There are few sectors of the economy that offer as wide and interesting a range of career opportunities as fashion. Role Call highlights some of the industry’s most interesting jobs and the talented people who do them. For more information about fashion industry roles like this and others, visit BoF Careers.

NEW YORK, United States — Dana Mauriello is the director of seller category growth at peer-to-peer e-commerce site Etsy. Mauriello earned her BA in Engineering at Stanford University in 2004, before returning to earn her MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2009. Mauriello's career began in marketing and product innovation at cosmetic companies L'Oreal and Estee Lauder, before she co-founded ProFounder, a crowdfunding platform for businesses, which closed in 2012. Mauriello joined Etsy in 2013, where she held multiple roles, before becoming director of seller category growth in February 2015.

BoF: Please describe your current role.

As director of seller category growth at Etsy, my job is to bring new creative businesses into the Etsy community and set them up to succeed. The largest part of my work is managing Etsy’s wholesale business. Etsy Wholesale is a private area of the Etsy marketplace where retailers can discover products from wholesale-ready independent designers. What really excites me about Etsy Wholesale is that we support two types of creative businesses: both independent designers and retailers.

BoF: What attracted you to the role?

I am an entrepreneur myself and I love the challenge of growing a business. Managing Etsy Wholesale gives me that opportunity. I am really excited by the newness of the opportunity — independent retailers are a new type of creative business for Etsy and there is so much we can do support their success.

Test again, listen again, and repeat. That's as close to a magic formula for success as I think you'll ever get.

BoF: What is the most exciting project or initiative you have worked on?

I’m really proud of my team’s work on the Open Call programme. Open Call is when we invite independent designers to apply through Instagram pitches. There, they have the opportunity to present their line to a panel of retailers and get feedback and possible purchase orders for the holidays. The programme culminated with an event at our headquarters for the 30 designers selected and a ‘ceremony’ where retailers presented their purchase orders. It felt like watching people win the lottery; there was not a dry eye in the house as we all watched these designers’ dreams come true.

BoF: How is your role changing? What are the forces driving this change?

My role changes as the Etsy community grows and changes. As our community gets increasingly international, more of my focus needs to be on supporting this international growth.

BoF: Tell us about a time you failed and how you learned from it.

Before joining Etsy, I ran a business that closed. Our business, ProFounder, offered crowdfunding tools. We had a team of nine incredibly passionate people helping small businesses, from shaved ice shops to sneaker designers, get the funding they needed to grow. Ultimately, we couldn’t provide the right solution to our customers within the bounds of what was legally possible and decided to shut down the business after about three years. One of the big lessons I take away from this experience is failing well. I think that means being brutally honest with yourself about how things are going; you should be able to look at a string of bad metrics and see the potential red flags. Most importantly, if things are going south, call it quickly and don’t let things linger.

BoF: What advice do you have for people who are interested in doing what you do?

Decide who you are most interested in supporting (in my case, creative business owners) and really get to know them, listen to them and understand their needs. Then, consider the problems you’ve identified from this community and brainstorm possible solutions. Think of the simplest, quickest ways that you can test out your solutions with that community, and listen again. Tear it all down and build it back up — just iterate! Test again, listen again, and repeat. That’s as close to a magic formula for success as I think you’ll ever get. And if you want to distill it down to a magic bullet, I’d pick this: just listen.

This interview has been edited and condensed.

For more information about fashion industry roles like this and others, visit BoF Careers.