Susan Stavitzski

Customer-Driven Product Person

Product Leader with experience working in the software industry for start-ups, smb and enterprise companies. Passionate about e-commerce, subscription, marketplace and retention focused products. 

I have a passion for taking manual, bulky processes and turning them into powerful, automated, scalable solutions to empower teams 💪

Message me to talk about a tough customer problem, hosting a customer discovery workshop or to brainstorm a wacky product idea 💡 

Skilled in Product Management, Product Design, User Interviews & Testing, Prototyping, Data Analytics, Product Marketing,  Ecommerce, Self Service, Advertising, Sales, Event Management, Market Research, and Account Management.

Follow me on Medium - https://medium.com/@susan_ski

Senior Product Manager

CarMax is the way car buying should be. Whether in-person or online, creating the best omni channel experience for our customers.

As a Senior Product Manager, I focus on creating the best in-person car selling experience for customers and associates through expanding self-service platforms and improving communication with tailored notifications.

Nocklo

Nocklo is an early-stage fintech B2B SaaS company harnessing AI to help people thrive in an increasingly complex world.

As the company’s first Product hire and Founding Member, I'm driving the "zero to one" effort of bringing Nocklo to market.

Founding Member, Principal Product Manager

Unearth for Growth

I partner with early & growth stage companies to build innovative "zero to one" products through:

- Conducting in-depth problem space research 
- Running rigorous solution validation
- Identifying opportunities for differentiation & innovation 
- Identifying new market segments for growth 

My approach focuses on unearthing critical unmet customer needs thorough methodical user research, ensuring we prioritize the most impactful opportunities and create products that truly have an impact in people’s lives and lead to business growth.

Product Management Consultant

Aura

[Aura is an intelligent online security consumer SaaS solution, offering identity, credit, and device protection for their 1M+ customers.  Learn more about Aura here: https://www.aura.com]

Owned all products under Aura’s Scam Prevention Product Portfolio (high-priority product line for Mobile acquisition) which included Call Screening, SMS Screening, Scam Detection ChatBot). Reported into the SVP of Product within the B2C Product team & coordinated a team of 12 (Engineers, QA, Data Analysts, Designer).

• Boosted user acquisition Average Order Value (AoV) and retention significantly by launching a brand new ML-driven Call Screening product in close collaboration with Aura’s Innovation team. Partnered with the Data Science team to refine the intent-based call filtering ML model, ensuring optimal balance between spam blocking and preservation of important customer calls. 
• Created long-term product strategy for Aura’s Scam Prevention vertical through independently leading a research study with a competitor's customer base from design to analysis.
• Reduced the deactivation rate of Aura’s flagship scam prevention product by 10% while concurrently boosting Monthly Active Users (MAUs) by 20%. To achieve this, partnered with Engineering, Design, Sales, and Data Analytics to conduct a complex customer discovery study that revealed specific concerns causing high deactivation rates for Aura's flagship scam prevention product.

Principal Product Manager

Owned all products under the Family Safety Product Portfolio, Aura’s leading Family Product, which included Parental Controls, Family Management, Family Sharing. Coordinated a team of 19 (Engineers, QA, Data Analysts, Designers, UXR).

• Played a pivotal role in identifying the Family segment as a promising target for growth, contributing significantly to shaping the long-term product strategy for Aura. 
• Drove the zero-to-one development and launch of Aura Parental Controls — a Mobile App % Web solution resulting from the strategic integration of an acquired brand. Grew the product from inception to 18,000 new paying customers per year.
• Drove consensus across leadership & stakeholders on an incremental feature release, informed by user & market research, expediting the product's time-to-market by one quarter.
• Successfully led the integration of technologies from an acquired company, harmonizing codebases, architectures, and team cultures.

InferLink Corporation

[InferLink is an AI & ML R&D consulting firm, developing technologies for the government and taking new product incubations to market. Learn more about InferLink here: https://www.inferlink.com]

Led new product incubation efforts, driving initiatives from customer discovery (to assess the commercial potential of new technologies) to implementation. Reported into the CEO & partnered with 7 ML & data scientists.

