Overview
I have spent my career inside fast-growing technology companies, building things that didn’t exist yet. Not incrementally improving what was there — identifying gaps in operations or in the market, making the case, and constructing the organizational and commercial infrastructure to solve them at scale.
What twenty years of building from scratch has given me is something harder to develop than expertise in any single function: the ability to see across the whole system — and identify where optimizing internal operations and elevating the customer experience will drive the greatest commercial impact.
“One of Natalie’s strengths is in assessing complex systems — things that involve people, process and technology — and envisioning how they can change for the better… Her solutions to problems are innovative and creative — not incremental.”
— Principal Feedback, ZS Associates
Expertise Areas
Product
From licensable SaaS to bespoke enterprise software, I have led product work across the full lifecycle — innovation, user research, business analysis, and delivery. I understand what it takes to ship software that people actually use, and what happens when that work isn’t grounded in the customer from the start.
Sales
I have carried a personal quota, led pre-sales for new products, established revenue goals for multiple service lines, and held sales enablement and operations roles at both SAP and ZS. My approach to commercial strategy is grounded in the same human-centered thinking I bring to product work — understanding what customers actually need before building the case for how to reach them.
Professional Services
I have built multiple consulting service lines from scratch, grown average deal size from $10K to $200K, and scaled a Custom Development practice from six engineers to 190. The work that excites me most is helping organizations define and deliver new capabilities they didn’t know how to build.
Post-Sales
I started my career answering help desk calls — which gives me an unusually grounded perspective on what happens after the sale. I have since built Technical Support, Software Licensing, and Customer Experience functions from scratch, and most recently advised a post-sales transformation for a PE-backed enterprise SaaS company.
Operations
I have run a 300+ person organization and led program management for Board- and C-level initiatives at both SAP and ZS. Organized, transparent operations are one of the most direct ways to ensure that employees — and ultimately customers — are satisfied.
Case Studies
These case studies span my work at SAP and ZS, as well as more recent consulting engagements. The historical work provides context for the scale and complexity I have navigated; the consulting work shows how I apply that experience as an independent advisor.
At NDH Advisory
Most recently, I advised a post-sales transformation for a PE-backed enterprise SaaS company — establishing a new vision and direction, guiding community replatforming, the new economy design for rewards and recognition, and advising on the harmonization of their community, learning, and self-service capabilities.
“She’s good at challenging clients and being very persuasive. She broadens the conversation effectively and gives the client more to think about.”
— Principal Feedback, ZS Associates
At ZS Associates
At ZS Associates, I did something I would go on to do seven more times: saw a gap, wrote the business case, and built the function from scratch. The first was User Experience for the product organization — three designers, eventually seventy-five, shipping solutions that improved customer engagement by 15–40% and delivered a 15–30% sales lift for clients. Early in that work I also built the Customer Experience infrastructure that didn’t yet exist — Technical Support, which increased engineering productivity by 13%, and Software Licensing, which recovered $1M in license revenue in its first quarter.
Then came User Experience for consulting, which — in conjunction with a new Business Analyst capability — grew to $11.8M at its peak. For nearly ten years I led User Experience for both product and consulting simultaneously — an unusual combination whose synergies were a significant part of what drove our commercial success.
Then Custom Development — six engineers to a full software development team of 190 in two years, generating $23.9M in revenue. I took those learnings and sponsored a Power Platform capability that grew to $4M in its first year.
By the time I left ZS, I was running a 300+ person organization spanning licensable and bespoke software development, services sales, and consulting delivery — and had been elected Partner on the strength of my commercial results.
“She built and shaped many critical product and consulting functions, including User Experience, Customer Experience, and Custom Development, as well as a firm-wide Design Community of Practice. But what truly set her apart was her ability to see potential in people and empower them to grow.”
— Elizabeth Benker, VP of UX & Customer Insights, Alteryx
At SAP
At SAP, I came up through technical roles and found my footing in program management and sales enablement — running a $3M Americas Demo initiative, conducting ethnographic research with sales reps that led to a 20% lift in enterprise account executive productivity, and eventually running strategic programs for Board and C-level leadership.
Along the way I built three new capabilities from scratch: a User Experience function that started in U.S. Sales Operations and grew into support of global programs for the Chief Process Officer, CIO, and COO; an Intranet Publishing team that assumed cross-Board area responsibility for portal services; and a cross-functional innovation function that introduced internal equivalents of Twitter, YouTube, and the App Store to the enterprise — well before these capabilities were standard inside large organizations.
“Displays a broad, overarching awareness of the interaction and priorities between teams, departments, and company. Forward thinker, very strategic.”
— 360° feedback, SAP