Business Systems Design & AI-Native Operations

I design how organizations adapt, grow, and operate — with people at the center and technology as the accelerant.

Most transformation fails because it layers new tools onto old structures. I start with the harder question: if you were designing this business today, how would it actually work? Then I build that.

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PMP Certified / Industrial & Systems Engineering / Strategy to Execution / 8+ Years Enterprise Experience
Alyssa Menke

About

Systems designer for how modern businesses operate, scale, and think.

"Don't fix the process. Rethink whether it should exist at all."

I'm a business systems designer and program leader with 8+ years of experience building operating models, decision frameworks, and organizational architecture across enterprise software, medical devices, and operations-heavy industries.

My foundation in industrial and systems engineering trained me to see organizations the way an engineer sees a system: where work actually flows, where decisions get made (and where they stall), what's generating friction, and what would need to be true for things to work differently. That lens doesn't change depending on the industry — the physics of how organizations work are surprisingly consistent.

What's changed is what's now possible. AI isn't a productivity tool to bolt onto existing workflows — it's a design variable that changes what operating models can look like from day one. I'm interested in the organizations willing to start from that premise: not "how do we add AI?" but "how would we build this if we'd had AI all along?"

The result is businesses that are structurally faster, less dependent on heroics, and designed to improve as they scale — not slow down.

Expertise

What I Bring

△

Business System Design

I design operating models, decision architectures, and organizational structures from scratch — starting with what outcomes you need, then building backward to the systems that produce them reliably.

🤖

AI-Native Architecture

I build AI in as a design element from day one — not as a plugin added later. That means designing the data structures, decision rights, and human workflows that make AI genuinely useful, not just present.

⚙

Industrial & Systems Engineering

An engineering-trained eye for flow, constraints, variation, and human factors gives me a rigorous foundation for diagnosing why organizations behave the way they do — and what to change.

👥

Cross-Functional Execution

I translate between strategy, engineering, operations, and leadership — and I've built the alignment infrastructure (OKRs, decision frameworks, operating rhythms) that keeps complex organizations moving.

Leadership Style

How I Lead

I lead humbly — as a team member, not above the team. I don't walk in with all the answers, and I don't pretend to. My job is to create the conditions for the people around me to do their best work and lead in their own right.

I build trust by being consistent, transparent, and genuinely invested in the growth of the people I work with. I believe that trust earns you the ability to have the honest conversations that actually move things forward.

I give direct feedback early and often — and I expect it in return. Ambiguity is rarely kind. The clearer we are with each other, the faster we grow together.

A team member, not above the team

I don't have all the answers, and I'm not trying to. I grow alongside the people I work with — learning from them as much as I contribute to them.

Trust others to lead

I build environments where people have the confidence and room to lead in their own areas. My goal is to be needed less over time, not more.

Direct feedback, both ways

I give honest feedback early and expect it in return. Clarity is a kindness — vague positivity helps no one grow.

Delegate with real ownership

When I hand something off, I hand it off fully — with the authority and accountability to match. That's how people grow, and how trust gets built.

Calm in complexity, at home in ambiguity

I've navigated competing priorities, fast-moving organizations, and no-clear-answer situations. Ambiguity doesn't unsettle me — it's usually where the most interesting work is.

Selected Impact

Results that speak to scale.

50+
Teams Aligned
Designed and scaled operating frameworks across 50+ cross-functional teams at enterprise level.
20%
On-Time Delivery
Standardized roadmap planning, launch readiness, and retrospective cadence across all product lines — improving on-time delivery by 20%.
25%
Alignment & Execution
Owned quarterly OKR and KPI tracking for the President and C-suite, improving executive alignment and on-time execution by 25%.
110K+
Users Migrated
Led the architectural transition of an enterprise platform — from homegrown systems to scalable third-party infrastructure.
$7.5M
Annual Savings
Redesigned 85,000 sq. ft. of lab operations from first principles, eliminating structural waste for 2,000 stakeholders.
80%
Quoting Time Cut
Replaced a broken quoting process with a system designed to work — reducing errors and generating $5M in annual savings.
40K
Customers Represented
Designed intake and triage systems converting 3,000+ annual submissions from 40,000 customers into 300+ product improvements/year.
12K+
Conference Attendees
Directed executive keynote delivery and showcase execution at Epicor's largest customer conference.
40%
Onboarding Time Cut
Led CI/CD agile transformation across 10+ product teams, reducing PM onboarding time by 40% and developer onboarding by 15%.

My Approach to AI

AI is a design variable, not an add-on.

