Executive Strategy Consultant
Currently available
Consulting engagements & fractional leadership
About You
Check everything that resonates with you and your team.
Case Studies
These were real business problems. Here's what happened.
Bare Necessities · DTC E-Commerce
A customer service crisis turned into a lasting cross-functional partnership and a dramatic lift in acquisition revenue. Read more
I started by listening to the customer service team and discovered they were dealing with angry calls every day. Customers were frustrated about promotions not applying the way they expected. Sitting with CS made it clear this wasn't just noise or edge cases. It was a consistent breakdown in how offers were being understood on the site, and CS was absorbing the fallout.
The issue wasn't the offer itself, it was how it was being communicated. Customers were missing key exclusions at the moment of decision, which created confusion and frustration downstream. My hypothesis was that if we made exclusions impossible to miss on the page, we could eliminate the misunderstanding at the source and remove the need for CS to constantly intervene. All too often, CS was giving customers the discounts anyway, and this was costing the company money.
I defined the fix and drove it to completion — working directly with the team to redesign the promotional banner so exclusions were impossible to overlook at the moment of decision, and aligning the design team to carry the same standard across all creative assets. Once that was in place, I introduced a standing pre-sale review with CS. Before every major sales event, we reviewed upcoming offers together so issues could be caught before they reached customers.
The change was immediate. The angry calls stopped, the company recaptured the discount spend, and we'd built trust with new customers from day one. Revenue from that acquisition offer grew from $1.4M to $7M in three months. What began as a focused intervention became a permanent operating rhythm — the pre-sale CS review outlasted my time there and became a model for how the two teams worked together going forward.
Clinique · Estée Lauder · Global E-Commerce
Two teams who couldn't work together, a VP losing confidence, and a delivery model that needed a complete reset. Read more
I started by listening to both brand and engineering to understand what was actually going wrong. Tech teams were stretched across 25 brands with competing needs, and brand teams had stopped believing anything would get delivered. The backlog had grown to 8 months, and requests just sat there with no clear path forward.
I understood that our brand partners, including the VP of Ecommerce, weren't in a place to hear how our team prioritizes projects based on data. My first job was to rebuild trust, and the only way to do that was through successful delivery. So I focused the strategy on showing consistent delivery first. Prioritization and data-driven decision making could only work once there was trust.
I started by working with the team to simply deliver the design changes the brand needed. Once our brand partners saw we could achieve delivery, trust began to build. So I introduced them to our 2-week sprints and brought them into the agile umbrella, explaining how we prioritize and how we like to work. They joined our working sessions, saw how decisions were made, and began participating in prioritization with the team.
Within six months, the partnership felt completely different. The backlog had dropped from 8 months to about 4–6 weeks, with just a 2-week turnaround for urgent items. My tech team felt accomplished, having delivered on strategic moves that could be measured. Our brand partners shifted from frustration to real collaboration. They even brought their own data into the conversation. I informally coached 8 fellow PMs on how to apply the same approach with their own brands, and the model spread successfully across Estée Lauder.
Williams-Sonoma · Enterprise Platform · $8B Revenue
A brand new team with a failed release on record, and no established process. I came in, listened, and turned them into a high-performing, self-sufficient team delivering tremendous value sprint after sprint. Read more
Supporting my team meant diving in to understand their challenges. I discovered a talented team that had simply never been set up for success: there was no QA engineer on the team, their test environments were completely unstable, and no one had ever walked them through the release process. No wonder they'd had a rollback.
To shore up this team, I realized a relentless focus on quality had to come first. Nothing we did would matter if we didn't do it well. I knew this would slow the team down, but the rewards would be worth it. Later, we could speed things back up. So together, we put everything on hold in the pursuit of quality.
Without a dedicated QA on the team, I built the quality framework from scratch — establishing test standards, instituting peer review among engineers, and working with engineering leadership to stabilize our test environments. I brought in the release team to walk the engineers through the full release process: how to flag risks, surface dependencies, and meet milestones with confidence. I partnered closely with our tech lead to build shared ownership of quality across the team. The result was a team that understood the standards and held each other to them.
The team went from a failed release to shipping quality product every sprint. We delivered smart features that moved the needle, both for the business and for the customer. The team even won a Release Readiness Award for meeting release milestones. When I moved on, the team kept delivering quality work, never missing a beat. I had made them release-ready and engineering-team strong.
What People Say
"Leah has a rare ability to get everyone rowing in the same direction, which is an invaluable skill when working with cross-functional teams. She handled complexity and ambiguity without losing sight of what actually mattered to the business."
Simone H.
Technical Product Owner, Estée Lauder
"Leah is highly adaptable, calm, competent and motivating under stressful environments. Navigating organizational changes and working with demanding stakeholders, and Leah delivered and shared learnings with others."
