Don’t be afraid to show work in progress. Waiting for a grand reveal is such a missed opportunity to get feedback, iterate, learn and make your ultimate deliverable the best it can be.
Katie’s impact:
Katie Guzman is the Product Management Lead for Growth & Adoption at Asana, a leading work management platform for teams. She is responsible for the strategy, roadmap, and success of product programs focused on monetization, first experience, ease of use and internationalization.
The introduction of Asana Business represented a highly complex launch requiring a multi-pronged approach to introducing brand-new functionality and inspiring Asana customers to think about horizon planning in a completely new way. Katie led the creation and execution of this strategy, including reimagining how Asana customers would adopt this new product to expand their project portfolio management capabilities.
Since launching Asana Business and Portfolios just three months ago, financial metrics have well outperformed the team’s initial targets, surpassing planned numbers by over 25%. In addition, the feedback on Asana Business has been overwhelmingly positive, helping Asana reach a new customer base. Now, many executives are now using Asana to proactively monitor projects and see real-time progress in one place.
Why she’s an Up-and-Comer:
Combining her passion for identifying customer needs with her focus of growing Asana’s business, Katie was responsible for the strategy and launch roadmap for Asana Business. Katie led all aspects of growth and adoption for Asana Business and Portfolios, both defined the strategy and rolling up her sleeves to run the release war room of nearly 50 Asanas (how the company refers to its employees) bringing the product to market.
Thanks to Katie’s leadership, Asana helps over 50,000 paying organizations and millions of customers around the world eliminate time-consuming, mindless work to focus on the work making the greatest impact.
What’s your number one piece of advice for people just starting their tech careers?
Don’t be afraid to show work in progress. At Asana, we’ve embraced the ideology of starting with a minimum viable product and rapid experimentation, but I often see early career folks hiding their work, whether it's a proposal, presentation or just a great idea, until it’s deemed “perfect.” Waiting for a grand reveal is such a missed opportunity to get feedback, iterate, learn and make your ultimate deliverable the best it can be.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
In 10 years I see myself doing what I love: building world-class teams and software products with increasing scope and impact for businesses and people around the world. I also hope to have the opportunity to teach and advise the next generation of PM innovators.
