Robert Pudlik
Studied at Fairfield University
Works at HAVEN
Available tomorrow at 4:00 PM UTC
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About Robert
Like many people in product management, I didn't go to school for it. Since I was a child I've been fascinated by technology and how it works. Compelled by this and my innate desire to solve problems and understand human behavior, I made my way into product management through a combination of lucky breaks and a love for the complexity of the role. One of those breaks was working for a company that brought in Marty Cagan to personally train my team when he was first starting the Silicon Valley Product Group. I've followed his and his team's writing and thinking ever since (with a heathy does of Teresa Torres and Richard Rumelt thrown in). I've worked in startups that were weeks away from running out of funding to massive, complex corporations. I've made mistakes and I've had successes. In recent years, starting with the general release of ChatGPT, I knew something fundamentally different was going to happen in the world of Product. That's been a huge focus for me and it's both exhilarating and scary to see what's now possible and the pace of change that's coming with it. Product managers are living in exciting times. I want to help people live and adapt to this change.
Why do I coach?
I coach for two primary reasons. The first is that I've been doing product management and product leadership for over two decades and I've seen it all. I want to help other product managers and leaders with the questions and thorny issues they're experiencing in their careers. From vision and strategy (one of the most misunderstood topics) to discovery, execution, go-to-market, and everything in between, I want to help people get better at the Product craft. A core part of product leadership is coaching. The second is that I'm still learning. I love hearing about how people are experiencing product management in their organization. I take what I learn and use it to become a better coach.
Work Experience
Product Lead
HAVEN
March 2026 - Present
- My team and I help businesses take advantage of AI-powered technologies to build software solutions that until recently have been out of reach. We're focused on the construction and builder industry. Part of this is a new product we're building: hazel.build, which is designed to help SMBs in the construction space get time back and stay on budget/on schedule by automating many of their back-office tasks. - We also partner with businesses to put governance models in place so their teams can safely explore what's possible with AI technologies, from ideation to cost-saving workflows and fully functioning products
Senior Manager, Product Management
The Home Depot
March 2024 - December 2025
The work I did in this role was focused on organizational transformation and talent development. Organizational Transformation & Cultural Alignment: Partnered with leadership (VPs and directors) to design and facilitate a large-scale organizational intervention, shifting to a high-maturity Product Operating Model (SVPG). Focused on helping teams become more customer-centric, make faster decisions through role clarity, and evolve towards new ways of thinking and behaving. Capability Development & Talent Upskilling: Orchestrated large-scale talent development initiatives to advance organizational capability across Product, UX, and Engineering. Accelerated the adoption of AI-driven workflows and strategic thinking practices, ensuring the workforce was equipped to support the long-term vision of the transformation. Systemic Effectiveness & Scaling: Helped build and and scale a Product Center of Excellence (CoE) to drive organizational effectiveness across a cohort of 600+ product managers. Established frameworks and ways of working to increase decision-making speed, reduce systemic friction, and elevate institutional maturity. Leadership Diagnostic & Intervention: Conducted diagnostic workshops with senior cross-functional leadership to discover and resolve internal priority misalignments and root causes, resulting in a more focused strategic roadmaps. Workforce Selection & Quality Control: Partnered with Talent leadership to improve the selection process for Product Management to ensure long-term organizational fit and competency. Introduced a rigorous, competency-based assessment that improved hiring standards and reduced the candidate pass rate by 20%, ensuring a higher baseline of strategic talent. Organizational Development, Product Management and +9 skills
Principal Product Manager
The Home Depot
February 2022 - March 2024
Cross-Functional Strategic Orchestration: Facilitated strategic alignment for the organization's primary growth vertical (Professional Builders). Partnered with UX leadership to create a unified vision, strategic approach, and journey map to harmonize the efforts of 10+ disparate product teams into a single, coherent strategic unit. Structural Role Alignment & Job Leveling: Co-led a large-scale functional audit with the OD team to remediate title-to-task misalignment for product managers. Validated the nature of work against competency frameworks, adjusting seniority levels for accuracy and identifying practitioners performing PM functions without appropriate titling. Horizontal Integration & Silo Remediation: Identified experiential connection points and remediated systemic redundancies across interdependent product teams. Promoted "end-to-end" systems thinking to optimize the customer experience and ensure operational efficiency in complex, high-visibility problem spaces. Organizational Development, Product Management and +4 skills
Senior Product Manager
The Home Depot
February 2018 - February 2022
Technology Transformation & Change Leadership: Orchestrated a multi-year structural modernization of the QuoteCenter application (used by Home Depot associates for Pro customer sales) facilitating the technical and operational transition of 15 product teams from a legacy transaction systems to a modern infrastructure. Directed the enterprise-wide change management strategy and phased rollout across 2,200 retail locations, partnering with Sales and Operations to mitigate transition friction and deliver a 40% improvement in transaction velocity. Revenue Growth & Integration: Directed high-performing product teams to scale selling capabilities while navigating complex integrations into Home Depot’s core enterprise systems. Supported a revenue surge from $1.7B (2018) to $3B (2021) by maintaining technological stability and strategic feature alignment during rapid scaling. Product Management, Product Strategy and +2 skills
Senior Product Manager
Arck Interactive
July 2017 - February 2018
Established the foundational product management function for a custom software agency, focusing on problem discovery and process optimization. Product Management and Strategy to Execution
Senior Product Manager
Ingage
February 2012 - March 2017
Directed a team of Product Managers to consolidate three disparate legacy components into a unified, zero-code enterprise authoring suite. Led the product strategy and launch for the Ingage iOS app, supporting interactive content delivery for global enterprises including Aetna, Roche, and Mary Kay. Product Management and Strategy to Execution
Education
Fairfield University
Bachelor's Degree, English
1989 - 1993
I did well in school but I've been practicing software product management for over 25 years. That's the expertise I plan to bring to Leland.