LEIGH MARTINDALE
Strategy • Product • Innovation • Transformation
San Francisco Bay Area | +1 (669) 649-3158 | leighmartindale@gmail.com | LinkedIn ↗
ABOUT ME
Enterprise Innovation + Product Strategy + Transformation Leader
I'm an innovator at heart and tend to see possibility where others see constraint.
My work sits at the intersection of strategy, product development, technology and customer insight, where I help organisations identify new opportunities and translate them into meaningful outcomes.
Across consulting, product and enterprise leadership roles, I've partnered with design, engineering and commercial teams to shape ideas, validate concepts and move them through to delivery.
I'm most energised when solving complex problems, aligning cross-functional teams and turning emerging opportunities into products, experiences and strategic value.
At its core, my work is about connecting opportunity, people and technology to create meaningful and measurable progress.
MY EVOLUTION
MY CAREER HAS EVOLVED ACROSS ENGINEERING, PRODUCT DESIGN, CONSULTING AND ENTERPRISE LEADERSHIP. EACH STAGE DEVELOPED A DIFFERENT CAPABILITY.
Early Career & Foundations
6+ years sales, account management and freelance creative consulting, building commercial instincts and client relationship skills that underpin the work today.
Engineering & Product Development
Developed technical fluency and systems thinking as Lead Web Developer at Soundwave, one of Ireland's highest-profile consumer tech startups, later acquired by Spotify. One of the company's first five formal hires, contributing to product architecture and core feature delivery before acquisition.
UX Strategy & Enterprise Product Design
Worked across UX strategy, product design and experience architecture at IBM, shaping solutions grounded in user needs. Designed the award-winning IBM Cloud Security Enforcer, an enterprise SaaS security analytics platform (A' Design Award, 2016), built using early Watson AI capabilities.
Practice Building & Transformation Leadership
Founded EY Ireland's first Experience Design Studio, then led large-scale innovation and transformation programmes at Accenture for global clients including Google (4x ROI) and Aer Lingus. Ran executive strategy sessions and directed cross-functional delivery teams across strategy, product, technology and operations.
Global Capability & Intelligence Leadership
Embedded within Microsoft's Modern Work product organisation before joining eBay, where I built and scaled a globally distributed team of 35+ specialists, served as Governance Lead on a $150M+ transformation, and designed the enterprise experience management strategy across 24 global markets. Achieved 95% employee satisfaction in eBay's manager effectiveness survey.
SUM OF THE WHOLE
Technical fluency, customer understanding, product thinking and organisational leadership.
The combination of these experiences allows me to approach complex innovation and transformation challenges from multiple perspectives: as an engineer, a designer, a consultant and a leader.
PROFESSIONAL DNA
THE CORE CAPABILITIES AND PERSPECTIVES THAT SHAPE HOW I APPROACH INNOVATION, PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND ORGANISATIONAL LEADERSHIP.
STRATEGIC CREATIVITY
I focus on understanding the broader system: the market, the customer, the technology and the organisation, to determine where the greatest opportunity exists and how best to pursue it, while grounding ideas in real-world context, data and strategic intent to ensure ideas translate into viable outcomes.
COMMERCIAL MINDSET
Innovation only matters if it creates value. I focus on opportunities that can translate into meaningful business impact, shaping solutions with a clear understanding of market dynamics, scalability and commercial outcomes.
CURIOSITY
Curiosity has always been a core driver of my work. I actively explore new technologies, ideas and perspectives, continually refining my approach and applying each experience to improve what comes next.
PRODUCT THINKING
I connect customer needs, emerging technology and business context to uncover new possibilities and shape them into meaningful products, services and experiences.
TECHNICAL GROUNDING
With a background in product development and web systems engineering, I'm comfortable thinking alongside engineers and technical architects, helping bridge strategy, design and technology when shaping new products and platforms.
LEADERSHIP
I enjoy building and guiding teams across disciplines and geographies. My leadership style prioritises clarity of direction, empowerment and collaboration, enabling teams to move from ideas to delivery with confidence.
MY PROCESS
HOW I APPROACH INNOVATION: A STRUCTURED LIFECYCLE THAT MOVES IDEAS FROM OPPORTUNITY DISCOVERY THROUGH VALIDATION AND ULTIMATELY TO SCALABLE DELIVERY.
