Ian Gross is a go-to-market strategy and operations leader, currently at UiPath
Ian Gross is a go-to-market leader in the technology sector, having served in strategy and operations roles at UiPath, LinkedIn, IBM and Boston Consulting Group. He has over a decade of experience conducting research, consulting for Fortune 500 clients and supporting enterprise sales teams in high-growth environments. Ian has an MBA from the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business and a BA from the University of Maryland. Outside of work, Ian enjoys spending time with his wife and dog.
These are the questions I can help answer
Building a go-to-market strategy
How do I launch new products and services?
A multi-billion building materials company that operated in over 50 countries saw an opportunity to become more digital, starting with an app they were about to release. But they lacked the experience to determine how to go to market.
I was part of a team that was brought in to create an end-to-end plan for launching new digital services. I built a framework for evaluating customer pain points, worked to determine potential new products and services, and then collaborated with internal stakeholders to prioritize the new services. The client successfully rolled out the app in dozens of countries and additional digital products after.
Investing for growth
How do I invest for growth?
A leading technology platform company had a growing marketing business. They had expanded quickly, everyone was asking for investment going into the fiscal year, and there wasn’t a clear way to prioritize investments.
I led a project, in collaboration with sales, to create industry -based customer segments for our existing and target customers. I then built a data-driven model that looked at five variables, some historical and some forward-looking, to rank the segments. We aligned our fiscal year investment asks according to those segments, so that the higher priority segments received more resources. With more industry focus and resources in the right place, the business grew 100% the next quarter, outpacing previous quarters.
Improving marketing practices
How do I improve marketing practices with new technology?
A Fortune 500 retail company was losing share to Amazon and wanted to improve their marketing practices as they released a new ecommerce site. The CEO wanted a unified approach across the company. But, the firm had multiple brands, each with its own marketing department, meaning a centralized approach would meet resistance.
The company had selected a suite of marketing tools. I worked with the Marketing VP to build new processes that this tool would enable. I created detailed process diagrams to outline the new marketing process for the brands, working closely with brand stakeholders over the course of several workshops. I helped gain buy-in by piloting the new marketing approach in one brand, and then having that brand evangelize to others. Ultimately, the tool was rolled out successfully and brands adopted an improved way of working.
Enabling the field
How do I enable the field with better ways of working?
At a multi-billion dollar software company, there were constantly new hires in the consulting arm, and the new hires lacked an understanding of how to properly engage clients and execute work.
I helped create an end-to-end training program, which started when the new hires started and reinforced concepts in sessions over time. For the onboarding content, I determined what type of content was required, built select modules, worked with a video team to record it, so it was available on demand. For ongoing content, I worked with leaders who had successfully executed projects and created interactive trainings, which were presented live and virtually. Attendance on the trainings, which were optional, was very high and employee satisfaction scores were placed my work at the top of the training list.
