Product leader · Utah

Good strategy is mostly deciding what matters, and being honest about what doesn't.

I've spent twenty years in product, working out which problems are worth a team's time and how to get people pulling in the same direction. This is where I share how I think, what I've learned, and who I am outside the job.

24% → 55% of loan offers submitted by API in nine months, at Lendio.

How I think about product Who I am
Portrait of Brad Ross smiling, wearing a light blue collared shirt in front of a brick wall
Away from the desk, I'm a husband to an amazing wife and a dad to five kids, which means my evenings are a relay of practices, games, and recitals, with a workout or a trip into the mountains squeezed in when I can.

Product strategyWhat I believe

These are the habits that show up across every team I've led, drawn from what has worked.

The shared layer is where the leverage is.

The most valuable product work often sits underneath the features customers see. The documents, rules, and services that every other team depends on decide how fast the whole company can move, so I look there first.

A strategy you can't measure is a wish.

I write the business case before the roadmap, freeze a baseline, and say out loud what "better" means. It keeps me honest and gives my partners something solid to say yes to.

Say no early, and say why.

Prioritization is a form of respect for the team's time. A clear "not now," with the reasoning, builds more trust than a vague "maybe."

Influence beats authority.

Most of the products I've shipped depended on teams I didn't manage. The work is listening well enough to find what each group needs, then making the shared goal the easy path.

Relationships are the roadmap.

The best plans I've seen came from teams where people felt safe disagreeing. I ask for input early, listen for what's underneath it, and invest in relationships first, because good ideas travel at the speed of trust.

Strategy in practiceFour problems worth solving

Four decisions driven by data, customers, and the market. Each starts with a real, measurable problem, then the decision, then the result.

Lendio · 2022–2026

Moving a lending platform from manual batches to real time

Problem
Only 24% of lender offers were submitted by API. The rest moved through manual, batch-style steps and email, slowing time-to-fund for small businesses waiting on capital. The target: cut time-to-fund 20% year over year.
The call
Treat documents and requirements as a platform every team could build on, and push lenders toward API-based submission instead of email and spreadsheets.
Result
Automated offer submission rose from 24% to 55% in nine months. Time-to-fund fell 22.7% year over year against a 20% goal, the first fully met KPI in that initiative.

Lendio · Business case

Making the case for an event-driven workflow architecture

Problem
Loan workflows were tangled, hard to change, and hard to audit, a weak foundation for a platform that would go on to absorb 2.6x the volume.
The call
Propose a different architecture and back it with numbers, not enthusiasm.
Result
A $344K case with 197% projected ROI became a cornerstone of engineering's two-year roadmap.

Lingotek · 2015–2021

Giving customers and executives one honest view of the data

Problem
Our largest accounts, 39% of revenue, couldn't see the value they were getting, which left that revenue dependent on customers who couldn't measure their return.
The call
Build an Intelligence Dashboard from zero: the data warehouse, the BI layer, and the APIs. I also sponsored those accounts myself.
Result
The dashboard shipped, and those relationships held through the company's acquisition by Straker.

Lingotek · Translation memory

Making translation memory precise, not just plentiful

Problem
Translation memory is how international companies protect their brand, keep translations accurate, and avoid paying to translate the same text twice. Ours favored recall (the number of matches) over precision (how exactly each match fit), so teams got plenty of matches they couldn't trust, and paid for it in rework and review.
The call
Build a test harness first to measure precision and recall, then rewrite the matching algorithms against that evidence instead of by feel.
Result
The new algorithms went live and are still in use today, saving customers hundreds of thousands of dollars in translation spend each year. The test harness gave the whole team a way to see for ourselves whether the matches were getting better.

The personWho I am

Beyond the titles, I'm the person who listens first. I'm genuine, kind, and thoughtful, and I try to make room for every voice in the conversation, because the best ideas rarely come from the loudest person in the room. My goal is to build strong relationships with the people I work with. After all, we spend 8+ hours a day together, and the work is better, and a lot more fun, when you trust the people next to you.

Outside of work

The garage is my happy place. I dabble in 3D design, print whatever the kids and I dream up, and tinker with AI to see what's possible. The rest is workouts, the mountains when I can get there, and a lot of catch and soccer in the yard.

Something you wouldn't guess

I'm a leukemia survivor, more than 20 years out and fit as a fiddle. It shaped how I think about time and the people I spend it with.

How teammates describe me

Dependable, technical enough to talk with engineers, and easy to work with. In their words:

“He’s a transformational leader and the best ‘right-hand man’ I’ve ever had the pleasure of working with.”

Larry Furr · General Manager, managed me directly at Lingotek

“He’s thoughtful, pragmatic, and focused on continuously making the platform better for the customers who rely on it.”

Diane Stolte · VP, Product Marketing

“He was able to bridge the gap between engineering and the business.”

Sean George · Staff Software Engineer

“If picking co-workers was like picking a team for a game of kickball, then Brad is the guy that gets taken first every time.”

Alex McArthur · Fractional CMO, managed me directly

Read all 13 recommendations on LinkedIn →

The road so farWhere I've been

Twenty years, eighteen in product. The through-line is moving closer to strategy and to leading people.

2022 – 2026

Principal Product Manager · Lendio

One of the largest SMB lending marketplaces in the U.S. Led the Loan Processing Automation and Pre-Approvals initiatives; 137 epics shipped in four years.

2021 – 2022

Director of Product Management · Canopy

Led a team of seven, built the PM career ladder with the CPO, and designed the Workflow Automation module.

2014 – 2021

Senior PM, then Head of Product · Lingotek

Joined the executive team and led Product, UX, Solution Engineering, and Documentation. Delivered 16 products and rebuilt the API platform.

2011 – 2014

Lead Product Manager · Identifix

Led product and UX for a $100MM+ ARR platform, with teams spread across the U.S., Vietnam, and Uruguay.

2005 – 2011

Marketing Analyst & Sales · Xactware

Where I learned to talk with customers. Top salesperson six months running.

Education

Utah Valley University

B.S., Business Management · 3.88 GPA · Beta Gamma Sigma

LatelyWhat I'm curious about

I've been spending a lot of time with AI, using it both to work through ideas and as a way to help small businesses. This year I used Claude Code to ship a medical spa's website and a patient-consultation app. It's changing how quickly a product idea can become something real, which is exactly what strategy people should be watching.

AI shrinks the distance between an idea and something people can react to. That makes judgment, not speed, the scarce skill: knowing which problem is worth solving, and whether what you built actually helps. I use AI every day to prototype and explore, and I still want a conversation with real people to decide what's worth building.

Say hello.

If you're thinking about product strategy, hiring, or just want to swap notes, I'd enjoy hearing from you.

bradleywross@gmail.com Connect on LinkedIn