Product
Ripple — Product Ownership & Strategic Alignment
Owned product delivery across multiple SaaS tools and helped validate a strategic partnership that improved cloud cost decisions, not just reporting.
Summary
- BuiltLed sprint planning, backlog refinement, and feature specs across five connected cloud billing products.
- ProblemRipple delivered cloud invoicing and financial visibility — but visibility alone doesn't prevent overspending.
- ImpactPartnership established as an active strategic initiative — strengthening product positioning from cost visibility alone to visibility plus optimization.
Problem
Ripple delivered cloud invoicing and financial visibility — but visibility alone doesn't prevent overspending.
Ripple delivered cloud invoicing and financial visibility — but visibility alone doesn't prevent overspending.
Customers still struggled with Reserved Instance and Savings Plan decisions that directly affected profitability. The question was whether a partnership with Archera could create a stronger combined product story (visibility + optimization) rather than building another internal feature from scratch.
What I Built
5 key contributions that defined the build
- Led sprint planning, backlog refinement, and feature specs across five connected cloud billing products.
- Stepped into Figma UI/UX design ownership when design bandwidth was unavailable, unblocking engineering delivery.
- Supported the Ripple V2 migration from monolith to microfrontend architecture.
- Tasked by the CEO to evaluate the Alphaus–Archera strategic partnership — studied Archera's commitment optimization product, mapped integration opportunities, and supported internal stakeholder alignment.
- Assessed architectural compatibility between Archera's reservation lifecycle tooling and Ripple's invoicing and cost visibility workflows.
Key Decisions
Tradeoffs and approaches that shaped the final outcome
Challenge
Separating interesting technology from actual strategic fit — many integrations look good on paper but few improve customer outcomes meaningfully.
Approach
Approached the partnership as a product fit problem: 'Can these systems create stronger outcomes together?' rather than 'Can we connect them?'
Challenge
Evaluating a partner system without direct implementation ownership required stronger product judgment than coding.
Approach
Mapped customer workflows where commitment optimization would complement existing visibility — identifying leverage points rather than feature overlap.
Challenge
Balancing product ownership across five connected products while simultaneously leading strategic evaluation work.
Approach
Worked with leadership and product teams to align on what the partnership solved, where ownership boundaries existed, and what long-term product value looked like.
Impact
Partnership established as an active strategic initiative — strengthening product positioning from cost visibility alone to visibility plus optimization.
- Partnership established as an active strategic initiative — strengthening product positioning from cost visibility alone to visibility plus optimization.
- Unblocked engineering delivery by owning UI/UX design when design bandwidth was unavailable.
- Improved sprint consistency and release coordination across five connected cloud billing products.