Kate A.

Client Context

Upwork, a global work marketplace and enterprise services company, brought in a new GM to lead their Enterprise division. The organization’s revenue function was struggling with fragmented compensation structures, inconsistent decision ownership, and employee confusion around roles and responsibilities. This misalignment was impacting both client experience and internal performance.

Challenge

The executive team needed to:

• -Audit and rationalize the revenue organization end-to-end.
• -Align compensation, roles, and titles to industry benchmarks.
• -Improve clarity and accountability across cross-functional teams.
• -Roll out changes without disrupting day-to-day revenue operations and client experience.

Approach

As Fractional Chief of Staff to the new GM of Enterprise, I spearheaded a cross-functional effort to:

• -Conduct a full audit of roles, responsibilities, client journey, and compensation structures.
• -Partner with HR, Finance, Legal, and Enablement to design updated role definitions, standardized titles, and aligned compensation plans.
• -Build a phased rollout plan including backend HR updates, refreshed job descriptions, and a communications strategy to guide adoption.

Results

• +8% increase in client satisfaction scores.
• +11% lift in employee satisfaction overall.
• +17% YoY improvement in clarity of expectations and responsibilities.
• A more consistent, scalable revenue organization aligned to client needs and employee growth.

Impact

This engagement provided the new GM with a strong foundation to lead effectively, while giving employees clarity and clients a smoother experience, ultimately driving growth and retention.

Client Context

A growth-stage, Mexico-based software testing and QA provider was facing significant market pressure. Competitors were aggressively marketing AI tools to run software testing at scale, reducing costs and speeding delivery. The client relied primarily on human testers, leaving them vulnerable to being undercut on price and speed. Leadership recognized the risk: without adaptation, their market position could erode rapidly.

Challenge

The client needed to:

• -Incorporate AI into their QA processes without displacing their highly skilled human testers.
• -Differentiate their offering against low-cost, AI-only competitors.
• -Redesign organizational structures that were no longer suited to a hybrid human-AI operating model.

Approach

I partnered with leadership to design a new organizational framework that:

1. -Integrated AI into the testing process while keeping human experts in oversight roles, ensuring AI-driven speed and human-driven accuracy.
2. -Restructured teams into “capability pods,” cross-functional groups organized around expertise and adaptability rather than traditional reporting lines.
3. -Redefined value proposition from “manual testing” to “hybrid: AI + human assurance,” positioning the company as higher quality than AI-only competitors.

Outcome

• -The company successfully adopted AI testing tools while elevating human oversight as a premium feature.
• -Capability pods created more flexible, adaptive teams that could scale with evolving client needs.
• -The new hybrid approach not only solved the competitive threat but positioned the company as a category leader, offering faster, cheaper, and higher-quality results than competitors on either end of the spectrum.

Impact

• -Competitive pressure neutralized by redefining the company’s unique differentiator.
• -Increased client confidence due to “AI speed with human assurance.”
• -A scalable organizational model that supports long-term growth in an AI-driven market.