Cyncly has strengthened its Bathrooms EMEA team with the appointment of Giesela Hawthorne-Slater as Product Manager who brings 16 years of experience across the kitchen, bathroom and furniture industry.
Giesela Hawthorne-Slater joins Cyncly with a background spanning product management, design technology, retail, commercial operations, and customer experience. Her career has given her first-hand insight into the role technology plays throughout the complete design-to-installation journey and, crucially, how the decisions made at the design stage connect with pricing, quotation, ordering, supply and installation.
Beginning her career in informatics and project management, Giesela later moved into the CAD software industry, where she entered product management. It was here that she developed an approach centred on looking beyond individual product requests to understand the underlying customer need and translate it into meaningful product direction.
Hawthorne-Slater subsequently moved into roles spanning design and commercial teams, gaining experience of the different priorities that shape the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom customer journey; from designers seeking creativity and speed, to commercial teams requiring accuracy and consistency, and operational teams relying on dependable information.
Most recently, Hawthorne-Slater brought these perspectives together during her time at John Lewis, where her responsibilities extended beyond CAD to encompass the wider customer journey
Her experience at John Lewis also included the selection and implementation of design technology, including Winner and InnoPlus. Working through significant technology change from the customer's perspective gave Giesela valuable insight into what successful software adoption looks like in practice.
Hawthorn-Slater, Product Manager for Bathrooms EMEA at Cyncly, said: "Selecting the right technology is only the beginning. The real value comes from how effectively that technology fits into the organisation and connects the different stages of the customer journey.
"I've spent much of my career working between customers, development teams, designers, commercial teams, retailers, suppliers, and installers. That has taught me that the value of design technology isn't only found in the functionality you can see on screen. It's also in the workflows it supports and its ability to connect design decisions with successful commercial and operational outcomes.
"I'm excited to bring that experience to Cyncly and to work closely with our customers and teams across EMEA to understand their challenges, identify where we can create the greatest value, and help shape products that support the realities of the bathroom industry."
Her appointment reinforces Cyncly's commitment to developing technology around the real-world needs of bathroom businesses and helping connect the different stages of the journey from inspiration and design through to commercial execution and installation.
