Rachel
Jordan

Within weeks of assuming a new leadership role, I uncovered a pattern that had gone unaddressed for five years: an acquired product consistently missing revenue targets by more than 15%. I discovered the root cause wasn't the product — it was a sales team that lacked the tools and confidence to sell it. I partnered with GTM leadership to validate the diagnosis, then designed and launched a targeted sales enablement program. Over the following two quarters, the team hit 125% of revenue target.

Despite a mature product and deep domain expertise, my teams were experiencing rising defect rates and declining velocity. Rather than apply incremental fixes, I led the organization's first full methodology transformation. While engineering adopted Test-Driven Development, the product team piloted Behavior Driven Design — a year-long commitment requiring sustained alignment across both organizations. Automated testing reduced costs, cross-functional collaboration drove measurable quality improvements, and overall velocity accelerated. The results were compelling enough to drive broader adoption across the business.

My charter was to take a highly capable team of product managers who had deep domain knowledge and elevate them into strategic operators with commercial accountability. The team needed a framework, so I led a restructure of the early PDLC phases to require business cases with solid due diligence; ROI models, defined KPIs, pricing and packaging, and detailed release plans. I established GTM partnerships so every product manager moved through discovery with a commercial counterpart. The result was a measurable shift from order-takers to owners.

Facing a critical gap in the product portfolio, I led the evaluation of acquisition candidates and managed the full product workstream from due diligence through post-acquisition integration. The work required more than a product assessment — I moved quickly to integrate the team, align processes across customer support, sales, marketing, and technical services, and adapt the product to operate at the scale our market demanded. Retaining critical talent and establishing cross-functional alignment were equally essential to delivering value on an accelerated timeline.

As we pursued growth in APAC and Europe, I recognized that our standard product planning model did not adequately surface the needs of regional markets. I created a new field-facing product strategist role, embedded with regional sales leadership to gather market intelligence, engage customers and prospects, and advocate for region-specific requirements in our planning cycles. The role delivered immediate impact through market insights that directly shaped roadmap decisions and strengthened our regional growth strategy.

I strongly believe that all managers have a responsbility to actively identify development opportunities for their teams. I look for future leaders and high potential people at all levels of my organization. One of my most intentional coaching investments was in a high-performing IC who seemed stuck — not from lack of ability, but from lack of confidence. I gave her deliberate exposure and a stretch challenge: a high-visibility cross-product initiative requiring executive presentations, GTM planning, and cross-functional coordination. When she initially deferred on presenting to leadership, I declined to let her step back. With coaching and direct support, she delivered - and works independently with a solid presence across the organization.

I once assumed a role where the relationship between product and engineering degraded, becoming adversarial. Years of structural tension and competing priorities had created real dysfunction that cascaded down through the teams. I made rebuilding that partnership a strategic priority. Working directly with my engineering counterpart, I established a model of genuine co-leadership: joint planning from the earliest stages, shared prioritization frameworks, and a mutual commitment to no surprises in any meeting. Aligning product and technical requirements as parallel inputs rather than sequential handoffs produced roadmaps that balanced market needs with engineering realities — resulting organizations moving faster, achieving greater results, and improving morale.