ALDI Portugal

Helio Henriques

Career Journey and Evolving Role in Digital

I started as a multimedia developer, building on the skills I gained during my degree. Those hard skills stayed with me and proved useful even in managerial roles. While completing a master’s in marketing, I transitioned into this field, working across product development, branding, communications, media and other traditional marketing functions.

As the term “multimedia” evolved into “digital,” it felt natural to leverage my hybrid profile—combining multimedia technical skills with marketing and business knowledge—to move toward roles in digital, technology and innovation. That’s where I operate now and expect to remain, closer to decision-making where impact can be significant.

While my background is valuable, I believe it’s the hands-on experience in multimedia—or digital—that truly helps me create better solutions for customers. Even without being a software engineer, having a grasp of how software is built helps me understand what’s possible within tight deadlines. Skills in imaging, photography and video also help guide creative teams toward better user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) outcomes.

Of course, all this must be continuously updated. Researching, investigating and staying on top of tools and trends is part of my daily routine. Digital is a forever-developing “science.” Every company’s tech stack is different and technologists must constantly adapt architectures to thousands of new platforms that emerge every year. There is no single answer when it comes to choosing ERPs, CRMs, CDPs, MAPs, etc.—it always depends on the company’s context.

If I had to simplify, I’d say that any technology we choose must be easy for the organization to adopt and should maximize value for the customer. Technology should make life easier—or wealthier—for the customer and be simple for any collaborator to understand and use.

“If you really get a kick out of what you do for a living and if you’re lucky enough to be part of an organization that allows you to actually develop and provide value, everything that you do will or should benefit the customer.”

On Innovation, Customer Focus and Methodologies

If you truly love what you do and work in an organization that allows you to develop and provide value, every action should ultimately benefit the customer. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in HR, Accounting, Sales, Marketing, IT, or Management— innovation can and should come from every part of an organization. Some of the most creative people I’ve met are lawyers or civil engineers.

When it comes to managing customer feedback, any tool or method can work as well as another. While there are many approaches—Waterfall, Agile, Scrum, Lean, Six Sigma, Gantt and so on—Scrum and Kanban are the ones that have worked best for me. These frameworks help bring structure to chaotic environments—like marketing, digital, innovation and technology—where no universal platform or methodology has been fully democratized.

Industry Trends and Personal Perspective

On a personal note, one of the major trends today is the rise of retail media. Companies across industries—retail, finance, travel and more—are exploring how to leverage the business and commercial opportunities within this space. My guess is that the picture will remain murky for the next two or three years, as players from all sectors develop and sell their own retail media networks. Only later will we know if this space will be dominated by “the big boys” or gradually open to everyone. In the meantime, many challenges still need addressing.

I could share technical, technological, marketing, or business advice, but I prefer something more relatable: At the end of the day, whenever you face a decision—whether it’s a small UX tweak or something that impacts the entire customer experience—make the call based on the data and intuition you have. Move forward. There’s rarely a guaranteed “right” answer, but that’s no reason not to trust your information and take action.