Drew is available for hire
Hire DrewDrew Noble
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Location
Ann Arbor, MI, United States
Toptal Member Since
January 12, 2021
Drew has launched payment and support products in eCommerce marketplaces for the hospitality and automotive industries. Prior to that, she started, owned, and sold a housing business in Chicago. Drew has worked with Toyota Motor Company, General Motors, and Airbnb, where she converted more than 3,500 users into hosts and standardized national vendor site performance resulting in a $15.6 million annual impact. Drew is a problem-solving expert with a strong focus on product value.
Expertise
Work Experience
Senior Project Manager
2018 - 2019
Toyota Motor Company
- Directed cost planning in North America for hybrid mid-size transmission, ensuring cost reduction progress using PFEP and Toyota Business System thinking-potential reduction of $38 per unit.
- Broke down complex problems using root-cause analysis and provided insights to leadership, resulting in clearer current/future state information, driving NA hybrid manufacturing direction.
- Orchestrated benchmarking events with suppliers and engineers to generate improved design ideas, ensuring successful movement toward cost competitiveness.
Product Owner
2017 - 2018
General Motors
- Prioritized use cases to design product roadmap, resulting in effective use of contracting, developer, and vendor resources and on-time launch of Ariv Electric Bike payment system and Cadillac XT5 pre-order site.
- Designed payment solutions for diverse internal customers-16 projects.
- Advised leadership of product direction on API integrations, card brand guidelines, and information privacy regulations.
- Designed, developed, and implemented user acceptance testing protocols for payment system to ensure system met functional requirements.
Product Owner
2013 - 2017
Airbnb, Inc.
- Forecasted future usage of product features to drive product strategy ($1.2 million potential savings in first year and reduction of developer time).
- Reacted to response time and Net Promoter Score underperformance by making enhancements to machine learning predictive routing model, resulting in NPS score improvement of 35 points.
- Standardized multiple national vendor sites’ performance using Plan for Every Part process to isolate and resolve KPI issues - $15.6 million annual impact.
- Improved alignment with company mission and values in NYC market through product changes that reduced number of illegal hotels by 85%.
Community Manager
2011 - 2013
Airbnb
- Converted more than 3,500 users into hosts through event programming, content marketing, and partnering with local well-known brands.
- Generated new customer base through securing brand partnership with Chicago Marathon.
- Built brand loyalty by addressing legal issues and product feedback through over 100 events and webinars.
Project History
Product Case Study - Toyota Cost Reduction
Potential reduction of $38 per unit; directed cost planning in North America for hybrid mid-size transmission, ensuring cost reduction.
My task was to lower the cost, based on estimates from vendors and production plants, to make the Toyota hybrid transmission in North America. The current estimates showed the North American transmission would cost $98 more than the Japanese transmission.
I used a lean methodology called Plan for Every Part to break down the transmission's cost. I worked with a large team to create an accurate cost comparison of each step each part took for both North America and Japan builds. I presented these findings regularly to both NA and Japan teams, gathered feedback, and continued to make the cost estimates more accurate.
This process raised opportunities to remove waste and unite the teams in a common goal, to lower cost and build locally. It provided the insight that Japan's costs were artificially low because some processes were being left out, and once including all relevant steps, North America became more competitive. Additionally, a level of cost and process transparency was provided that typically wasn't available that early in the R&D process, which allowed the purchasing department to see where they had more work to do with the suppliers to lower costs. This resulted in a $38 decrease in cost per unit.
I used a lean methodology called Plan for Every Part to break down the transmission's cost. I worked with a large team to create an accurate cost comparison of each step each part took for both North America and Japan builds. I presented these findings regularly to both NA and Japan teams, gathered feedback, and continued to make the cost estimates more accurate.
This process raised opportunities to remove waste and unite the teams in a common goal, to lower cost and build locally. It provided the insight that Japan's costs were artificially low because some processes were being left out, and once including all relevant steps, North America became more competitive. Additionally, a level of cost and process transparency was provided that typically wasn't available that early in the R&D process, which allowed the purchasing department to see where they had more work to do with the suppliers to lower costs. This resulted in a $38 decrease in cost per unit.
General Motors - Ariv Electric Bike Payments
Led on-time delivery of payment experience in pilot markets.
I was responsible for prioritizing the roadmap of a global payment system. An internal stakeholder, Ariv, needed an eCommerce site and payment system in 52 countries, with Australia and New Zealand being launched first.
My task was to work with Ariv to learn about their needs and enable all integrations with the eCommerce site, payment gateway, bank system, customer account system, and accounting system to occur for their launch. Based on the customer impact and revenue potential, our team prioritized the features Ariv needed for their launch. I worked with the contracting team to make sure that every effort could be made to complete acquiring bank integrations to enable the system to transact legally in Australia and New Zealand.
Because we were able to enable local acquiring bank services in our product, we could save on conversion fees and foreign transaction fees. Contracting was finished prior to launch, and the entire team jumped in to test all integrations to launch on time.
My task was to work with Ariv to learn about their needs and enable all integrations with the eCommerce site, payment gateway, bank system, customer account system, and accounting system to occur for their launch. Based on the customer impact and revenue potential, our team prioritized the features Ariv needed for their launch. I worked with the contracting team to make sure that every effort could be made to complete acquiring bank integrations to enable the system to transact legally in Australia and New Zealand.
Because we were able to enable local acquiring bank services in our product, we could save on conversion fees and foreign transaction fees. Contracting was finished prior to launch, and the entire team jumped in to test all integrations to launch on time.
Education
2008 - 2011
Bachelor's Degree in Painting and Drawing
School of the Art Institute of Chicago - Chicago, Illinois, USA
2004 - 2006
Coursework in Hotel and Hospitality Management
California State University of Long Beach - Long Beach, California, USA
2002 - 2004
Coursework in Computer Science
California State University of Long Beach - Long Beach, CA
Certifications
JANUARY 2019 - PRESENT
ITIL v4
Axelos
NOVEMBER 2016 - NOVEMBER 2022
Project Management Professional (PMP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)