Product Advisory

Scale your product.
Without the overhead.

Fractional product leadership for growth-stage startups — 15 years building and scaling SaaS, ecommerce, mobile, and AI platforms.

Work with me See my work
15+
Years in product
$5M+
ARR driven
40%
Avg growth impact

About

Product leader who ships,
not just strategizes.

Naren Roy — Forwardscale Product Advisory

Naren Roy

PRINCIPAL, PRODUCT ADVISORY

I'm Naren Roy — a product executive with 15 years of experience building digital platforms across ecommerce, SaaS, mobile, and AI. I embed as a fractional product leader, bringing senior-level thinking without the full-time cost.

My edge is bridging growth vision and technical execution in complex, data-rich environments. I don't just set strategy — I roll up my sleeves, align your engineering and GTM teams, and get product shipped.

I've led platforms at Avalara, Shutterstock, and Afterall.com, and advised AI tooling startups on product strategy, LangChain agent pipelines, and RAG-powered systems. I know what it takes to go from zero to market and from market to scale.

Product Strategy & Roadmap
AI & ML Integration
Partner & Platform Ecosystems
Go-to-Market Execution
Mobile & eCommerce Platforms
Data & Analytics Strategy

Selected Work

What I've built and scaled.

Afterall.com — VP Product

Digital-First Platform Transformation

Led full digital transformation of a $400M+ end-of-life services platform, shifting from mailer-driven offline acquisition to an AI-powered B2B2C digital experience.

  • 35% YoY growth in online leads
  • 22% improvement in digital policy conversion
  • Compressed first-touch-to-value from 7 days to 2 days
  • 18% increase in 90-day customer retention
  • 20% NPS improvement within the first year

Afterall.com — VP Product

AI-Powered Guided Selling

Designed an intelligent quote flow and guided selling experience that reduced call-center dependency and enabled scalable self-service for consumers.

  • 15% faster application processing via AI/ML recommendations
  • Measurable CSAT improvement
  • 10% uplift in digital channel adoption via A/B testing framework
  • Built competitive insights engine informing pricing and positioning

Metro by T-Mobile — Fractional PM

Native App Modernization

Embedded product leader for Metro by T-Mobile native app, driving v11.2 and v11.3 release delivery across BFF microservices on Kubernetes with zero-downtime deployments.

  • Launched MoEngage replacing legacy Airship SDK across millions of subscribers
  • First-ever ScamShield fraud protection integration into Metro app
  • Built release dependency framework reducing last-minute deployment blockers

Independent Advisory

AI Underwriting Tool

Built an AI-assisted commercial real estate underwriting tool using LangFlow multi-agent architecture and OpenAI APIs.

  • Reduced deal evaluation from 8+ hours to under 2 hours
  • 90%+ extraction accuracy across T12s, rent rolls, and leases
  • System ROI achieved within first month of deployment

Avalara — Senior Product Lead

Cross-Border & SMB Platforms

Simplified global compliance flows and embedded Avalara into major ecommerce platforms, driving significant SMB merchant growth.

  • $5M+ ARR from Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce integrations
  • 40% SMB merchant adoption acceleration
  • 30% reduction in user error rates
  • 25% drop in support tickets via behavior-based onboarding

Shutterstock — Senior Product Lead

Mobile Marketplace

Built Shutterstock's mobile marketplace from zero, disrupting a desktop-dominant industry and creating a two-sided growth flywheel.

  • Grew mobile in-app purchase revenue from $0 to $10M+ annually
  • 40% YoY growth in Monthly Active Users
  • 67% growth in seller-side user-generated content
  • Pioneered AR stock image preview, mobile video, and reverse image search

Expertise

Where I add the most value.

Product Strategy

Roadmap vision, prioritization frameworks, OKR alignment, and turning ambiguous problems into clear, executable product plans.

AI & ML Integration

LangChain, LangFlow, RAG systems, multi-agent pipelines, and embedding AI into real products that improve conversion and operations.

Platform Modernization

Taking offline or legacy platforms digital — omnichannel journeys, BFF microservices, API integration strategy, and mobile-first delivery.

Partner Ecosystems

Building and scaling integrations with major ecommerce platforms including Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, and partner-led GTM motions.

Product-Led Growth

Designing self-serve funnels, onboarding flows, A/B testing frameworks, and data pipelines that turn product usage into revenue.

Go-to-Market Execution

Owning full GTM alongside engineering — launch sequencing, stakeholder alignment, pricing strategy, and measuring what matters.

By the numbers

Results that speak for themselves.

35%
YoY online lead growth driven at Afterall.com
$10M+
Mobile revenue built from zero at Shutterstock
$5M+
ARR from platform integrations at Avalara
90%+
AI extraction accuracy in underwriting tool
40%
MAU growth on Shutterstock mobile buyer app
2hrs
Deal evaluation time reduced from 8+ hours via AI

Contact

Ready to scale?

Let's work together.

Whether you need a fractional product leader, a strategic advisor, or someone to untangle a complex roadmap — I'd love to hear what you're building.

naren@forward-scale.com
LinkedIn 919-522-3450 forward-scale.com LinkedIn Page