Evelyn K.
Digital Product Leader, Estée Lauder
"Leah brought clarity and structure to even the most complex discussions. Her ability to engage with stakeholders and translate business needs into clear priorities made a tangible impact on our delivery."
Stefan C.
Project Manager, Williams-Sonoma
"Leah's deep knowledge of the product lifecycle, coupled with her strategic mindset, enabled her to drive successful outcomes. Her ability to balance long-term strategic goals with immediate needs allowed for the creation of digital products that not only met customer expectations but also aligned perfectly with brand priorities."
Jennifer M.
Senior Manager Global UX Research, Estée Lauder
"Leah is one of the best Product Owners I have ever met. Her ability to negotiate with the client and direction in each task is incredible. Her work is very organized and she adjusts based on priorities to deliver on time. With her help we became a more solid team."
Diego V.
Tech Lead & Full Stack Engineer, Estée Lauder
"Leah handled the heavy lifting for our platforms, overseeing all site content and rollout of new features. She has a proven track record of managing complex projects and seeing them through to completion, independent, focused, and reliable under pressure."
Alexander L.
Head of E-commerce Technology, Bare Necessities
About Me
I'm an Executive Strategy Consultant with 20 years in technology, including a decade driving results at Fortune 500 companies and growth-stage startups.
I've grown acquisition revenue 5x in three months, reduced delivery cycles from 8 months to 2 weeks, and transformed underperforming teams into award-winners.
What I bring to every engagement: clear-eyed strategic thinking, the ability to align your leadership and your teams, and a track record of delivering under pressure.
I'm equally comfortable in the boardroom and in the weeds: writing technical requirements, partnering with engineering on staffing, and working side by side with dev teams whether stateside or offshore.
I work with smart founders and executives who need the right person to drive alignment and real results.
If you're dealing with stalled delivery, missed revenue opportunities, or technology bottlenecks, let's talk.
Connect on LinkedInLet's Work Together
Single 90-minute session
Investment: $2,500
Who it's for
CEOs/founders facing a specific decision and need expert guidance fast
What you get
Pre-session prep, 90-minute strategic working session, follow-up summary with recommendations
What you save
Skip weeks of internal debate or hiring a $20K+ consulting firm. Get clarity on build-vs-buy, roadmap prioritization, hiring decisions, or product-market fit in one focused session.
2-week diagnostic engagement
Investment: $7,500
Who it's for
Companies with a specific product problem (low conversion, slow delivery, unclear roadmap) and need an expert diagnosis before committing to a full engagement
What you get
Stakeholder interviews, product/process review, written diagnostic report, 60-minute presentation with prioritized action plan
What you save
Avoid spending $30K–50K on the wrong fix. A focused audit identifies the real constraint so you invest in solutions that actually work.
6-week engagement
Investment: $25K–35K
Who it's for
Ecommerce/DTC brands doing $5M–50M revenue
What you get
Conversion audit, prioritized fixes with projected impact, testing proposals, implementation roadmap
What you save
A 1% conversion lift on $10M revenue = $100K+ annually. This engagement typically pays for itself within 90 days. You save by getting expert diagnosis and prioritized fixes backed by data, not months of trial and error.
8-week engagement
Investment: $30K–40K
Who it's for
Tech teams with backlogs, missed deadlines, frustrated stakeholders
What you get
Stakeholder alignment, delivery process redesign, backlog prioritization, team coaching
What you save
A fully-loaded engineering team costs at least $1M–1.5M+ annually or $40K–50K+ a sprint. Resetting delivery cadence recovers that investment and prevents tech debt and delays.
6-month engagement
Investment: $7.5K–15K/month
Who it's for
Companies in growth mode who are building new technologies, including startups and AI-native teams.
What you get
Product strategy and roadmap, team development, stakeholder alignment, weekly/bi-weekly leadership
What you save
A CPO costs at least $200K–300K+ a year, roughly $16.5K–25K/month. Fractional leadership delivers the same level expertise with no hiring risk.
Ongoing advisor
Investment: $3K–5K/month
Who it's for
CEOs and founders who want a trusted advisor in their corner. No product or technology background needed. Just someone who helps you make the right calls.
What you get
A direct line for urgent decisions, 2-4 hours/month of strategic guidance, and quarterly strategy reviews.
What you save
One wrong hire or misguided pivot can cost $100K–500K+. This is executive-level access at a fraction of the risk.
To lock in an engagement slot, or if you need something different, let's discuss.
Contact
Whether you're looking to grow revenue, move faster, strengthen your culture, or get your teams aligned, I'd love to hear what you're working on. No pitch, just an honest conversation about your goals and whether I can help.