Melissa Pickering

Senior Director of Product Management

Melissa is an award winning innovator and entrepreneur and a TEDx speaker. She currently leads the Product Management team at Willow, a growth stage startup of products to make moms’ lives easier. Prior to Willow, Melissa led a product innovation team at LEGO Education to drive new business growth for the LEGO Group in the K12 education sector.

Before the transition into the femtech space, Melissa built her career innovating products for kids. Her experience ranges from innovating theme parks as a Disney rollercoaster engineer to founding & selling her own startup in education technology. She’s a Tufts alum (BSME ’05) and stayed connected to her alma matter, ultimately founding her startup in 2010 with IP licensed from the Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO).

In her tenure at LEGO, she led the launch of several franchises that use technology to re-engage kids in physical play. Her guiding star in leading change through product innovation for kids was to stay grounded in the physical world, even with the increasing reliance on digital. In 2019 she took that message to the TED stage with her talk, ‘How Tech should be Designed for Kids.’ She’s looking forward to working with other entrepreneurs that aim to leverage technology for a meaningful impact.

Expertise:
FemTech, Edtech, Entrepreneurship, Toy Industry, IP Licensing, Channel Partnership and Distribution, Product Management, Experience Design