About Me

Isabel Yap

Tech Career

Since you wanted more, you get the long version.

I've worked in the tech industry since 2012.

My first corporate job was a product internship at the mobile gaming company GREE. I worked on a game called Dino Life and learned gamification tactics (people will pay a lot for a rainbow stegosaurus).

Post-college I joined Guidebook (no-code mobile apps for events) as employee #26. I launched our higher-ed vertical, then our London-based EMEA operations, as a Customer Success Associate. Then I originated the Product Marketing function, working on sales enablement and strategy, before shifting into Product Management.

I was at Guidebook for 4.5+ years, and I consider that where I "grew up" in tech: a truly scrappy environment, in the rose-tinted 2010s sense of that word. Late nights with Thai food, flipcup at office parties, calling the CTO when our site crashed, soul-crushing product rollouts, heroic acts of service from beloved teammates, and learning every function from scratch.

I needed a change, so I applied to business school. Because I was in SF, a lot of people told me an MBA was useless. I was also sheepish because I knew it would make me Jared from Silicon Valley, but I did ultimately want it, for three reasons:

I got rejected. I tried again a year later, and was accepted into Harvard Business School for fall 2018. HBS was great. I had a better time than expected. If you want to know more about my experience there, here's an essay on why I chose an MBA over an MFA in Creative Writing.

In summer 2019 I interned at Duolingo in Pittsburgh, where I worked on Monetization, specifically the question: "Why do people upgrade to Plus?" One of my features (Hard Mode) drove +$2.5k in daily revenue during the experiment phase. I enjoyed Duo's design-forward, experiment-driven culture, and applying the knowledge from my mobile game days. Alas, I also really, really wanted to move to New York.

In 2020 I graduated, then joined the seed-stage start-up Thrilling (Etsy but for vintage clothing, which was crucial during covid). I was the third technical hire, after our CTO and one fullstack dev. I'd describe my role there as 50% Product, 50% Operations/whatever the CEO needed. This involved maturing our tech stack (implementing Zoom, Lever, Intercom, analytics, etc), and hiring. (A lot of hiring.) It was eye-opening to be part of the Series A fundraise, and to build a team from scratch. But part of me really wanted to join a later-stage org, and see how I'd fare in that environment.

In 2021 I joined Klaviyo's Data Infrastructure team, working on Profiles and Segmentation. My primary focus was on improving our segment builder. Over time, my team and I converted the UI to React/our design system; added in segment preview, cloning, additional operators, support for multiple where clauses; and fully upgraded the underlying infrastructure, drastically improving speed for our largest accounts, and decreasing overall costs.

I also worked on AI/ML features, launching our RFM segments and dashboard, before expanding my coverage in Data Infra. In the last 2 years I worked across the Data Platform (Data Warehouse/Data Lake/Online Analytics), supporting infra teams with a focus on enabling flexible queries for analytics features.

Klaviyo was the first place where I worked on teams that were entirely backend-focused. It was fun and fulfilling to drive technical decisions for foundational parts of our app, and collaborate closely with our (mostly internal) customers. There's more I want to learn in this area, so I'm spending part of my sabbatical studying how data-intensive applications are made.

Me as a Product Manager

I believe the core of the PM role boils down to the following:

A lot of the value I add as a PM focuses on those two areas. I'm happiest when I'm building actual solutions. There are periods when the job becomes mostly management/comms. I can do it, but I get kinda grumpy if it goes on too long.

Where I spike as a PM:

I also think polish separates good PMs from really great ones: an attention to detail and quality, that elevates everything they touch. I hope to be that for the teams I work on.

Are you looking for a job?

I'm looking to start full-time employment again in Dec 2026/Jan 2027.

That said, if you have an interesting opportunity—let's chat! I'm selectively looking for consulting or part-time projects to work on through 2026. Or if you think a role will be available for me in Q1 of next year, I'm happy to start the conversation early.

My preferences:

People are the most important thing. I would love to work again with people I've worked with previously (assuming, of course, that the feeling is mutual).

Core values I look for in a team's culture: integrity, ownership, kindness, customer-focus, creativity.

Consulting/Part-time Projects I can help with:

Okay enough about tech, tell me some other interesting things