EMEA - Peter Boldt-Christmas, Senior Strategist: People of Pattern

Pattern’s success can be attributed to our incredible team, harnessing the skills of some of the world’s brightest, most data-driven, and partner-obsessed minds. Employing more than 1,200 people across 10 global locations, Pattern’s operations are a powerhouse of innovation and acceleration. Our #PeopleofPattern blog series shines a spotlight on our people - their responsibilities, achievements, and why they choose to work at Pattern. This week we spoke with Peter Boldt-Christmas, Senior Strategist in Pattern’s London office.

Could you tell me a bit about your role and experience working at Pattern?

I worked with Practicology before it got acquired by Pattern, so I’ve been with the business for five and a bit years now and have always been part of the strategy team. My role, being part of the consulting arm, is to provide strategic support and services to our brand partners as well as clients that would perhaps not work for our marketplace model, which means that we can work with tech companies, research companies, government bodies, and more. Anything from small family businesses all the way up to global industry leaders.

What the consulting team does is provide advice and strategic support. This includes UX/CX use on a client’s website, benchmarking their DTC or omnichannel experience versus competitors’, and analysing how they can work with their online partners more efficiently. We also offer support for international expansion, coordinating with our teams in Asia, Australia, and the US, to work on these sorts of global projects and help our clients find the largest opportunities. We also provide playbooks for Amazon, including 1P advice, and organisational structure evaluations, i.e. do you have the right capabilities in your team to conduct ecommerce in the best way.

What are some of the most exciting projects you’ve undertaken whilst working in the strategy team?

Since I’ve joined, there’s only been about three to four months where we haven’t been involved in a Google project, so they are definitely among my favourite clients. We’ve done quite a few things with them, and they are a very engaging and interesting client to work with. Thought pieces that utilise our strategic thinking in general are really satisfying, especially when we see our advice being taken onboard.

Our benchmarking projects tackle so many different markets; we’ve done Europe, the Middle East, Australia, Asia and the US as well. It involves a lot of different facets and helps us better understand how the proposition works in different markets and also consumer expectations. This is really interesting to me from a personal perspective, but also really helps us as a company to truly become a global partner who can help brands with very specialised markets. Travelling there and exploring how they shop in the first person is really useful, and brings a lot of life to the recommendations we come up with.

I also really enjoy working with smaller companies! For example we worked with a small, family-owned, bathroom tile retailer based in the UK. Clients that are really engaged and take what we say to heart, those are always exciting, regardless of the size of the company or the industry they’re in.

That’s great to hear. Why do you choose to work at Pattern?

Firstly, it’s really interesting to be part of a big, global, growing business, having all that support and reach that we’re seeing now. Having the marketplaces proposition is also really exciting. People are always really impressed when you say you work for Pattern.

Secondly, the exposure to such a wide array of different types of businesses is really exciting. I personally don’t like too much of a routine, I like a new challenge and I enjoy the fact that you’re working on a project for a couple of months, that wraps up and then you’re onto something else entirely. Sometimes it’s sad that projects end, because they can be really engaging, but it also means that you’re never doing the same task and you never get too comfortable. Yes, a lot of the work we do in strategy is repeated but you get exposure to everything from global brands, like Google or Moët, all the way to start-ups or mom-and-pop shops.

We work across such a vast range, from dog food to walkers for people with disabilities. So many different types of products and businesses, each exciting in their own way. It’s also the different types of people that you interact with inside the businesses we work with. If I were working for a big consultancy, I don’t believe I’d have the same exposure to the heads, directors, and C-suite executives as young as I did when I started working at Pattern. We get a lot of valuable facetime with really incredible people.

What has been the most rewarding part of working at Pattern for you?

I love to see the team succeed. We’ve had our ups and downs over the years and consulting work can be quite ebb and flow, there are times when we’re not as busy, and other times we’re working really hard together to get projects completed. Seeing how everyone in our team band together in these times is amazing. It doesn’t matter if you’re a director, senior, junior, level strategist, everyone pulls their own weight and everyone is really approachable and does great work. That’s what I find the most rewarding.

In terms of the client side, what’s great is when clients come back for more because they see the value in the work you’ve completed. The long-term clients are the ones that I find the most rewarding because it shows that in terms of business development, the best type of business development is good quality consulting work. If you do it well, and it’s proven, they will always come back for more.

Last question, why would you recommend working at Pattern?

If you like working in a fast-paced environment, where no day is exactly the same as the one before, no client is exactly the same as the last, then Pattern is a very exciting place to work. It’s hands-on, but if you like variety, a challenge, and applying your thinking to different types of businesses but continuing the thread of what it means to provide a true, effective ecommerce experience, it can be very rewarding. The people who work at Pattern are also great, there’s a real sense of camaraderie. You also get the opportunity to work with really engaging, exciting brands.

We’re growing our team at Pattern!

If you're looking to start a career in ecommerce or even if you're a seasoned professional and want to learn more about our exciting opportunities, check out our open positions there.