With a background in product, I specialize in bridging the gap between strategy and getting stuff done. I'm great at building relationships and operationalizing high-impact initiatives at scale with a perpetually positive attitude. I eat special projects for breakfast.
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With a diverse background ranging from startups to large-scale enterprises, I have led teams through pivotal growth stages whether it’s building an MVP, finding product-market fit or scaling for success. With a background in product, I specialize in creating organization out of chaos, empowering cross-functional teams and driving strategic growth.
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Starting in project management taught me the SDLC basics and how to get stuff done. From Fortune 500 companies to high growth startups. I transitioned to product management because I liked checking boxes as much as I liked figuring out which boxes to check.
Starting by rebuilding the product team at ModCloth, I got really good at building, optimizing and fostering teams to greatness and aligning executive teams to customer-focused strategies that generate revenue and growth.
Using my breadth of knowledge to date, I've consulted with dozens of clients on everything from strategy to process to team building and execution. It made me really good at jumping in to any situation and tackling it really fast.
Leveraging my product background, I’ve found that the Chief of Staff role is my passion. It lets me use my weird bag of tricks to optimize operations and catalyze teams to achieve their highest potential for business impact.
"In a world where there is no consistent understanding of a Product leader, Kara shines bright as an exemplary example. Within a few days of starting, it was clear that Kara was an experienced professional in the space. Kara's expertise and professionalism made it easy for me to feel at ease with having her speak directly with our prospects and customers. She provided qualitative and quantitative data as evidence to her roadmap and milestone definitions which made it easy to trust she had both our business' and customers' success in mind.
Without Kara, we would not have been able to accelerate the development of one of our key product experiences with confidence. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work with Kara and would not hesitate to work with her again!"
"Kara is an incredibly talented product and design leader. She was critical to the development and execution of Mina’s mission, strategy, and roadmap. Kara has the rare combination of creativity, strategic thinking, and the ability to execute.
She is able to balance multiple inputs and competing timelines to deliver value to both internal and external stakeholders.
Kara is an intuitive, focused, and infectiously enthusiastic entrepreneur who would bring value to any organization."
"Kara and I worked closely together for over a year. She is a fabulous Project Manager, and I would work with her again in a second.
Besides being tremendously organized and very knowledgeable, she is also able to open and maintain lines of communication between teams a few desks down, or on opposite sides of the country.
She’s got a great sense of how to remove obstacles so the whole team can make progress and get things done. She’s awesome."
"Kara is a positive and driven force. As partners and colleagues on many customer-facing and CX initiatives at ModCloth, she consistently led and worked to advocate for the brand, product, and most importantly, the customer.
She operates well at both the micro and macro level- she is a team player and is reliable and accountable. She is a pleasure to work with - and a true customer-first advocate!"
"Kara was invaluable during a very transformational period at Gild from having one product offering to an entire platform of applications. She worked swimmingly with engineers to ensure things were built and improved on an impending deadline. Additionally, she was instrumental in helping all parts of the organization understand feature releases and improvements. As the recruiter for Gild in the product everyday, she was always incredibly responsive to bugs, consistent on following up with fixes, and open to feedback.
She's also a generally great colleague who always had a smile on her face. I'd welcome the opportunity to work with Kara again."
"I worked with Kara for a little over a year at ModCloth and in that time I was completely astounded by her skills, passion, and dedication to the job. She has a keen eye for noticing problems and is always the first to recommend a solution for its resolution as well as see that through to its completion. I have always admired her passion for situations like this.
Within our organization at ModCloth she was able to make a real and noticeable difference in her time here. She brings so much experience to the table and always uses that to make any working environment better."
I graduated from college during a recession, which meant I needed to be open to any opportunity. I took a job as a barista for Caribou Coffee inside Best Buy's corporate office in Minnesota with a dream that someone there might hire me. While waiting, I ended up as a supervisor in 3 months, and running both stores within 9 months (the busiest stores in the company at the time!) until finally my plan worked! I met awesome folks on the mobile team and became a project manager which changed my career forever.
In so many ways it's hard to know where to start! But I will because you asked. Both roles require someone who can think strategically one second, and execute tactically another second while being highly organized and data-driven. Another common skill is managing across multiple functions (marketing, sales, development, design, fulfillment) with influence not direct management authority. This requires excellent communication and relationship building skills as well as an aptitude for change management (bonus points if they can do this in a high growth environment). A challenge of both roles is that when you're successful day to day, no one really notices (they notice things go wrong of course) so you have to be able to demonstrate aggregate value, learn and iterate quickly and communicate progress effectively.
I love that it takes the skills I've gathered in my unique bag of tricks and lets me use them in different ways. The Chief of Staff role doesn't mean the same thing in every organization and it's the least likely role to be stuck in a box because the needs of the organization change over time. Special projects rule, boxes don't.
Absolutely yes, but also it depends. :) For the right opportunity I would consider working more than fractionally and as long as I don't have to move or commute far I would be open to a flexible, hybrid opportunity if it checks all the boxes on my list otherwise.