A passion for helping product professionals develop their expertise combined with the drive to build great products is what makes Anna Turner an MVP in the Pragmatic Alumni Community (PAC). And a commitment to solving customer pain points through technology is what makes her an exceptional product professional.
Currently the director of product and development operations at Ultimate Software, Turner has spent 16 years in B2B high-growth tech companies, including Snagajob, PeopleMatter, Benefitfocus, and Blackbaud. In that time, she’s committed herself to developing products, and especially people.
“The single thing I am most proud of in my time as a product leader across multiple companies is mentoring the next generation of great product people.”
But colleagues aren’t her only focus — Turner also has her customers top of mind as she goes about her work. She’s developed mobile apps at two different human-capital management (HCM) companies to help her clients optimize their efficiency. Thousands of HR professionals sleep well at night knowing they can effectively meet compliance requirements because of the projects Turner has tackled. And not to be overlooked is the payment processing platform she developed — it’s already processed more than $1 billion in donations for nonprofit organizations.
This experience and expertise in the product space have led to rich contributions to the PAC. Turner willingly shares her knowledge as it relates to leading people, operational best practices, and market problem discovery. She’s always willing to answer great questions from other PAC members as well as poses thought-provoking questions that cause fellow community members to think differently.
“It’s great to understand what other community members are trying, what’s working and what’s not. It helps me maintain an outside-in perspective on market product practices.”
But Turner isn’t only dispensing knowledge to PAC members, she’s also learning.
“I’m always amazed to find out how my product peers may have found innovative ways to solve challenges similar to the ones I run into,” she said. “It’s a thriving community that’s ready to help each other and offer perspectives and advice. It’s an alternate sounding board and a place to gather ideas from product people across a variety of industries.”
