Oops I did it again

Going back in-house 🚀

This post provides a professional update. After operating my firm, Devise Consulting, full-time for the past couple years, I’ve had the good fortune to have a happy client create a compelling opportunity for me to join their organization full-time. So, starting next week, I’m joining a wonderful health organization as VP of Product Management.

Putting Devise Consulting on ice for the time being

Two sides of the same coin

One of the primary characteristics of my career has been moving between consulting roles and in-house positions. I’ve found that operating as a consultant provides me with visibility into the needs and challenges of many different types and scales of organizations, and allows me to operate more autonomously while rapidly delivering concrete value towards my clients’ business priorities.

I’ve also found that operating as an in-house employee provides potentially greater depth and breadth of impact, as I leverage my knowledge of industry patterns and best practices while being properly positioned to transform and enhance organizations’ product development activities from the inside-out.

Each of these professional contexts has pros and cons. I feel fortunate to have experienced both situations at length, allowing me to better develop my skills in all areas and carry lessons between them. Honestly, if you are working in-house and haven’t ever tried consulting, you might want to consider giving it a try — and vice versa. Each position emphasizes different yet related skill-sets, helping make you a more well-rounded and capable professional. Please drop a comment if you’d like me to do a further exposition of this topic.

More about what’s next

The company I’ll be joining is called Progyny, a leading health benefits provider in the fertility, family building, and women’s health space. My role will certainly involve a lot of continued devising, across all my research, design, strategy, and product management capabilities. (By the way: I’m already interviewing individuals for Sr. UX Designer and Sr. Product Manager roles on my team so please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you’d like to work together.)

And I will continue to maintain this publication! I treasure staying in touch with colleagues and friends and reaching new people through this newsletter, and greatly value Substack as a vibrant intellectual forum. While posts will probably be less frequent, I’ll continue to offer useful and relevant insights to people who seek to sustain their souls while doing the hard work of building solutions in teams.

Most especially: I am still writing a book about heartsets, mindsets, and the key activities for people in organizations to guide creative work and oversee execution successfully! Although I’m about 80% done with the initial manuscript, that’s only the first step on the path to publication so thanks for bearing with me. I strongly believe that whenever it drops, it’ll do a world of good for thoughtful people…like you. 🫶🏽

Onwards & upwards, friends! Thanks for being here!

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Lizz at Devise is a publication exploring the space of design and product management through the lens of heart-centered values and teamwork. Lizz is a Product leader and digital health specialist. In 2007, she founded Devise Consulting, which is going “on ice” while she is gainfully employed elsewhere. Lizz is passionate about improving people’s wellness, in all senses of that word.