Hi!

I’m Ksenia - pronounced “Cassina” or “Ksenya.”

I've worn dozens of hats in my 18+ year career spanning IT, product management, product leadership, marketing, pharmaceutical R&D, patient promotion & even hospitality.

Throughout these chapters, I've consistently leaned into solving problems & improving peoples' lives.

My Favorites

Bringing people together, making meaningful connections, & getting to the core of what really matters.

I thrive on cutting through the bullsh*t, facilitating genuinely engaged collaboration with diverse voices, & potentially cursing more than I should as a professional.

Though I’m serious about my work, I try not to take myself too seriously and seek genuine moments of joy -personally and professionally.

I love to travel, outdoor sports, spending time with my friends and family and dabbling in interior design.

Looking forward to meeting you!

Looking for more? Snapshot of my resume

Professional Stuff I’ve Done

  • Trace Sensing Technologies - 2023 to Present

    • Executive coaching – “transformed the board and company dynamics, boosted confidence & overall company momentum & effectiveness” as reported by the CEO.

    • Engineering optimization – developed prioritized roadmap, journey maps & backlog toward a viable prototype (innovative medical diagnostics device) – expected December 2023.

    • Facilitated engineering team transformation toward agile delivery.

    • Organized & facilitated in-person workshops for core team & engineering partners – cemented the

    company mission & vision while bolstering team morale & engineering momentum.

    • Updated landscape & stakeholder analysis - delivered opportunities mapping & engagement strategy.

    • Consulted on branding redesign, marketing positioning & promotional pitch materials.

  • Expedia Group - 2015 to 2023

    Sr. Manager over Product Team

    • Recruited, onboarded, & coached a global team of product to help lead, expand, & optimize tools & experiences for 20K employees over 15 different portfolios/technical domains.

    • Led team to consistently meet business Objectives & Key results:

    ▪ ~$30MM annual in L&M savings & reduction of redundancies,

    ▪ 18% increase in usage & activity of core (primary) tools, reduction in “off-road” solutions,

    ▪ 25% increase in company productivity & collaboration – consistent increase year to year.

    • Facilitated & modeled a team culture rooted in psychological safety & radical candor.

    o Coached two direct reports on track for promotions to Group Product Managers.

    o Coached & mentored two direct reports that were on a Performance Improvement Plan while refining relationships with their engineering partners toward greater reliance & trust.

    • Designed novel onboarding program for Product Managers: used as the template for org-wide standard for Product Manager onboarding learning modules & standards.

    • Helped improve the employee (user) experience demonstrated with CSAT scores increasing by 42% in one year while dramatically reducing total cost of ownership by an estimate of $400K to $500K per year. (Delivered via multifaceted and cross-functional approach).

    Sr. Product Manager, IT

    •Led four cross-functional development teams in Seattle, Austin, Chicago, London, Sydney, Prague & Gurgaon to provide the best tools & experiences for employees.

    • Transformed a sunk ($300MM) cost center into a valuable business investment with demonstrated ROI.

    • Engaged leaders, org-wide with strategic priorities, visions, & 3-year roadmaps for four major product portfolios/capabilities through all stages of the product lifecycle.

    • Successfully pivoted team priorities & roadmap to adapt to (Covid-19) pandemic-related impacts toward business continuity & durability:

    • Built product requirements and strategy for MVP for Ask-IT chat bot to support 20K virtual, global employees with IT-related support requests.

    • Helped drive data led recommendations, best practices, & culture during shift to hybrid working practices (office/remote) with seamless engagement & asynchronous collaboration.

    • Drove a 35% increase in automation leading to a reduction of ~2k+ hours of developer time annually, up-leveling the Citizen Developer community at Expedia.

  • Health Perspectives Group; rebranded to Reverba | Seattle, WA - 2012-2015, 2018-2019

    Director, Product Management | Marketing Innovator, Business Development |Senior Patient Advocate Engagement Manager

    Through different roles, helped enable organizations to actively engage with their health consumers from early- stage development & throughout the product lifecycle.

    • Primary focus on making patient voice truly matter while increasing revenue for major pharmaceuticals such as Gilead, Novartis, and United Therapeutics.

    • As a director in product management, I was brought in to modernize the company’s outreach & vendor management strategies by moving to Dynamics CRM.

    • The effort included building an externally facing portal for clients to review patient advocate information – resulted in accelerated outreach, business development, & shortened time to engaging patient advocates in the field.

    • As a Marketing Innovator & Senior Advocate Engagement Manager –

    • Built foundation for company-sponsored conference (2017) with a multi-channel marketing strategy.

    • Managed company website refresh to feature patient advocates (facilitated patient Advocate selection, photo shoot & story development).

    • Managed multi-company teams to plan for & execute dozens of successful patient Advocate projects (speaker training, story development, promotional & marketing campaigns).

    • Established & executed social listening strategy to perform a landscape analysis for new therapeutic areas, on behalf of a large pharmaceutical client.

    • Established standards for Medical, Regulatory, and Legal review process with an internal audit plan which identified and corrected critical areas of vulnerability.

    • Built familiarity with multiple therapeutic areas and their impact on the human condition to include:

    Multiple Sclerosis, Hemophilia, COPD, Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, and IBSD.

  • Merck & Co., Inc – Investigator Initiated Studies in Oncology, North Wales, PA - 2010-2011

    Global Research Specialist

    • Expanded relationships with internal and external partners in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, without prior oncology or project management experience.

    • Managed multiple global committees to ensure each functioned in accordance with all applicable US and international laws and regulations and company values.

    • Facilitated the review and negotiations of clinical and pre-clinical study designs, budgets, timelines, grant agreements, safety teleconferences and maintained study drug supply.

    GlaxoSmithKline – Biologicals Clinical R&D, Vaccines & Oncology , King of Prussia, PA - 2007-2010, 2011-2012

    Clinical Study Associate - Medical Affairs

    • Audited all clinical study documents to ensure compliance according to FDA regulations during study start, maintenance, & closeout of high-profile clinical trials. (Pediatrics, Adult & Geriatric Flu studies, MMR, Shingles, Oncology trials).

    • Developed & maintained numerous study platforms for the exchange of data & documentation between internal & external partners on a global scale.

More Stuff on Who I am

  • West Chester University of Pennsylvania, West Chester, PA - 2011

    Bachelor of Science, Biology

    Cornell Product Management Certification - 2021

  • Fluent in Russian

    Conversational proficiency in French

    Studying Spanish & Italian

  • • Organized & facilitated internal Expedia speaker panels including those for GAAD: Led to increase of internal adoption & prioritization of accessible & inclusive development, hiring & tooling optimization.

    • Invited to speak at Slack Frontiers (2021) as part of a panel with the Slack Team.