Freedom to focus
Right from the start, the majority of reMarkable’s sales has been regenerated by the company’s own website. Alf Gunnar is responsible for the Store team.
“We have worked systematically for several years to improve our website. Our excellent sales results are attributable to long-term work and continuous improvement of our website.”
At reMarkable, all departments work on insight and testing. With respect to the website, Alf Gunnar mentions A/B testing. We prepare two versions of the website, where half of the customers have access to one version, and the other half can access the other. We then determine which version does best, and we create hypotheses according to what we think will work best, based on the data and feedback we receive.
“We have a lot of freedom to decide how we want to do things, as well as how we want to work to find the best solutions. We are a dedicated team working on the same things, and we feel a strong sense of ownership and freedom to create something truly great. I think this leads to a desire to get things done and to be results-oriented in our work.”
An idea for the website can come from anywhere in the company. The Store team has discussions with people both above and within the team, in addition to people in other departments. The team has its own employees working specifically on improvements to the website. They collect ideas, rank them, and send what they believe will work best to the development team.
A quantum leap towards the world elite
At the end of the day, the Store team is focused on results. Online sales generate 99 per cent of our revenue. We are focused on sales figures, as these are a measurement of our success. Alf Gunnar explains that even small changes can have a major impact, and they are therefore continuously working on improvements.
“There are so many skilled elements at reMarkable, and our task is to communicate this and convert it to sales. Since we are making this fantastic product, I believe this gives us a big responsibility. It is our responsibility to ensure that people understand how good this product is and how it can improve their daily lives. Naturally, we also feel some pressure, but more than anything, it is exciting to work on something that is of such importance for the company.”
reMarkable is still a young and relatively small company. We have high global ambitions for everything we do, and a relatively small team to get things done. This means that every person at the company is essential, and that we must make some strict priorities.
“We are an entirely new technology company with a brand-new product. Each team has a specific area of responsibility and has a duty to deliver. There are no other parts of the organisation working on the same thing. Therefore, the value of each person’s work at the company becomes very apparent. This is motivating and means that we can have big dreams and work to achieve our ambitions.”
A clean sheet
There is no higher body in another country sitting on a blueprint that shows how things must be done or how we must solve our problems. We therefore have a lot of freedom to create the solutions we feel are best, based on the data and insight.
“It is very exciting to continually work on new initiatives for improvement. We work at a high level in a strategic fashion over time, also on small details. Much of our work is done in-house. We do most of our coding ourselves and own the whole stack.”
The Store team is a tech development environment with many developers on the team. Compared to many other companies, reMarkable has no “baggage”. While many store companies are struggling with older systems from the 80s, our oldest is from 2016.
“We don’t have the frustration many companies experience with old and slow systems, so our tempo is much higher. That is incredibly cool.”
Aware of importance from the start
reMarkable has been aware of the importance of both internal culture and organisation from the very beginning. Culture is not something that happens on its own. It must be created, preserved, and prioritised.
“Leadership at reMarkable has been conscious of this from an early stage and has dared to believe that this would become a major company. The aim was to build and develop based on this ambition, instead of taking one day at a time. They also have a strong ownership of the culture and our values. That is contagious.”
