Shauna Fitzsimons
Product Manager
Product leader, obsessed with high performance teams — on and off the water. I care about the crew as much as the craft: sharp calls under pressure, honest debriefs, and shipping outcomes that move the boat.
Where the leadership began
Where my journey begins in high performance environments — the one who leads the team and makes the calls under pressure.
Learned to direct a crew before she ever directed a product team.
Where the leadership began
Where my journey begins in high performance environments — the one who leads the team and makes the calls under pressure.
Learned to direct a crew before she ever directed a product team.
Into product
Masters Level Certificate at King's College London.
A nine-month programme covering product lifecycle, strategy, and market launch — with a focus on generative AI for innovation.
Employer project for King's College London course — proposed a voice-activated AI feature enhancement for Sky Go and Sky Glass.
A nine-month programme covering product lifecycle, strategy, and market launch — with a focus on generative AI for innovation.
Employer project for King's College London course — proposed a voice-activated AI feature enhancement for Sky Go and Sky Glass.
Into product
Masters Level Certificate at King's College London.
Product Manager
Product Manager at Flax and Teal.
Owned product strategy and delivery across enterprise and public sector SaaS platforms, operating with full accountability for outcomes. Acted as senior stakeholder interface, translating complex user and business needs into clear product direction and delivery plans. Later stepped up as Technical Line Manager, building and line managing a team of software engineers.
Beyond delivery, established and led the QA chapter, drove ISO 27001 implementation, and led company-wide hiring processes for engineering roles.
Product Manager
Product Manager at Flax and Teal.
Owned product strategy and delivery across enterprise and public sector SaaS platforms, operating with full accountability for outcomes. Acted as senior stakeholder interface, translating complex user and business needs into clear product direction and delivery plans. Later stepped up as Technical Line Manager, building and line managing a team of software engineers.
Beyond delivery, established and led the QA chapter, drove ISO 27001 implementation, and led company-wide hiring processes for engineering roles.
Own the product strategy and roadmap for KxWelcome, defining OKRs and aligning delivery priorities with commercial objectives. Act as primary decision maker for backlog prioritisation, scope trade-offs, and release planning across multiple concurrent workstreams and 5 time zones.
Led a product-market-fit transformation for an established EMEA product entering the North American market, redefining core functionality, workflows, and positioning while stabilising and scaling the platform to meet new customer requirements.
Own the product strategy and roadmap for KxWelcome, defining OKRs and aligning delivery priorities with commercial objectives. Act as primary decision maker for backlog prioritisation, scope trade-offs, and release planning across multiple concurrent workstreams and 5 time zones.
Led a product-market-fit transformation for an established EMEA product entering the North American market, redefining core functionality, workflows, and positioning while stabilising and scaling the platform to meet new customer requirements.
AI Product Lead
As AI Product Lead, inherited a stalled cross-functional initiative and made the call to stop it. Took ownership of the replacement, KxCreate, and shipped a customer demo in four weeks with a two-person team and AI-assisted engineering.
AI Product Lead
As AI Product Lead, inherited a stalled cross-functional initiative and made the call to stop it. Took ownership of the replacement, KxCreate, and shipped a customer demo in four weeks with a two-person team and AI-assisted engineering.
Skills
Product Strategy & Discovery
Commercial & Financial Ownership
Leadership & Organisation
Delivery & Execution
Technical & Data Literacy
Debrief
I've spent over a decade in rowing, as a student athlete at UCD, a full-time athlete at Leander Club, and now training and racing with Marlow Rowing Club. Somewhere in that decade, coxing stopped being just a seat in the boat and became the way I think.
A cox sits between two people who rarely talk to each other directly: the coach, who sets the plan from the bank, and the crew, who have to execute it stroke by stroke, in real time, with no time to ask questions. The job is translation in both directions, turning the coach's strategy into instructions a rower can actually use mid-piece, and turning what's happening in the boat into feedback the coach can act on before it's too late to matter.
That's the same seat I sit in now as a product manager. Stakeholders set the direction; engineers have to build it, in the room, under real constraints. The work is the same translation, just with a different crew, turning strategy into something a team can execute, and turning what's actually happening in the build into something stakeholders can act on.
Debrief comes straight out of that instinct: turn raw session data into a short, useful ‘debrief’ the crew actually reads, so the next session is better.
Open the Lovable project preview in a new tab.
Check out me and my crew racing at Henley Royal Regatta.