Katie Mills
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Portland, OR, United States
Toptal member since March 8, 2021
Katie has over ten years of experience leading product management, consumer insight, and user experience efforts for large Fortune 500 companies and small consumer tech startups. She has successfully taken products from concept through launch and drove ongoing product innovation and improvements. Katie has a successful track record of building new teams and competencies, most recently for consumer SaaS startups.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile Product Management
- Incubator Management
- Mobile Apps
- Product Analytics
- Product Strategy
- Product-market Fit
- SaaS Product Management
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.
- Created KPI dashboards that provided daily tracking on 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 both 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 customer 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-pitched 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 on 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 with building 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.
Marketing Manager
Intel
- Guided marketing strategy and measured marketing performance by developing and managing market research projects as a market intelligence manager.
- Drove business strategy and demand for Intel Labs’ consumer technologies, leading custom research projects and providing market analysis on emerging consumer and technology trends.
- Designed and implemented a worldwide quantitative study that benchmarked technology leadership awareness and perceptions among the tech industry.
Project History
Digital Products Venture
Led the product innovation and development efforts for an internal product startup.
I was in charge of all phases of product development, including concept ideation, user testing, positioning, feature prioritization, and user stories. I used Lean product development processes to assess user and market insights, develop prototypes, and test with users to iterate and validate ideas quickly.
Our consumer food app concept, which focused on developing healthy eating habits among kids, was approved for a beta prototype built with a less than $10 cost per lead and a 25% sign-up conversion. I developed the prototype MVP feature backlog and handed it off to design and engineering before rolling off the project.
Competitive Analysis and Product Strategy
Helped a market research consulting agency with product strategy for a new DIY remote research tool.
I was asked to help a research consultancy hone its product strategy for a newly launched DIY product option.
I completed a competitive market assessment for them and delivered MVP feature recommendations to prioritize for their upcoming hackathon and sprint planning. I also delivered partner and pricing strategy recommendations.
User Research and DTC Product Strategy
Identified four opportunity spaces for a multi-national food company to build and expand D2C product experiences.
Led research, market synthesis, and ideation with the team to identify new opportunities to explore for a newly created D2C product innovation team. Coached the team on Lean product development methods.
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
Skills
Tools
Jira, Confluence, Atlassian, Slack, Figma
Paradigms
B2C, Quantitative Research, Agile Product Management, Design Thinking, Agile UX, Rapid Prototyping, Scrum, Iterative Development, Agile, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), Usability Testing
Industry Expertise
Consumer Products
Platforms
Mixpanel
Other
Microsoft, Product Strategy, Product-market Fit, Competitor Analysis & Profiling, User Research, Market Research, Market Research & Analysis, Product Management, Product Discovery, New Product Development, Feature Prioritization, Discovery, Incubator Management, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Strategy, Business Strategy, Continuous Discovery, Product Leadership, Product Research, Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), Mentorship & Coaching, User Requirements, Cross-functional Collaboration, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Competition Research, Product Consultant, Market Insights, Innovation, Consulting, SaaS Product Management, Product Analytics, User Experience (UX), Market Strategy and Research Product Manager, Product Roadmaps, Mobile Apps, Partner Management, Stakeholder Management, Prototyping, Ideation, User Personas, Qualitative Research, Product Development, Product Ownership, Customer Journey, Product Design, Business to Consumer (B2C), Onboarding, Data Analysis, Mobile Analytics, Analytics, Growth Strategy, UX Analysis, Product Growth, Startup Growth Strategy Development, Growth, Startups, Head of Product, App UX, Mobile UX, App Product Management, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Lean, Lean Research, Product Coach, Dual Track Agile, SaaS, Conversion, User Interviews, User Surveys, Digital Product Management, Lean Startups, Chief Product Officer (CPO), Mobile, iOS, Feature Roadmaps, Product Launch, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Feature Planning, Project Timelines, Small & Medium-sized Enterprises (SME), Leadership, Advisory, Google, Company Strategy, Product Marketing, Business Development, Pricing Strategy, Go-to-market Plans, Jobs to be Done (JTBD), Growth Marketing, Marketing, Consumer Insights, Customer Support, Miro, Surveys, Lean UX, Data Analytics, Monetization
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