Inside Etsy’s product, growth, and marketplace evolution | Tim Holley (VP of Product)

Tim Holley is VP of Product at Etsy where he leads the Etsy buyer experience. With a tenure spanning more than a decade, Tim has seen the company through many transitions (both in culture, in leadership, and in growth), and his team’s product changes have had a significant impact on buyer retention, conversion, and global expansion. In this episode, we discuss: • Lessons from navigating corporate culture shifts • How Etsy capitalized on the explosive growth of e-commerce during the pandemic • Marketplace learnings: when to focus on supply vs. demand, optimizing conversion, and more • How Etsy solves the “graduation problem” • Tips for hiring product managers — Brought to you by Productroadmap.ai—AI to connect your roadmaps to revenue: https://productroadmap.ai | Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments: https://www.geteppo.com/ | OneSchema—Import CSV data 10x faster: https://oneschema.co/lenny Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/inside-etsys-product-growth-and-marketplace Where to find Tim Holley: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timholley/ Where to find Lenny: • Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com • Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/lennysan • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/ In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Tim’s background (04:23) Tim’s time away at SoulCycle and what led him back to Etsy (06:34) Lessons from the 2017 culture shift at Etsy (12:15) Etsy’s guiding principles (13:32) How Etsy adapted to increased demand during the early days of mask mandates (16:38) What Tim learned about managing stress with his team during the pandemic (18:46) Lessons from building a thriving marketplace (21:47) Prioritization at Etsy (24:37) Supply constraint vs. demand constraint (28:43) Conversion wins (33:27) Experimentation at Etsy (37:58) Acquisition and top-of-funnel tactics (39:44) The seller referral program (40:33) Etsy’s habit loop framework (44:11) How they set themselves apart from other marketplaces (51:23) Retaining sellers (53:23) The defunct Etsy studio (55:18) Running the product team (57:20) Who the decision maker is (1:01:20) What Tim looks for when hiring PMs (1:03:03) A reflection exercise Tim does with his teams (1:05:08) Lightning round Referenced: • Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/ • SoulCycle: https://www.soul-cycle.com/ • Inside the Revolution at Etsy: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/25/business/etsy-josh-silverman.html • Ronny Kohavi on Lenny’s Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-ab-testing-ronny-kohavi-airbnb-microsoft-amazon/ • How to Kickstart and Scale a Marketplace Business – Part 3: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-kickstart-and-scale-a-marketplace-911 • Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World: https://www.amazon.com/Team-Teams-Rules-Engagement-Complex/dp/1591847486 • Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman: https://www.amazon.com/Let-People-Surfing-Education-Businessman-Including/dp/0143109677 • The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Broker-Robert-Moses-Fall/dp/0394720245 • Yellowstone on Paramount+: https://www.paramountnetwork.com/shows/yellowstone • Nara Baby app: https://naraorganics.com/nara-baby-tracker • Huckleberry app: https://huckleberrycare.com/ Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.