Resume
Kate Makrigiannis
Product Strategy Leader | Healthtech, Defense & Enterprise
k8makrigiannis@gmail.com · LinkedIn · San Francisco Bay Area
Summary
From rocket launches to hormone health - I help product teams find clarity in complex, regulated environments where getting it wrong has real consequences since before remote was the default, before every company had an AI strategy, before "product-led" was a LinkedIn buzzword. Fourteen years of walking into messy situations with smart people, good intentions, and no shared picture of what they're actually building. I name what's happening, build just enough structure to get people moving, and stay until the work is self-sustaining.
→ Cut Space Force MVP cycles from 6 months to 2 weeks by bringing continuous discovery to defense software teams
→ Coached 70+ product teams at Kaiser Permanente through an org-wide shift to outcome-driven delivery
→ Built a menopause symptom engine covering 150+ symptoms as fractional Director of Product at FLUXX Health
→ Took a HIPAA-compliant wellness platform from zero to 60% patient adherence in 4 months at Sperity
Senior AI Product Manager
Artium AIArtium AI · January 2026 - May 2026
Iteratively developed AI practice strategy and two client delivery engagements at a product development consultancy. Managed 3- and 4-person delivery teams per engagement across edtech and clinical trial domains.
- Built a 580+ skill agentic AI system to support consulting practice: reusable discovery templates, coaching playbooks, and delivery workflows using Claude and structured prompt engineering. Production system used regularly, not a prototype
- Helped shape Artium's AI product positioning, competitive narrative, and go-to-market strategy
- Led product for Helia, a clinical trial startup optimization tool for a $2.7B CRO. Delivered a working product slice in the first sprint. Authored a detailed domain primer and built personas for regulated clinical workflows
- Ran inception and delivery for an education platform's Asset Library, building lean backlog workflows and pairing daily with client PMs to transfer product ownership
Staff Product Portfolio Lead
Rise8Rise8 · June 2024 - March 2025
Led a 5-person cross-functional portfolio team (Product, Design, Engineering, Platform) and coached a 6-person app delivery team at Space Launch Delta 45's Capabilities Development Division, managing 20+ projects under a $1.67M SBIR contract.
- Reduced MVP cycle time from 6 months to 2 weeks (92%) by introducing continuous discovery and outcome-based product strategy to defense software teams
- Owned cross-functional leadership across 3 portfolio pillars: Platform & Pipeline, Mission Capabilities, Org Maturity
- Delivered 7 outcome-based roadmap iterations tied to contract milestones, each framed as Problem → Test → Outcome → Impact
- Coached a PM through her first Discovery & Framing to production deployment
- Navigated Operational Acceptance reform to unblock production deployments, clearing an institutional bottleneck that had stalled multiple teams
- Facilitated cross-contract alignment across 3 SBIR partnerships (Rise8, Metronome, BeastCode)
- Booth presenter at AFA Air, Space & Cyber Conference. Won "Master of the Mic" at Rise8's PM offsite for best product review presentation
Product Strategy Consultant
k8mak consulting · July 2020 - Present
Independent consulting practice alongside full-time roles. Focused on product strategy, organizational transformation, and user research for nonprofits, healthtech, and U.S. defense.
FLUXX Health - Fractional Director of Product
May 2024 - November 2025 (1 year 7 months)
0-to-1 product leader for a clinician-founded menopause education startup. Led a 4-person cross-functional team with a monthly retainer. Total project investment: $200K+.
- Built a science-backed menopause decision support platform from concept to live product: 120 active users, 47% engagement rate (exceeding industry benchmarks)
- Designed an AI-informed recommendation engine with phase detection logic, confidence-based scoring, and a symptom clustering model covering 150+ symptom types across hormonal phases
- Authored the PRD, HIPAA-compliant AWS architecture (API Gateway → Lambda → DynamoDB), and full compliance documentation including Terms of Service and vendor audit
- Simulated a 20-member Clinician Advisory Board spanning OB-GYNs, urologists, naturopaths, and integrative MDs for quick decision gut-checks before real clinician reviews
- Data-driven iteration: 800+ quiz completions after v2 launch, 38% reduction in quiz abandonment through mobile-first UX, organic search traffic nearly tripled month-over-month
- Led user research with clinicians and patients. Wrote copy that shipped: quiz flows, 150+ symptom pages, landing page, and email campaigns
Sperity Health - Fractional Director of Product
May 2024 - May 2025 (1 year 1 month)
0-to-1 product leader for an early-stage longevity health startup. Led product strategy alongside the founding physician, a product designer, and an engineer.
