Tara Garvin’s Post

After being affected by layoffs at Macy’s in January, I’ve taken some time off to reflect on my personal and professional goals, and think more deeply about the future of digital product and my role in this exciting space. 🧘♂️ 👨🔬 My expertise is in digital product management; web and e-commerce. I’ve led teams driving billions in revenue. And as the new, post-pandemic normal settles, I look forward with anticipation. The digital world is on the precipice of a pivotal shift. We used to hang our hats on bringing great UX to customers—at the peak of the pandemic, we would target 10-15% incremental growth with new tests and features. Now, we target 1-2%. I'm not suggesting we've "solved" UX, but digital experiences are more consistently, standardly, good—both within e-comm and across the web. But because of that, incremental changes alone are no longer enough to drive significant revenue growth. So, what tools and experiences will meaningfully boost revenue and conversion in this new era? I’m driven to seek answers to these questions, so I’m seeking a role in one of the following areas to best support that goal: ✅ E-commerce Consulting With my deep e-commerce experience and vast knowledge of product best practices, I’ll help organizations identify pain points, define executable vision and roadmaps, and effectively communicate strategies to leadership—whether they need assistance with the basics, want to uncover missed opportunities, or are planning a major new launch. I'm open to DTC e-commerce, large retailers, or private equity firms seeking reliable assessments of acquisition targets' strengths, weaknesses, technology, and operations. My preference is contract and deliverables-based work, but I would be interested in full-time for the right remote opportunity. ✅ Generative AI for Search/Enterprise The paradigm is shifting, and generative AI will deeply impact how things are done in B2C business on the web, for both consumers and B2C operations teams. I'm eager to join innovators applying generative AI to build communicative, context-aware customer interfaces beyond just great UX and apps. Success in applied AI will define the next epoch in human-computer interaction. ➡️ 🆗 Here’s how you can help: I'm confident my expertise can drive meaningful impact for the industry so I want to leverage my network to get the word out there! 🫵 If you've worked with me before or know someone who may be interested, please reach out or consider sharing this post. You can also get in touch via email: rudczynski@gmail.com ✍️ Over the next few weeks, I'll also be sharing more thoughts on LinkedIn about e-commerce, generative AI's value, product management, and operations - all grounded in my actual experience - stay tuned!

My favorite part about interviews this last month has been getting to share my winding career path that has taken me to Product Management, a field I didn't even know existed when I was graduating college. 2014- Graduated with a BA in History from Indiana University Bloomington 2016- Left my Masters program in Museum Studies at The George Washington University because I was enjoying my retail job at Warby Parker far more than the program and wanted to see where it would take me. - My first little product, though I didn't know it at the time, was a google sheets "dashboard" for NPS since at that time we didn't have a quick view from HQ. Seeing the team use it and seeing it improve customer experience was mind blowing! 2018- Left retail management and took a leap of faith at UrbanStems hoping I'd get a chance to work my way up from the CX role I took to a role where I could preemptively improve the customer experience rather than mediate it. Big thanks to Laura McDonald for understanding and being supportive when I told her, shortly after starting the job, that I didn't want to do CX forever. 2019- Became Stem's first Ecommerce Associate for Digital Merchandising. Nothing says welcome to the D2C ecom like transitioning a website from homegrown CMS to #SalesforceCommerceCloud. 2019-2022- Grew from an Associate to the Ecommerce Manager with a stellar team (Shout Out Tanisha Uttamchandani & Yu-Fen (Stephanie) Lin!) that not only handled merchandising, but A/B Testing, launching AI Recommendations, and revamping Subscriptions. 2022- Left Stem's to find an opportunity to grow my experience in Digital Product Management and learn from a passionate mentor which led me to Ephemeral Tattoo & Aretha Choi. 2023- ???? Layoffs finally hit and I've had to look at my experience and my interests to really pinpoint where I want to go next. I want to find a place where I can keep learning, a place that values my type of career path, and respects the career I've made for myself. There's a couple reasons I wrote this post, to brag a bit vs being in a state of imposter syndrome, to hope it ends up on the right hiring manager's page, and probably to just vent a little. If you read it all, thanks! If you didn't and you just skipped to the end, very understandable 😉 #ecommerce #productmanagement #startups #careerjourney #careerchange #opentowork #interviewing

