3 min. read
An interview with Monika about 11 years of continuous transformation. Her journey from General Manager Otodom.pl to GM Real Estate Europe to Product Director isn’t your typical corporate ladder climb – it’s a story of continuous reinvention and embracing change.
You’ve been at OLX for 11 years. That’s almost unheard of today. What’s kept you here?
The company kept changing – and I kept changing with it. Honestly, I would have been bored staying in one setup for that long. OLX went through multiple transformations – organizational, strategic, tech – and each one forced me to learn something new. That’s what kept it interesting. I don’t stay for stability. I stay for growth.
You’ve lived through some major organizational shifts. Can you walk us through those moments?
One of the biggest shifts was moving from a market-based organization to a category-driven one. We went from local teams per country – Poland, Ukraine, Portugal – to building domains like Motors or Real Estate that scale across markets.
That sounds clean on paper. In reality, it’s messy. You suddenly lose clarity, ownership blurs, and you have to rebuild everything – structure, ways of working, even how you think about impact.
At that point I became GM for the whole category, responsible for real estate teams across markets – around 250 people. It wasn’t a promotion in the traditional sense. It was more like being thrown into a completely new game with no clear rules at that point.
Then you made what some might call a controversial move – stepping down from GM to Product Director. Why?
Because I don’t optimize for titles. I optimize for learning and impact.
From the outside, it may look like a step down. For me, it was a very conscious step forward. I wanted to get closer to product – where real decisions are made, where things are built, tested, broken and rebuilt again.
Management is important. But product is where the truth is. And I wanted to be there.
How do you handle the constant pace of change? It sounds overwhelming.
It is overwhelming – if you resist it.
What helped me is a very simple shift: I stopped expecting stability. Once you accept that things will change all the time, you can actually start using it.
But there is also a very practical side people ignore. You need energy to operate in this environment. I invest a lot in basics – sleep, movement, food, mental clarity. Without that, you just burn out. With that, you can actually enjoy the pace.
What drives you to invest that much time and energy?
Curiosity. And a bit of impatience.
When I see something new – like AI now – I don’t want to wait until someone explains it to me. I go and learn it myself. Not because I have to, but because I don’t like being behind.
OLX seems to have a particular culture around change. How would you describe it?
It’s a high-performance culture. And not everyone likes that.
It rewards ownership, speed, and people who actually deliver – not just talk. There is a lot of freedom, but also a lot of pressure. No one is going to hold your hand.
I would add one more thing: you need a bit of boldness here. You need to be comfortable with discomfort. If you need everything to be clear, stable, and predictable – this is probably not the right place.
But if you like figuring things out in chaos, pushing things forward, and occasionally breaking things – you will thrive.
What would you tell someone who feels overwhelmed by change?
Stop waiting.
No one is coming with a perfect plan for your development. You have to build it yourself. The faster you take ownership, the easier it gets.
And yes – sometimes it’s a lot. But it’s also a huge opportunity. I’ve reinvented myself three times in the same company. That doesn’t happen by accident.
Looking back on 11 years, what’s your biggest learning?
That transformation is not something that happens to you. You either actively use it – or it happens without you. Every time OLX changed, I had a choice: resist it or use it. And every time I chose to use it, it moved me forward.
I’ve already reinvented my career multiple times. And honestly, with everything happening now – especially with AI – I feel like the most interesting part is still ahead.
Monika’s story is part of our “Built for Change” series, celebrating colleagues who’ve chosen growth over comfort. If you’re someone who thrives on transformation rather than stability, explore our open positions. Your first reinvention at OLX could start here.