- Built a HIPAA-compliant biomarker-driven wellness MVP from zero: no product, no backlog, no shared understanding of what to build
- Co-designed the Sperity Score, a daily wellness metric (0-100) integrating Whoop HRV/sleep data, Signos glucose monitoring, bloodwork biomarkers, and fitness evaluations alongside CEO and clinicians
- Created 5 member personas and mapped care delivery workflows from appointment scheduling through diagnostic handoffs
- Built the team's first product rituals, shifting from ad hoc founder-driven decisions to structured delivery, enabling the team to ship their first testable product in 4 months
- Supported fundraising conversations and investor pitch development. 18 early users tested. 60% patient adherence
Carina Health
May 2024 - July 2024
- Led foundational user and market research for expansion into Medicaid-covered respite care in Washington state
- Conducted stakeholder interviews with SEIU 775 union reps, WA state respite authorities, and caregivers
- Reviewed 50+ sources across AARP, NIH, ARCH, WA DSHS, and Medicaid.gov
- Delivered a state-ready WA partnership advocacy deck and Now/Next/Later product roadmap
Sagely LLC / U.S. Air Force
July 2022 - March 2023
- Product Coach at an SBIR-funded ($2.3M+) coaching company serving DoD software factories
- Authored a 5-phase coaching framework that became the standard engagement model for Sagely's DoD practice
- Built immersive curriculum: lectures, case studies, experiential learning, pre/post assessments on product discovery, delivery practices, and technical readiness
- Shaped Sagely's product strategy: learning path architecture (5 personas, Level 0-1 curriculum), app roadmap, and go-to-market plan
B Lab (Global B Corp Certification)
October 2020 - June 2021
- Guided B Lab's shift from a feature-request model to outcome-driven product development aligned to Global Board Objectives
- Conducted 18 internal stakeholder interviews across 7 departments. Identified 9 platform-wide UX problems including siloed org structure mirroring siloed product experience (Conway's Law)
- Authored a 2023 Product Vision with three outcome pillars, a Now/Soon/Future outcome-based roadmap, and a phased delivery plan
- Designed succession plan and hired the full-time Lead PM: wrote the job posting, created the take-home exercise, ran the recruiting process
Principal Product Management and Portfolio Leadership Coach
Kaiser PermanenteKaiser Permanente · September 2022 - April 2024
Embedded product coach within KP Digital (12M+ members, $350M digital investment portfolio). Part of a 10-person coaching practice, reaching 70+ teams across 9 experience groups and ~20,000 IT staff.
- Built the product practice learning hub: 40+ SharePoint resources, 4 Quick Start Guides, and 12 interactive workshops (Articulate Rise 360)
- Advocated for the L1-L4 OKR cascade framework connecting enterprise metrics to squad-level key results, with data-driven measurement definitions across 6+ data sources
- Led cross-functional leadership alignment: defined PM, Product Group Lead, and Group Leadership roles and responsibilities across the organization
- Facilitated 15 executive OKR workshops. Coached 50+ PMs with 20+ individual mentoring sessions
- 1,150+ attendees at learning events including SVPG workshops, OKR workshops, and product bootcamps
- Authored strategic advisory documents during the Epic platform transition proposing org design models, delivery management reform, and outcome-based budget restructuring
- Board recognized my work in 2023: "Developed curriculum and launched product model learning program for KP IT"
- Manager review: rated "Excellent," called "a visionary and a person of action"
Senior Product Manager, Growth & Onboarding
Gatsby (A Netlify Company) · March 2022 - July 2022
Growth PM at a ~50-person open-source developer tools company (50K+ GitHub stars, 3K+ contributors). Product-led growth target: 3X ARR and 2X paid sites (~4,000 paying customers).
