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Partnerships that drive product value.

As a product leader, it’s my mission to help teams discover product success in ways that feel sustainable, empowering, and fulfilling. I extend my passion beyond my personal career through coaching and consultation services, working with other teams and individuals to build skills, processes, and products.

Get in Touch Alicia Drinkwater consulting with a group of product and design experts in Georgia.

Project Highlights

BuildBook

Led a product trio to build features spanning the entire product vertical, including major revamps to features and projects to target churn.

Planit

Led a team through intense product research and discovery to build an award-winning product design. 

CSA360

Partnered directly with business executives to lead company-wide product strategy and operations, increasing overall production efficiency.

Areas of Expertise

  • SaaS
  • B2B
  • FinTech
  • Mobile Apps
  • Kanban
  • Operations
  • User Research
  • Scrum
  • Data Analysis
  • Product Management
  • Roadmapping
  • Product Discovery
  • Strategy
  • User Experience Design
  • Market Research
  • Front-End Web Development
  • Agile
  • Web Apps
  • Career Coaching
  • Requirement Definition
  • Leadership
  • Hiring
  • People Management
  • Shape Up

Navigating your product journey with expert consulting

A sample of data analysis Alicia Drinkwater conducted while practicing rapid iteration on a startup product.

I’m always looking for new teams, ideas, and individuals to partner with. I work with teams to build custom service packages that fit their product needs and goals. In the past, I’ve helped teams to define processes, to audit their workflows, to design new products, and to build product marketing materials.

There’s a number of reasons why a team might bring a product consultant onto a project. Consultants can help at nearly every point in the product lifecycle, from ideation through delivery, and can provide a fresh, objective point of view built on the breadth of projects the consultant has worked on. Here’s the top five reasons when and why product consultants make a great addition to your team.

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“I have found her to be professional, articulate, and authentic. Alicia is dedicated, energetic, positive, and conscientious in whatever she undertakes. Her business knowledge impresses me as does her conviction to give her best to whatever she is working on.”

– Wendy M., Structure for Success

Providing expertise build on nearly a decade of experience

Professional Experience

BuildBook

🏷️ Senior Product Manager I and II


🏢 About the Team

BuildBook simplifies construction management with end-to-end tools to streamline operations.


🥅 Position Goal

I serve as a Senior Product Manager and lead a product trio, elevating app-wide user experiences. Our projects have included a permissions rebuild, churn analysis, and a new onboarding experience. It’s our goal to get pros into and engaged with our software as quickly and frictionlessly as possible.


💡 Strategies Used

Our team adopts Shape Up with an Agile mindset that empowers individual contributors. We prioritize continuous discovery and rapid iteration to find solutions during the building process.


⛰️ Outcomes Driven

We have recently launched app-wide features that have an impact on all of our thousands of daily users. These initiatives led to an increase in user engagement and retention, with more users joining and logging into BuildBook.

I have also collaborated with the product and design departments to develop a continuous discovery strategy. This strategy is now linked to a quarterly OKR and helps to connect our customer success team with the product and design team. By engaging with customers early in the design process, we adopt a proactive approach to customer and product engagement.

ThriveDX

🏷️ Product Manager, Instruction


🏢 About the Team

ThriveDX teaches digital skills to a global student base, aiming to place 1 million students into careers by 2030. They work with both businesses and individuals (B2B and B2C).


🥅 Position Goal

I served as a Product Manager for instruction, contributing to instructor and student experience, curriculum management, and operations to maximize student learning outcomes.


💡 Strategies Used

Our team combined product strategies from industry experts Marty Cagan and Melissa Perri with user-centric design thinking. We employed a continuous design process within Agile to iterate quickly and learn from failures. My expertise in user experience design allowed me to create prototypes that were thoroughly tested, critiqued, and refined before involving expensive engineering resources, elevating the quality of our product work.


⛰️ Outcomes Driven

At ThriveDX, I spearheaded two projects to improve the company's payroll management system and revamp the instructor scheduling process. The leadership team anticipates that these initiatives will result in a 10% reduction in costs, an increase in instructor Net Promoter Score (NPS), and an overall improvement in the instructor experience.

Furthermore, I took the lead on an initiative to establish clear criteria for what makes a great instructor and to track how an instructor's performance metrics impact student learning, experience, and career placement. This initiative was ongoing even after I departed from the company, and the framework I established continues to serve as the foundation for future data analytics and strategies.

nodMD

🏷️ Product Manager, Security Officer


🏢 About the Team

nodMD is a digital health platform that helps users find the right specialist through superior search criteria.


🥅 Position Goal

As the founding Product Manager of this seed-stage team, I set product goals, implemented new strategies, and resolved previous delays and obstacles. I also fulfilled the role of HIPAA Security Officer and ensured our compliance approval.


💡 Strategies Used

I successfully implemented Lean techniques to switch the team from a waterfall methodology to a more proactive Agile management approach. This shift necessitated cross-functional collaboration in order to educate, mediate, and balance the new tools and techniques. Additionally, I facilitated one of the team's initial research programs, which entailed demonstrating over 20 competing software platforms and engaging with clients to manage expectations, requests, and requirements during the sprint to launch.


⛰️ Outcomes Driven

During my time at nodMD, I achieved our first HIPAA compliance seal of approval and played a role in developing the nodMD health services platform. This involved procuring external resources, establishing design workflows and methodology, and facilitating product-led workshop sessions. One of my most significant contributions was conducting a thorough analysis of the team's product operations and strategy, which led to the implementation of effective solutions and recommendations throughout my entire tenure.

CSA360

🏷️ Director of Product Management


🏢 About the Team

CSA360 is an all-in-one security software solution for event and venue operations.


