Skip to main content

Dawn Russell is an insightful, visionary, and authentic leader who creates technology-enhanced solutions that improve the lives and experiences of people to drive compelling business results.

Dawn Russell, Strategic Product and Design Technology Leader

About Me

I am a growth-inspired, craft-focused, strategic product and design professional with 15 years of leadership experience designing and building products, architecting information, and facilitating teams to apply a data-driven, curious mindset and measurably improve business outcomes within lean-agile environments. Proven track record of leading collaboration efforts to chart the future vision, translate business goals into an outcomes-based, executable product strategy and deliver future-proof designs that achieve lasting value for people (ie: enhanced product-market fit). Recognized for cultivating global, inclusive, cross-functional partnerships in a matrixed setting to drive organizational alignment, solve complex problems, and achieve measurable business success.

Methodology

I take an ownership mindset when working across complexity to draw connections and inspire innovation that drives powerful business results and customer value. I coach teams to approach their work with curiosity which is paired with data-driven insights and human-centered design techniques. My teams partner with stakeholders, technicians, customers and subject-matter experts to understand and define business and customer requirements. We examine data and conduct research & product discovery to develop deeper clarity about end-users and the market. From there, we facilitate workshops (design sprints) with cross-functional teams to establish empathy and shared understanding. The outcome is a future-proof product vision, built upon a compelling data-driven product & design strategy, that is realized through near-term team-level roadmaps.

Human Experience

Expertise

Product Development Lifecycle

Product Development Lifecycle

Design

  • Conduct user research and leverage data-driven insights to drive product enhancements and innovation.

  • Apply user experience and interaction design best practices to achieve useful, delightful digital solutions.

  • Foster trust and cross-functional partnerships through collaborative brainstorming workshops.

  • Cultivate long-term relationships with customers and lead advocacy groups to articulate use cases.

  • Identify user journeys and jobs-to-be done and map to the product architecture, roadmap, and strategy.

  • Set KPI’s for UX outcomes tracking and implement product-analytics to assess the effectiveness of initiatives.

Team Catalyst

  • Managed globally distributed teams, fostering a culture of innovation and collaboration with a 0% attrition rate.

  • Mentor teams in lean/agile product management and user experience best practices to develop strong talent.
  • Set clear departmental OKR’s and align with individual performance goals. Discuss on a regular weekly cadence.
  • Promote psychological safety by being clear about the conditions for team members' individual success.
  • Partner with HR on succession planning and socializing career path ladder and skills assessment.
  • Communicate frequent status updates and rally teams around a collective goal with passionate storytelling.

Product

  • Formulate a product strategy that is aligned to customer needs, business mission, and technology stack.

  • Articulate a clear problem-frame and value proposition definition for each opportunity.

  • Manage the agile, end-to-end product development lifecycle with predictable, quality delivery.

  • Drive ruthless prioritization to formulate actionable product roadmaps.

  • Oversee product operations to drive confident data-driven decision making.

  • Articulate product positioning, product market fit, and go to market strategy.

  • Develop a content strategy for onboarding, training, and support to ensure customer success.

Selected Use Cases

Below is a selection of use cases that demonstrate the wide array of expertise I bring to an organization as a product and design technology leader. For a walk through, please contact me.

Use Cases

Team Building: Attract, Hire, and Retain Talent

Leading globally distributed teams
Data visualization, Advanced queries Data visualization, Advanced queries

Seven Bridges Genomics

Healthcare Analytics Platform Product

Data Discovery, Analysis, & Insights at Scale

Seven Bridges Genomics

'Data As a Service' Product

Data Templates, Governance, & Automation Frameworks

CVS Health

One Identity, One Login, One Account

Member Experience, Onboarding

Mount Holyoke College

On Campus Dining Menus Solution

Experience Design, Nutrition

Mount Holyoke College

Integration of Technology with Library Services

Digital & Physical Wayfinding, Unified Search

Artisan Web and Print

Clinical Informatics Product Marketing

Persona Development, Brand