When you design a business system today and leave AI out of the architecture, you're already building something you'll have to rebuild. The question isn't where to plug AI in — it's what becomes possible when you design with it from the start.

That means rethinking decision rights, data flows, human roles, and operating rhythms — not as an afterthought, but as the foundation. AI that's native to the system is a different category from AI that's bolted onto it.

Start from outcomes, not features. What decisions need to be made faster? What information is consistently missing or late? Design to solve those — AI will emerge from the right constraints.

Human judgment is still the architecture. The best AI-native systems don't remove humans — they put human expertise where it actually matters and offload everything else.

Messy data and ambiguous processes don't get better with AI. They get worse, faster. Structural clarity is the prerequisite, not the cleanup project.

Designing an AI-native system

1
Define the outcomes
What does success look like, and how is it measured?
2
Map the decisions
Who decides what, with what information, on what cadence?
3
Design the data flows
What needs to exist, be clean, and be accessible — and where does it live?
4
Build AI into the structure
Where does AI make decisions faster, better, or possible at all?
5
Design the human layer
What judgment, relationships, and exceptions belong to people?

This is the process I run. It produces operating models that are structurally different — not just faster versions of what existed before.

Experience

Where I've Built It.

Epicor
Oct 2024 – Present
Product Operations Manager

Senior leadership role owning the systems, processes, and operating model powering Epicor's product organization across 50+ teams and 40,000+ customers. Designed core product development operating model — standardizing roadmap planning, launch readiness, and retrospective cadence, improving on-time delivery by 20%. Led and developed a team of project managers and product operations specialists. Directed a mission-critical platform migration transitioning 110,000+ users to a third-party cloud platform. Owned end-to-end tooling strategy (Jira, Aha!, Confluence) and built executive reporting dashboards surfacing SLA performance and delivery health. Directed executive keynote delivery at the largest customer conference, engaging 12,000+ attendees.

Operating Model Design OKR / KPI Architecture Platform Migration CI/CD Transformation
Epicor
Oct 2023 – Oct 2024
Principal Program Manager

Owned enterprise-wide program initiatives and product operations foundations spanning multiple product lines and global teams. Designed and operationalized a structured idea intake and triage system — processing 3,000+ customer submissions annually and surfacing 300+ high-value enhancements. Standardized product artifact quality and documentation practices across the organization. Mentored cross-functional teams to drive durable behavioral change.

Intake System Design Process Standardization Cross-Functional Leadership Program Management
Epicor
Mar 2022 – Oct 2023
Senior Project Manager

Managed large-scale SaaS implementation programs within constraints of schedule, scope, and resources. Introduced process improvements that reduced risk and raised client satisfaction. Owned executive communications and program reporting across complex, multi-team delivery cycles.

SaaS Implementation Executive Communication Stakeholder Management Program Delivery
Boston Scientific
Sep 2020 – Mar 2022
Industrial Engineering

Redesigned 85,000 sq. ft. of lab operations from first principles — rethinking space allocation, workflow, and stakeholder alignment from the ground up. Applied industrial engineering methods to identify and eliminate structural waste, generating $7.5M in annual savings across 2,000 stakeholders.

Industrial Engineering Systems Redesign Space & Flow Optimization Stakeholder Management
Heraeus Medical Components
Feb 2017 – Sep 2020
Project Manager III & Business Analyst

Replaced a manual, error-prone quoting process with a purpose-built digital system — reducing time and errors by 80% and generating $5M in annual savings. Designed custom tooling and led business analysis across cross-functional teams. Recognized with the Heraeus Innovation Award (2019).

Process Architecture Custom System Design Business Analysis Digital Transformation

Tools & Methods

The Toolkit

What I reach for when designing systems, leading organizations, and building with AI.

AI & Intelligent Systems

Claude Claude Code ChatGPT Codex Microsoft Copilot Prompt Engineering AI Use Case Design Workflow Automation

Planning & Operations

Aha! Jira Confluence Salesforce OKR / KPI Frameworks Roadmapping

Data & Visibility

Power BI Excel / Advanced Modeling ERP Systems Executive Dashboards

Systems & Process

Process Mapping Lean / Systems Thinking Constraint Analysis Industrial Engineering Operating Model Design

Leadership & Facilitation

PMP Certified Disciplined Agile Scrum Master Aha! Product Management Workshop Facilitation Public Speaking Executive Communication Team Development

Delivery

Agile / Scrum Program Management Launch Readiness Intake & Triage Architecture

Get in Touch

Let's connect.

I'm interested in conversations about building AI-native organizations, business system design, rethinking how teams operate, and what becomes possible when you design from first principles.

👥 LinkedIn ✉ alyssamenke@gmail.com