figuring out
the real problem.
Kari Heuer  ·  GTM Strategy & Product Operations

I sit at the intersection of product, marketing, and operations — building the infrastructure that gets great products to the right people and making sure everyone along the way knows why it matters. My roots are in product marketing. My instinct is always toward the operational system underneath.

Connect on LinkedIn See my work
Based in
Austin, Texas
Background
B2B SaaS · Product Marketing · GTM Ops · Product Ops
Experience
IBM · Rackspace · Naviga · Bazaarvoice
What I do

Where strategy meets the work that actually gets done

My background is in product marketing — figuring out how to take what a product team builds and connect it to the people who need it. But I've always had a pull toward the operational side. Not just what's the story, but how do we build the system that gets the story out consistently, at scale.

Across nearly six years at Bazaarvoice I expanded and evolved the go-to-market motion — standing up win/loss and competitive intelligence programs, building pricing and packaging processes, owning product communications, and eventually leading a product GTM ops group. More recently I've been thinking deeply about product operations: the internal machinery that makes product orgs run well, from process design and tooling to cross-functional accountability and outcomes over output.

I've been on both sides — the person building the narrative and the person making sure the org is ready to tell it. That combination is where I do my best work.

GTM Strategy & Operations
Building the model
Tiering frameworks, launch playbooks, cross-functional alignment. The systems that let teams execute consistently instead of reinventing the wheel every release.
Product Operations
Running the machine
Process design, tooling, data and insights, cross-functional accountability. The operating infrastructure underneath the product org — outcomes over output, always.
Product Marketing
Telling the story
Positioning, narrative, and value-based messaging that bridges what product builds and what customers actually care about.
AI-Enabled Workflows
Working smarter
Deep in exploring how AI tools can meaningfully amplify teams — automating the mundane so people can focus on the work that actually requires judgment.
Who I am
Problem Solver.
Give me the problem — or better yet, let's figure out what the real problem actually is. After getting to the bottom of the what and the why, then I go fix it.
Thinker.
The rabbit hole is where my brain lives. If I don't know something I go find out. Curious by default, living for the context, always.
Builder.
Doesn't have to be perfect to get started. I build to fuel the curiosity, solve what I see in front of me, and keep creating from there.
Career arc

The through line: figuring out how good products get to the people who need them — and building the systems that make that repeatable. Here are the moments that shaped how I work.

Defining moments & perspective shifts
01
Legacy portfolio modernization
+
Cut my teeth on a $250M+ product family already trusted by thousands. The job wasn't to build — it was to evolve without losing what made it matter.
02
Defining a category through content
+
At the onset of the API economy, learned how content strategy isn't just storytelling — it's how you define an emerging space before anyone else does.
03
Growth unit pivot
+
Went from a name that opened doors to a business unit no one had heard of. Had to relearn everything about earning attention and building from zero.
04
Selling the absence of disaster
+
Cybersecurity taught me that the most important messages aren't always about what you gain — sometimes they're about what you never lose. A fundamentally different way to think about value.
05
Re-envisioning GTM at scale
+
Not just doing the work but building the systems so others could too. The shift from individual contributor to architect of how a whole company goes to market.
06
Program builder to people leader
+
Turns out those aren't that different. Leading people well is just building programs where the output is someone else's growth.
Core experience
2020 – 2026
Sr. Manager, Product GTM Ops · Manager, Product Marketing Ops · Sr. Program Manager, GTM
Bazaarvoice
Expanded and evolved the go-to-market motion across nearly six years — win/loss and competitive intelligence programs, pricing and packaging operations, product communications infrastructure, and eventually leading a 12-person product GTM ops group spanning technical communications and program management. Ended as the senior-most product ops voice in the software division, reporting to the SVP of Product.
Competitive & win/loss programs 100+ SKU changes 6 to 3-month cycle times Led org of 12
2019 – 2020
Senior Manager, Strategy & Product Marketing
Naviga
Joined to build a product marketing function from the ground up for two solution areas. First end-to-end enablement resource, consistent GTM narratives, content across multiple formats. Role eliminated during pandemic cuts.
Built PMM function GTM from scratch
2016 – 2019
Product Marketing Manager
Rackspace
End-to-end GTM for two growth business units — Application Services and Cybersecurity. Learned to tell a fundamentally different kind of story in a space where the stakes are high and the narrative is defensive rather than aspirational. The brand wasn't the advantage — the argument was.
Growth unit GTM Regulated space storytelling 1.7M campaign reach
2011 – 2016
Portfolio Content Strategist · Integration Bus Product Marketing Manager
IBM
Where it started. Cut my teeth on product narratives and content strategy at scale for a company whose name already opened doors — and learned what it takes to make a complex technical portfolio feel compelling. Led content strategy for the IBM API Economy launch and managed a 250M+ product family through rebrand and modernization.
API Economy launch Portfolio modernization Scale storytelling
Want the full picture? linkedin.com/in/kariheuer →
Currently
Work
Open to new opportunities — specifically the kind where real problems need solving and there's room to build something that actually works.
On the pitch
Still overanalyzing bad defensive choices in soccer matches. Some things never change.
On the shelf
Building the library of my dreams one hardcover book makeover at a time.
At the table
Embracing that I will never grow old and will forever be a gamer — board, card, video, doesn't matter.

Got interesting problems
to solve?

My inbox is always open for a quick chat. If you're working on something that might be a fit — or just want to connect — find me on LinkedIn.

Connect on LinkedIn