ampersand Nevertheless

Curriculum Vitae

I am a product leader and people manager with more than 10 years of experience in product related roles from key Norwegian tech companies.

I am a self-driven and structured team-player who cares deeply about great user experiences. I take a human-centered approach to almost anything, and I can get excited about most things web technology. I am curious and reflective which makes me an exceptional learner.

I have worked on large developer centric web sites and B2B/B2E SaaS products, and I know how to nurture and lead teams and how to build and manage developer communities.

Work experience

I am good at

  • identifying and solving problems for customers and the business, also in a highly-technical context
  • making decisions in ambiguous situations and with incomplete data
  • shipping products that customers love
  • learning about complex topics real fast, and deciding where to dive deeper and where to move on
  • leading—and managing—software engineers, remote and in the office
  • removing entropy and keeping things on track, oftentimes by doing the work of a missing team member
  • finding the perfect reaction gif

BRYTER

BRYTER is the no-code service automation platform that enables business experts to build digital applications.

Principal Product Manager

November 2021 – present

  • Responsible PM for document generation

VIBBIO

VIBBIO is building a cloud-based video creation platform tailored for internal communications managers.

The company was founded in 2016 as a fast and light-weight B2B video production agency before building out its SaaS capabilities. It currently has 9 full-time employees.

I joined VIBBIO in 2017 as the first dedicated product person and most senior technical employee.

CPO/CTO

July 2020 – October 2021

  • Contributed to a new company strategy following a product and subsequent customer pivot; led the teams through the following repositioning process
  • Launched an entirely new product, set and communicated launch-related goals and KPIs, and led and supported the engineering team through an intense period of change
  • Grew total MAU with 20% and total MRR with 23% in H1 2021
  • Sunset the previous product, and owned all customer-facing communication during the transition
  • Led the teams through change and employee turnover during the COVID-19 pandemic 😵‍💫

VP of Product

November 2017 – June 2020

  • Hired and developed the engineering team as a fully distributed team across Europe; established software development processes and routines, and coached the non-technical members of the company in modern product development practices
  • Owned and executed VIBBIO's product strategy and roadmap; led the team through a complete, gradual rewrite of the early product version and later a pivot
  • Introduced and maintained VIBBIO's KPI and in-product analytics dashboards
  • Led and managed the company's transition from an agency with technical capabilities into a B2B SaaS startup
  • Reimagined and redesigned the product following the strategic shift towards a scalable SaaS model
  • Contributed to VIBBIO's seed round raising a total of 13m NOK (1.46m USD)

With a solid technical understanding she was able to both develop and design the product while also leading the development team. [...] Alexandra is an amazing manager and without a doubt the best manager I have ever worked with.

Espen Dahlløkken, then Software Developer at VIBBIO

Ardoq

Ardoq develops a cloud-based Enterprise Architecture tool that helps organizations visualize dependencies between processes, systems, capabilities, and strategic initialtives to successfully drive digital transformaton.

The company was founded in 2013, and had 10 full-time employees in 2017. I was the company’s first full-time designer.

Head of user experience and design

February 2016 – October 2017

  • Introduced and championed OKRs, and lead the initial transition from a feature-focused to a theme (and outcome) based roadmap
  • Executed a full overhaul of the product UI, including information architecture, user flows, and visual design; was a royal pain in the butt to Ardoq's few front-end developers when obsessing over details

Iterate

Iterate is a medium-sized Norwegian consultancy company offering services within software development, business development, and innovation. The main focus lies on lean methodologies, and innovation through Lean Startup.

Lead Interaction Designer

September 2014 – January 2016

  • Contributed to the complete overhaul of the existing e-commerce solution at Gjensidige, including concepting, prototyping, user testing, and wireframing, in close collaboration with product owners, front-end developers, and UI designers as a part of the in-house design-team
  • Developed personas and user scenarios, and different concepts for commercial validation of corporate innovation projects on behalf of clients; designed and developed a set of landing pages, and contributed to sales and project/product management.

CFEngine

CFEngine (now part of Northern.tech) develops a system configuration management tool which also provides a reporting and management interface in the form of an installable web application. The core software was first released in 1993 while the company was established in 2008.

I was the company’s first full-time designer.

UX Designer & Team Lead

July 2012 – August 2014

  • Led and executed a fundamental redesign and repositioning of enterprise-only UI from ideation to launch to iteration
  • Led all efforts around good user experience, developed personas and concepts, performed user testing and need analysis, and shared the resulting insights and other findings with the whole team
  • Led team of three web developers
  • Planned and executed relaunch of CFEngine's documentation site, including content, toolchain, web development and design

Alexandra was instrumental to the rewrite of CFEngine's new web UI, a project we have worked on together for about a year. Without Alexandra's matured leadership, creative mind and management skills this transformation would not have happened.

Yoav Boaz, then VP of Product, CFEngine

Nokia / Qt

Trolltech (acquired by Nokia in June 2008), developed Qt, a multi-platform application development framework written in C++. A central part of its marketing strategy was direct cooperation with its community of commercial and open-source developers, particularly KDE and Linux distributions.

Web Community Manager

November 2008 – June 2012

  • Developed and implemented the strategy for Qt in social media, on own web properties, and in collaboration with volunteer-driven community sites
  • Developed concept and strategy for the Qt Developer Network in tight collaboration with the project manager, conducted user research and usability testing, and wrote large amounts of supporting copy
  • Grew the Qt Developer Network to 2 million unique visits per month
  • Managed the transfer of the Qt Developer Network from Nokia’s ownership to an external foundation (qt-project.org at the time) which included moving servers and domains, and a new legal status which resulted in many changes to copy, content, and functionality

Alexandra's ability to facilitate, structure and coordinate the goals and efforts towards those goals of the group, initially without explicit mandate or structural power, based on trust and leadership skills alone, impressed me. She is able to engage and motivate difficult personalties and calmly and effectively moderate conflict.

Till Adam, Chief Commercial Officer, KDAB

Self-employed

Soprano — April 1999 – October 2008

Soloist at various opera houses and concert halls in Germany, and several other European countries.
(Yes, I have recordings. You can listen to me sing on soundcloud.)

Education

University For Music And Dance, Cologne — 1999 – 2004
Opera and stage performance, Master of Arts

University Of Cologne — 1995 – 1997
History, Oriental Studies, French

Miscellaneous

Public speaking

  • Booster Conf, Bergen, Norway 2019
  • Codemotion, Amsterdam, The Netherlands 2017
  • RuhrJS, Bochum, Germany, 2017
  • Booster Conf, Bergen, Norway 2017
  • FOSS North, Gothenburg, Sweden 2016
  • ArrrrCamp, Ghent, Belgium 2015
  • JavaZone, Oslo, Norway 2015
  • CampKDE, San Diego, USA, 2010

Volunteering

  • Co-organizer – Web Rebels, Oslo’s contribution to the jsconf family — 2016, 2017, 2018
  • Co-organizer – Rails Girls Summer of Code — 2014, 2015, 2016
  • Founder – Rails Girls Oslo
  • Marketing activities for KOffice and the KDE community — 2007 – 2012
  • Member KDE e.V. — since 2008 (currently passive)

Certifications

Certified Scrum Product Owner — December 2013

Languages

German – native
English – fluent
Norwegian – fluent
French – mostly useable