#hiring Director - MakerPlace GM, Irving, United States, fulltime #jobs #jobseekers #careers #Irvingjobs #Texasjobs #SalesMarketing Apply: https://lnkd.in/dmi2iixx Support Center - IrvingFor nearly 50 years, Michaels has been the destination where Makers get inspired, learn, shop, and create. We strive to cultivate an inclusive shopping environment for all Makers and work environment for all Team Members, providing a place of belonging and empowering everyone to bring their creative dreams to life. At Michaels, every Team Member is encouraged to hone their craft with opportunities for personal and professional growth. From our Stores and Distribution Centers to Artistree and our Support Center, our best-in-class team is passionate about leaving the world a better, more creative place by contributing to every "make".Michaels is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are here for all Team Members and all Makers to create, innovate and be better together. The Director, MakerPlace GM is responsible for managing and growing the new business model of selling handmade goods and services on Michaels MakerPlace including P&L ownership, marketing, operations, community education & engagement and financials & analytics to support both the seller and buyer CX. You will lead a team responsible for developing and growing the MakerPlace peer-peer 3rd party channel. This includes building out the strategy, content infrastructure, and program teams to run the day-day business while partnering across internal and external stakeholders to launch the MakerPlace from the ground-up with a path to rapidly scale. We are developing a world-class 3rd Party Marketplace for Maker-Sellers to learn, grow, connect, and sell their handmade finished goods and services. This effort alongside a recently launched digital replatform and B2B Marketplace will deliver a full transformation of the digital ecosystem for the company.Major Activities Leadership & Team DevelopmentHire and develop a best-in-class team to deliver, manage, and scale the MakerPlace channel platformGrow and scale the team to support the company's growth targets GM & FinancialsBuild & own profitability model, as well as manage the P&L for the Michaels MakerPlace platformOversee the day-to-day performance of the Michaels MakerPlace, ensuring metrics/KPI's & dashboards are defined, developed, and deliveredUse data to make decisions and form business cases, centered around a strong understanding of unit economics, tying back to the overall P&LLead efforts to analyze weekly business results

Well...we've been worried about about this for the past few months...all the tech layoffs spilling over to other sectors: https://lnkd.in/g2TDFn_v I don't think I know many folks who work at Macy's...but if you do, please point them to the hashtags below. I've been using these for over a year now. Lots of tips for job seekers. #KeepPressingForward #AlwaysBeNetworking #UpdateYourLinkedInProfile #Engage #Pivot

#hiring Director - MakerPlace GM, Irving, United States, fulltime #jobs #jobseekers #careers #Irvingjobs #Texasjobs #SalesMarketing Apply: https://lnkd.in/dx-B7bmm Support Center - IrvingFor nearly 50 years, Michaels has been the destination where Makers get inspired, learn, shop, and create. We strive to cultivate an inclusive shopping environment for all Makers and work environment for all Team Members, providing a place of belonging and empowering everyone to bring their creative dreams to life. At Michaels, every Team Member is encouraged to hone their craft with opportunities for personal and professional growth. From our Stores and Distribution Centers to Artistree and our Support Center, our best-in-class team is passionate about leaving the world a better, more creative place by contributing to every "make".Michaels is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are here for all Team Members and all Makers to create, innovate and be better together. The Director, MakerPlace GM is responsible for managing and growing the new business model of selling handmade goods and services on Michaels MakerPlace including P&L ownership, marketing, operations, community education & engagement and financials & analytics to support both the seller and buyer CX. You will lead a team responsible for developing and growing the MakerPlace peer-peer 3rd party channel. This includes building out the strategy, content infrastructure, and program teams to run the day-day business while partnering across internal and external stakeholders to launch the MakerPlace from the ground-up with a path to rapidly scale. We are developing a world-class 3rd Party Marketplace for Maker-Sellers to learn, grow, connect, and sell their handmade finished goods and services. This effort alongside a recently launched digital replatform and B2B Marketplace will deliver a full transformation of the digital ecosystem for the company.Major Activities Leadership & Team DevelopmentHire and develop a best-in-class team to deliver, manage, and scale the MakerPlace channel platformGrow and scale the team to support the company's growth targets GM & FinancialsBuild & own profitability model, as well as manage the P&L for the Michaels MakerPlace platformOversee the day-to-day performance of the Michaels MakerPlace, ensuring metrics/KPI's & dashboards are defined, developed, and deliveredUse data to make decisions and form business cases, centered around a strong understanding of unit economics, tying back to the overall P&LLead efforts to analyze weekly business results

