Melody L.
5.0
10+ YOE Coaching to Help You Find Unique Path to Leadership
Studied at Yale University
Worked at Coursera
Hiring Manager
Available Tuesday at 11:00 PM UTC
Given limited capacity, I’m prioritizing new clients with 3+ years of work experience who are looking to transition or advance in their product careers.
Questions? Start chatting with this coach before you get started.
Melody's Coaching Offerings
Pay as you go
Get help with Skill Building, Career Planning, and .
Melody’s Career Coaching Qualifications
Coaches professionally
Experience level: Director
20+ people coached for Career Coaching
Melody has helped clients get into these companies:
I help ambitious mid-career tech professionals, especially women and minorities, break through to leadership roles. My approach combines: • 12+ years in tech product, including 5+ as a people manager, building teams and products that help people grow • My own path from IC PM to product leader across startups and public companies, with insights into hundreds of hiring and promotion decisions • 60+ hours of ICF training and 100+ hours coaching values-driven professionals and young adults to discover and pursue the life they truly want • Ongoing study in SEL, behavioral science, strengths-based coaching, and CBT principles
Melody can help with:
Skill Building
Career Planning
Professional Networking
Resume Review
Personal Branding
Networking Strategy
Freelancing
Job Search Strategies
About Melody
Hi, I’m Melody - a product leader, hiring manager, entrepreneur, coach, and lifelong advocate for growth and learning. With over a decade of experience in Product Management, EdTech, AI, and startups, I’ve dedicated my career to solving meaningful problems and empowering people to thrive. At Coursera, I grew my career from leading products to leading people, where I managed all IC PM hiring processes and collaborated with my senior PM team to create impactful learning experiences to over 155 million learners worldwide. Before that, I led product and design at two enterprise SaaS startups, excelling at finding and scaling Product-Market Fit. Whether advancing education with generative AI or nailing PMF as a trailblazer, my mission has always been to unlock human potential and make a meaningful difference. Alongside my work as a product leader, I’ve worn many hats: ICF-trained coach, entrepreneur, angel investor, and non-profit leader. These roles have shaped how I approach growth — not just professionally, but holistically. Outside of work, I’m an avid snowboarder, climber, watercolor enthusiast, and improviser. You’ll often find me exploring trails with my husband or nurturing my ever-growing collection of plants. These passions keep me grounded and remind me of the importance of balance and mindfulness in a fast-paced world. I’d love to support you in finding your path, building confidence, and creating a life that aligns with your values.
Why do I coach?
Growing up in a family of educators, I learned early on how transformative mentorship can be and decided my life mission is to help people fulfill their full potential. That value has guided me throughout my journey, where I’ve built a career in EdTech, grew into a people leader, and mentored professionals and students through both my work and non-profit initiatives—helping them navigate career transitions, find their leadership voice, and discover their passions. I’ve also been on the other side. During my own journey from individual contributor to people leader, I leaned on mentors who helped me uncover my values, navigate tough decisions, and find clarity during uncertain times. These experiences reinforced my belief that with the right guidance and actionable steps, everyone has the potential to thrive. My coaching style is grounded in empathy and clarity—I listen deeply, challenge thoughtfully, and help clients take meaningful steps forward with a structured approach. Whether you’re a middle-career PM stepping into leadership, a startup founder navigating product-market fit, an entry-level PM sharpening your strategy and metrics, or a student exploring your path, I create a space where you feel supported and empowered to make meaningful changes in your life and career. Seeing people unlock their potential and take charge of their journeys is what inspires me. That’s why I coach.
Work Experience
Group Product Manager
Coursera
March 2021 - July 2024
Hiring Manager
As the Head of Learner Experience, I led and managed 4 product teams (mobile, core learning, gen AI coach, and platform foundations) to deliver personalized and engaging learner experiences for 155M+ learners worldwide, and contributed to $40M+ annual revenue growth Highlights: - *Gen AI Coach*: Launched LLM-powered Coursera Coach, a personalized interactive AI tutor, reaching 1+ million active users in the first quarter of GA and driving a +9.5% increase in assessment success rates and an +11.6% boost in lesson completions - *Internationalization*: Rolled out ML-powered translation platform for 4,400+ courses in 21 languages, generated +$12M enterprise revenue in 6 months and reduced translation cost by 20x - *Mobile growth*: Increased app store ratings from 3.9 to 4.7, launched a mobile-first growth strategy with gamification & lifecycle engagement, +50% YoY consumer revenue on mobile in FY23 - Developed org-wide GenAI strategy for learner experience, featured as a Harvard Business School case study. Spearheaded a 3-year product & content strategy for hands-on learning (+$20M ARR). - Led multiple operational excellence and people leadership initiatives for the PM organization e.g. led IC PM hiring for all NAMER and introduced a pool-based PM hiring process, 2x hiring speed.
Staff Product Manager
Coursera
September 2019 - March 2021
Admissions Committee
0-1 PMed Coursera Labs, a browser-based hands-on learning platform with free access to real-world tools including VSCode, Jupyter Notebook, and GPU. Promoted from Senior PM to Staff PM within a year. Expanded scope to lead all hands-on learning product & content portfolio, helping millions of learners learn, practice, and assess through real-world projects.
Chief Impact Officer
Minds Matter Bay Area
2018 - 2021
Hiring Manager
Minds Matter is a K12 nonprofit that helps low-income high school students better pursue their college & career dreams through mentorship. I joined the executive steering team as Chief Impact Officer in 2019-2021 and led ops, data, and technology for 90+ students and 320+ volunteers through the pandemic.
Head of Product
EmployeeChannel Inc
August 2017 - September 2019
Hiring Manager
EmployeeChannel is a B2B2C enterprise SaaS startup that offers mobile apps for employee engagement and communication. I led both product and UX design to build the enterprise-grade product portfolio: - native iOS and Android apps for employees - a web content management platform for leadership, managers and admins - AI-powered coaching and analytics platform for employee communications The startup was co-founded by former Apple executives, backed by Emergence Cap and Mohr Davidow Ventures and acquired in early 2020.
Head of Product
Pixlee
March 2016 - August 2017
Admissions Committee
Pixlee is a leading Social UGC (User-Generated Content), Ratings & Reviews, and Influencer Marketing platform for community-driven brands. I was the first PM hire at Pixlee and part of the 7-ppl executive team. I helped Pixlee build a result-driven product culture and launch two new business lines to fuel its growth post Series A. Pixlee was acquired by Emplifi in 2022.
Program Manager
Oracle
June 2014 - February 2016
PM for Oracle Cloud and ZFS Storage Appliance
Program Manager Intern
Microsoft
February 2013 - July 2013
PM for MSFT Networking products
Intern
Bain & Company
October 2011 - March 2012
Helped Fortune 500 CPG clients develop their go-to-market strategy in Asia
Melody was also given offers to work at
Meta (Facebook)
Microsoft
L.E.K. Consulting
Bain & Company
Education
Yale University
Master of Science (M.S.), Computer Science
Grade: 4.0/4.0 Academic Focus: Database Systems, Data Mining, Artificial Intelligence
Melody was also personally admitted to
Columbia University
Carnegie Mellon University
9 Reviews
Overall Rating
5.0
Knowledge
5.0
Value
5.0
Responsiveness
5.0
Supportiveness
5.0
Melody has helped clients get into these companies: