Former SurveyMonkey COO and New VP of Product Join Highlight Leadership Team

Highlight continues its impressive growth journey with leadership team expansion

Highlight is excited to announce a newly evolved leadership team to support and drive our mission to help build better products–for people and the planet.

Following the announcement of our Series A funding in August 2023 and a stellar growth year in 2023 where we multiplied our impact–the number of products tested, consumers we listened to, data points collected, customers we serve, and more–we look forward to continuing our pace of innovation and growth with our newest leadership team members.

We’re thrilled to welcome:

• Priyanka Carr as COO and President
• Deirdre Norris as VP of Product
  

“It’s been an incredible journey building Highlight, and continuing to bring together a world-class team to scale our product and our impact,” said founder and CEO Dana Kim. “We take pride in prioritizing a culture that puts people and the planet first, all while continuing to delight our customers and build with agility. Bringing on powerhouse executives to supercharge these efforts is a testament not only to the traction and momentum behind us, but more importantly the magnitude of the opportunity ahead.”

A team photo from Highlight's most recent offsite

Priyanka Carr brings expertise in scaling SaaS businesses, with a focus on data products and user research, from nine years on the SurveyMonkey executive team to Highlight, where she will oversee finance and operations, as well as product strategy and development. Prior to joining the Highlight team, Priyanka also served on Highlight’s Board of Directors, where she had the opportunity to get to know the company inside and out. Her decision to join Highlight full-time is a true testament to her confidence in the company’s growth trajectory.

“My time on Highlight’s board made it clear that they have something very special here with great product-market fit,” said Priyanka. “We can all relate to the problem of building or using products that miss the mark. Highlight’s team and technology bring unique data across the product lifecycle to change that. I am excited to join this team to scale our impact with a leading product research platform.”

Deirdre Norris also joins Highlight as VP of Product after over a decade of managing product, data science, and development teams at tech companies such as SurveyMonkey and AI-startup WhoCo. Like Priyanka, Deirdre brings expertise from growth-stage startups where she helped product teams scale. Her tenure at companies like Bird also reflects her passion for sustainability. She’s excited to continue to build for impact with her commitment to Highlight’s mission to build better products for people and the planet.

Said Deirdre: “I’m excited to join a talented team where I can apply my growth-stage leadership experience and product background working on marketplaces, user research, data products, and AI-applications. Plus it's a unique opportunity to influence more sustainable physical product development through innovative software.”

Acre Ventures Partners, a VC committed to investing in companies that promote positive outcomes for human and environmental health, led Highlight’s Series A with HearstLab. On this next chapter of growth, Acre Co-founder and Managing Partner Lucas Mann said, “Highlight’s human-centric product research platform is key to unlocking how to develop better products that consumers love, and are good for the planet. With an upleveled leadership team dedicated to developing this technology further, I’m extremely optimistic about the systemic change Highlight can affect, and the impact we can make helping customers reduce their impact.”

Priyanka and Deirdre join a top tier, diverse leadership team with experience in data, analytics, insights, ecommerce software, B2B SaaS, and more:

• Calista Corley, Chief Revenue Officer, is a seasoned executive in the insights and analytics world with over 20 years of experience across go-to-market teams, including managing hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue
  
• Andrew Sidesinger, VP of Engineering, has over 20 years of engineering and leadership experience, most recently coming from Olo where he helped scale a small team of 10 to over 400 and IPO
  
• Keshia Peris, VP of Customer Success, brings over 12 years of Customer Success, Ops, and Strategy excellence in Insights & Analytics
  
• Anna Shaffer, Head of People, who has 10+ years of people leadership and recruiting experience across global, rapidly scaling teams

Diversity has been a cornerstone of Highlight’s growth and will continue to be a priority that drives our success. As a female-founded, minority-owned business, Highlight has prioritized representation that creates a plurality of perspectives. This choice has also been crucial to our data integrity–our community of Highlighters accurately reflects the consumers that Highlight’s customers seek to better serve. For Highlight, diversity is table stakes, which is why as we double-down on our growth, our commitment to maintaining a diverse team remains as important as ever.

If you’re interested in joining the Highlight mission, visit our Careers page.
If you have more questions about the trajectory of Highlight’s growth or the evolution of CPG tech, please reach out to press@letshighlight.com
If you’re a brand, manufacturer, or retailer who wants to see a demo of the Highlight platform, schedule yours today.

Related reading: What if your product development team was hundreds strong? The promise of customer co-creation.