Alumni Spotlight - Vanessa Manz (MIIPS '19)
Manager, Product Marketing @ Net Health
Industry: Healthcare Software
iii: Tell us about yourself and your career journey.
Senior innovation and strategy leader with a track record of delivering results by doing the right things, for the right reasons. As a seasoned manager, I apply principles of servant leadership to develop resilient employees and nurture their diverse strengths.
A few of my career milestones:
- Transformed a portfolio of individual, large-scale PNC innovation events into a strategic platform of connected innovation programs that accelerate delivery and drive tangible impact.
- Disrupted the consumer wood care category by leading the launch of Olympic SmartGuard at PPG, a user experience breakthrough for the application of stain to wood decks.
- Grew revenue for PPG at Menards in 2017 by leading the development and launch of Paramount, the most advanced one-coat paint and breakthrough innovation.
- Delivered significant NOS and profit growth at Procter & Gamble with the launch of Cover Girl TruBlend, an innovative mass-marketed cosmetic that was the first to match 99% of skin tones.
iii: So what do you do at your job?
Sitting at the intersection of customer, sales and product, the team I lead works across functions to help define and communicate meaningful value propositions for Net Health’s products and services across a variety of user personas.
iii: What do enjoy most about your field?
I love the process of uncovering insights about buyers and their journey to needing and using our product and turning those into executable ideas like sales tools, campaigns, and value propositions.
iii: What do you wish you had known when you were a student?
Don’t be afraid to take risks and say yes to things you’ve never consider doing. But also find balance and learn to keep your perspective that work isn’t all there is to life.
iii: And...why did you choose CMU/your degree program?
My first degree in business was somewhat by default, people I admired followed that path and so it felt safer to me. My enrollment at CMU was my opportunity to break out of that path and find a new one that is more satisfying and creative!
