
Sylvie Haas
Product & Platform Executive | Enterprise SaaS | A
Salary / Daily rate
Paris, France
Freelance, open to permanent contract
Can come onsite
Skills
Languages
About me
Intro
I’m a product and platform leader with 25+ years of experience building and transforming digital products across enterprise software, SaaS, marketplaces and AI-enabled services. Throughout my career, I’ve worked at the intersection of product, technology and business. I enjoy taking complex products or organizations, finding what needs to change, and helping teams turn a clear strategy into products that create measurable value for customers and the business. I’ve led product strategy from vision through delivery and growth, built and coached international product teams, and helped organizations evolve the way they work through stronger product operating models, clear priorities and outcome-focused decision making. Some of the areas where I have spent most of my career: • Product and platform strategy • Enterprise SaaS and on-premise-to-SaaS transformation • AI-enabled products and shared SaaS capabilities • Product transformation and operating models • Growth, monetisation and customer experience • Product analytics, OKRs and KPIs • International and cross-functional team leadership • Executive stakeholder and commercial alignment At Adevinta, I developed the vision and roadmap for shared AI-enabled SaaS capabilities across marketplaces, covering search, personalization, recommendations and fraud prevention. I also served as Chief Product Officer for Adevinta Hungary, working with the executive team to connect product and technology strategy with commercial priorities. Earlier at IBM, I led the product evolution of Operational Decision Manager, including the transition from an on-premise product to SaaS and the strategy and delivery of four major product versions across large, distributed teams. What has remained consistent throughout my career is the importance I place on people. Great products come from strong teams: teams that understand the problem they are solving, have the space to make decisions, learn from what doesn’t work and stay focused on outcomes. I’m now interested in senior Product & Platform leadership opportunities where I can help shape product and platform strategy, accelerate AI-enabled capabilities, strengthen product organizations and turn technology investment into meaningful customer and business outcomes. MBA, INSEAD | Ingénieur, École Centrale Paris French & US citizen | French • English • Spanish
Work experience
Director of Product Management
Decathlon
Jul 2024 - Present
2 years 4 months
Paris, France
Leading the digital transformation of the People/HR domain worldwide, with a focus on improving employee experience, increasing operational efficiency and providing reliable data to support management decision-making. Key areas of focus include: • Digital product strategy and transformation across the global HR domain • Improving employee-facing digital experiences and workforce efficiency • Strengthening product and technology practices across a complex international environment • Improving data reliability and access for management decision-making • Addressing cybersecurity and shadow IT risks across the People technology landscape • Working across product, technology and business stakeholders to turn transformation priorities into practical outcomes
Adevinta
Apr 2017 - May 2024
7 years 2 months
Paris, France
Product Expert - Trust and Transactions
Jan 2022 - May 2024
2 years 5 months
Paris, France
Worked with Adevinta's European marketplaces to accelerate the adoption of secure online transactions and improve trust throughout the customer journey. • Advised marketplaces on transaction journeys and product improvements • Identified and shared practices that could increase trust, customer satisfaction and transaction adoption • Worked across countries and functions to bring greater consistency to the transaction experience • Connected customer experience, product decisions and commercial objectives
Chief Product Officer, Adevinta Hungary
May 2020 - Jan 2022
1 year 9 months
Budapest, Hungary
Chief Product Officer for Adevinta Hungary, overseeing product strategy for Jófogás and Használtautó and working closely with the executive team and technology leadership. My focus was to increase the contribution of product to the company's growth and commercial objectives while changing the way product teams operated. • Co-created product and technology strategy with executive leadership • Shaped initiatives across user acquisition, mobile apps, CRM, personalization and monetisation • Led Product, UX and Customer Support teams of 20 • Introduced stronger product operating practices using Agile, OKRs, KPIs and Dual Track Discovery/Delivery • Connected customer needs, product priorities and technology modernization • Supported +20% growth in App DAU • Worked with commercial and technology leaders to turn product opportunities into measurable business outcomes
Chief Product Officer, Fincaraíz
Nov 2019 - May 2020
7 months
Bogotá, Bogota, Colombia