🥅 Position Goal

I oversaw all operations relating to the product line's definition, design, and build. My position included product management, user experience design, Agile project management, customer success, and Atlassian administration. My primary objective was to act as the central point of coordination between executives, customers, and individual contributors, ensuring that the product's mission remained at the forefront of our focus.

Additionally, I served as a product coach for executive leaders and a yearly internship program. My day-to-day routine consisted of educating leaders on product strategies, best practices, and potential new methodologies to find and expand product-market fit. During my summers, I also designed and led a product bootcamp-style internship for groups of college students, guiding them through the end-to-end process of discovering, building, and pitching a product supported by a business strategy.


💡 Strategies Used

I created and implemented an Agile strategy at the company, helping to re-unite our previously divided teams and iron out communication blockers. I also implemented Lean product strategy techniques to drive maximum results with minimum effort. These efforts encompassed people management and leadership, customer management, operations strategy, and cross-team collaboration to ensure alignment on product goals and methodology.


⛰️ Outcomes Driven

Implementing my Agile strategy increased our engineering team's efficiency by 41%. As a result, we rapidly expanded our platform and transformed it into an end-to-end solution that included guard post management, payroll and invoicing, scheduling, ticketing, and reporting. This also improved employee retention within the engineering teams I managed and created a healthier work environment overall. Additionally, the internship program grew by almost 500% during my leadership, going from a small group of personal connections to entire groups seeking out the product education offered by the program.

Archon Tech Strategies (Ceemless)

🏷️ Product Consultant, User Experience Designer


🏢 About the Team

Archon Tech Strategies is a digital startup incubator and accelerator that guides new products through their early launches.


🥅 Position Goal

As part of my role, I met with stakeholders and clients to understand the product vision. I collaborated with cross-functional teams to transform this vision into a functional reality. My responsibilities included creating end-to-end visual designs, including user interface design and branding. I worked closely with company executives to present and refine my prototypes and strategies based on client feedback.


💡 Strategies Used

I always put the users first by following a human-centered design approach. However, I communicated and negotiated effectively with clients to incorporate their vision while building products. This way, both customers and stakeholders were thrilled with the final results.


⛰️ Outcomes Driven

While at Archon Tech Strategies, I was part of a team that successfully launched over nine companies through their incubator program. I played a significant role in the development of several designs, strategies, and solutions that made it to the market, which was a remarkable achievement for pre-seed-level app ideas. Toward the end of my term, the team merged with Ceemless to ensure the continued delivery of innovative tech results.

Communicode

🏷️ Creative Director, Acting Product Manager


🏢 About the Team

Communicode connected tech-savvy students seeking volunteer hours with local non-profit organizations needing a 21st-century revamp.


🥅 Position Goal

As a creative director, I oversaw visual design, brand direction, and user interface design. I also contributed to engineering by building front-end frameworks for my designs.


💡 Strategies Used

As a member of an early-stage startup, my main focus was to quickly achieve product-market fit. This involved identifying our target users, understanding their needs, and developing products that catered to our insights. I relied on the knowledge of our team to identify and engage with our target audience early on while keeping them at the heart of our brand experience. We also implemented Agile development strategies that allowed us to quickly create prototypes and iterate rapidly, all while valuing the importance of failing fast.


⛰️ Outcomes Driven

Communicode stemmed from a three-person bootstrapped idea and, during my tenure, grew into a venture-funded product. I played an active role in building the product from scratch and marketing it to our users, stakeholders, and investors.

Imavex

🏷️ Design and Development Intern


🏢 About the Team

Imavex is a marketing and website design agency bringing business to the web, focusing on fast, low-budget projects.


🥅 Position Goal

During my internship, I undertook a self-led project where I conducted research, design, and development planning for a digital design database. The aim was to resolve internal communication issues between sales and product departments. My deliverables included company-wide meetings and presentations on product strategy, user experience, and interface designs. Additionally, I created prototypes using both no-code and compiled tools.


💡 Strategies Used

I applied continuous discovery techniques in an Agile setting -- a first in my career. I collaborated with colleagues from multiple departments to gather requirements, identify issues, and utilize their expertise. Through an iterative approach, I developed a product plan that aligned with the team's current processes.


⛰️ Outcomes Driven

At the end of the program, I gave a company-wide presentation where I demonstrated my final deliverables and made a case for implementing the tool into the team's existing workflow. Although I was offered a permanent position with the company, I decided to explore other opportunities that would allow me to delve even further into the world of product design. Imavex helped me identify and refine my business, design, and development skillset and provided me with one of my earliest experiences as a product storyteller.

Codelicious (Ellipsis Education)

🏷️ Instructor, Graphic Designer


🏢 About the Team

Codelicious is a technology education company that began as a B2C operation developing and delivering technology curricula to kids ages 8 - 18.


🥅 Position Goal

I served as an instructor and curriculum author for graphic design, web development, and software development. I contributed as an in-house graphic and web designer, creating various marketing materials for the company. I also handled all website management tasks, including technical implementations and updates.


⛰️ Outcomes Driven

During my tenure at Codelicious, I witnessed the growth and evolution of the company's strategy and had the chance to contribute to various aspects of it. The company (now called Ellipsis Education) has expanded upon the curriculum foundation I helped create by transitioning to a B2B model and providing state-compliant technology curriculum to schools.

Projects and Partnerships

Alicia Drinkwater shaking hands with another design industry professional on stage at SCAD in Georgia.

Product expertise built on a top-level academic program

My product knowledge base includes a blend of professional and academic knowledge, including my Bachelor of Fine Arts in User Experience Design from the Savannah College of Art and Design. SCAD’s UX program, built with Google, pushes students to the limit through design, engineering, product, and business education. I graduated Summa Cum Laude and continuously rely on the network and expertise built during my education.

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