Liz Tupper, Director of Product: Making an Impact During the First 90 Days
Liz Tupper, CivicActions’ first Director of Product, has a rich background in Impact Tech. Based out of Minneapolis, MN, Liz’s experience is extremely multifaceted — she has focused her career on building teams that harness technology to positively impact the people they serve. Working on the WECMS team, supporting the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), she is especially well-situated to lead a product development team that truly makes a difference.
Coming to CivicActions, Liz realized that the first 90 days offered a unique opportunity to learn the product, the team, and the company.
“I found that it was useful to divide my first 90 days into three periods. During the first 30 days, my goal was to Connect & Absorb, where I met with the team and absorbed information about our people, projects, and processes. Then I used the next time period to Explore & Ideate. At that point I was more familiar with what CivicActions was all about, so I did a deep dive into how we would move forward as a team, often through one-on-one and group brainstorming sessions to identify opportunities. Finally, I used the last 30-day period to Marinate & Share. During this period, I continued to unpack my learnings and build more comprehensive strategies, while sharing these ideas with the broader company.”
For Liz, these first 90 days have been pivotal for understanding how her team can continue to deliver high-quality solutions to clients. She determined her team’s strengths, which included excellent processes and technical documentation. Liz was especially struck by the people of CivicActions and their passion for making government technology more accessible and equitable.
“It has been amazing working with such a motivated group of people who are passionate about doing work that benefits people from all backgrounds and abilities. Everyone at CivicActions has been kind and caring. I am especially excited to work at a company with an accessibility team, which is vital for delivering equitable government digital services.”
Liz also sees room for new opportunities to amplify the work that her team is doing at CivicActions, particularly when it comes to using storytelling to magnify their broader impact.
“I believe that there are so many stories to share about the positive influence of the work we are doing,” Liz said. “I want to celebrate our accomplishments and the impact of the software we are building. The work that we do is inherently human-centered. That is the ‘why’ that motivates me everyday. I’m excited to build products collaboratively and share how they can make a difference in people’s lives. ”
