Alina Ernst
Lynnwood,WA
Summary
As a product manager, I am deeply passionate about leveraging user data and feedback to inform feature development and improve product offerings. With experience collaborating across functions and engaging multiple stakeholders, including engineering, design, data science, research, and marketing, I am adept at driving successful product outcomes.
Overview
9
9
years of professional experience
Work History
Product Manager 2
Microsoft
04.2022 - Current
- Developed strategy for areas under my responsibility by setting goals and outlining the path to achieve them through targeted features.
- Communicated user stories through product requirement documents and partnered with design, engineering, research, data, and marketing teams to translate user stories into intuitive features.
- Collaborated with Research Team to get insights into user problems and product gaps. Research included conversations with customers, MaxDiff Analysis, Experience Audits, Competitive Analysis, and Heatmap Testing.
- Established close partnerships with key customers, holding bi-weekly syncs to gain valuable perspectives on problems users encounter of the daily basis.
- Drove increase in metrics such as messaging engagement, retention, and Monthly Active Users (MAU), while tracking how those metrics ladder up to Core Metrics.
- Championed experimentation culture by collaborating with the data team and defining a process for A/B experiments. This enabled us to better understand the impact of features and make informed critical 'go' or 'no-go' decisions.
Product Manager 1
Microsoft
10.2019 - 04.2022
- Spearheaded product strategy and execution for Charting AI in Microsoft Excel.
- Conducted hypothesis generation, user feedback analysis, user studies, telemetry analysis, and A/B testing to inform feature development, such as the AI-powered Chart Recommendations feature in Excel Web.
- Collaborated with design, engineering, and machine learning teams to create product documentation that effectively communicated and aligned key components of upcoming features.
- Prioritized product roadmap to ensure successful achievement of product goals and metrics.
- Established feature and yearly product goals, aligning them with organizational OKRs. For Charting AI, these goals focused on usage, recommendation quality, recommendation consistency, and retention.
Contributed to cultivating a diverse and enjoyable team culture, fostering a collaborative and trusting work environment.
Internal Auditor Intern
Expedia
06.2018 - 08.2018
- Collaborated with product and engineering teams on completing IT Audit for Partner Central Platform.
- Provided recommendations on process improvement to engineering teams based on collected data during an audit.
- Lead a research project on risks associated with Security and Account Take Over, presented findings to upper leadership.
- Performed Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) control testing for Financial and IT controls.
Investigation Specialist - Special Project
Amazon
04.2015 - 09.2016
- Supported Program Managers on launching Q4 Holiday Lightning Deals promotions for third party sellers.
- Collaborated with third party sellers and created 33k peak season Lightning Deals.
- Developed solutions to make uploading process scalable and trackable.
- Worked with Sr Product Managers on investigating discrepancies and improvement opportunities.
Education
Bachelor of Arts - Business Management
University of Washington
Seattle, WATimeline
Product Manager 2
Microsoft
04.2022 - Current
Product Manager 1
Microsoft
10.2019 - 04.2022
Internal Auditor Intern
Expedia
06.2018 - 08.2018
Investigation Specialist - Special Project
Amazon
04.2015 - 09.2016
Bachelor of Arts - Business Management
University of Washington