SHORT BIO

Melissa Perri is a strategic advisor, author, and board member that works with leaders at Fortune 500 companies and SAAS scale ups to enable growth through building impactful product strategies and organizations. In 2018 she wrote the industry-acclaimed book "Escaping the Build Trap". Currently, Melissa is the CEO and founder of Produx Labs, which offers e-learning for product people through Product Institute and CPO Accelerator. She is as a board advisor for Labster and Dragonboat, and a former board member of Forsta (acquired by Press Ganey in 2022). In 2019, Melissa was appointed to the faculty of Harvard Business School to teach Product Management in the MBA program. She has consulted with dozens of companies to transform their product organizations, including Insight Partners, Capital One, Vanguard, Walmart/Sam's Club. In her free time, you can find her trying to finish her house renovations before something else breaks.

LONG BIO

As a strategic advisor to innovators, CEOs, and board members, Melissa Perri enables rapid and sustainable growth for ground-breaking SaaS companies. Leveraging her extensive experience in product strategy, corporate education, and Fortune 500 consulting, she prepares scaleups and late-stage startups to take the next step in global expansion. She is an advisory board member at Dragonboat, a board advisor at Labster, and a former board member at Forsta. She has worked with investment partners such as a16z, Owl Ventures, GGV Capital, EQT, Verdane Capital, Insight Partners.

Currently, Melissa is the CEO of Produx Labs, a company she founded and grew from the ground up. Through Produx, she leads two e-learning platforms for product leaders – CPO Accelerator and Product Institute. Melissa has also consulted for clients such as Capital One, Vanguard, Walmart/Sam’s Club, and JP Morgan Chase.

Melissa is a widely recognized thought leader in the product management space. She is the author of the industry-acclaimed book Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value. In addition, Melissa is a former Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, where she taught two courses on product management. She is frequently invited to keynote product management conferences around the world.

A collaborative leader, Melissa is always focused on building partnerships that pave the way to company success. In 2018, she spearheaded a joint initiative between Insight Partners and Produx Labs to create a product management center of excellence. This center, operated by Produx Labs, served as a resource to a wide range of innovators and business leaders affiliated with Insight Partners’ portfolio of venture-funded startups.

Melissa excels at transforming product organizations into disruptive forces for positive change. At Forsta, she worked with the CEO and her fellow board members to redefine the product vision and accelerate exit strategy. Melissa’s strategic and collaborative leadership resulted in Forsta’s acquisition by Press Ganey for a valuation that exceeded board expectations.

Formerly, Melissa served as a user experience coach at Wayra and a product management instructor at General Assemb.ly. She worked as a product manager at Barclays Capital and OpenSky. Melissa also served as an interim CPO / Head of Product for Wood Mackenzie, Central Reach, and Plated.

Melissa graduated from Cornell University with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in Operations Research and Information Engineering. She an alumna of the TechPeaks accelerator program for upcoming product leaders. In 2017, Melissa was voted the “Best Product Person” by The Product Group.

Away from the office, Melissa enjoys DIY projects. She is currently in the process of renovating her home. Melissa is also learning how to golf.

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