Meet the People Behind HCL Commerce+

Tell us your name and what you do at HCL Commerce+:

I’m Fareeha Sufder, Lead Product Manager focused on innovating our storefront experiences, CMS, and data intelligence layers. I help translate complex business needs into scalable, thoughtful product design.

Tell us a little about yourself:

I’m passionate about the space where technology meets human emotion. I care about elegant architecture and emotional experience and I believe the best commerce platforms don’t just convert; they connect. I live in Atlanta, love tea and trees, and have two cats who supervise every roadmap I write.

Now, tell us something we’d never guess about you.

In my spare time, I’ve been designing a relational AI companion. The aim was to create something that could make people feel seen and understood on a deeper level. I’ve been experimenting with open-source models on my RTX 5090, but the memory constraints keep reminding me that empathy takes a lot of space. Still, the real challenge isn’t just hardware; it’s the illusion of understanding itself. AI can recognize human patterns brilliantly, but true connection lives somewhere beyond the data. I’ll return to it when the timing, and maybe the perspective, is right.

What motivates you to come to work every day?

I love solving hard problems with people who care. Commerce may seem technical, but beneath the layers, it’s about trust, clarity, and connection. When complexity dissolves into simplicity and people feel seen in the process, that’s pure magic.

What’s your best Commerce hack?

Make your product analytics human-readable. If you can’t tell a story with your metrics, the system is too opaque. Also, content is product and never an afterthought. It’s not just what we say. It’s how the system speaks for itself.

What’s the Commerce trend you’re following most enthusiastically right now?

Emotionally intelligent interfaces. As AI personalizes in real time, the real question isn’t just what we show, it’s how we show it. Tone, timing, empathy - these are becoming the true differentiators. Emotional intelligence isn’t a soft skill anymore. It’s the new superpower.

What’s the coolest or craziest thing you’ve helped a customer with?

Coolest thing? Turning a room full of stakeholders from different departments, geographies, and agendas into a co-creating team. We didn’t just align on tech. We aligned on vision. That shift in trust changed everything.

Go-to productivity trick (or guilty procrastination habit)?

Trick: I design my week around energy, not just meetings. Mornings = strategy. Afternoons = collaboration. Fridays = synthesis. Procrastination habit: spiraling into UX rabbit holes I swore I was just skimming.

What did I forget to ask you?

Maybe: What is commerce becoming? Because beneath the transactions, I believe we're moving toward real-time, emotionally intelligent systems. Ones that respond to people, not personas. Systems that don't just sell, but meet you. Systems that guide you, not always with urgency, but with clarity. Not just to convert, but to connect. And I’m excited to be part of shaping that future..

Tell us your name and what you do at HCL Commerce+:

I support the GTM Sales Organization globally. Specifically I serve as customer zero for our releases and support the technical advisors team in building and delivering custom demos to customers. I also support the marketing team by producing marketing based content to highlight new features/functions of our solution. I also consult regularly with development and product management to share ideas, thoughts and contribute to user testing of new developments. Additionally I provide support to other HCLSoftware product teams managing infrastructure and helping to build out integrations.

Tell us a little about yourself:

I am very happily married and have one son and 3 cats. I own 4 chickens, in our backyard. I am a creative at heart and also a “personal chef…to my family”. I led the music ministry of our church for almost 20 years, playing piano/keyboards and arranging music and leading multiple teams weekly. I’m also an alum of Toastmasters where I have completed the Pathways curriculum.

Professionally, my first job out of high school was working in fast food. While there, I assisted in a register upgrade project and became extremely intrigued by technology. I left that job after 2 years and started on a career path in the IT industry. Over the years, I’ve worked my way up from basic PC/Network support to physically building a data center and managing a customer demo facility. From there I was approached by the sales director of our region and he asked if I ever wanted to try something new and suggested sales based on feedback he had received from his direct reports. I took a leap of faith and haven’t looked back since. I love helping customers and colleagues solve their problems with technology. I strive to present technology in an easily consumable way for a wide variety of audiences from super technical folks to non-technical folks.

Now, tell us something we would never have guessed about you

I always wanted to pursue a career in culinary arts. This was what drove me to try getting a job in the fast food industry… teach me the ropes of pressure, stress, standard operating procedures, etc. This never panned out for me and I’ve since enjoyed an almost 25 year career in IT. Bonus fact - I’ve been to England, Greece and Albania (3 times) on missions trips as a teenager with my church.

