Commercial & GTM Leadership — Digital Product Engineering
January 15, 2026
The Role
A Vienna-based digital product engineering company with strong delivery capability, but a clear need to sharpen its commercial story around product, data, and AI. I was brought in to lead that unit with a mandate that was as much about business as it was about execution: define what we sell, who we sell it to, how we position it, and how we turn specialist capability into repeatable revenue.This was not a pure internal strategy role. It sat directly on the commercial front line: shaping offers, working on strategic accounts, supporting sales conversations, and helping leadership turn delivery expertise into a stronger market position.A logistics platform client later needed senior leadership on the execution side, so I also stepped into an interim executive role there. But that mandate mattered mainly because it strengthened the commercial side of my work: it gave me direct operational visibility, executive credibility with buyers, and a much sharper view of what actually sells in digital transformation versus what only sounds good in a pitch.
What I Delivered
Commercial Strategy & Positioning
Defined the commercial direction for the Product, Data & AI portfolio: where the company had a genuine right to win, which services should be positioned as strategic offers, and how to translate technical depth into language buyers actually respond to.That included pricing logic, packaging, offer design, and clearer market narratives across product discovery, platform work, data initiatives, and AI-enabled services. The goal was not generic "innovation" messaging. It was building a commercially coherent portfolio that sales teams and leadership could confidently take to market.Worked directly with company leadership on growth priorities, portfolio focus, and the balance between bespoke client work and more repeatable service lines. The real objective was leverage: increase revenue quality and market clarity without depending on pure headcount expansion.
GTM & Sales Leadership
Played an active role in go-to-market and business development, especially in opportunities where buyers needed more than a standard sales motion. I supported discovery, shaped proposal narratives, helped frame transformation roadmaps, and connected business problems to realistic delivery models.In practice, that meant working across the full pre-sales cycle: early qualification, executive workshops, solution framing, commercial packaging, and stakeholder alignment. My role was to help prospects understand not only what could be built, but why it mattered commercially, how it would be phased, and what kind of business outcome they could expect.The most valuable part was credibility. Many engineering-led firms struggle to sell because they speak in capabilities instead of outcomes. I translated delivery strength into a sharper sales story: growth, efficiency, risk reduction, operating model maturity, and competitive differentiation.
Strategic Accounts & Executive Leadership
For selected accounts, I moved beyond strategy and into direct executive responsibility. The logistics platform engagement is the clearest example: I stepped into a leadership role on the client side, not as a passive advisor, but as the person accountable for creating stability, building trust with stakeholders, and keeping execution aligned with business expectations.That work mattered commercially as much as operationally. Strategic accounts are won once in the sales cycle, but retained and expanded through execution. By taking ownership when needed, I helped protect revenue, strengthen client confidence, and create the conditions for longer-term account growth.I also acted as the bridge between executive stakeholders, product leadership, and engineering teams. Different audiences needed different conversations: commercial framing for decision-makers, prioritization clarity for product, and realistic constraints for engineering. Keeping those worlds aligned was part of the value.
Productization of Data & AI Services
Defined how the company should approach AI and data commercially: what should remain high-value bespoke consulting, what could be standardized into repeatable offerings, and where internal accelerators could improve both margin and speed.This was less about inventing standalone products and more about product thinking inside a services business. The challenge was to build offers that were differentiated enough to sell, concrete enough to scope, and flexible enough to deliver in complex enterprise environments.
What Made It Hard
The hardest part was that product engineering companies often over-rely on delivery excellence and underinvest in commercial clarity. Strong teams, strong engineers, strong references — but offers that are too fuzzy, too broad, or too technical to scale in the market. Fixing that requires more than better slideware. It requires hard choices about positioning, target clients, and what not to sell.There is also a structural tension in this kind of role: the same person is expected to think about market positioning, support revenue conversations, shape internal capability, and occasionally step into operational leadership on critical accounts. Those responsibilities compete for the same time, but they also reinforce each other when handled well. Commercial strategy becomes stronger when it is grounded in delivery reality. Sales conversations improve when you have personally carried executive accountability on the client side.Selling product, data, and AI services is especially difficult because buyers are flooded with vague promises. Everyone claims transformation, acceleration, and innovation. Very few can connect that language to operating models, real delivery constraints, and credible commercial outcomes. That translation work was a core part of the role.The interim logistics mandate added another layer: earning trust inside an inherited client setup while still operating as part of the commercial leadership of the parent organization. You cannot do that effectively by bluffing. You need enough depth to be credible in delivery, enough judgment to operate with executives, and enough business sense to understand how account health, delivery quality, and future revenue are tied together.
