Melissa Commons

• Acted as primary point of contact for enterprise, strategic clients.
• Achieved successful client renewals.
• Developed and launched strategic roadmaps, enhancing client ROI.
• Proactively identified and addressed potential issues early in client lifecycle, preventing churn.

Lead product initiatives for integrated payment solutions, web3 social apps across iOS, Android, and web platforms, and open platform integrations. Collaborated with offshore and internal teams of over 15 engineers, using Agile Kanban methodologies

Key responsibilities include:

• Managed product roadmap and set milestone criteria to ensure timely, high-quality product delivery within budget.
• Liaised with stakeholders to understand business needs and market trends, informing product strategy and feature prioritization.
• Documented product feature requirements and user stories, including over 20 product requirements documents, to communicate vision and scope of each release.
• Coordinated cross-functional teams and stakeholders to ensure alignment and successful execution of product initiatives.

• Led product management for rebuild of 25-year-old platform with ~200,000 users, including member account and content migration
• Owned product vision, strategy, roadmap, and backlog using behavior-driven development (BDD) principles
• Managed roadmap and established criteria for each milestone, partnering with high-performing software development teams that followed agile Scrum methodologies
• Facilitated stand-ups, retrospectives, design reviews, user research, and demos to keep development on track and aligned with product vision
• Managed cross-functional team and stakeholder collaboration and communication
• Gathered valuable feedback and insights from stakeholders to inform product strategy and improve user experience
• Equipped with skills and knowledge to lead product initiatives and drive business growth

• Led a new team of project managers and technical implementation functions, managing stakeholder expectations and IT resource relationships for successful project execution.
• Developed client proposals, contracts, and Statements of Work, collaborating with sales, marketing, product, and legal departments to meet pre-sales and post-sales objectives.

• Developed and strengthened long-term customer relationships between Cars.com and Contact At Once! (CAO), identified value-based solutions, and managed the launch of the largest tap-to-text release in automotive history (~7,000 dealers).

• Led strategies and initiatives for new products, oversaw go-to-market planning, measured sales adoption and customer usage, while managing relationship for an enterprise strategic account.
  

• Generated new revenue by pursuing enterprise reseller partnerships and negotiating contracts with clients.
• Created a strategy for an automotive service department offering and led the pilot integration of dealer chat in display ads.
• Represented the company at conferences and industry events, consulting with product development teams to enhance products based on customer interest data.

• Collaborated with client product and development teams to integrate with CAO software, providing pre-sales support, demos, training, integration specs, and technical representation during sales meetings.
• Managed deadlines and timelines for multiple partnerships, identifying potential risk factors, resolving conflicts, and negotiating mutually beneficial agreements.

• Planned and executed product development for the PartSmart electronic parts catalog, defining product vision and collaborating with development, sales, marketing, and support teams to meet revenue and customer satisfaction goals.
• Gathered and prioritized product requirements, working with a high-performing software development team using Agile Scrum methodologies, including participation in stand-ups, retrospectives, and design reviews.
• Communicated project milestones and deadlines effectively, collected customer requirements, and continuously adjusted marketing approaches to improve results.