There’s a famous, unattributed quote that says, “Leaders instill in their people a hope for success and a belief in themselves. Positive leaders empower people to accomplish their goals.”
Comparably’s Best Product Leaders 2019 prove that to be true. These are 25 of the most inspiring department leaders in the country. Each of them heads up one of the product departments that recently won one of Comparably’s Best Product Departments 2019 awards. We wanted to tip our hat and mention them all by name, as truly inspiring leaders are hard to find, and these CPOs and VPs of Product run the departments that their employees voted as the nation’s best.
Scott Belsky – CPO at Adobe
Bio: Scott Belsky is an entrepreneur, author, investor, and currently serves as Adobe’s Chief Product Officer and Executive Vice President for Creative Cloud. He is the author of two national bestselling books – Making Ideas Happen and The Messy Middle, and founded 99U, a publication and annual conference devoted to productivity in the creative world.
From Adobe Product employees: “Leadership always makes me feel like an equal.”
See Adobe’s award-winning product scores
Scott Blacker – Head of Product at AgileCraft
Bio: Scott Blacker is a passionate, results-oriented product leader with a 15 year track record of building, launching, and commercializing profitable software products. Blacker has experience leading product, marketing, services delivery, customer success and user experience functions.
From AgileCraft Product employees: “We have a great mix of leaders with diverse backgrounds and experience. They are all very approachable and care about everyone in the company.”
See AgileCraft’s award-winning product scores
Eddy Cue – SVP, Internet Software & Services at Apple
Bio: Eddy Cue is Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, reporting to CEO Tim Cook. He joined Apple in 1989 and leads a large organization of amazing people. Eddy was instrumental in creating the Apple online store in 1998, the iTunes Store in 2003 and the App Store in 2008.
From Apple Product employees: “The leadership team is great at creating a comfortable work environment. I have never worked anywhere where the management did so much to keep employee morale high and consequently improved efficiency.”
See Apple’s award-winning product scores
Robert Reynolds – CTO, Product and Technology at Avant
Bio: Robert Reynolds is CTO of Product and Technology for Avant. He previously held roles for the company as SVP of Product & Technology, VP of Product, and Head of U.S. Personal Lending. Prior to that he worked in several roles for Enova Financial. He holds a BA in Entrepreneurship from the University of Chicago at Urbana-Champaign.
From Avant Product employees: “Everyone is super open and willing to help anyone. There are no offices so everyone from entry level to exec level are equally approachable.”
See Avant’s award-winning product scores
Jeff Clarke – Vice Chairman, Products & Operations at Dell
Bio: Clarke is responsible for Dell’s global supply chain, and leads its product organizations: Infrastructure Solutions Group and Client Solutions Group. Jeff joined Dell in 1987 as a quality engineer, moved into a product development role in 1989 and has served in a variety of engineering and leadership roles.
From Dell Product employees: “They are supportive, responsive, professional, and are constant in their expectations and innovative ways of improving processes and systems.”
See Dell’s award-winning product scores
Craig Daniel – VP of Product at Drift
Bio: Craig Daniel is a hands-on product executive with a track record of building motivated teams who execute at scale. He has proven experience leading product management, user experience design, and engineering disciplines for start-ups and growth businesses. Daniel holds a BS in Computer Science from Providence College.
From Drift Product employees: “They set very clear goals for the company and work with us to help us meet them. That includes helping create effective strategies, providing access to information that is important to achieving success, actively getting involved and providing feedback, and being transparent about where we stand.”
See Drift’s award-winning product scores
Steve Tack – SVP of Product Management at Dynatrace
Bio: Steve Tack serves as Senior Vice President of Product Management at Dynatrace LLC. Tack is responsible for product vision and go-to-market strategy. Prior to this role, he has held management positions in product management, technical sales and engineering.
From Dynatrace Product employees: “I love that passion for product, striving for quality, reasonability and pragmatism seem to be in a very fruitful marriage when you think about our leadership.”
See Dynatrace’s award-winning product scores
Mark Chasse – Product Management Lead at Globant
Bio: Mark Chasse has been focused on creating and implementing new technology products and businesses at high growth companies for over ten years. Mark has also held management and strategy positions at Salesforce.com, Insider Pages, Angie’s List, Helpr Inc., Revolution Health, and Merrill Lynch. Mark holds an MBA from MIT Sloan School Of Management.
From Globant Product employees: “Leadership are always innovating and opening new paths for the entire organization in order to keep it relevant and ahead of other ones in the market.”
See Globant’s award-winning product scores
David Wortendyke – CPO/Co-Founder at Highspot
Bio: David is Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Highspot. David oversees all aspects of design, product management, engineering, and operations. Previously, David was Partner Architect for Windows Azure, where he drove the design and architecture of security and messaging services. Prior to Windows Azure, David worked on a wide range of technologies, including distributed computing, productivity applications, developer tools, and operating systems. He helped found several teams and brought a number of products to market, including Windows NT, Office, and Visual Studio.
