What is Trade Me?
Trade Me is one of the biggest websites in New Zealand, and is the most popular online marketplace for;
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Property for sale
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Properties for rent
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Vehicles
It is also the second most popular marketplace for both job listings, and second-hand goods.
These diverse offerings lead to a huge audience of 2.7 million active users, all with very different needs.
ReOps at Trade Me
We supported marketing, product, and engineering teams across the business with research, ranging from coaching, to light support, to leading and conducting studies ourselves.
We stuck to 3 clear principles for each project;
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Keep everything simple
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Automate anything administrative
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Focus on learning the minimum required to make a decision
Methodologies
The primary methodologies we used at Trade Me were;
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Customer interviews
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Contextual inquiry
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Surveys
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Moderated user testing
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Unmoderated user testing
We advised stakeholders on the best methodologies to achieve their research goals, and supported them with completing the research in their required timelines.
Bespoke tools
Alongside the many Jira, Zapier, and Apps Script automations I added to our ReOps process, I also coded 2 separate webapps;
ChartMe takes survey data in the form of a csv file, and converts it into tables, charts, and even presentation decks (all in company branding) in just a couple of minutes.
ThemeMe was built to support with the tedious task of theming qualitative data. A combination of good UX, optional AI, and hotkeys allows us to take thousands of rows of data, and quickly organise them into themes.
Outcomes
Under my management, Trade Me’s research output quadrupled in three years without any increase in budget or resources.
At the same time, I led a major overhaul of the ReOps tooling and processes; replacing expensive, cumbersome tooling, and building automation into all stages of the research journey.
Highlights from our "ReOps Wrapped 2025"
Euan is a rare find, he’s a Research Operations professional with broad knowledge of research methods, but he also thinks like an owner. He understands the outcome the business needs and how get to the right insight quickly without sacrificing quality. He has a genuine drive to improve and automate how teams work, and his collaborative, easy-going nature means he can work easily with any team.
Beth Brewer - Head of Product, Trade Me