1. DISCOVER
Understand the customer, market and problem space. Through research, data and exploration, identify where meaningful opportunities exist and why they matter.
2. FRAME
Define the opportunity and align stakeholders around a clear direction. The focus is validating relevance and determining where value can be created.
3. CONCEPT
Generate and shape ideas through collaborative exploration. Workshops, design thinking and strategic creativity translate opportunities into potential products or experiences.
INNOVATION LIFECYCLE
4. PROTOTYPE
Bring ideas to life through lean prototypes or MVPs. Working closely with design and engineering teams, concepts become tangible solutions that can be explored and tested.
5. TEST, MEASURE & LEARN
Validate assumptions through experimentation, research and market feedback. Data informs iteration and strengthens the solution before broader delivery.
6. DELIVER & SCALE
Operationalise validated solutions and bring them to market. Focus shifts toward adoption, measurable impact and continuous product evolution.
STRATEGIC
LENS
I partner with senior leadership, boards and executive teams to surface where meaningful opportunity exists. Combining market intelligence, customer insight and competitive context, I translate complex signals into a clear, compelling case for where to play and why.
HOW I SHOW UP
- Framing the right opportunity, not just the obvious one
- Building conviction and alignment at the executive level
- Connecting customer insight to commercial outcomes
CROSS-FUNCTIONAL
LEADERSHIP
Complex initiatives succeed when diverse teams move with shared clarity and purpose. I build alignment across product, engineering, design, analytics and commercial functions, bridging the gap between strategic vision and team-level execution without losing either.
HOW I SHOW UP
- Building trust and momentum across disciplines
- Translating ambiguity into clear direction for teams
- Holding the strategic thread through complexity
OPERATIONAL
RIGOUR
Clear direction is only as valuable as the delivery it enables. I establish the governance, experimentation frameworks and operational cadence that give teams the structure to move fast, learn continuously and scale what genuinely works.
HOW I SHOW UP
- Building governance that enables, not constrains
- Embedding data-led learning into how teams operate
- Scaling validated outcomes with rigour and discipline
SELECTED
CASE STUDIES
Selected case studies spanning Product Innovation, Experience Strategy, Enterprise Transformation and Leadership.
Across my work my role has consistently been to identify opportunity, shape direction, align teams and move ideas toward validated outcomes and results.
Each case study reflects a moment where I helped organisations identify opportunity, shape direction and deliver measurable outcomes.
ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATION & LEADERSHIP
LEADING LARGE-SCALE OPERATIONAL, TECHNOLOGY AND EXPERIENCE TRANSFORMATIONS WITHIN GLOBAL ORGANISATIONS.
GLOBAL CUSTOMER SERVICE TRANSFORMATION
OPPORTUNITY
A leading global online marketplace launched a $150M+ global transformation of its customer service technology and operating model to modernise support and improve customer experience.
APPROACH
Established governance structures integrating multiple portfolios and initiatives, ensuring alignment, delivery quality and executive visibility across the transformation programme.
ROLE
Governance Lead and member of the GCX Technology Transformation leadership team, working with the Chief Growth Officer and Chief Technology Officer. Led a global team of programme managers coordinating delivery across the transformation portfolio.
KEY RESULTS
- Governance framework implemented across a $150M+ transformation programme
- Enabled coordinated delivery across multiple global initiatives
- Strengthened executive visibility and decision-making across the programme
- Ensured delivery quality and operational alignment across global teams
GLOBAL RESEARCH PLATFORM MIGRATION
OPPORTUNITY
Legacy research infrastructure limited the scalability and efficiency of the marketplace's global insight operations.
APPROACH
Led the identification, procurement and migration to a modern research platform supporting global insight programmes across 24 markets.
ROLE
Global product owner responsible for vendor selection, architecture decisions, migration planning and executive stakeholder management across a 12-month programme.
KEY RESULTS
- Delivered $1.5M cost savings through vendor optimisation
- Completed 12-month global platform migration with zero downtime
- Led RFP, vendor negotiation and platform architecture decisions
- Delivered change management across global markets and teams
* Work has been sanitised to respect and protect IP and employer policy considerations.
AI, INSIGHT & EXPERIENCE INNOVATION
BUILDING NEW CAPABILITIES THAT CONNECT DATA, TECHNOLOGY AND DECISION-MAKING.