From Highspot Product employees: “All are b leaders with differing viewpoints. However, once a decision is made, they are then united in execution.”
See Highspot’s award-winning product scores
Christopher O’Donnell – Senior VP, Product at HubSpot
Bio: Christopher O’Donnell is a technology products strategist, designer, and evangelist. Christopher joined HubSpot as a part of the Performable acquisition in June of 2011. Prior to joining Performable in Fall of 2010, Christopher managed a team of designers and product managers serving the largest customers in the world: our nation’s various military and intelligence organizations.
From HubSpot Product employees: “I appreciate how accessible and transparent they are. Access to information is democratized, there are no gates, which allows the entire team to move quickly.”
See HubSpot’s award-winning product scores
Diego Rodriguez – VP, Chief Product and Design Officer at Intuit
Bio: Diego Rodriguez guides the design and delivery of Intuit’s ecosystem experiences and works with its product management and design communities to forge best practices and deliver seamless, end-to-end customer journeys. Before Intuit, Diego was a Partner at IDEO. He earned a bachelor’s degrees with honors in engineering and humanities from Stanford, and an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.
From Intuit Product employees: “Leaders trust and empower employees to deliver for our customers.”
See Intuit’s award-winning product scores
Ryan Roslansky – Head of Product at LinkedIn
Bio: Ryan Roslansky is the global head of product at LinkedIn, overseeing all teams responsible for building and creating LinkedIn’s products and experiences. He has also played pivotal roles across the company’s key acquisitions, including Lynda.com, SlideShare and Pulse. Prior to LinkedIn, Ryan was the SVP of Product at Glam Media, and held various product and general management positions at Yahoo!, including spearheading the acquisition of Overture in 2003.
From LinkedIn Product employees: “Our leaders are competent, have consistent decision making and a good focus on culture.”
See LinkedIn’s award-winning product scores
Neil Rahilly – VP, Product and Design at Mixpanel
Bio: Neil Rahilly is the VP of Product and Design at Mixpanel. Most recently he served as Mixpanel’s VP of Engineering where he oversaw Mixpanel’s Software Engineering, Machine Learning, Information Security, and Site Reliability teams. During Neil’s six-year tenure with the company, he has also held roles as Mixpanel’s Director of Engineering, software engineer, and engineering manager. Neil holds a JD/MBA from the University of Toronto.
From Mixpanel Product employees: “They are very open to feedback, very committed to growth of the company and growth of employees as individuals.”
See Mixpanel’s award-winning product scores
Varun Chugh – Senior Director, Product Management and Analytics at Mobilewalla
Bio: Varun Chugh is committed and highly focused Product leader with a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the mobile ecosystem combined with Big Data Technologies. He specializes in designing and delivering platforms ground up. Responsible for all product delivery, maintenance and support, Chugh operates at the confluence of Engineering, Design, Data Sciences, Operations and Sales. In his spare time, Varun captains a cricket team, plays tennis, travels and shoots.
From Mobilewalla Product employees: “Leadership encourages autonomy and are into innovation and thinking outside the box. They focus on motivation and learning.”
See Mobilewalla’s award-winning product scores
Tapan Bhat – CPO at NerdWallet
Bio: Tapan Bhat has more than 20 years of experience building and scaling innovative consumer products and businesses, including Realtor.com, Quicken, Yahoo, and Adobe. Bhat holds an MBA in Marketing from Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business.
From NerdWallet Product employees: “Among leadership, there is thoughtful transparency around how decisions are made a desire for continued improvement –both individually and at an organizational level.”
See NerdWallet’s award-winning product scores
Charles Ingram – CPO at Nextiva
Bio: Charles Ingram joined Nextiva in 2018 as Chief Product Officer after a lengthy technology career spanning multiple industries. Previously, Charles held various technology leadership roles with PetSmart, YUM Brands, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, and Wachovia Bank where he developed a passion for building technology that creates connections between great brands and their customers.
From Nextiva Product employees: “They are very analytical and data driven in their problem solving. They have a phenomenal development approach which helps you to grow and improve.”
See Nextiva’s award-winning product scores
Swagat A. Irsale – VP of Products Delivery at Phenom People
Bio: Swagat A. Irsale is Phenom People’s VP of Products Delivery. Prior to his role at Phenom People, Irsale filled the same role for iMomentous and was an IT Consultant for Nexus Software Solutions, Inc. He holds an Ph.D from Auburn University, where he also was a Research Fellow.
From Phenom People Product employees: “Leadership offers easy access, open culture and freedom to propose ideas and execute them.”