What motivates you to come to work every day?

As previously mentioned, I strive to help people solve real problems and I love tackling challenges head on. Anytime I provide services or inputs to anyone, whether it be internally or for a customer, I am motivated when they achieve the desired outcomes.

What’s your best Commerce hack?

Make sure you get personalization right. Customer experiences should convey the fact that they understand each and every customer/buyer regardless of business model. The experience should adapt uniquely to each and every person based on their on-going interactions.

What’s the Commerce trend you are following most enthusiastically at the moment?

I focus on uses of GenAI and Conversational AI broadly and also how it can help to enhance an eCommerce experience.

What’s the coolest or craziest thing you have helped a customer with?

We had a large client who was considering giving up on the solution because one feature wouldn’t work properly. I and a team of peers descended on the HQ of the company and met with their IT team and literally rolled up our sleeves and dug into the code and configurations of the solution (not really supposed to do that) and by the end of the day we had resolved the issue for them.

What’s your go-to productivity trick (or guilty procrastination habit)?

I am 100% against procrastination in any form!! I incorporate using GenAI to draft, outline and help plan strategic workflows for projects that I work on. I look to identify areas that can be made more efficient for myself and others and build or develop tools to enable that efficiency.

What did I forget to ask you?

What kind of “toy car” is in my 2nd garage bay? A 2016 Dodge Challenger R/T 6 Speed Manual.

Tell us your name and what you do at HCL Commerce+:

Hello there! I’m Magnus Jahrl, and I’ve been with HCLSoftware since 2019. I originally joined as a PSS for Commerce in the Nordics, but today I serve as a Technical Advisor with a focus on the European market.

Right now, I’ve taken on a bit of a “career twist” by supporting the marketing team. I’m currently spending about half of my time helping revamp our website (hcl-software.com/commerce), providing technical feedback, something we also do regularly for our commerce clients. I’m also working on creating new content and building out additional pages to help drive more leads and engagement.

Tell us a little about yourself:

I live outside Helsingborg in Råådalen, in the southern part of Sweden. I’m married and part of a blended family with five kids, four of them are bonus children. We also share our home with Esther, our spirited 11-year-old all white Jack Russell. (You might have heard me running away “- I’m just going to kill the dog!” when she’s barking too much)

I’ve always had a passion for technology and enjoy exploring new tools and gadgets. If there’s a machine that can help with something, chances are I’ve looked into it! I also enjoy design and hands-on projects around the house.

Outside of work, most of my time goes into slowly renovating our home, a big old house from the late 1890s. I’m taking it one room at a time. Some friends jokingly call me “The DeWalt Guy” because of how often I’ve got a tool in hand.

Now, tell us something we would never have guessed about you

I worked as a bartender for about 10 years and even ran my own restaurant for a while, it was a wild but fun ride. :D I also owned and ran some retail (franchise) stores for a few years, managing a small team of 6–8 people, which taught me a lot about running a business and working with all kinds of personalities. But the last 25 years has been focusing on e-commerce. As front-end developer, marketing mgr, at a customer role (really good have been on that side too), selling software, selling solutions including services and now as technical advisor (aka TA)...

What motivates you to come to work every day?

Honestly, it’s the chance to work with ecommerce, something I genuinely live and breathe. I love digging into both the front end and back end, figuring out how everything connects, and constantly finding ways to improve the experience for users and businesses alike. There’s always something new to learn, test, or optimize, and that constant evolution is what keeps me excited and motivated.

What’s your best Commerce hack?

Test your product pages with A/B experiments to see what really drives conversions and make sure your ecommerce site runs fast. Speed matters more than you think! Not just for the customers, but also for SEO spiders and ranking for SMO.

What’s the Commerce trend you are following most enthusiastically at the moment?

I must say AI is very interesting, not just for B2C but also B2B. And we should not forget the composable parts where I think HCL Commerce is at the forefront. Want to know more? Look at our blog posts!

What’s the coolest or craziest thing you have helped a customer with?

I recently took part in a world-class AI code generation program where our group built rapid development workflows and connected them directly to HCL Commerce+ through APIs. The most striking result came when we used this setup to help a customer prototype a complex commerce feature in a fraction of the usual time. Instead of discussing ideas in theory, we generated working code, validated it instantly, and turned it into a demo they could act on. Seeing AI shorten a process that normally takes weeks into hours was one of the coolest things I have ever delivered with a customer.

