Chief Product Officer, WorkMoney Ex-Google, Capital One Houston, TX

Deliver value today.
Build for tomorrow.

I lead product, engineering, and data for companies where scale is the job. Twenty years of turning strategy into products used by millions, and building the teams that ship them.

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20+
Years leading product, tech, and data
9M+
Members served at WorkMoney
4
Functions led today: product, engineering, data, member value
8
National-scale companies, Google to Capital One
About

Product leaders do two jobs at once.

Deliver real value every day, and shape the future while you do it. Today's wins earn the right to make tomorrow's bets. That's the standard I hold myself and my teams to.

For 20+ years I've led product, technology, and data at Google, Capital One, Walmart, FedEx, AT&T/Cricket, Pizza Hut, and Mattress Firm. I've owned P&Ls, reinvented how people shop for big purchases, and turned strategy into products used at national scale.

Today I'm Chief Product Officer at WorkMoney, a mission-driven fintech helping working families lower costs and raise incomes. I'm the company's first CPO, leading product, engineering, data, and member value.

My view on AI: it isn't a strategy on its own. It's the enabler, accelerator, and scale engine for the strategy you already have. If it doesn't move a customer outcome or give a team time back, it doesn't get funded.


How I lead

Start with why, then ship.

Vision to velocity

Set direction people can repeat back to you, then move fast toward it. A team that knows the why makes better calls without waiting on me.

Building the disciplines

Stood up design, research, and analytics as formal functions, and the operating model that connects them to product and engineering.

AI with guardrails

Human in the loop, clear disclosure, evals before scale. Outcomes over demos.

Winning together

Teams that do what they thought was impossible, with smart tradeoffs and the kind of conflict that makes the work better.

Track record

Where I've built.

WorkMoney
Chief Product Officer

First CPO. Lead product, engineering, data, and member value for a fintech platform serving 9M+ members. Authored the AI strategy and charter; stood up design, research, and analytics as disciplines.

Mattress Firm
Chief Product, Digital and Experience Officer

Launched Mattress Finder, an AI-powered shopping experience that matches people to the right bed by how they sleep. Highest satisfaction scores and lowest return rates in the company's history.

Capital One
Head of Product Strategy & Innovation; CPO, Capital One Auto Garage

Brought AI to car buying from research to ownership. Built connected, protected customer experiences and smarter dealer financial products.

Google
Head of Industry, Consumer Electronics, Technology and Gaming

Led the industry team for consumer electronics, technology, and gaming brands on their digital strategy and growth with Google.

Hope Enterprise
Chief Product & Experience Officer

Product and experience leadership for a community development financial institution.

AT&T / Cricket
Director, Digital Product & CX Strategy

VP-scope role reporting to the COO. Built the cross-channel digital and retail model that AT&T's other business units adopted.

Earlier: Walmart, FedEx, Pizza Hut.

Writing

One sharp idea at a time.

Article

I almost missed my flight trusting AI. Best mistake I ever made.

Gate B14. Boarding in twelve minutes. I'm sprinting, thanks to AI.
Read on LinkedIn →
Post

Not another AI post.

Tools don't get tired. People do. The quality of your work will never exceed the quality of your fuel.
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Post

AI didn't just speed up the work. It moved the bottleneck.

The best managers aren't policing the work anymore. They're clearing the path.
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Post

Your job as a senior leader isn't to make decisions.

It's to quality-control the decision-making of the people around you. Build the process. Trust it more than your gut.
Read on LinkedIn →

Beyond the job

Recognition

  • J.D. Power and Forrester recognition for the Cricket Wireless digital experience
  • Brand Innovators Top 40 Under 40, three years running
  • Pizza Hut President's Award for the PizzaHut.com platform
  • FedEx Five Star and Chairman's Award

Teaching

  • UT Austin, Product Innovation program
  • UT Dallas, Design Thinking Capstone

Talk to me about

  • Product leadership and building product orgs from scratch
  • AI in financial products, with guardrails
  • Building teams for what's next
Contact

Always up for a conversation.

LinkedIn franklin.darrell@gmail.com