Understood is a nonprofit focused on shaping the world for difference. We provide a range of resources to help people who learn and think differently thrive.

Advising founders, executives, and product people in tech startups from 0>1>PMF. Clients have been in fitness, healthtech, life planning, media & entertainment, social commerce, social impact, travel & hospitality.

Utility is an award-winning agency that launches digital products that scale. We partner with our clients to design and develop custom mobile applications and connected experiences. From global brands and media properties to innovative startups and funded ventures, we work with clients to bring their big ideas to life and transform their businesses.

In 16 countries around the world, The Knot Worldwide’s leading global family of brands inspire, inform and celebrate our communities as they move through life’s biggest milestones. From the proposal to the wedding day, creating a home to starting a family together, we’re there for them every step of the way.I led Wedding Planning Tools, Guest Communication, and Content & Inspiration products across wedding brands in US, UK, EU, LatAm, and India. Responsible for product-led growth in consumer activation, engagement, and LTV. Highlights include:- Helped increase consumer LTV while maintaining high NPS by improving the relevancy of recommended next steps in wedding planning through experimentation, and by driving cross-conversion through filling gaps in the product offering and increasing UX cohesion across the product suite.- Launched first owned & operated ecommerce vertical with custom wedding stationery. Accelerated go-to-market through acquihire and deep integration into the existing products, and replicated the offering in the UK and EU. - Increased engagement with US Wedding Websites which grew top-of-the funnel for gift-giving and guest travel & accommodation revenue, and drove viral acquisition. - Led teams across the US, Spain, and China. Helped the org effectively transition after XO Group (US), Weddingwire (US) & Bodas (Spain) merged into The Knot Worldwide. Steered strategy & execution through quarterly OKRs, metric & product reviews.

Contract product consultant, hired to define customer onboarding and checkout flows, and to advise on overall product development process.

OrderGroove is transforming commerce by redefining how worldwide brands and major retailers interact with their most valuable customers. The SaaS-based subscription enablement platform helps clients like CVS, Walmart, GNC, L’Oréal and Bare Escentuals launch (or upgrade) a subscription offering to deepen their customer engagement and secure recurring revenue. With a B2B2C SaaS business model, OrderGroove has a complex set of user and buyer personas in the value chain. From a Product & UX perspective, we were creating a "meta-solution" for subscriptions which is at once scalable and differentiated for each industry vertical, and delivers a memorable experience to the consumer. As the first product person on the team, I introduced product development processes and best practices, and built & led the product management and ux team. On the leadership team, I steered product strategy and cross-functional team collaboration necessary for product delivery. With my leadership, OrderGroove- Decreased the technical cost of new client integrations by 30% with a purpose-built homegrown CMS- Expanded the core consumer experience offering of single-SKU subscriptions with a bundle subscription and club membership experience- Developed the analytics dashboard that empowers clients to measure performance of their subscription marketing and merchandising campaigns- Failed quickly with a new subscription experience product that we learned our target market was not ready for

TheLadders is an online job-matching service for all professionals taking the next step in their career. After 5+ years developing and managing products for TheLadders both in the US and the UK, selected from my peers by the Co-Founder and President of the company to take leadership of the product team, and join the executive team reporting directly to the President (later CEO). With my leadership, TheLadders developed three products which unprecedentedly increased market transparency for job seekers:- Pipeline, a targeting tool which notified job seekers in real-time about relevant openings that recruiters are trying to fill. - Scout, a competitive-analysis tool which allowed job seekers to see anonymized information about other applicants' qualifications. Not only a 'peek behind the curtain,' a controlled study showed that Scout increased the percentage of job listings that participants correctly judged to be a good or bad fit for them, and decreased the amount of time participants spent reviewing each job posting. - The job seeker mobile app, which was our first earnest foray into the mobile space. Developing the iPhone app before automatic app updates were available, we ensured a 4.5 star rating in the app store by rapidly iterating on the ux and technical design of the app and executing a 6-week user research study which allowed us to focus on key features that drove the usefulness and usability of the app. Between December 2012 and June 2013 I stepped in to lead the UX team, before we internally promoted a superb UX designer into the leadership team.

After solely owning the company's UK product portfolio I returned to the NYC HQ of TheLadders to lead delivery in an attempt to bring a freemium model to our B2C subscription business. This product change supported the broadened target market and was to make the service more accessible. Led development of the freemium acquisition and conversion funnels and testing towards the ideal ratio of free-to-paid value offering. - Product owner on an agile scrum team comprising a ux lead, dev manager and typically a handful of developers- Prioritized minimally marketable features and individual user stories to be delivered within 2-week sprints- In partnership with the UX team conducted user research and bi-weekly usability testing which immediately informed our continued product definition and development - In partnership with the marketing and BI teams continuously analyzed and optimized the acquisition and conversion funnels

TheLadders expanded to the UK, and I relocated to London to be where the customers are, working remotely with the tech and design team in NYC to deliver a product adapted to local market needs. I solely owned the products for the UK job seeker and recruiter market, reporting directly to the Managing Director for UK. - I brought the combined knowledge of US and UK recruitment industry to surface unmet customer needs and key customer differences between the US and UK market.- Articulated the necessary product changes to successfully bring the US product into the UK market. This included invalidating the need for parts of the US experience which saved us a 6 month opportunity cost - Worked on an agile distributed team with myself in London and the tech team in NYC- Hired and coached my replacement when I relocated back to the NYC office of TheLadders

I developed and maintained products for the US job seeker and recruiter market, as well as a few internal tools. - Identified market opportunities on the consumer and enterprise side. Formulated customer problems and product or service solutions for executive team review.- Owned the voice of the customer developed through various formats of user research – focus groups, usability studies etc. - Owned product prioritization and managed delivery with a team of developers, designers, copywriters, business analysts, and marketers- Built a patented solution to resume confidentiality, a key concern amongst the $100K+ job seekers- Contributed to shifting away from a waterfall process to a cross-functionally collaborative approach before the company formally adopted agile methodologies- Maintained existing products. When issues arose, leveraged thorough systems knowledge to diagnose core problem, evaluate impact on customers and the business, and prioritize urgent fixes