Head of Product

How I lead product, build teams, and ship in the agent era.

At Umbrage (Bain & Company), the product and AI delivery studio within the firm, I help organizations across 10+ industries turn their hardest problems into products people rely on.

Portrait of Manny Guerrero
  • 10+Industries
  • 4+Latin American markets
  • 80,000+Active users within three weeks of a loyalty app launch

The problem

Plenty of AI pilots. Far fewer products people trust.

The models are rarely the problem now. What stalls teams is picking the right first use case, making agents work inside legacy systems and messy data, proving the output is reliable, and getting people to change how they work. That is as much a product problem as a technical one.

StrategyProof ofvalueProductionwhere it stallsStrategyProof ofvalueProductionwhere it stalls

Strategy to proof of value. I help set the strategy and pick the first use case: who it is for, what value it has to prove (not just that it works), and what stays out.

Proof of value to production. This is one of the places I work, leading the teams that carry a proven idea through delivery, adoption and scale.

What I own

What I'm accountable for

  • Product strategy and 0 to 1 delivery

    I have taken products from first idea to launch across industries, and I still do: defining the problem, the first release and what it has to prove, then leading discovery, build and launch with the team. That is how a loyalty app got to 80,000+ users in three weeks and 100+ vendor schemas ended up in one system.

  • Business P&L and revenue

    Together with the studio's leadership team, I am accountable for the practice's P&L and revenue. Part of why I was brought in was to grow our Latin America business from one account into many. In my first six months, I was directly involved in securing new growth accounts across the region, and we hit our annual revenue target by September 2026.

  • Studio growth and new markets

    With the studio's leadership team, I help take the studio into new parts of the world, including Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Chile, as well as London, through proven delivery and delivery teams on the ground.

  • AI native delivery

    I am shaping Adaptive Delivery with our engineering and product leads: a way for small teams to deliver with agents, evaluations and human checkpoints.

  • Product craft and talent

    I set the bar for how product managers are hired, coached and promoted, lead the principals who run client engagements, and built our AI proficiency ladder.

  • Enterprise product experience

    Enterprise products have been the thread through my whole career, and I still build them: products used by Fortune 500 companies.

Selected work

Case files

  • Retail, Mexico

    Loyalty app for a convenience retailer

    80,000+active users in three weeks

    Reached the top 6 of its App Store category in Mexico, with 80,000+ active users within three weeks of launch.

    Role and context
    Context
    A consumer loyalty app for a convenience retailer in Mexico, taken from concept to launch.
    My role
    I owned the product from concept to launch: strategy, requirements, and the team that built and shipped the app.
  • Utilities

    Vendor data unification for a major U.S. utility

    100+vendor data schemas unified

    100+ vendor schemas unified into one system through LLM driven mapping. It is now the base for further AI products.

    Role and context
    Context
    Many vendors, each with its own data format and no shared system. The goal: a foundation AI products could stand on.
    My role
    I owned product direction and oversaw delivery of the data and AI workstream, from the mapping approach to the team doing the work.
  • Finance

    Governed delivery model for a regulated payments company

    35%faster from prioritization to first commit

    One governed operating model for both, cutting the time from prioritization to first commit by 35%.

    Role and context
    Context
    Product and engineering ran on separate lifecycles inside a regulated environment, which slowed every release.
    My role
    I designed the operating model and led its rollout, with oversight of the product and engineering teams that adopted it.
  • Blockchain and energy

    Blockchain based gas trading platform

    A platform that shortened reconciliation and settlement, freed up capital and sped up deal closures.

    Role and context
    Context
    A joint venture needed to replace outdated systems that supported gas trading.
    My role
    I led strategy and requirements, and oversaw delivery of the platform and the team building it.
  • Oil and gas

    Control platform for frac completions

    43%client revenue growth in six months

    As the platform was adopted, the client reported 43% revenue growth and 70% headcount growth over six months. These are the client's results, built by a team effort.

    Role and context
    Context
    A redesign and rebuild of an autonomous frac completion control system, with a unified data platform for field operations.
    My role
    I owned strategy and delivery for the engagement, and oversaw the team across the control system rebuild and the data platform.
  • Healthcare

    Patient scheduling platform for a medical retail company

    An admin platform connected to online booking, with propensity models and granular control of availability.

    Role and context
    Context
    Corporate administrators had no central control over appointment availability across centers.
    My role
    I owned requirements and the roadmap, and oversaw delivery of the admin platform and its link to online booking.

Also

  • AviationOne modernization plan for 14 undocumented legacy systems at an aviation maintenance provider
  • ManufacturingDigital track and trace for tubular goods, built over 2.5 years
  • EnergyMobile app for on demand fleet fueling at a global energy company
  • BankingModel governance platform for financial institutions (prior employer)

Industries

Where the work has happened

HealthcareOil and gasAviation and airlinesUtilitiesAerospace and defenseRetailBankingBlockchainFinanceManufacturingPharma
HealthcareScheduling platform with propensity models for a medical retail company
  • Healthcare

    Scheduling platform with propensity models for a medical retail company

  • Oil and gas

    Autonomous frac completion controls on a unified field data platform

  • Aviation and airlines

    One modernization plan across 14 undocumented legacy systems

  • Utilities

    LLM driven unification of 100+ vendor data schemas

  • Aerospace and defense

    AI transformation roadmap and proof of concept for a major defense contractor, starting with the software lifecycle

  • Retail

    Loyalty app that reached 80,000+ users in three weeks

  • Banking

    Model governance platform for financial institutions

  • Blockchain

    Gas trading platform with faster reconciliation and settlement

  • Finance

    One governed delivery model for a regulated payments company

  • Manufacturing

    Remediation of core business systems and a modular target architecture for an industrial manufacturer in Mexico

  • Pharma

    LLM assisted benefits and prior authorization submissions for a medication access platform

How I work

Adaptive Delivery

Forward deployed teams, the model AI labs use to get their models working inside customers, put a small team next to the client and build evaluations from the client's real scenarios. Adaptive Delivery takes that approach and builds a delivery model around it, on three ideas.

  1. Idea
  2. Requirements
  3. Design
  4. Build
  5. Test
  6. Release
The old way: linear handoffs. Every step waits on a person.
  1. Intent engineering

    Write the intent with the client instead of long requirement documents. A good spec is one an agent can check its own work against: worked examples, expected outputs and edge cases written down. If the client does not have one, the first phase produces it.

  2. Context architecture

    Design the environment agents work inside: the data, tools, permissions and rules, and the contracts where one part of the product meets another. That is what makes their output trustworthy in real systems.

  3. Continuous iteration

    Agents build, test and review in short loops. People set direction, test behavior and make the calls. Each engineer owns a slice of the product and answers for it, and nothing merges on a decision they cannot explain.

IntentContextBuildVerifyShipLearnHuman gateHuman gateClosed loopagents work in parallel, people decide

Craft

The product manager role is converging with the builder role.

When agents write the code, the scarce skills are judgment, context and clear intent. I coach product managers to build and evaluate with AI, not just write specs for it.

Product managerDesignerEngineerProduct builderjudgment, context, intentProduct managerDesignerEngineerProduct builderjudgment, context, intent
Each role keeps its craft. What disappears are the handoffs between them.