Nabil Mohamed, CPO and CTO of 4Sale: Each week, My Morning Routine looks at how a successful member of the community starts their day — and then throws in a couple of random business questions just for fun. Speaking to us this week is Nabil Mohamed (LinkedIn), CPO and CTO of 4Sale. Edited excerpts from our conversation:

My name is Nabil Mohamed. I’m the chief product and technology officer of 4Sale. I was originally hired as chief product officer in April but was recently tapped to also run the engineering division. It’s my first week doing both roles together.

I'm an engineer by training — I studied industrial engineering optimization at AUC. I graduated in 2010 but continue to apply my learnings today. Shortly after graduating, I worked at Vodafone, but it became apparent to me that telecom is a formulaic commodity with regulation and fixed costs. There's not a lot of room for creativity and innovation; you can't experiment, and I needed to be part of something innovative. I didn’t know what that was, so I wanted to be exposed to several industries in a very short time. That’s why I pursued my MBA.

I emerged from business school with the conviction that I needed to enter product management in tech. After a stint at Skype post-graduation (after Microsoft acquired it), I joined Amazon's headquarters in Seattle. Amazon was exactly what I was looking for: Lightning fast and very high standards. I eventually moved back to Egypt to become vice president of product at Instabug for two years. I ultimately decided to move towards higher responsibilities, which is why I decided to join 4Sale.

I’m at 4Sale as a company officer, which comes with flexibility — but expectations to execute at very high standards. 4Sale is one of the largest and most successful e-commerce companies in the Middle East, but it’s remarkably understated. The company was founded by Egyptian entrepreneur Tarek Sakr (LinkedIn) and the bulk of its technical, product, design and marketing operations are in Egypt, but it currently serves the Kuwaiti market, and that’s where it has fantastic name recognition.

4Sale is in the e-commerce classifieds industry. It connects buyers to sellers, without having a direct role in the actual transfer of goods — very much like eBay or Craigslist. Buyers can directly contact sellers through our platforms and we get a fee for listing.

We don't want to be just this kind of arm’s-length magazine forever. We also plan to expand geographically once we've hit the point of customer dependency and share of wallet that we want. We are focused on optimizing our product to a degree that makes it very easily scalable and undeniable in other markets. We have certain technical and design standards for how we want our app to be and how we want our marketplace to behave before we take that step. It’s not set in stone — our strategy shifts depending on what markets and our KPIs tell us.

So far, we are focused on three things: Getting closer to the transaction, having a beautiful app, and engaging customers. It’s very hard work making our app simple without getting rid of its nuance and beauty. I think that we still have a long way to go to perfect these things. These three things basically derive from our overall mission, which is to be the best e-commerce marketplace in the Middle East.

Inflation has affected how customers perceive price fairness, whether it’s an iPhone cable or a car, which has created some reluctance. However, that doesn’t translate to Kuwait in the same way that it has been manifesting itself in Egypt and other developed countries because Kuwait has been doing tremendously well economically, given recent events.

I’m the opposite of a morning person. I do my best work very late at night and it’s often in solitary hours where I digest information that I need from earlier that day, so I actually don't have a consistent morning routine. I wake up between 6-9am, depending on when my kids wake up and when I need to be at work. I go to work physically because I believe in the power of people coming together to create fantastic products.

The real productivity begins on the way to work, which is when I typically take morning meetings. I also listen to tons of audio during my commute — I use the iPhone’s dictation feature to read Enterprise and other publications. It has a bit of a robotic voice, but it does the trick. I also use Audible to listen to books on management, human nature, and history and biographies.

One of our values is to always be prepared — especially for meetings. I tell my team not to waste people’s time with a meeting when you haven't done your homework. To lead by example, I sometimes block off time to ensure I have an agenda and clear talking points for upcoming meetings to make the best use of everyone's time.

I’m very much a list guy. Crossing off something from my list is the single most satisfying activity of any day. My lunchtime is sacred: Nobody interrupts me and I typically watch something short. I used to integrate the gym into my day but it's just too time consuming. I figured I’ll achieve much of the same effect by eating healthy.

I'm typically task, not time-oriented: Whatever is on my to-do list will get done. I don’t slip on my deadlines or slip on things I was entrusted to do. Sometimes, that turns the day into this crazy workaholic. Other times, it's surprisingly well rounded and I have more ample time to watch a movie with my wife, or spend time with friends.

My wife and I love watching light, funny things so we love The Big Bang Theory, Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Friends, and Seinfeld. Both of our jobs are demanding intellectually, so we don't go for shows that take a lot out of you.