I led a product trio using shape up, and I had the opportunity to lead some exciting initiatives with high-impact from day 1. I focused on delivering the highest quality experience possible and enabling our other squads to do the same through continuous discovery habits, coaching, and fostering a culture between PMs. This helped our teams work smarter and more collaboratively, even in our fast-paced, high-pressure environment.

One of my favorite projects was the discovery, build, and release of our QuickBooks Online integration. It came to my team completely undefined -- the only thing we knew was that lacking the integration was our #1 reason for churn. I drove the discovery process, completing competitive research, user interviews, data analysis, and ultimately determining a unique approach to the integration completely different from our competitors. We built the final solution incredibly iteratively as I ran an early access beta in parallel, scaling it from a few white-glove customers through a self-serve experience with a few hundred participants. The integration was on track to hit a 25% adoption rate in the first quarter post-GA and completely removed any mention of QBO from our feedback list.

My other projects at BuildBook have been just as vague at the start. For example, my squad was assigned “churn reduction.” After a ton of research, we found the first-time user experience lacked a happy path and implemented a solution that reduced time to first value by ~24 hours. My squad's first project in the company was to completely revamp our permissions system, which after even more research and careful building, boosted invites to our least-engaged segment by 10%.