AI-ENABLED CUSTOMER INTELLIGENCE OPERATING MODEL
OPPORTUNITY
Global CX programmes (CSAT, NPS, CES) relied on manual processes that limited speed, scale and impact.
APPROACH
Designed a new delivery model combining AI-assisted workflows, automation and improved operational processes to accelerate insight delivery across global markets.
ROLE
Led programme design with global market VPs and operational teams, defining the new operating model and overseeing delivery. Partnered with executive leaders to develop an analytics engine combining multiple data streams.
KEY RESULTS
- Reduced manual operational effort across global CX reporting through AI-assisted workflows
- Increased speed of insight delivery to product and market leaders
- Created cost savings and additional operational capacity
- Established the new standard operating model for CX insight delivery
EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT PLATFORM STRATEGY
OPPORTUNITY
While the marketplace had strong CX measurement capabilities, there was an opportunity to improve the "insight-to-action" process across the organisation.
APPROACH
Developed a strategy combining AI, technology platforms and a consultative capability team to operationalise insights and drive product and market decision-making.
ROLE
Authored the strategy, secured leadership buy-in, built the team and piloted the capability. Created a unified analytics framework combining multiple data sources at executive level.
KEY RESULTS
- Introduced a new Experience Management capability to the organisation
- Built and launched a dedicated experience management consulting team
- Created a unified analytics framework combining multiple data sources
- Enabled more effective product and market decision-making
* Work has been sanitised to respect and protect IP and employer policy considerations.
ENTERPRISE PRODUCT INNOVATION
DESIGNING AND DELIVERING NEW DIGITAL EXPERIENCES, PLATFORMS AND GROWTH STRATEGIES.
ENTERPRISE CLOUD SECURITY INTELLIGENCE PLATFORM
IBM Security: Cloud Enforcer
A' Design Award, 2016. One of IBM's first enterprise products built at the intersection of AI-enabled intelligence and enterprise security analytics.
OPPORTUNITY
Security professionals managing complex cloud environments lacked clear ways to interpret and act on large volumes of security data.
APPROACH
Designed a cloud-based SaaS platform enabling enterprise security leaders to visualise, monitor and manage security activity through advanced data visualisation and analytics.
ROLE
UX strategist and product designer responsible for shaping the user experience, defining personas and designing data visualisation models supporting executive-level security decision making.
KEY RESULTS
- Delivered an award-winning enterprise SaaS security platform (A' Design Award)
- Enabled executives to interpret complex security data in real time
- Improved operational decision making for enterprise security teams globally
PRODUCT & EXPERIENCE INNOVATION
APPLYING INNOVATION METHODS TO DRIVE GROWTH, CONVERSION AND CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT.
PARTNER ECOSYSTEM GROWTH PROGRAMME
OPPORTUNITY
A global software company sought to improve digital ecosystem performance and increase conversion across its global partner network of 40+ organisations.
APPROACH
Designed and led a hybrid innovation programme combining experience design, conversion optimisation and growth strategy across six countries and eight partner organisations.
ROLE
Programme owner and experience lead directing cross-functional teams spanning UX, analytics, engineering and marketing. Ran executive strategy sessions to align leadership ahead of delivery.
KEY RESULTS
- 100%+ increase in product conversion across the partner ecosystem
- ~4× ROI delivered within the first year of the programme
- Experience framework adopted across multiple regional teams
- Strengthened commercial alignment across product, marketing and partners
CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT & LOYALTY TRANSFORMATION
OPPORTUNITY
An international airline sought to rethink its customer loyalty programme to better align with evolving customer expectations and strengthen long-term engagement.
APPROACH
Applied behavioural science and user-centred design to research customer motivations, analyse existing loyalty models and develop a new strategic framework for the programme.
ROLE
Experience lead responsible for shaping the research approach, facilitating stakeholder workshops and translating insights into a new loyalty programme vision and design principles.
KEY RESULTS
- Delivered a new loyalty programme framework and strategic vision
- Aligned global leadership around a modernised customer engagement model
- Established design principles guiding future programme evolution
* Work has been sanitised to respect and protect IP and employer policy considerations.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME
Let's connect.
I'd happily discuss the next big challenge you're looking to solve and explore how I can help. No formality needed.
Open to opportunities in the Bay Area and beyond.
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