Prepared for boards, nomination committees & search advisers
File No. CPO-046
Finding the customer problem worth building for.
| Subject | Isabelle Mercier |
|---|---|
| Position | Chief Product Officer |
| Base | Canada · Global perspective |
| Languages | English, French |
| Board seats | 2 current · 0 previous |
| Status | Open to board appointments, advisory roles, speaking invitations |
Summary
I lead product organisations at the intersection of customer problems, business ambition and technical possibility. My focus is on helping teams make considered choices about what deserves to be built, what should be learned first and what should be stopped.
| Item | Measure | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| 01 | Active customersAcross four product lines | 12 M |
| 02 | Net Promoter Score gainAfter a discovery-led redesign | +46 |
| 03 | Products to $100 M ARRFrom zero, in five years | 3 |
| 04 | Roadmap retiredTo focus on what customers valued | 70% |
Product leadership is a discipline of choosing. I connect customer evidence with commercial judgement and technical possibility, so teams understand why an investment matters and what would cause us to change direction.
Signed — Isabelle Mercier
Non-Executive Director
Product & Customer (Chair)
2023 — Present
Advisory Board Member
Accessibility Standards
2021 — Present
Matter 01Ref. CPO-046-M01
The product portfolio had become a collection of commitments without a shared view of customer value. I worked with commercial and engineering leaders to identify the problems each initiative addressed, the evidence behind them and the capacity required. We reduced competing priorities and gave each remaining investment an explicit learning objective.
Matter 02Ref. CPO-046-M02
A proposed feature had strong internal support but an unclear user problem. We ran a focused discovery programme with customers, observed the work surrounding the request and tested a smaller proposition. The findings changed both the product scope and the way the team described the value to customers.
Matter 03Ref. CPO-046-M03
A launch met its delivery milestone but required a clearer path to adoption. I brought product, customer success and sales into a common review of onboarding friction, usage signals and customer expectations. Product decisions were then informed by the whole customer journey rather than release completion alone.
2020 — Present
Aldermoor Group
Leading product strategy, portfolio priorities and the operating model for discovery and delivery. Aligning customer problems, business objectives and technical capacity around a considered product direction.
2016 — 2020
Fairhaven Holdings
Led product teams across discovery, launch and adoption. Developed a practical approach to prioritisation and evidence-led collaboration with engineering, design and commercial colleagues.
2013 — 2018
Lumen Payments
Built the self-serve onboarding that tripled small-business adoption.
2008 — 2013
Kestrel Systems
Launched the company's first SaaS product and learned to measure outcomes rather than output.
Gave the whole company a shared definition of what customers actually need.
Says no with more clarity and kindness than anyone I know.
A feature list tells a team what has been requested, but not why one investment matters more than another.
Read the essayCustomer interviews and experiments should answer a question that matters to an investment.
Read the essayShipping a product moves the work into the customer's environment, where onboarding, expectations and existing habits shape its value.
Read the essayThe Product Leaders Forum · 2025
“Retiring 70% of the roadmap was the best decision we made”
The Technology Leaders Review · 2024
“Discovery as a leadership habit”
The Leadership Ledger podcast · 2024
“Episode 125 — The problem worth solving”
An invitation
Chairs, nomination committees and search advisers may write directly. References and fuller records are available on request.
office@isabellemercier.example