SOPHIE LEFEBVRE

2021 - CORPORATE INNOVATION AND SOCIAL IMPACT

Taking an active part in the zero to one phase in an innovation team has been a goal of mine. Joining the EmployBridge Innovation Team as an Emerging Product and Service Lead enables me to immerse myself in the early stage of product development. 

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The incubate phase allows me to focus on identifying and validating client needs - through pain points and prototypes interviews -  and to create a multilayered customer journey to establish the foundation for the product vision. 

2020 - FOCUSING ON PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

As a fractional Director of Product Management and Strategy, I am consulting for a CPA firm, working on launching continuing education classes (in English and Spanish) dedicated to banking compliance. My focus is product management and marketing. 

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Finding myself unemployed in 2020 and giving the economic challenges the world was facing, it was important for me to take some time to volunteer, help others, attend webinars, take classes, and network. This introspection time helped me realize that managing products makes me happy. 

2019 - GAINING AN INSIDER PERSPECTIVE OF TECH MANUFACTURING

In my role at Cosmo, I led the marketing communications (internal and external), the product marketing, business partnerships, and the product management functions, leading the company’s effort to expand internal product development. I navigated between three locations, San Francisco, Hong Kong, and Dongguan, China. 

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I gained invaluable product development insights by being exposed to multinational technology companies,  innovative products, and automation solutions. Being on the manufacturing side gave me a unique understanding of the OEM, CM, CEM, and ECM components. 

2015 TO 2019 - ENTERING THE STARTUPS, CONSUMER TECH, AND CONSULTING WORLD

I always had a passion for entrepreneurship and tech. When the opportunity came to become an independent consultant and be involved in the development of various consumer tech products, I took it. I sourced clients, developed proposals, and worked on 14 accounts while giving back as a startup mentor. 

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Working on SaaS, mobile applications, IoT, and smart products broaden my product management, marketing, and business development knowledge. I also co-founded an acceleration platform for startups in Miami, FL,  this was short-lived but became an irreplaceable experience in my career. 

2014 TO 2015 - TOYS TO TECH (MINECRAFT AND A DRAWING ON A NAPKIN)

Joining a high growth company to lead the product development team in a highly seasonal business like children's toys is an amazing challenge. Jazwares worked with licensed brands and started developing small figures and plush for Minecraft when I started, which led me to spend a month at the factory in China. 

While in China, I was given my first opportunity at consumer tech. What started as a drawing on a napkin turned into the online platform, JazWings. After working on it for ten months, it launched at New York Comic Con with 500 subscribers. Hard to think that a year prior I had never heard of agile or scrum. 

2007 TO 2014 - FROM INTERNATIONAL PM TO MANAGING A $70M REVENUE BUSINESS UNIT

What was supposed to be 6 months, turned into the most formative 7 years of my product management career. I was the twelfth employee in the newly-formed international division of Jarden. In less than a year, the once US-centric product line launched on 5 continents with technical manuals in 12 languages.

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I was formulating visions and goals; driving strategies; creating roadmaps; working in a cross-functional team; hiring, leading, managing a product team; presenting to the board; adapting the stage-gate process; and most importantly for me, launching products that enabled professionals (groomers; barbers) to earn a living. 

PRE 2014 - MOVING AROUND THE WORLD AND CREATING OPPORTUNITIES

For over 10 years, I was (now divorced) a USMC spouse. While this meant moving often, for me it meant creating once-of-a-kind opportunities to work in various fields and always learning.

To name a few, in the UK (from customer service rep to leading 2 pan-European paint brands), in Southern California (from program manager of professional services at Fujitsu to market researcher for a division of First American Corporation), or in Arizona (working on legal case discoveries at the JAG Office on a military base). 

FUN FACTS