Interim Chief Product Officer for FincaRaiz, Colombia's leading real-estate digital platform, brought in to strengthen the product strategy, organization and operating model. • Worked with the executive team to define strategic goals and a roadmap focused on the most valuable growth opportunities • Reorganized, recruited and coached the Product and UX organization • Introduced stronger Agile, OKR and analytics practices • Changed product and development operations to improve team velocity and product impact • Helped establish the foundations for the platform's continued growth and strengthened market position
Product Director, IA-powered Global Marketplace Components
Feb 2018 - Dec 2019
1 year 11 months
Paris Area, France
Led product strategy for AI-powered shared SaaS capabilities used across Adevinta's international marketplace portfolio. The objective was to help marketplaces adopt AI-enabled technology faster while creating reusable capabilities that could improve customer experience and reduce duplication across markets. • Defined the vision and roadmap for shared SaaS capabilities across search, personalization, recommendations and fraud prevention • Built and led a product team working with seven international squads • Worked closely with marketplaces, technology teams and User Research to validate product-market fit • Developed a portfolio approach focused on reducing time-to-market and cost of ownership • Created stronger collaboration between local marketplaces and global product and research teams • Helped establish reusable platform capabilities that could scale across different markets and products
Product Lead - Fraud & Content Moderation
Apr 2017 - Mar 2018
1 year
Paris, France
Led product vision and roadmap for fraud prevention and content moderation capabilities serving Adevinta's international marketplace portfolio. • Defined the product direction for a multi-tenant SaaS service • Worked with three international teams to develop and deliver the capability • Focused on making fraud prevention faster and easier to adopt across marketplaces • Balanced user trust, marketplace safety, product requirements and scalability
IBM
Jul 2008 - May 2017
8 years 11 months
Paris, France
Product Team Lead - IBM Operational Decision Manager
Nov 2010 - May 2017
6 years 7 months
Paris, France
Led product strategy and evolution for IBM Operational Decision Manager, an enterprise platform helping organizations analyse, automate and govern business decisions. A major part of the role was transforming an established enterprise product for a SaaS model while continuing to evolve the product for complex global customers. • Led strategy, development and delivery of four major product versions • Managed and coordinated Product Management, technical and SaaS transition teams • Led the transition from on-premise software to SaaS • Worked across Product, Engineering, Sales, Support, Consulting and customers • Coordinated teams involving 80 developers and five product managers • Managed distributed teams across France, the UK, China and the US • Drove product evolution in a complex enterprise environment where integration, reliability and customization were critical
Product Team Lead - Operational Decision Manager
Jul 2008 - Dec 2010
2 years 6 months
Foster City, CA, USA
Product Management Team Lead for IBM Operational Decision Manager, responsible for coordinating product managers and setting the overall direction of the product roadmap. Worked across product strategy, roadmap development, customer needs and cross-functional stakeholder alignment in a complex enterprise software environment.
Product Lead, ILOG Business Rules Management System
ILOG
Dec 2001 - Jan 2009
7 years 2 months
Mountain View, CA, USA
Led product strategy for ILOG's Business Rules Management System, helping enterprises automate and manage business decision logic independently from their underlying IT infrastructure. Worked across product strategy, customer needs, UX and development to evolve a complex enterprise software product for demanding international customers. The experience became the foundation for my later work at IBM following its acquisition of ILOG and the evolution of the product into IBM Operational Decision Manager.
Product Manager - J2SE
Sun Microsystems
Oct 2000 - Dec 2001
1 year 3 months
Product Manager for J2SE client technologies, including Java Web Start and Java Plug-in. Worked on product direction and evolution for Java client technologies within Sun Microsystems' software organization.
Product Manager - Visualization
Inxight Software, a XEROX PARC company
Sep 1998 - Oct 2000
2 years 2 months
Product Manager for visualization products at Inxight Software, a Xerox PARC company. Worked across product direction, customer needs and product development in an emerging technology environment.
Product Marketing Manager
Scitex Europe
Sep 1994 - Oct 1996
2 years 2 months
1410 Waterloo, Belgium
Product Marketing Manager working on technology products and market positioning in an international environment.
Education
CentraleSupélec
ENGINEERING
1988 - Present
38 years 10 months
INSEAD
Master of Business Administration - MBA
1993 - Present
33 years 5 months
Cooper
Interaction Design Practicum, User Interaction Design
2005 - 2005
1 month
http://www.cooper.com/
Pragmatic Marketing
Product Management, Product Marketing
1998 - 2000
2 years 1 month
INSEAD
MBA, Business Administration and Management, General
1992 - 1993
1 year 1 month
CentraleSupélec
Ingenieur
1986 - 1988
2 years 1 month
CentraleSupélec
ENGINEERING