About Working Harder
Senior product innovation for the decision before the build.
Working Harder helps leadership teams turn consequential product and AI uncertainty into a clearer, more defensible next move.
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Principal-led by design
Melisa Harder, Principal
Melisa Harder leads Working Harder. She helps leadership teams make product, customer-experience, and AI decisions they can stand behind, before momentum turns a guess into a build.
She has spent nearly three decades leading innovation, product, and go-to-market work. At Iron Mountain she led innovation as a senior manager and team lead, shaping user-centered solutions with cross-functional partners. At the Open Geospatial Consortium she directed innovation business development, connecting strategy, new relationships, and the practical use of geospatial data. She has also run her own strategy practice, Harder Working, and is a co-owner of Gamut Innovation, which helps organizations find gaps in technology, experience, and operations, then take a clear next step.
Her through-line is taking away the fear of a bad decision: putting customer evidence in the room, assembling the team the work requires, and keeping the trade-offs visible until leadership can act.
The operating model
One senior point of view. The right capability around the decision.
Working Harder leads the product and experience work, then brings in specialist expertise when it has a defined role in the decision. The client retains a flexible delivery path and clear commercial boundaries.
What we value
Clarity over activity.
Start with the decision
Meet the decision in front of you with the right level of senior attention.
Start with a fit conversation about the question, the team, and the evidence required next.