See Phenom People’s award-winning product scores
Vinay Ramani – CPO at Pipedrive
Bio: Vinay Ramani brings nearly 20 years of product management to the table. He comes to Pipedrive from Google, where he was Product Lead on the Search Ads team. Before joining Google, Vinay Ramani held product leadership roles within high profile customer-centric organizations including Uber, Yahoo! and Adobe. He holds an M.B.A. from University of California, Berkeley.
From Pipedrive Product employees: “The leaders set ambitious but realistic goals, are very transparent with reasoning for big decisions and progress towards goals and work side-by-side with everyone else, making them really easily approachable.”
See Pipedrive’s award-winning product scores
Steve Sloan – CPO at SendGrid
Bio: Steve Sloan is SendGrid’s Chief Product Officer where is he is responsible for leading product strategy, UI/UX, and the development of SendGrid’s product roadmap. Prior to joining SendGrid, Steve led Marketo’s global product organization including engineering, product management, UI/UX, developer evangelism and data center operations. Steve holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley.
From SendGrid Product employees: “Our leadership demonstrates our values everyday in the way they communicate and lead our business. The transparency allows all of our employees to be fully engaged and understanding of our company direction.”
See SendGrid’s award-winning product scores
Aihui Ong – Senior VP, Technology at SnackNation
Bio: As an entrepreneur and executive, Aihui has built innovative products and a company ranked as one of the fastest-growing by Inc 5000. She is an active speaker at tech conferences globally and has been interviewed by Inc, CNBC, Today Show, Fast Company, TechCrunch, and others.
From SnackNation Product employees: “SnackNation leadership blends whip-smart strategic vision with not only care for but cultivation of the individuals who make that vision work.”
See SnackNation’s award-winning product scores
Brett Nichols – Product Manager at TranscribeMe
Bio: As product manager, Brett Nichols works to translate high level goals into functioning products by coordinating stakeholders with business analysts, designers, and engineering. He is experienced in all steps of the product lifecycle; customer interviews, quantitative analysis, wireframes, and specs. Nichols holds a BA in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley.
From TranscribeMe Product employees: “Leadership are very helpful and supportive and kind, especially to newcomers.”
See TranscribeMe’s award-winning product scores
Param Kahlon – CPO at UiPath
Bio: Param Kahlon, currently the CPO for UiPath, previously held the roles of General Manager for Dynamics 365 Customer Engagement Apps at Microsoft and Vice President and General Manger of Enterprise Mobility for SAP. Kahlon holds an MBA in Operations, Marketing, and Finance from Carnegie Mellon University.
From UiPath Product employees: “Vibrant leadership, great team spirit, awesome talents, open to innovative thoughts.”
See UiPath’s award-winning product scores
Steven ZoBell – CPO & CTO at Workfront
Bio: Steve brings more than 20 years of product development, software engineering and business management experience to the Workfront Team. Prior to Workfront, Steve was the Chief Product and Technology Officer at ADP AdvancedMD where his contributions included the launch of the AdvancedMD iPad and iPhone mobile solutions. During the course of his career, Steve has also been involved in the development of more than 25 critically acclaimed, award-winning, commercial software products.
From Workfront Product employees: “Focused, motivated, easy to see their engagement and progress. Leadership communicates clearly and regularly and I feel really care about us as employees.”
See Workfront’s award-winning product scores
Methodology
Comparably’s Best Product Managers are derived from the winners of the Best Product Departments award. To arrive at those, sentiment ratings provided by Marketing employees nationwide who anonymously rated their departments on Comparably.com between March 8, 2018 and March 8, 2019. There were no fees or costs associated with participating, nor was nomination required.
Winners were determined based on a series of 50+ structured and comprehensive workplace questions in core culture categories, including: Compensation, Leadership, Professional Development, Work-Life Balance, Perks & Benefits, to name a few (in Yes/No, True/False, 1-10 scale, and multiple choice formats). The answer to each question was given a numerical score and then compared to companies of similar size across the U.S. Additional weight was given to scores at companies with more participation from their employee base.
About Comparably
Comparably is an online career destination for compensation and workplace culture data with a mission to make work dramatically more transparent and rewarding. Employees can anonymously and publicly rate their company culture and access salary data through the lens of specific demographics, including gender, ethnicity, age, location, years of experience, company size, title/department, and education. With the most comprehensive and structured data in the industry, it has accumulated 10 million ratings and hundreds of thousands of salary records by employees at 50,000 U.S. companies, from startups to Fortune 50 businesses. The company’s data-driven approach has quickly made it a trusted media resource for salary and workplace culture, and one of the fastest-growing SaaS solutions for employer branding. For more information, go to Comparably.com. For workplace culture and salary studies, including Comparably’s annual Best Places to Work and Best CEOs awards, go to Comparably.com/blog.
