Recommendations
What it's like to work with Melissa
Real LinkedIn recommendations, quoted in full below, exactly as written.
"Melissa is *the* example of what it takes to be a great Product leader, over and above a good one. Forgoing their rock solid strategy, product sense, execution, and other table-stakes product skills, Melissa is next level in a couple of key ways: More than anyone else, Melissa gets stuff done. Melissa is regularly celebrated internally for their velocity tackling both new ideas and ongoing initiatives: breaking them down to their core frameworks and decisions, gathering data/insights, getting the right people involved, and generally keeping progress going. Despite their remarkable output and impact, Melissa still somehow finds the time to be a team builder for all of Eng/Product/Design, and to foster a collaborative and high-performing environment."
"I've had the privilege of reporting to Melissa, who truly stands out as a leader with exceptional authenticity, talent, and empathy. They possess a strong blend of both IQ & EQ, which, coupled with their innate talent, allows them to foster incredibly cooperative and dependable team atmospheres. In their time at Lattice the biggest success of their leadership was building a platform which involved hands-on product management of our roles & permissions feature work as well as influencing stakeholders incl. senior leadership across the company. One of Melissa's standout abilities lies in their capacity to animate strategies through captivating, data-driven storytelling while being hands-on executing them when needed. Of all the product management leaders I have so far worked with, Melissa is truly the best."
"Melissa is an amazing product leader at Lattice. Their ability to understand customer needs, spot market opportunities, and create innovative solutions is truly remarkable. One of Melissa's greatest strengths is building a strong product culture: an environment where collaboration, empowerment, and continuous learning thrive. In addition to their exceptional leadership skills, Melissa is a vocal advocate and mentor for other product managers, going above and beyond to support and guide their colleagues."
"Melissa is a fantastic manager and an incredibly effective & compassionate leader. During our time together, Melissa seamlessly managed multiple company-wide P0 initiatives, product strategies, and new team formations. They have an incredible talent for identifying the most pressing challenges to the business & customers, generating creative solutions that address root causes, and biasing to action, all while bringing a sense of fun & light-heartedness to the team. A lot of leaders "talk the talk," but Melissa backs it up with action & empathy."
"I've had the joy of working with Melissa at two separate companies now, and at each I've watched Melissa transform both the teams and the product they work on. Melissa is deeply talented at translating business and market needs into technical requirements (and vice versa), and making sure that sprints stay on track even in the face of adversity. As a people manager, Melissa is strongly a coach, motivator, and culture builder, generous about sharing the expert knowledge they've learned throughout their career with anyone looking to better themselves."
"Melissa is a strong and forward-thinking leader in both product and DEI spaces. They built Quorum's product function from the ground up and oversaw numerous product and feature enhancement launches. They're always open to feedback from both users and teammates alike. During our time together on the Inclusion & Diversity Council, Melissa was always willing to take on projects and continued to push both the council and company leadership to build a more inclusive culture."
"Melissa joined Quorum in 2019, and the first thing they did was get to know everybody on the team and learn about the pain points in the organization. Melissa has helped the engineering team jump multiple levels up in maturity by building out a Product Team, bringing Jira to the organization, and implementing a proper PDLC. I feel that Melissa has been an extraordinarily positive influence on our culture: one area we'd struggled with as a startup was constrained resources, and Melissa fiercely advocated for the engineering team and worked to ensure we did not overcommit ourselves."
