Katie Mills
Verified Expert in Finance
Management Consulting Expert
Portland, OR, United States
Toptal member since March 20, 2023
Katie has over 15 years of experience leading product management, consumer insight, and user experience efforts for Fortune 500 companies and small consumer tech startups. She has successfully taken products from concept through launch and drove ongoing product innovation and improvements. She has worked for and with B2C and B2B2C companies across a wide range of industries, including consumer electronics, food tech, and health and wellness.
Career Highlights
Case Studies
Expertise
Work Experience
Head of Product
The Dyrt
- Built the product team at a scaling startup, including product management, analytics, design, and customer support. Hired six product managers and product designers in three months.
- Built KPI dashboards that provided daily tracking of SaaS conversion metrics to identify product issues and key levers for increasing conversion KPIs.
- Assisted in implementing Agile product development processes and re-structured teams around feature squads to increase cross-team collaboration and improve product delivery cadence.
VP of Product
Circle Media Inc.
- Led a small team conducting design, product management, analytics, and user research efforts.
- Created the product roadmap for Circle's consumer and partner products. My key accomplishments include increasing product NPS scores (30 points) and app ratings and doubling the trial sign-up conversion.
- Implemented a new product analytics tool, instituting first-ever companywide product KPIs.
Principal Product Manager
Intel
- Drove product and business development for a new business startup within Intel's new business group.
- Negotiated the largest and most profitable deal for Intel's low-power chip line. Jointly defined the consumer product with customers and co-pitched to retailers resulting in holiday sell-in to several key retail accounts.
- Contributed to consumer product development, working with customers from concept through development. Led product ideation sessions and user testing, product definition, and co-pitching to retailers.
- Recruited and mentored a team of female engineers tasked with developing a STEM toy to encourage girls' interest in science and engineering. Collaborated with marketing to spotlight their contributions to partner's Emmy award-winning Netflix show.
Director of User Experience and Insights
Intel
- Led a cross-functional team of user experience designers, researchers, and developers chartered to build differentiated software products for Intel's mobile and IoT product segments.
- Partnered cross-functionally with the brand, product, and technology teams to translate user experience targets into tangible product requirements and showcase applications.
- Drove the user experience strategy for Intel's smartphone reference design. Developed target user personas and use cases and led design efforts.
Product Marketing and Consumer Insights Manager
Intel
- Spearheaded new consumer research techniques to extrapolate future consumer usage trends and product implications. Presented to the CEO and executive team on user and market insights, forecasts, and product marketing strategy recommendations.
- Developed several mobile PC concept designs that earned International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA). Managed target user definition, concept ideation, and market requirements documentation.
- Defined the co-marketing plan with a key OEM customer and managed events, demos, and PR.
Education
Master of Business Administration (MBA) in International Business
Georgetown University - Washington, DC, USA
Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration
Wake Forest University - Winston-Salem, NC, USA
Skills
Finance
Market Research, Pricing Strategy, Data Analysis
Industry Expertise
Consumer Products
Output Software
Jira
Other
Microsoft, Product Strategy, User Research, Continuous Discovery, Product Leadership, Product Research, User Requirements, Competition Research, Product-market Fit, Competitor Analysis & Profiling, Market Research & Analysis, Product Management, Product Discovery, New Product Development, B2C, Feature Prioritization, Consumer Insights, Discovery, Incubator Management, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Strategy, Business Strategy, Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), Cross-functional Collaboration, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Mentorship & Coaching, Product Strategy Consultant, Innovation, Slack, Confluence, Google, Agile Product Management, Mixpanel, Product Design, SaaS Product Management, Lean, Lean Research, Product Coach, Atlassian, Lean Startups, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Feature Roadmaps, Iterative Development, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Feature Planning, Project Timelines, Growth Strategy, Product Growth, Startup Growth Strategy Development, Growth, User Interviews, User Experience (UX), Quantitative Research, Qualitative Research, Product Analytics, Mobile Apps, Product Roadmaps, Stakeholder Management, Partner Management, Prototyping, Ideation, User Personas, Product Development, Product Ownership, Customer Journeys, Business to Consumer (B2C), Mobile Analytics, Analytics, Design Thinking, Agile UX, Rapid Prototyping, UX Analysis, Startups, Head of Product, App UX, Mobile UX, App Product Management, Scrum, Dual Track Agile, SaaS, Conversion, User Surveys, Digital Product Management, Chief Product Officer (CPO), iOS, Product Launch, Onboarding, Mobile, Lean Testing, Competitive Analysis, Company Analysis, Customer Interviews, Miro, Figma, Market Strategy and Research Product Manager, Company Strategy, Marketing, Agile, Usability Testing, Data Analytics, Monetization, Surveys, Lean UX, Product Marketing, Business Development, Go-to-market Plans, Jobs to be Done (JTBD), Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), Growth Marketing, UX Prototyping, UX Research, Collaboration
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