Paola Cabrini
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
London, United Kingdom
Toptal member since November 24, 2021
Paola is a senior product, go-to-market, strategic marketing lead with 12+ years of expertise in technology, B2B (HR tech, traveltech, GenAI, adtech) and B2C products (fashion, beauty, telco), eCommerce platforms, and mobile apps. She has been involved in both really early-stage startups, scale ups and well-known big tech such as Google, Meta, Spotify, and Zalando handling new product launches, proposition development, and go-to-market strategy.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Go-to-market (GTM) Strategy
- Market Strategy and Research Product Manager
- Product Development
- Product Launch
- Product Marketing
- Product Positioning
- Product Strategy
- User Research
Work Experience
Owner | Fractional Product Management, Go-to-Market & Strategy Advisory
Eudaimonic Consulting Ltd
- Advised founders and C-level executives across AI, SaaS, marketplaces and healthtech on product strategy, go-to-market, positioning, growth and international expansion.
- Led strategic advisory engagements from initial business challenge and customer discovery through proposition development, product-market fit, roadmap prioritisation and go-to-market execution.
- Aligned Product, Marketing, Sales and executive stakeholders around customer and commercial priorities, translating complex business challenges into actionable growth and AI strategies.
- Supported startups and scale-ups with market-entry and international expansion strategies, assessing customer needs, competitive dynamics and go-to-market requirements across UK and European markets.
- Built Eudaimonic Consulting as an independent advisory practice spanning Product, AI, GTM and growth strategy, alongside speaking and mentoring within the London and EMEA technology ecosystem.
Business Product Marketing Manager - Ads
Meta
- Led market assessment, quantitative analysis, qualitative feedback, and represented the requirements of the market internally with Product Management and Engineering.
- Understood advertiser needs/requirements and product risk areas in order to prioritize recommendations to product, engineering, and design teams for new and existing products.
- Owned go-to-market strategy for a portfolio of products and solutions by guiding cross-functional teams in developing client communications, product documentation, and positioning.
- Drove cross-functional projects across Meta that build new innovative solutions for advertisers/marketers to ensure that products and solutions are incorporated into the platform in a consistent and strategic manner.
Senior Product Marketer | Consumer AI, Generative & Agentic AI
- Led strategic marketing initiatives for consumer AI chatbot Gemini, driving user growth and feature adoption in EMEA through market analysis, user research, and experimentation.
- Collaborated cross-functionally to execute marketing strategies and campaigns while influencing product development and aligning stakeholders on key objectives.
- Oversaw localization and transcreation for in-product messaging, owned media, and marketing campaigns/events to ensure consistency and impact across the EMEA region.
Senior Product Marketeer | Commerce Success (Contract)
Meta (Facebook and Instagram)
- Integrated usability studies, research, and market analysis into product requirements to improve engineer productivity and enhance user satisfaction.
- Led the ideation, technical development, and launch of innovative features, platforms, and products.
- Drove product development, collaborating with teams of world-class engineers and product designers while maintaining team health.
Head of Product Marketing
Kiwi
- Re-developed features proposition, positioning, and messaging.
- Built the product marketing function from scratch, designing the organization and ensuring seamless integration within existing processes.
- Supervised creative development and digital campaigns to drive adoption.
Interim Head of Product Marketing | Size and Fit Technology (Freelance)
Zalando
- Cooperated with the middle management and senior stakeholders to define the scope of how product marketing can integrate and support the existing product development process.
- Interviewed 30+ middle and senior management stakeholders to understand current working methods and draw a proposal from design operations and staffing perspective.
- Led the product marketing strategy and go-to-market hypothesis.
Senior Product Marketeer | Podcast Advertising (Contract)
Spotify
- Planned and executed end-to-end go-to-market launches for new podcast and music advertising products. Partnered closely with other teams across the advertising business unit, such as R&D, sales, PR and communications, legal, content, and licensing.
- Acted as a subject matter expert on podcasts and voice-enabled advertising. Also educated internal teams on the competitive landscape and provided market intelligence to help inform Spotify’s advertising product strategy both locally and globally.
- Gathered and distilled market insights to identify new opportunities to drive revenue, serving as the voice of the customer to the product and engineering teams that build and manage our podcast advertising products.
Senior Product Marketeer | Commerce Ads (Contract)
- Led large-scale beta testing for innovative advertising formats targeting omnichannel businesses globally.
- Managed the go-to-market strategy and onboarded 100+ advertisers to successfully test new features.
- Guided customer research to identify key growth blockers and influence the product roadmap.
Senior Manager | New Products and Propositions
Three UK
- Translated customer insights, competitive intelligence, and product and portfolio value into a unique and compelling omnichannel storytelling.
- Led the ideation process and alpha and beta programs for new propositions and products within an agile environment.
- Contributed to the development and delivery of a significant part of the product roadmap with a focus on omnichannel journeys and seamless customer experience.
Product Marketing Manager | Brand and Reputation (Contract)
- Leveraged customer insights to shape strategic initiatives and messaging within the brand and reputation team to impact brand consideration.
- Collaborated closely with creative, production, and media agencies to shape content and campaigns for the key target audiences. Ensured the onsite team management during the production of ‘The Grand Tour of Italy’ project in Venice and Siena.
- Led competitive intelligence, including win-loss and competitive positioning. Identified market needs and worked with research institutes to understand key target segments' behaviors and test campaigns on social channels and owned platforms.
