Palak Maheshwary
Strategic leader with 9+ years of experience in product management, analytics, and consulting roles. Proven track record of driving business growth, scaling digital platforms, and executing high-impact initiatives for startups. Adept at leading cross-functional teams and steering data-driven transformations to shape and execute corporate strategies.
Work Experience:
9.5 Years
Industry:
Consulting | Infrastructure & Construction | Technology
Function:
Consulting & Strategy | Data Science & Analytics | Project & Program Management
Work Experience
NeenOpal Inc. (Global startup in BI and data science consulting) | Bangalore
- Engagement Manager - Analytics and Strategy
- Led 10+ cross-industry transformation initiatives leveraging data-driven insights to help businesses make informed decisions, enhance operational efficiency, and unlock new revenue opportunities.
- Demonstrated versatility by driving projects worth ~$1M across diverse industries globally, including healthcare, financial services, e-commerce, media, and telematics.
- Streamlined business processes to cut manual tasks by 25% and accelerate project timelines by 60%, thus enabling focus on strategic priorities.
- Led digital strategy for a heavy machinery OEM, implementing IoT-driven operational intelligence for 7000+ devices, enabling leadership take swift actions based on real-time operational metrics.
- Partnered with a global pharmaceutical leader to co-develop real-time intelligence platforms, empowering strategic decision-making across customer engagement, marketing, and sales.
- Led ISO 27001 and SOC 2 compliance program to strengthen governance, mitigate risk, and ensure business continuity for long-term value creation.
- Product Manager - Mokkup.AI (NeenOpal Inc) (A cloud-based SaaS platform)
- Headed a cross-functional team of 15+ members across product development, design, UI/UX, content, and marketing teams to scale a SaaS product from its MVP stage to 30,000+ users (400+ paid) in 12 months.
- Conducted 50+ user research interviews across countries to refine product roadmap and feature prioritisation.
- Pitched the product at global accelerators, including Google Accelerator, Y Combinator, and Berkeley Skydeck, securing strategic exposure and access to exclusive startup mentorship networks.
- Earned accolades such as “Best Ease of Use” and “Best Value” on Capterra and “Product of the Day” on Product Hunt.
- Spearheaded GTM and customer acquisition strategies that positioned the product for rapid growth across 20+ countries.
- Senior Associate - Business Intelligence
- Promoted to Senior Associate with a ~60% hike within a year for delivery excellence and consistent high performance.
- Built scalable BI solutions across diverse industries while driving impact in a fast-paced startup environment.
- Orchestrated targeted go-to-market strategies that generated 5+ high-quality leads within 6 months, including marquee clients like Facebook.
- Mentored junior team members in developing plug-and-play Google Analytics dashboards aligned with evolving industry trends, thus reducing dashboard turnaround time by 40%.
- Oversaw the automation of ETL workflows using S3, Lambda, Glue, and Redshift, ensuring high availability of cleaned, transformed data for dashboarding.
Arcadis (Built asset consultancy for infrastructure projects) | Bangalore
- Senior Consultant - Infrastructure Advisory
- Led operational transport planning projects across the UK and Europe, focusing on congestion mitigation, route optimisation, and smart mobility interventions, directly contributing to multi-million-pound infrastructure investments.
- Executed traffic modelling and scenario simulations to inform policy decisions and urban mobility strategies.
- Seconded to the London office; worked closely with Highways England and Transport for London in optimising signalised intersections and lane configurations to improve urban traffic flow and safety.
- Played a key role in the design and modelling of the Lower Thames Crossing project (₹9 billion+ initiative), projected to reduce congestion by 20% and save 30 mins/trip for 80K daily users.
- Assessed environmental and social impacts of proposed road networks, balancing infrastructure expansion with community needs and climate targets.
Accomplishments
- Recipient of Entry Scholarship at IIM Ahmedabad for its One-Year MBA Program.
- Manager of the Quarter (2023) for proactive risk mitigation and stakeholder engagement for a global pharmaceutical client.
- Employee of the Year (2021) for driving lead generation through insight-led content strategies and targeted outreach.
- Academic Council Member at a premier engineering institution, leading curriculum strategy to align academic programs with evolving industry needs.
- Research Publications: Published a journal paper (in JTTE) and presented a conference paper at WCTRS, Shanghai, on sustainable transportation.
- Graduated in the top 10% of the class in both B.Tech and M.Tech programs.
- Awarded DAAD Scholarship to conduct 7-month thesis research at TU Darmstadt, Germany, under the DAAD-IIT exchange program.
Education
- M.Tech (Transportation Engineering), Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
- B.Tech (Civil Engineering), National Institute of Technology, Nagpur
Certification
- Lean Six Sigma, Green Belt, KPMG
- AWS Cloud Practitioner, AWS
- Tableau Desktop Specialist
Extra-curricular
- Vertical Head – Relationship Management, Placement Committee, IIM Ahmedabad Leading corporate outreach and recruiter engagement to drive industry connections and high-impact placements for the PGPX cohort.
- User-Generated Content (UGC) Creation - Secured brand partnerships with 7+ brands to deliver content that aligns with their unique brand identities.
- Scaled personal YouTube channel to 5K+ subscribers and 1M+ views in one year.
- Secured sponsorships and industry partnerships (of ~5L) by liaising with professionals for a student-led cultural fest.