
Dana is available for hire
Hire DanaDana Hette
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Location
Montpellier, France
Toptal Member Since
January 9, 2020
Dana is a versatile project manager with 20 years of experience in internet software. With her technical background, she brings a relentless passion for finding data-driven solutions to complex problems. Dana has led cross-functional teams at small startups as well as global enterprises across a diverse range of domains, as well as running her own eCommerce startup. Dana has worked with Expedia and Redfin.
Project Highlights
Expedia Flights Branded Fares
Defined industry-wide data standards for flight branded fares, and developed the Expedia UX for customers to shop them.
Expedia Flights Baggage Fees
Simplified a messy, confusing shopping problem - resulting in improved NPS.
Expertise
Work Experience
Product Manager
2020 - PRESENT
Exodus Aviation
- Took over the lead on delivering V1 of a bespoke B2B eCommerce platform, built on a SalesForce back end, which had been stalled for quite some time.
- Righted the ship in one month of part-time work and set them on track for a beta release one month later, with a cleaner UX and a new, agile process.
- Introduced new agile process using Asana, including bug management, user stories, backlog grooming, and weekly sprints.
- Collaborated with UX to completely overhaul the interface for greater usability and a clean, modern look.
Product Manager
2020 - PRESENT
Stay Group
- Built a bespoke mobile digital concierge app from the ground up.
- Led product kickoff via discovery meetings, to gather all requirements and distill them into a clear roadmap.
- Set up Trello and general product management processes. Wrote all analytics specifications.
- Collaborated with UX to design flows and usability, and with tech to ensure alignment.
Co-founder
2016 - 2019
BioSphère Naturel
- Conceived and produced a new line of organic skincare, selling on Amazon EU and USA as well as its own website. Had the #2 best-selling anti-aging cream on Amazon France in 2018.
- Built a multi-lingual, multi-region eCommerce site from the ground up using WordPress, WooCommerce, and custom coding.
- Ran multiple advertising, sales funnel initiatives using Facebook, ManyChat, and Instagram to grow the business.
- Applied for and received trademarks in the UK and USA, requiring authoring of legal briefs and negotiation with a competing company to resolve trademark conflicts blocking approval in both countries.
Senior Product Manager, Flights
2011 - 2016
Expedia
- Executed agile A/B testing based on data-driven hypotheses with crisp success metrics in a CI environment. Improved NPS, retention, and CVR worldwide.
- Launched new ancillary features using MVP methodology. Coordinated across several geographic regions with varying market strategies and legal requirements to design a coherent, global solution.
- Introduced clean UX with smart filtering to surface key flight amenity and fare information to the end-user, joining millions of rows of GDS and transactional data.
- Designed new industry-wide data standards and APIs for ancillaries and branded fares, in partnership with ATPCo, Amadeus, and several major airlines. Developed the Expedia UX for customers to shop and purchase these new fares.
- Supervised a team of two product manager directs and coordinated five concurrent agile project teams.
Senior Program Manager, PPC Platform
2008 - 2011
Expedia
- Developed a proprietary SaaS PPC platform from the ground up, managing hundreds of millions of dollars in annual spending. Refined varying market requirements into a single coherent, global solution.
- Directed construction of an efficient keyword bidding algorithm using clustering logic and statistical modeling. Integrated millions of rows of Expedia transactional data with keyword performance data, enabling easy portfolio optimization at scale.
- Directed external development vendor in building the in-house platform from the ground up. Coordinated transition to 3rd party after the in-house platform EOL.
- Led the hiring effort to build an in-house team of two product managers and one QA lead.
- Performed extensive business process and workflow analysis and designed and developed custom dashboards.
Product Manager
2006 - 2008
Redfin
- Implemented a new SaaS app for buying and selling homes. Managed the cross-functional agile team to build. Partnered with agents and facilitated focus groups to centralize varying regional requirements into a single user experience.
- Defined the full specifications for the site-wide implementation of Google Analytics. Owned regular reporting on KPIs back to the business, up to the CEO.
- Conducted the vendor search and integrated a SalesForce CRM system as a back end into SaaS buy and sell tools.
Project History
Expedia Flights Branded Fares
Defined industry-wide data standards for flight branded fares, and developed the Expedia UX for customers to shop them.
In my role as senior product manager for Expedia Flights, I launched new branded fare shopping using MVP methodology to validate the problem space - which I synthesized into a single coherent global solution, from varying market strategies and legal requirements. This was a new space in the flights industry at the time, and I partnered with industry heavyweights ATPCo and Amadeus, as well as several major airlines, to design new industry-wide data standards for branded fares. I launched several new features on Expedia designed to surface this new and complex world of flight shopping to the customer in an easy-to-digest manner - empowering the customer not only to choose the flights that best fit their needs but also understand clearly what their flight was going to cost. I also refined the initial feature set through an Agile A/B testing workstream. It was very rewarding to have an impact on the flight industry as a whole and be at the forefront of defining how these new flight products are sold to customers.
Expedia Flights Baggage Fees
Simplified a messy, confusing shopping problem - resulting in improved NPS.
In my role as senior product manager for Expedia Flights, I managed a cross-functional, globally distributed team tasked with untangling the problem of baggage fees on flights. Traditionally, all flights had at least one piece of checked luggage included. However, in recent years, airlines have moved away from that model, and now a customer usually needs to pay to check a bag. The problem is, the data isn't normalized, and the rules and fees vary greatly not only from airline to airline but from fare type to fare type. This created a massive headache for customers, who were often surprised at the airport with unexpected and expensive baggage fees - which they then blamed on Expedia. I led the effort in untangling this mess. This involved normalizing the data on the back end and designing a clean UX for easy surfacing to customers, as well as consolidating myriad legal requirements governing how the information must be displayed from market to market. The end result - substantially improved NPS scores for Expedia due to no more nasty surprises at the airport! This was a gratifying project to run and deliver because I was able to solve a major pain point - by untangling a bunch of complexity and making it simple for the customer.
Education
1996 - 1999
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
University of Wisconsin - Madison, Wisconsin, USA