Nike has announced they're laying off over 1,500 people... how are schools preparing young people for a world where this is the norm? Seriously. This is no longer optional. As an educator and an advocate for real-world learning, reading headlines like this makes me want to scream when I think about the kinds of lessons that we still neglect to teach students in school. How do you create opportunities for yourself, how do you network, how do you leverage your skills to generate income, how do you make yourself indispensable or at the very least keep your options open when layoffs are always looming? I spend a lot of time with Mindset & Milestones thinking about how we can create new projects that help students build portfolios, how we give them space to build marketable skills while they learn the subject matter we know they need from traditional core subjects. How do we apply it all and make it fit together? It's the question we strive to answer every day. In the same breath, I'm grateful for people like Tim Ranzetta with Next Gen Personal Finance for pushing financial literacy training in school so that students can plan for the life they want AND manage their finances to sustain the ups and downs. Or Ilene Frankel with Young Entrepreneur Institute at University School for helping to make entrepreneurial thinking and training more accessible. Even Brian Dozer, D.Mgt. with Coastline ROP for prioritizing all of the pathways post-high school that can lead to a fulfilling career and skills that make their students primed for employment even if they need to move companies or work for themselves. I guess I say all of this to make the point that school is not, and cannot, be a place where we send kids to memorize and regurgitate information for 12 years. It can be more, it should be more, BUT teachers have to be supported, equipped, and compensated adequately if we want to see more. I don't have all of the answers, I'm just trying to do my part and hoping that all of us doing our parts will lead to the change we want to see in the classroom. At least that's all I've got. #layoffs #innovativeeducation #supportteachers #realworldlearning https://lnkd.in/ggJvGZBa.

After taking a beat to reflect, it’s time to share that I was among the 1,650 folks that were part of the latest round of Wayfair layoffs just a few weeks shy of my 5 year mark. I would like to thank, in particular, each design manager that elevated my passion for the craft. Lulu C.: You were incredibly supportive in advocating for my transition from product management and helping me build a stable foundation in design thinking. Who knows where I’d be at this point if you didn’t take a chance on me. Carling Sturino: You created my understanding of what a high-functioning, high-output design team looks like - always purposeful in adapting our processes to fit the needs of our projects, stakeholders, and creative collaboration. Erik Hanson: You emboldened me to question the status quo and think beyond just pixels on a screen towards a greater vision rife with organizational dynamics to navigate. Katherine Olvera: You upleveled my visual and interaction design skills tenfold and helped me understand how to embrace the craft beyond my day-to-day work. Lauren Werner: You taught me what a compelling experience design vision looks like and what to do with it as a design leader. Therese Bartolini 🇺🇦: You brought together a global community focused on giving us a seat at the table and celebrating our value as designers. Cheers to each of you for helping to mold me into the designer I am today! What’s next for me? I’m going to take a bit more time to rest, engage with my many nerdy hobbies, and finish planning our wedding. However, I’m particularly interested in IC roles focused on complex supply chain/e-commerce problems, mental health services, or organizations with a senior leadership team heavily invested in the value of design.

#IHelp Share this and use the #IHelp hashtag You may also find useful info to correct #jobsearch mistakes you're making in the blog at www.TheBigGameHunter.us Let me know if you have any questions about your #jobsearch. That's available to any of you looking for a #newjob #jobsearch #jobsearchadvice #jobhunting #jobhuntingadvice

Random fact about working at Radar Promotions - we’ve never laid anyone off or fired anyone, and our policies don’t really permit either… I’ve had to fire and lay people off in previous roles and it sucks. So with Radar, I decided we wouldn’t do that. Undeniably, this creates a different company culture. Maybe both good and bad? That’s may yet to be seen… We run pretty lean with a heavy emphasis on sales and revenue (there’s only one line that matters: the top line) and invest in PEOPLE. If you care about stuff like this: Lifetime Employment Committment Team revenue share/bonuses unlimited PTO Unitary sales goal for the ENTIRE company (no Mickey Mouse comp plan: one number) ..you might be a Radar client candidate. If you shop for swag by sorting price low-to-high: likely not a good fit I applaud John for placing blame where it is due: if you run a sustainable company whose fundamentals are strong, you shouldn’t ever have to lay people off. https://lnkd.in/geMaJU_C

The most critical benefit of a skill-first hiring approach is that it prioritizes competence over credentials, ensuring the most capable individuals are selected for roles, regardless of their background. This approach can reduce bias in the hiring process, leading to a more diverse and inclusive workforce. Lastly, it aligns with the evolving nature of work, where specific skills and adaptability are becoming more important than traditional education or unrelated experience. #Skillsfirsthiring #ReducingBiases #FutureOfWork