- Launched the Agency pricing tier after discovering through developer interviews that the entire pricing model needed restructuring to match how agencies charged their clients
- Improved onboarding activation by 40% and reduced time-to-value by 22%
- Led information architecture redesign for agency project management and go-to-market for the new pricing plan
- Facilitated the Product Council framework with data-driven quarterly reviews
- Customer research included developers at Sunwing, FieldRoutes, Hallmark, and Intralox
- The agency strategy contributed to Gatsby's acquisition by Netlify
Group Product Manager, Platform Data
ZendeskZendesk · July 2020 - March 2022
Platform PM owning Custom Objects, Custom Fields, and Triggers & Logic across ~20 engineers, 3 engineering managers, and 3 designers. Covered 3 data management teams simultaneously when cascading manager departures left the group without PM leadership.
- Led Custom Objects from beta to GA release, extending Zendesk's platform data model so businesses could represent unique data structures without writing code
- Made the tough call to postpone new features for 9 months to clear Custom Fields technical debt. After the refactor, new features took less than half the time to build
- Created clickable prototypes for SMB users who lacked technical backgrounds, simplifying platform terminology with Content Design
- Mapped competitive platform UX across Salesforce, Freshdesk, Kustomer, and ServiceNow. Identified CDP enrichment and native data source breadth as key competitive gaps
- Ran a Data Management Admin Rolling Study: 12+ participant interviews across car rental, healthcare, insurance, e-commerce, and IT/software
Senior Manager of Product Management
Pivotal Software, Inc.Pivotal Software, Inc. · November 2018 - July 2020
Promoted to manage 5 PMs and Designers while continuing senior IC delivery across Pivotal's highest-profile engagements. Scoped and staffed cross-functional delivery pods across 7 offices (ATL, SF, Dallas, DC, NY, Chicago, Boston).
- Goldman Sachs / Apple Card Installments: managed PM team (23 Pivots + 17 GS staff) for Apple Card's installment payments feature. 100K users, 130K installments, $108M revenue at launch
- U.S. Air Force / Kessel Run (2 engagements): built airspace management tools for Spacer (digitized ACMREQ forms replacing 4 legacy systems) and Dingo (in-theater aircraft status). Conducted 20+ user interviews with enlisted members across global Air Operations Centers
- Swing Therapeutics: led product for Stanza, now an FDA-cleared digital therapeutics app for fibromyalgia (CBT for chronic pain)
- WeWork / StubHub: led product consulting for add-ons platform and legacy pricing system migration (DDD, event storming, GCP)
- Managed 5 direct PM and Designer reports: staffing, performance evaluations, compensation benchmarking, promotion readiness
- Co-presented at SpringOne 2020: "As an Attacker, I Want Your Data: Anticipating Security Threats"
Product Management Consultant
Pivotal Software, Inc.Pivotal Software, Inc. · September 2016 - November 2018
IC product consultant coaching enterprise client teams through Discovery & Framing, inception, and agile delivery using Pivotal's balanced team model (Lean Startup + User-Centered Design + XP).
- Home Depot (3 engagements): led vendor collaboration platform for 50,000+ vendor employees (HAM), product catalog integration (Items United), and security discovery (Enigma)
- JP Morgan (JPMC): trade ticketing engagement in NYC, Kate's first Pivotal project
- Sealed Air: distributor portal (Compass), launched 2018
- Mr. Cooper: reverse mortgage product (PinPoint), Dallas
- Allstate: co-taught a 2-week PM boot camp for ~20 CompoZed PMs with hands-on inception exercises
- Goodr Food Rescue: facilitated a 5-day Design Sprint for food pickup & delivery MVP. Coached founder Jasmine Crowe through user interviews and story writing. Goodr has since served 32M+ meals, certified B Corp
- Published "How to Help Non-Technical Teammates Understand Your Tech-Heavy Product" (Pivotal Built to Adapt)
- Organized the Lean Software Atlanta meetup (2018-2019)
Product Management Instructor
General AssemblyGeneral Assembly · March 2017 - August 2018
Designed and taught a 10-week Product Management course and monthly Agile workshops at GA Atlanta (Ponce City Market). Built the full curriculum from scratch: strategy, discovery, personas, wireframing, usability testing, prioritization, OKRs, user stories, estimation, and final product pitches.