What’s your go-to productivity trick (or guilty procrastination habit)?

I’ll admit it, when faced with a straightforward task, I often find myself going a few steps further than necessary. Call it a guilty procrastination habit, but I have a tendency to digitalize everything I touch. What could be a simple email response often turns into a microsite, secure, styled, and optimized, with rich media and built-in tracking to measure engagement.

One example: instead of just sending RFx answers as attachments, I’ve built tailored microsites to distribute content in a more dynamic, secure, and measurable way. It gives stakeholders a better experience, and gives us insights into what’s being read, clicked, or ignored.

It’s part eCommerce nerd, part Mac-lover attention to detail… and maybe a bit of the Jedi mindset, too. As Master Yoda might say, “Measure or measure not, there is no guess.”

There’s something powerful about combining creativity, usability, and data, especially when it helps make the customer experience stronger.

What did I forget to ask you?

Why do I use Untappd? Because I really enjoy a good beer (and to keep track of what, where and when, LoL) especially when there's good company to go with it. And with Untappd, I'm passing the baton to Brian Gillespie.

May the force be with you.

Tell us your name and what you do at HCL Commerce+:

I’m Brian Gillespie and I am the Vice President Product at HCL Commerce+.
I work closely with our development, product management, and marketing teams to keep HCL Commerce+ moving forward. My role spans collaboration across these groups, helping shape strategy and delivery so our customers get the most from our commerce solution.

Tell us a little about yourself:

I actually began my career as an architectural and mechanical engineer. A two-year IT project changed everything. I was asked to help as an engineer, met a consulting firm that recruited me, and ended up writing software for ecommerce back in 1999.

Since then, I’ve held roles from software developer to consultant, technical advisor, pre-sales, and leadership positions.

Outside work, cooking is my passion. My parents owned restaurants in Chicago, and I started helping in the kitchen around age 11. That early experience shaped how I unwind: experimenting with recipes, smoking food for friends’ events, and even catering the occasional wedding.

Now, tell us something we would never have guessed about you.

While people know I love cooking, few realize how deep it runs: I grew up in a family restaurant and spent much of my youth behind the line. Cooking lets me switch off from work, and I bring an engineer’s precision to every dish.

What motivates you to come to work every day?

Hands down, it’s our customers. Seeing them succeed and grow keeps me energized. Helping them unlock new revenue and possibilities with commerce solutions is incredibly rewarding. (And, of course, working with great colleagues comes a close second!)

What’s your best Commerce hack?

Many organizations don’t fully realize the breadth of capabilities they already own. Over time, as teams change, new staff may only use what they know today.

My advice: revisit our resources regularly, explore training sessions, and join our Open Mic forums to learn about features such as promotions, pricing, post-order management tools, and quoting.

There’s often far more available in the solution than people expect.

What’s the Commerce trend you are following most enthusiastically at the moment?

Agentic AI in commerce. A huge share of tasks on both the practitioner and shopper side can be automated through agentic technologies. Freeing teams from repetitive work lets them focus on strategy and growth, and I’m excited to see how this reshapes digital commerce.

What’s the coolest or craziest thing you have helped a customer with?

Early in my career, we built a commerce site that let researchers configure and order strands of DNA (oligonucleotides). It was fascinating to see how digital commerce could power breakthroughs. Those orders helped scientists advance work on serious diseases. Visiting the facility where DNA was manufactured was unforgettable.

What’s your go-to productivity trick (or guilty procrastination habit)?

Voice technology has become my secret weapon. Whether I’m asking for a dinner recipe or exploring ideas, I frame my query as a use case and expect a tailored answer. It’s not just a time-saver. It’s a glimpse into where search and commerce are heading.

What did I forget to ask you?

One question might be how I stay inspired. Much of it comes from my kids, now in their twenties. Their perspective helps me see how younger generations engage with technology, learning, and the world around them. When I’m thinking through a new feature or challenge, I often ask how they would approach it. Their answers are fresh, curious, and sometimes completely different from my own.

As I grow in experience (that was a nice way of putting it), my focus has shifted toward mentoring and sharing the “tribal knowledge” that complements their bold ideas. There’s a balance between the wisdom gained over decades in commerce and the creativity of those just entering the field. Helping them combine the two – and seeing their confidence grow – is one of the most rewarding parts of my work and life.