People of Dripos: Jess Natale
Please introduce yourself!
Hi there! I'm Jess and I live on the Upper East Side with my husband and my beloved Portie, Bodi. I joined Dripos 7 months ago as a Technical Product Manager. I was previously working as a full-stack software engineer at a health-tech startup and decided to pivot into a more product-focused role. Still close to the technical side that I love but with a bigger hand in shaping what we build and why.
What is your go-to coffee order?
Large cold-brew, black
What is your go-to coffee shop?
Casita of Brooklyn on the Upper East Side!
What is your role at Dripos? and what is your favorite part of your role?
As a Technical Product Manager, I work very closely with all of our internal teams to ensure that we are shipping the features our customers actually want and need. I partner with Customer Success and Sales to surface top customer requests, collaborate with Engineering to bring alive wireframes and MVPs, and ultimately team up with Marketing to share our exciting updates. At heart I’ve always been a problem solver, so making our product the best it can be and having that forward vision to implement features from start to finish is easily my favorite part of the job. Also, the people rock.
What do you enjoy most and least about working at a tech start up?
I really enjoy the fast-paced, ever-changing nature of a tech startup. It's exciting to constantly learn and implement new technologies in the industry. No two days are ever the same, which keeps me on my toes and lets me wear many, many different hats. On top of that, I feel a true sense of ownership in the work we’re doing and it’s incredibly valuable to see our product make a real, visible impact in the industry. And honestly, I know it's a bit of a cop-out, but there's truly nothing I don't like about it!
Can you describe a specific achievement at Dripos you are most proud of?
One of the first projects I got to see through from beginning to end was, what we lovingly refer to as, “the death of the cent”. As the U.S. started to phase out the penny, we wanted shops to be able to handle cash transactions seamlessly. I was part of every step: from fleshing out the requirements with a member of our success team who first raised the idea, to partnering with Engineering on implementation, coordinating extensive testing within the company, all the way through to the marketing release. Getting to own something across its entire lifecycle, and ship a feature our competitors didn't have, is exactly the kind of work that pulled me toward Product Management.
What are you most excited to build, solve, or see come to life at Dripos this year?
We have a lot of exciting features in the pipeline that I can’t wait to get into our customers’ hands. Seeing a project finally go live and then refining it from real feedback to be the best it can be is one of the most fulfilling parts of my work. Beyond any single feature, though, I’m especially focused on continuing to build out our Product Management workflows - the systems and processes behind how we decide what to build and bring to market. Getting that right is what lets us consistently ship features we are truly proud of, faster and with more confidence every time.
