As Product Manager I lead a team of product owners and am a member of the Technology leadership team helping transform CRM and lending origination at BNZ, using various Salesforce tools and nCino. I work on product vision, strategy, planning and execution, as well as vendor relationship management, commercial, financial and risk responsibilities. Off the side of my desk, I lead the Technology business unit’s DEI working group, engaging actively and directly with senior management to make BNZ a better place for everyone. I also work actively to build the product skills of those around me and grow the practice at BNZ. Still proving false my hypothesis that I wouldn't enjoy - and couldn't be effective - working in a large business.

I joined the Assisted Channels domain at BNZ to build a new, high performing, empowered product team responsible for building the platform and guidelines to transform BNZ bankers’ software experience - one that became massively fragmented over decades of independent projects and inconsistent treatment. Quite a complex, but exciting challenge! Given my customers were also my colleagues, my customer engagement and empathy muscle has the best workout of my career so far - to great effect. I moved teams in October 2022 when asked to join the CRM and lending origination transformation programme, taking responsibility for Salesforce Lightning + Financial Services Cloud.

I joined Flick as the first full-time product leader for the scaling engineering team. I initially helped to define and deliver the first new feature of Flick’s offering (Volt), before forming a squad focussed on customer experience and tools. Working with this squad, I led the research, definition and delivery of a price plan (FIXIE) which helped retain almost half of the customer base during extreme wholesale price conditions of Spring 2018. My key responsibilities as part of this squad include: • product delivery from a multi-disciplinary team• requirements definition for new initiatives, product features and enhancements from internal and external stakeholders, including C-suite stakeholders, internal teams, user interviews and data analysis • developing, maintaining, prioritising and communicating the product roadmap and milestones• negotiating scope and timing of product delivery with C-suite stakeholders and other stakeholders to exceed expectation • identifying and managing cross-team dependencies • drafting, publishing and delivering regular updates to the board, executive team and wider business, focussed on impact of team delivery against squad and business goals • championing Agile, Lean Startup, Design Thinking and Dual Track methodologies through various areas of the businessIn addition to the above, I helped to introduce the product discipline at Flick, helped drive the adoption of squads, regular goal setting (using OKRs), and introduced regular written updates and in-person presentations from squads. I am involved in the hiring of the wider product team who I happily, actively support and mentor product through their growth in product leadership roles, especially ensuring they are focussed on the most important problems for the business and are communicating back to stakeholders.

I joined 8i as Product Owner for the mobile squad and the then-recently launched Holo app for iOS and Android, managed the transfer of responsibilities for Holo from a US based PO to myself, and ultimately achieved over 1 million app downloads. 

Alongside Holo, I led the creation of several additional company initiatives from the mobile team, directly contributing to the success of company OKRs, including native iOS and Android SDKs and business development app tools. Each initiative - including Holo - I presented in company-wide forums and responded to direct feedback and questioning. My key responsibilities for Holo and other initiatives included: • product delivery from a multi-disciplinary team• requirements definition for new product features and initiatives from internal and external stakeholders, including user feedback and data analysis • developing, maintaining, prioritising and communicating the product roadmap and realistic milestones, all with respect to business value • identifying and managing cross-team dependencies • drafting and publishing a weekly squad update to the executive team and wider business in Wellington and Los Angeles, including team activity, development milestones and data analysis • championing agile and Lean Startup methodologies through a number of areas of the business, including the introduction of retrospectives and story points During my time at 8i, I was pleased to offer mentorship to a colleague transitioning from a software development capacity into product ownership. I also actively supported the design team’s transition from members of the mobile squad to an independent squad, helping to gather and prioritise design work from the wider business.I voluntarily engaged myself in work to increase the clarity and effectiveness of collaboration and communication between offices in Wellington, Los Angeles and Seattle.

As Whstl’s first Product Owner, I compiled a product backlog through client conversations and explicit requests, app usage insights, existing leadership vision, and competitor analysis. I actively maintained the backlog and used it to feed work into an internal design team, then on to an external development team. I ensured the displaced team held a shared understanding of requirements, and that said understanding is well documented. I coordinated the delivery of new product features for individual clients or features across the entire platform from the backlog. Additionally, I was responsible for the delivery of new Whstl client apps as part of the broader Whstl programme of work beyond product enhancements. At the time, Whstl clients are each received their own themed app on iOS and Android, both mobile and tablet/iPad, and cloud-based content management system. Designworks Wellington was internally incubating the Whstl business.

As Product Owner at Area360, I coordinated the delivery of new product features, enhancements and client launches on the Ticketure ticketing and admissions product. I was also responsible for the delivery of new product features, enhancements and client launches on the STQRY Interactive app product, and for ensuring regular maintenance of the STQRY iOS and Android app products.

Joining STQRY as an Executive Account Manager my primary focus was post-sales customer training, support, success and retention. Given the nature of startup business, I gained a variety of other responsibilities, including business and growth strategy, business development (lead generation, direct sales, and RFP response), installation of QR codes and BLE beacons, and identifying product enhancements from customer feedback

I began work at Molly’s as a kitchen hand in order to pay my university hostel fees, and within a year had gained experience in almost every facet of the business and offered a duty manager’s position which I held for the duration of my studies. I particularly pride myself on working 45-50 hour weeks during RWC2011 and maintaining my full-time university schedule, and arranging an international touring Irish artist Mundy to play at Molly’s on the back of an Australian tour.