- 150+ aspiring PMs taught across multiple cohorts
- Student rating: 9.5/10
- Also led monthly 2-hour community workshops on Agile Software Development & Product Management fundamentals
Product Owner, Customer Loyalty
IHG Hotels & ResortsIHG Hotels & Resorts · March 2016 - September 2016
Sole Product Owner of 3 global CRM products simultaneously, serving 5,000 hotels across 4 regions (AMER, AMEA, EUR, Greater China). Coordinated offshore delivery team of 5-8 in India.
- Products: GuestConnect 2.0 (hotel promotions), Guest Arrivals Reports, Bowtie (guest profile 360 dashboard)
- Redesigned GuestConnect from 11% hotel adoption with a new 8-step offer creation wizard
- Guest Arrivals Summary Report reached 91% active usage, 71% daily usage
- Data-driven impact: high-usage hotels showed +2.3% member recognition, +3.8% problem handling vs. low-usage hotels
- Presented monthly to CRM Steering Committee
Agile Delivery Lead (Certified Scrum Master)
352, Inc.352, Inc. · November 2013 - February 2016
Facilitated agile delivery across responsive web, e-commerce, and internal platforms at a digital agency. Scaled from managing 1 cross-functional team to 3 simultaneously.
- AutoTrader's MakeMyDeal: functioned as Product Manager on a two-sided car negotiation platform. Oversaw a 24-person team (agency's largest ever). MakeMyDeal became Cox Automotive's fastest-growing new business unit, growing from 2 to 30+ internal staff
- PlanningPoker.com / Mountain Goat Software: partnered with Mike Cohn to rebuild the platform from a 3-day hackathon proof of concept into a full product. Adopted by Cisco, Oracle, GE, IBM, Home Depot, Barclays, and Wells Fargo
- Agile Alliance: led platform migration and nonprofit website redesign, coordinating 200+ work items including 20+ years of conference content migration and a membership system with 24 business rules
- Founded and organized the Agile Gainesville Meetup (300 members)
- Office Culture Champion award, two years running
Earlier Career
Marketing & Media Project Manager
Proforma Albrecht & Co. · May 2013 - November 2013
Order management from placement to delivery across printing, digital media design, branded merchandise, promotional items, uniforms, and apparel. Achieved 2x Top 10 monthly highest profit branch. Won UF #itsgreat sports brand RFP.
Marketing Manager | Innkeeper
Sweetwater Branch InnSweetwater Branch Inn · June 2012 - July 2013
First post-college role, starting weeks after graduating Virginia Tech. Managed all social media and hospitality websites across 7 platforms. Designed promotional materials across print, web, and email. Planned and led staff meetings and company-sponsored public events including the inn's 20th anniversary ribbon cutting.
Education
Virginia Tech
BA, Theatre Arts - Performance Focus, Psychology · May 2012
Certifications
- AI for Product Management
- AI in Product Design
- Good Clinical Practice Training for Social and Behavioral Research
- Data Literacy
- Ready to Coach - 5-week Mentor-Guided Challenge
Publications
- So you want to be a Product Manager, but you don't know where to start.
- Manage the Growing Pains of Scaling an Agile Team
- 7 Stages of User Onboarding for Digital Products
Core Competencies
AI Product Management, AI Strategy, Generative AI, AI Product Discovery, GPT Product Design, AI-Assisted Workflows, AI Literacy, Recommendation Systems
Product Strategy, Product Discovery, Product Roadmapping, MVP Strategy, Product Transformation, Product Coaching, Zero-to-One Product Development, Stakeholder Management, Consumer UX Strategy, Experiment Design, Product Mentorship
Domain
Healthtech, GovTech, Defense Technology, Enterprise Platforms, HIPAA Compliance, Regulated Industries, Financial Services, Digital Transformation
Lean Startup, User-Centered Design, OKRs, Agile Methodologies, Extreme Programming, Design Thinking, User Research, Service Design, Jobs to Be Done
Executive Coaching, Team Coaching, Workshop Facilitation, Curriculum Design, Public Speaking, Community Building, Mentoring