Building impact together: Scaling products with intent

What made you join Spirii?

I have been lucky to work in different industries, in startups, scale-ups, and larger organisations, and at various levels in product management.

When my daughters (9 and 13) ask me what I do, their view is that “I play with a computer all day.” So I wanted to join a company with a strong purpose and a focus on driving positive impact.

The fact that I really enjoy working in the scale-up phase made the whole decision even easier. Spirii becoming part of a large organisation like Edenred, enabling us to scale our impact, was also a motivating factor.

I must also say that the entire interview process was great, with former colleagues vouching that the culture at Spirii isn’t just “a poster on the wall.” At each round, I felt more and more alignment between what I wanted to bring and what Spirii needed for the role. Meeting many friendly, motivated, and talented people during the final “speed date interview” made it clear that Spirii was the next journey in my career.

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What motivates you when building products?

I am mostly impact-driven. Software development and digital products/platforms can easily become very complex and hard to grasp, so I always try to remember what change we want to bring - and for whom.

Having a background in both engineering and sales also allows me to look at products from multiple angles. I especially enjoy end-customer interactions, where you get direct feedback on whether the impact you expected is actually delivered. Either you win, or you learn.

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How do you ensure product strategy stays aligned with business goals while leaving room for experimentation?

Allow me to start by sharing a definition of strategy that I really like: “Strategy is a set of choices that allows you to achieve customer and business objectives.”

With this framing, there is less friction between business goals and experimentation/innovation. Many people follow a “Taylorism mindset,” which applies well to manufacturing and repetitive physical work, where tasks are predictable, variation is small, and efficiency metrics are clear.

Work on software products is often exploratory: requirements change, unforeseen technical debt or integration issues appear, and what seemed simple turns out to be complex. In that environment, rigid, task-by-task control fails because you can’t predict all tasks in advance.

By having explicit strategic choices and leaving space for experimentation to figure out the best solution, you can usually achieve business goals by focusing on impact or expected outcomes, rather than trying to force predictability where it does not exist.

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How do you balance structure and agility in a fast-growing company like Spirii?

To elaborate on my take with product strategy, I am a strong believer in using a “Now, Next, Later” model for the roadmap:

• Now has more structure and predictability, where we have a clear idea of what we are going to bring to market soon (e.g., the next three months). This kind of predictability is critical in B2B.
• Next is less detailed and structured, but we have relatively well-defined outcomes we want to reach. The specific “how to reach” is still under debate, giving room for agility.
• Later is exploratory and low commitment. Here we can consider new disruptive concepts, which carry a higher risk of failure or not following through.

What’s one mistake you see companies often make when scaling?

As legendary coach Marshall Goldsmith put it: “What got you here won’t get you there.” One critical step in scaling up is the need for more alignment, standardisation, and (useful) processes.

A few companies want to skip the “messy middle” and go straight from startup mode (build fast and break things) to “corporate governance. ‍

At Spirii, we had the chance to get a visit from Kent Beck, who put scaling into three modes (my own over-simplified version):

• Explore: quick experimentation and learning
• Expand: post-market fit, some experiments work - let’s scale them
• Extract: sustain growth

Many companies believe you switch from explore to extract, but in reality, all three modes coexist, depending on your product portfolio’s maturity level.

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From your perspective, what are the biggest challenges the eMobility industry is facing right now?

From my limited point of view, I think the fragmentation caused by the relative youth of the eMobility industry is one of the biggest challenges. That said, it’s something that can be overcome, and I believe convergence will happen over time as more standardisation emerges across hardware, software, and protocols.

I like to look at Norway as an example, since they are the most advanced in terms of eMobility maturity. There, the high number of EVs is already putting significant pressure on the grid, and the solutions to these challenges are complex, long-term, and expensive. This is where I believe smart software like Spirii can really help mitigate scaling issues by optimising charging behavior and making better use of the existing infrastructure.

Another challenge I see is aligning all the different stakeholders involved - utilities, charge point operators, site owners, fleet operators, regulators, and end users. Everyone has slightly different incentives and timelines, which makes coordinated progress harder, even when the technology itself is ready.

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What do you like most about working at Spirii?

It sounds like a cliché, but the people you work with on a daily basis at Spirii really make the difference. Having talented and motivated people working together - and having fun while tackling some of the biggest challenges - is incredibly motivating.

I also had a “feel like home” moment at our first company offsite on Bornholm. In social settings, you’ll always find me on the dance floor. It was great to see that everyone was on the dance floor the minute our amazing in-house DJs dropped their beat.

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Dream road trip - where and why?

As a French expat, I’m very much into rugby and wine. New Zealand is known for having the greatest rugby team of all time, producing great wines, and offering magical landscapes. I’d love to visit with my family, dive into the scenery, watch a rugby game, and enjoy the local wine production.

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