Skip to content

Instantly share code, notes, and snippets.

@jai

jai/nicola-joseph-interview.md

Created February 19, 2026 10:39
Show Gist options

  • Select an option

    Learn more about clone URLs
  • Save jai/055cee590e2488274a5fc1131d6ddaba to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.

Select an option

Learn more about clone URLs
Save jai/055cee590e2488274a5fc1131d6ddaba to your computer and use it in GitHub Desktop.
Download ZIP
easyHotel Head of eCommerce Interview — Nicola Joseph (2026-02-19)
Raw
nicola-joseph-interview.md

Head of eCommerce Interview — Nicola Joseph

Date: 2026-02-19 Role: Head of eCommerce, easyHotel Candidate: Nicola Joseph (Lead Trading Manager – Whoosh/Tesco) Duration: ~50 minutes

Candidate Profile Summary

Nicola is an experienced digital trading and merchandising leader with 11+ years at Tesco across multiple eCommerce roles, plus stints at Selfridges and fb beauty. She built Tesco's Whoosh rapid delivery trade proposition from scratch and has strong commercial results (£2M+ YoY uplifts, 2x retail media revenue growth).

Key strengths to validate: Entrepreneurial build-from-scratch mindset, commercial acumen, A/B testing and conversion optimisation, cross-functional stakeholder management.

Key gaps to probe: No hospitality/travel experience, no CRM platform experience, no performance marketing ownership, no product/dev roadmap ownership, small team management (3 reports).

1. Introduction and Background (5 minutes)

  • Welcome Nicola and introduce interviewers and their roles.
  • Brief overview of easyHotel's mission: affordable, smartly designed hotels in central locations, emphasising direct bookings and digital-first guest experience.
  • Outline the interview structure: we'll cover digital strategy, CRM, digital marketing, product/website, and leadership. Encourage open dialogue throughout.
  • Ask Nicola to walk through her career arc, focusing on the transition from buying into digital trading and the decision to build Whoosh from scratch.

Interviewer notes: Assess energy, communication clarity, and whether she frames her experience in strategic terms or purely operational/tactical.

2. Digital Strategy & Performance (10 minutes)

Focus: This is Nicola's strongest area. Validate depth of strategic thinking beyond trading execution, and test whether she can translate grocery/retail eCommerce thinking to a hospitality direct-booking model.

Questions:

  1. "At Tesco you delivered +£2M YoY sales uplift through seasonal campaigns. Walk us through the strategy behind one of those — from insight to execution to measurement. What was your North Star metric?"

    • Probe: Was she setting the strategy or executing someone else's? How did she identify the opportunity? What analytics drove decisions?

  2. "easyHotel's core eCommerce challenge is shifting bookings from OTAs (Booking.com, Expedia) to direct channels — our website and app. That's fundamentally different from grocery, where you own the entire customer journey. How would you approach a direct-booking acquisition strategy from scratch?"

    • Probe: Does she understand OTA dynamics, commission structures, rate parity? Can she think about this without hospitality experience? This is the make-or-break question for domain transfer.

  3. "You built Whoosh's trade proposition as a 'one-woman band.' What does building from zero look like to you — how did you decide what to prioritise when everything was new?"

    • Probe: Entrepreneurial thinking, prioritisation frameworks, comfort with ambiguity. Maps directly to easyHotel's resource-lean environment.

3. CRM & Customer Lifecycle (10 minutes)

Focus: This is Nicola's biggest gap. The role owns the ongoing Braze CRM implementation. Her CV shows zero CRM experience — no platforms, no segmentation, no lifecycle marketing. Probe hard but fairly.

Questions:

  1. "A core part of this role is overseeing our CRM implementation — we're rolling out Braze for email, push notifications, and guest lifecycle management. Tell me about your experience with CRM platforms and customer lifecycle marketing."

    • Probe: Has she used any CRM tool (Salesforce, HubSpot, Braze, Klaviyo)? Even as a stakeholder rather than owner? If the answer is thin, don't rescue — let her show how she'd approach a gap honestly.

  2. "If you were tasked with designing a segmentation strategy for easyHotel guests — business travellers, leisure budget travellers, repeat guests — where would you start? What data would you need?"

    • Probe: Can she think structurally about customer segmentation even without CRM experience? Does she understand RFM models, behavioural triggers, or is this completely new territory?

  3. "Have you worked with email marketing or retention campaigns in any of your roles? Even adjacent to your core trading responsibilities?"

    • Probe: Looking for any adjacent experience — promotional email at Tesco, content-driven campaigns, customer comms. Even indirect experience helps gauge learning curve.