• Spearheaded a research study from design to analysis to assess the market potential of an intelligent code review tool.
• Built data collection and labeling infrastructure for a Search Database developed for the Department of Defense, enabling Biological Data Analysts to identify Institutions storing specific pathogens as well as people affiliated with these materials. 
• Led development of a B2B SaaS product which leveraged NLP techniques to aggregate cybersecurity vulnerability data from diverse sources (vendor websites, PDFs, forums) in order to identify impacted vendors/products. Partnered with 7 ML & data scientists to set up infrastructure to QA data feeds.

Product Lead, Innovation

Modjewel®

[Modjewel was an innovative handbag brand, offering a modular handbag system allowing for customization and change, while retaining the streamlined look of a traditional handbag]

Invented, founded, launched, and scaled innovative luxury handbag brand. Hired 8 contractors (Industrial Designers, Graphic Designers, Social Media Manager, Engineers) and partnered with a manufacturing facility in China. 

• Founded, launched, and scaled innovative luxury handbag brand, Fast Company: Meet The Nanotech Scientist Who Used Her Mad Skills To Build A Better Party Clutch
• Sourced and partnered with a China-based manufacturing team, ensuring seamless transition from proof of concept to product to import operations into the US market.
• Achieved a 7-fold increase in sales through strategic media placements in prestigious outlets such as Fast Company, Nylon Magazine, and The Price is Right, leading to an 8% surge in overall sales.

Founder & Head of Product

HRL Laboratories, LLC

Recipient of the "HRL Shared Research Technology Award"
• On the magnetic materials team, I developed novel highly magnetic nanomaterials, contributing to secure a $1M+ DARPA contract.
• Successfully implemented process improvement through workflow optimization in the materials characterization lab, enabling internal research team members to iterate prototypes much more efficiently.

Development Engineer

Microfabrica

Short-term contract opportunity to analyze nano-structures.

Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) Specialist

Specialties: Product Discovery, Product Strategy, Innovation, Zero-to-One, New Products, Go-To-Market, Subscription-Based Products, SaaS, Mobile Products, Consumer Products, iOS, Android 

Industries: B2C, B2B, Cybersecurity, Fintech, Retail, Consulting, Research & Development

Zero-to-One Product Leader taking Fintech product from concept to market. Launched and scaled Online Security Consumer B2C SaaS Family Safety solution from zero to 18k new users per year, coordinating a team of 19 (Engineers, QA, Data Analysts, Designers, UXR). Built ML-powered Call Screening product, boosting user acquisition Average Order Value (AoV) and retention significantly. Demonstrated expertise in customer discovery, new product development, market research, go-to-market, strategic innovation, cross-functional team leadership, machine learning products & project management. 

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Hi, I'm Eliana! I help companies drive business growth through discovering customer problems. My Product Management style is methodical and data-informed, which has served me well in taking products from ideation to market success. 

I have recently joined Nocklo (a Fintech B2B SaaS company) as their first Product hire & Founding Member, responsible for leading the product from zero-to-one. Previously, I was a Principal Product Manager at Aura, an online security consumer SaaS company, offering identity, credit, and device protection for families. While at Aura, I first led the Family Safety product portfolio and, most recently, the Scam Prevention product line. One of my proudest achievements was driving the zero-to-one development and launch of Aura Parental Controls, a solution born from a strategic acquisition, resulting in over 18k new users per year. 

Prior to Aura, I led new product incubation efforts at a small AI/ML firm, vetting the commercial potential of technologies through qualitative research. I'm now bringing my product experience and passion for impactful solutions to my current role as the first Product hire at Nocklo. 

Whether you're looking for someone to advise on a new product initiative, spearhead growth within an existing portfolio, or simply connect with a like-minded individual, I'd love to chat and explore potential collaborations.

Let's connect!

taplio

The Battle

Susan Stavitzski

Eliana Ghantous, M.Sc.

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