Agile Product Manager
Reward Gateway
- Planned and set the specifications for an eCommerce platform and mobile app and dining and sports platforms.
- Managed two agile teams of almost 15 elements using Scrum and Kanban methodologies. Acted as a product manager and product owner between London and Plovdiv in Bulgaria. Hired junior product owners to support the company’s rapid expansion.
- Grew the digital revenue across the company by building new features and products and revamping underperforming ones. Executed new product development and UX improvements and innovation, including product marketing strategy, content, and branding.
Project History
Strategy, Re-branding and Go-to-Market for Key Travel Categories for Lastminute.com Group
Led discovery, redesign, and rebranding for key travel categories for all lastminute.com group brands, including rumbo.es and volagratis.it.
The lastminute.com group is one of the top online travel agencies worldwide, operating across a series of brands such as lastminute.com, Volagratis, Rumbo, weg.de, Bravofly, Jetcost, and Hotelscan. Every month the group reaches 60 million users searching for and booking their travel and leisure experiences through its websites and mobile apps, available in 17 languages and 40 countries.
During my time as a product marketing manager at lm group, I had the opportunity to drive a large discovery project, analyzing the existing proposition, positioning, and branding of all travel categories across key competitors worldwide. I also led a cross-functional team to define the strategy, come up with a refreshed branding, and implement it across all group’s brands, balancing global efficiency with local sensitivity.
Google Italy's Project "The Grand Tour of Italy"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9RARfrHf2ULed creative, production, and media agencies to shape content for the key target audiences. Onsite team management during the multimedia production in Venice/Siena. Go-to-market and launch campaign for digital and physical launch events.
A Google-powered geographical and emotional journey that connects Italian people to their cultural heritage seen through “Google lens” and arms them to succeed in the future, enabling them to master digital skills.
Read the official blog post here: https://www.blog.google/topics/google-europe/grand-tour-italy/
Large-scale Beta for Omni-channel Retail Advertising Formats for Meta (Facebook)
Beta tested and launched new cutting edge ad products in-market by leading cross-functional teams, including sales, legal, comms, and PR.
Brought world-class go-to-market by developing strategic positioning, value proposition, naming, and activation strategies. Drove adoption and product growth by setting goals and partnering closely with engineering, product, and design.
Education
Master's Degree in International Marketing
Hult International Business School - San Fracisco, United Sates of America and Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Master of Science Degree in Strategic Brand Management
IULM University of Milan - Milan, Italy
Bachelor's Degree in Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Communication Techniques
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart - Milan, Italy
Skills
Tools
Slack, Google Workspace, Trello, Zoom, Asana, Jira
Paradigms
B2C, Marketplace Platforms, B2B2C, Agile Product Management, Business to Business to Consumer (B2B2C), Low Code, Agile, Scrum
Other
Google Meet, International Marketing, Advertising, Positioning, International Expansion, Go-to-market (GTM) Strategy, Product Development, Product Management, UX Research, Branding, Product Positioning, Discovery, Product Marketing, Product Discovery, User Research, Product Launch, Brand Management, New Product Development, Product Strategy, Market Strategy and Research Product Manager, B2C Marketing, eCommerce, Global Project Management, Business to Consumer (B2C), Competitive Analysis, Competitive Intelligence, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Two-sided Marketplaces, User Requirements, eCommerce, Digital, Advertising Technology (Adtech), Agile Product Delivery, Customer Journey Optimization, eCommerce UX, eCommerce UI, Microsoft Teams, Sales Management, Strategy, Digital Marketing, Social Media, Psychology, Market Research, User Experience (UX), Project Planning, Statement of Work, B2B, Product Roadmaps, Feature Roadmaps, Digital Product Design, Product Strategy Consultant, Launch Strategy, B2B Partnerships, Mobile Apps, App Growth, Continuous Discovery, Software as a Service (SaaS), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Subscriptions, Advertising Technology (Adtech), Consulting, Pitch Decks, Marketing Technology (MarTech), AI Product Strategy, Business Communication, Marketing Communications (MarCom), Linguistics, Product Design, Go-to-market Plans, Internationalization, Category Management, UX Analysis, Partnerships, Cross-functional Collaboration, Media Production, Agency, Multi-channel, Creative Strategy, Digital Marketing Strategy, Website CMS, Employee Engagement, SaaS, Enterprise SaaS, People Management, Hiring, CRM Design, Web Content, Roadmaps, Solution Design, RFQ, Backlog Grooming, Feature Prioritization, Gmail, Business Processes, Project Management, Design Production, Audio Production, Marketing, Media Planning, Stakeholder Management, Stakeholder Interviews, Paid Advertising, Mobile Advertising, B2B Product Management, Request for Proposal (RFP), User Interviews, Writing & Editing, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Management, SaaS Product Management, Go-to-market Optimization, Localization, EMEA, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Consumer AI, AI Consulting, Large Language Models (LLMs), Natural Language Processing (NLP), Product Strategy, Go-to-Market Strategy, Product Marketing, AI Strategy, Digital Transformation, Strategic Advisory, C-Suite Advisory, Client Relationship Management, Commercial Strategy, Growth Strategy, Market Expansion, Product-Market Fit, Customer Insights, Positioning & Messaging, Proposition Development, Business Development, Stakeholder Management, Cross-Functional Leadership, Fractional Leadership, Startups & Scale-ups
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