06 May 2016, USA :
Airbnb today revealed that it has brought on board former Blurb chief product officer Donna Boyer to be its first director of product focused exclusively on the host experience.
Boyer said that for more than 20 years, sheās been leading product at a variety of companies, including Hyperion Solutions, Yahoo, RMG Networks, Callaway Digital Arts, and, of course, Blurb. āAfter leading product for that long, I think of everything from a product lens,ā she told VentureBeat. āI canāt help myself.ā
The fact that sheās also a host herself likely appealed to Airbnb. āI started being a superhost 18 months ago, and I love it,ā Boyer explained. āItās raised my own hospitality, a way of being for my whole family. I attendeda meetup a while ago and heard other hosts asking questions about the platformā¦There was a part of my brain that wouldnāt shut off and caused me to start thinking about how to improve the system.ā
āBeing a host really mattered more than I realized,ā she continued. āThe first rule of product is to forget what you think you know and learn it from a customerās perspective. Understanding the host community and having a desire to give guests that meaningful experience gave me a good starting point.ā
Airbnb has always thought about its hosts, but itās never had a person dedicated to building out targeted products with them in mind.
In a statement, Airbnbās vice president of product, Joe Zadeh, remarked: āAs a Superhost, Donna has already made a huge impact on Airbnb. I canāt think of anyone more qualified to drive innovation for hosts than someone from our community. Weāre thrilled to add her product expertise to our team so she can help hosts have everything they need to provide personal hospitality to each of their guests.ā
Boyer will be working on āsmall features, strategic features, and everything in between,ā while thinking about how hosts can best do things like describe their space configurations and help guests feel like a local. āItās really important to me that we continue to offer that level of local experience and help hosts do it in a meaningful way around the world,ā she said.