Tara McCann · Product Strategy & Operations
Nearly 20 years transforming companies across SaaS and financial services. I launch global programs, AI agents, and live apps.
Over nearly two decades across SaaS, consulting, and financial services, I've led business and product transformations that stick. As Director of Product Strategy and Operations at Zendesk, a $2B SaaS company, and through years of advisory work, I've worked side by side with executive leaders to align strategy, drive focus, and help organizations move forward with clarity and momentum.
A lot of companies reach for new tools before fixing how they actually operate. I work the other way around. First, understand what the business needs, then build. Because transformations don't fail at the leadership offsite, they fail at adoption. My work includes customer intelligence systems, feedback infrastructure at global scale, and AI workflows that changed how teams plan and ship, along with the unglamorous work of getting teams through the change so it actually sticks.
What sets me apart is that I build, too. I've shipped live AI applications with no engineering team, and they run in production today with real users. Most people who can set the strategy can't build the thing, and most people who can build it often miss the business context. I do both.
Scaling product ops, governance, roadmap systems, and feedback programs that align strategy to execution
Building AI-powered tools and workflows, from agentic RAG systems to org-wide automations that improve how teams plan and ship
Growing high-performing teams and building connective tissue between product, engineering, and go-to-market
“I don't just design the system. I build it.”
Solving the wrong thing with the right technology is still the wrong thing.
Here's what the work actually looks like.
Built to change how organizations think, decide, and grow.
I build the infrastructure behind how decisions get made and how value gets delivered. That means designing feedback systems that capture signal at scale, creating operational frameworks that align product, engineering, and go-to-market, and developing AI-powered workflows that accelerate how organizations plan, ship, and grow.
View case study →
From idea to shipped, without an engineering team.
Four live applications built without an engineering team. A learning center that teaches the AI coding landscape. An AI career coaching platform that remembers context across sessions. A studio companion for painters with real pigment mixing simulation and an AI art advisor. And the app that started it all.
View products →Building something that needs both strategic leadership and execution? Let's talk.
Connect on LinkedIn ↗Running a business? My consulting practice lives at McCann Advisory ↗