dedicated to regular meetings and alignment meetings such as jour fixes, team meetings and retros. In retros, we analyse our teamwork and decide how we can work together more effectively going forwards. In between the meetings and discussions with colleagues, I continue working on my tasks. My team and the fun we all have together motivates me the most.

Before finishing, I check any unanswered emails and update my to-do list. Then it's home time!

I love working here for various reasons. Firstly, I have a cool team with great, helpful colleagues that make working together fun every day. We are dynamic and agile which allows us to quickly see results.

I have the opportunity to let off steam with interesting projects, learn lots of new things and improve my technical and analytical skills. I’m proud to be part of a German digital company and contribute to developing our products. Even though my work day is structured fairly similarly, I’m always dealing with exciting and diverse tasks and projects that couldn’t be more exciting.