My Experience

Leveraging Cross-Functional Influence

Building alignment around a channel that didn't exist yet

While at Ozmo, I formed our first Customer Advisory Board as a fresh opportunity to learn about what directions our SaaS clients were heading and contribute to our overall Product Strategy.

Influence that starts by being inclusive

I approach strategic influence from a perspective of education and inclusion. I routinely created internal alignment and investment by including cross-functional folks as early as possible, especially in research and ethnographic initiatives.

This was the same instinct behind most of the cross-functional work I'm proudest of. For example, at Exadel, I led a resolution to an ambiguous client-intake process by proposing Discovery as a formal, set-cost engagement type and won its adoption across the company as the default approach by including my peers in the process.

Here's an example of how I built cross-functional alignment around a channel that didn't exist yet at Ozmo:

💼 Case:

As the Product Design Director at Ozmo, I had led my team through years of Discovery and user research. This had enabled Design to heavily influence our innovative Product Strategy, but working with major telecom providers like AT&T, Cellcom, Rogers and more meant that there were respective innovation pipelines happening within each of our customers as well.

⚠️ The problem:

Product strategy was disconnected with where our SaaS customers were strategically heading within their respective innovation roadmaps, but Ozmo’s product offering needed to remain viable as a facet of their support ecosystems.

🛠️ Process:

I researched and defined what a Customer Advisory Board would be and how it would function at Ozmo through documentation, then worked through collaborative review with my Product peers for cross-functional influence and investment.

✅ Results:

Ozmo's first Customer Advisory Board gave the Product Group direct, ongoing access to key customer executives it hadn't had before providing new sources of insight into where customers were heading strategically.

With this fresh access, I enabled the Product Group to validate early concepts of possible directions we were exploring. Additionally, executives from a variety of our customers had their first opportunity to meet each other and hear their respective strategies and upcoming goals.