4. Digital Marketing (8 minutes)

Focus: The role supports a Digital Marketing Manager and optimises channel mix. Nicola's background is trading and merchandising, not performance marketing. Probe whether she understands paid channels and attribution.

Questions:

  1. "The Head of eCommerce supports our Digital Marketing Manager across paid search, paid social, meta, and SEO. How much exposure have you had to performance marketing — setting budgets, optimising ROAS, managing agency output?"

    • Probe: At Tesco, paid media would sit in a separate team. Did she collaborate with them? Understand their KPIs? Or was she purely on-site/content?

  2. "You delivered 2x YoY growth in retail media revenue at Whoosh (£660k). Walk me through what 'retail media' means in that context and how you drove that growth."

    • Probe: Retail media (selling ad space to suppliers on Tesco's platform) is very different from performance marketing (buying traffic). Validate she understands the distinction and can articulate transferable skills.

  3. "If you had a £500k annual digital marketing budget for easyHotel, how would you think about allocating it across channels? What would you prioritise and why?"

    • Probe: Strategic thinking about channel mix, brand vs. performance, seasonal allocation. Doesn't need to be hospitality-specific but should show marketing budget literacy.

5. Product & Website Experience (8 minutes)

Focus: The role owns the development roadmap and manages the relationship with an outsourced development partner. Nicola has worked with product teams but hasn't owned a roadmap or managed developers/agencies directly.

Questions:

  1. "This role owns easyHotel's website and app development roadmap and manages our external development agency. Have you ever owned a product roadmap or managed developers directly?"

    • Probe: Be direct. If no, ask: "How would you approach owning a development relationship for the first time?" Look for structured thinking — discovery, prioritisation, sprint cadence, stakeholder alignment.

  2. "You've worked with UX and Product teams at Tesco to improve site experience. Tell me about a time you identified a UX problem, built the case for change, and saw it through to implementation."

    • Probe: This is where her trading experience should shine. Look for data-driven problem identification, A/B testing methodology, cross-functional influence.

  3. "easyHotel uses Apaleo (cloud PMS), SiteMinder (channel manager), and a custom booking engine. You've worked with Magento and Magnolia. How do you approach learning a new tech stack quickly?"

    • Probe: Learning agility and technical curiosity. Does she ask smart questions about the stack, or does she seem overwhelmed by unfamiliar systems?

6. Leadership & Collaboration (7 minutes)

Focus: She's managed 3 people at Tesco. This role leads a digital team and manages outsourced agencies. Also test cultural fit — easyHotel is tiny compared to Tesco.

Questions:

  1. "You've managed a team of 3 at Tesco within a massive organisation. easyHotel's support office is small — you'd be leading the digital function with limited resources. What excites or concerns you about that shift?"

    • Probe: Self-awareness about the transition from big-corp to small-org. Does she romanticise it or understand the real challenges (no support functions, wearing multiple hats, limited budget)?

  2. "Describe how you've managed an external agency or vendor relationship. How do you hold them accountable while maintaining a productive partnership?"

    • Probe: Agency management is critical for this role. Look for experience with SOWs, KPIs, regular reviews, escalation.

  3. "Tell me about a time you had to influence a decision without direct authority — particularly with senior stakeholders who had competing priorities."

    • Probe: Cross-functional influence is a recurring theme in her CV. Get a specific example with outcome.

7. Motivation & Fit (5 minutes)

  1. "Why easyHotel? You've spent your career in grocery and fashion retail — what draws you to budget hospitality?"

    • Probe: Genuine interest vs. just looking for a step up. Does she understand the hospitality business model?

  2. "What does the first 90 days look like for you in this role? What would you prioritise?"

    • Probe: Structured onboarding thinking. Does she lead with learning (good) or jump to solutions (risky given domain gaps)?

8. Candidate Questions & Closing (2 minutes)

  • Open floor for Nicola's questions about the role, team, tech stack, or easyHotel's growth plans.
  • Outline next steps and timeline for feedback.
  • Thank Nicola for her time.

Scoring Guide

Rate each section 1–5:

Area Score Notes
Digital Strategy & Performance /5
CRM & Customer Lifecycle /5
Digital Marketing /5
Product & Website Experience /5
Leadership & Collaboration /5
Motivation & Cultural Fit /5
Overall Recommendation Pass / Proceed / Strong Proceed

Key decision question: Can her trading/commercial strength and entrepreneurial mindset compensate for the CRM, marketing, and hospitality domain gaps — or is the learning curve too steep for a head-of role?

Sign up for free to join this conversation on GitHub. Already have an account? Sign in to comment