Product Owner

Lola Sanusi

I turn messy, competing priorities into software that actually ships. 10+ years leading product delivery for large companies, government departments, and software teams — keeping everyone from engineers to executives clear on what's coming next and when.

Calgary, Alberta · Remote lola.sanusi08@gmail.com

Get in touch See my work

A few numbers that stand out

Real outcomes from work I've led, not job-title language.

60% faster turnaround

Cut the time it took to get a price change approved and shipped from about two weeks down to two or three days.

$20 million in new revenue

Helped launch a new subscription option that's projected to bring in $20 million or more over time.

20,000+ people switched over

Led the move to new everyday tools across a large government department, with no disruption to daily work.

15+ teams, one deadline

Kept 15 different teams and 60+ people moving together to hit a hard launch date tied to the World Cup.

How I work, in practice

Five projects, told simply: the problem, what I did, and how it turned out.

Process improvement

Finding out why work was slow

The problem: Work on the Customer Acquisition team was taking longer than it should have, but nobody knew exactly why.
What I did: I added a few extra fields in Jira so every task recorded what it was waiting on. After six months of data, two things stood out: waiting on translations, and waiting on price-change approval from a VP. I fixed both — translations got pulled into one early task so engineers weren't stuck mid-project, and price-change approval had to happen before work started, not after.
The result: Price-change work that used to take about two weeks now takes two to three days — over 60% faster, with a lot less starting and stopping for the team.

Team 5 engineers, plus 2 part-time Tracked over 6 months, shared with leadership quarterly

Global launch

New subscription plans for Getty Images ↗

The problem: Getty Images wanted to launch two brand-new subscription plans worldwide, timed to a fixed deadline tied to the World Cup — no room to slip.
What I did: I rolled the launch out gradually and checked real orders before opening it to everyone. I managed a checklist covering every team involved — finance, legal, marketing, engineering, and more — with a plan ready to undo the change fast if something went wrong.
The result: Launched on time. Projected to bring in $5–10 million in year one, and $20 million or more over time.

Team 15+ teams, 60+ people Constraint fixed external deadline

Growth

Bundling AI tools into subscriptions

The problem: Getty wanted more customers to actually use the AI image tools already included in their plans.
What I did: I ran tests giving unlimited AI access across different subscription levels, and used the results to decide where to invest next.
The result: More customers stayed subscribed and spent more per account. Feature use rose 12%.

Team 10–13 core, up to 50 involved Budget ~$1.2M

Built with NVIDIA

A generative AI platform ↗

The problem: Customers wanted to create and edit images with simple text prompts, not just search a library.
What I did: I managed the backlog across engineering, design, and data teams, and coordinated closely with NVIDIA on the technical side.
The result: Launched on time, with strong engagement right out of the gate.

Team 13–20 core, up to 50 involved Budget $2M+

Data & insights

A content-planning tool for customers ↗

The problem: iStock customers had no easy way to see what people were actually searching for, which made planning new content a guessing game.
What I did: I led the first version of the tool, a redesigned landing page, and made sure people could find it through search.
The result: Customers could plan content around real demand instead of guesswork.

Team 5–10 people Budget under $500K

Where I've worked

11 years, from a UK e-commerce startup to enterprise government programs to SaaS.

Product Owner Getty Images, USA (Remote) Mar 2022 – Present

Spent a year figuring out why delivery was slow, then fixed the two biggest causes — cutting price-change turnaround by more than 60%.
Kept 15+ teams moving together on shared deadlines, catching scheduling conflicts before they became problems.
Launched new subscription plans and a generative AI platform built with NVIDIA, getting sign-off from legal and finance along the way.
Started using AI tools like Claude day-to-day — for status updates, spotting risks, and writing clear requirements — freeing up time for the harder judgment calls.

Product Owner Government of Canada Jan 2019 – Mar 2022 · 38 mo

Managed three big projects at once — a move to Microsoft 365, a new remote-access system, and an upgrade of an old client database — reaching 20,000+ people.
Tracked how long work actually took over six months, so I could give a realistic timeline instead of a guess.
Sped up delivery by keeping less work in progress at once and breaking tasks down so they were easier to estimate.

Product Owner Topron Consulting Inc. Jan 2018 – Jan 2019 · 12 mo

Helped bring in a new customer-service phone system with IBM, working closely with the vendor's team through testing and go-live.
Added digital wallet support to a payments app, working with teams in different countries and time zones.

Product Owner Tag Team Consulting Inc., United Kingdom Mar 2015 – Jan 2018 · 36 mo

Owned delivery of an e-commerce website from planning through launch and training.
Kept schedules, issues, and status reports up to date so the wider team always knew where things stood.

Skills & tools

Ways of working

Scrum SAFe Kanban Hybrid Waterfall

Tools

Jira Confluence ClickUp Figma Visio Miro SharePoint Power BI Looker GA4

Working with AI

Claude Claude Code GitHub Copilot ChatGPT

Staying in sync

Slack Microsoft Teams Zoom Google Meet Loom

Documents I write

Release plans Risk logs Status reports User stories Test plans

Certifications

🎓Project Management Professional (PMP)— Project Management Institute

🎓Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I)— Scrum.org

🎓Professional Scrum Product Owner I (PSPO I)— Scrum.org

🎓SAFe Product Owner / Product Manager— Scaled Agile

🎓Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)— PMI

Education

M.Sc. Pipeline Engineering

Cranfield University, United Kingdom

Feb 2015

B.Sc.

Lagos State University (LASU), Nigeria

Sep 2011