You Need to Meet: Stefania Mancini, Vice President of Product Management & General Manager, Consumer Group Canada, Intuit

Stefania Mancini is the Vice President of Product Management and the General Manager for Intuit Consumer Group Canada, overseeing all product, marketing, development, and revenue-generating activities for TurboTax in Canada. Her leadership style is distinctly people-focused, building cohesive teams that deliver results-driven campaigns and engaging experiences.

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned as a leader? How has this shaped your leadership style and how you navigate being the Vice President of Product Management & General Manager, Consumer Group Canada for Intuit?

If you hire the best people and get out of their way; they can do their best work. Two key principles I live by are one, identifying blockers and two, being radically candid about what those blockers are. Radical candour is a core value of mine and one that I encourage across the team every day. We don’t want to get into politeness traps and accidentally miss out on great ideas. We’re always open to sitting down and asking, why we do something a particular way and do we need to? We want to always imagine better ways of working. Identifying blockers and radical candour open up space for potentially revolutionary ideas and ensure that all voices are being heard.

Can you discuss a specific project or initiative you’re particularly proud of and how it has made a difference in the lives of those you serve?

In my nearly four years on the TurboTax team, my goal has always been to be an advocate for the Canadian tax filer. Since I joined, we have pushed to ensure our technology and experiences are being built with a global mindset but are specific to the Canadian market. We’ve leaned into uniquely Canadian opportunities for the product and within our marketing. For example, we’ve partnered with the Toronto Raptors, whose fan base directly connects with our target markets. Additionally, we invested in custom Canadian storytelling with our ongoing documentary series “What Did You Make This Year?” which tells the stories of our customers on unconventional career paths, including self-employed Canadians.

Most recently, we overhauled our TurboTax Self-Employed product experience from top-to-bottom to meet the needs of the growing number of Canadians who are freelancing full-time or side-hustling. As a result of these initiatives, we’ve seen double-digit growth every year for the last three years, and a significant double-digit increase with our self-employed customers specifically.

How can more women and gender-diverse individuals be encouraged to take leadership positions in their sector?

We can sometimes get into binds at work in which we’re either waiting for an opportunity to come our way or doing a lot of incredible work and waiting to be recognized for it. To overcome these binds, I always recommend a three-pronged strategy. One, understanding what great leadership is by observing, listening, and identifying the characteristics of those who inspire you. Two, seek mentorship and advocacy. Find out who your champions are and lean on them. And three, have the courage to put yourself out there, even if an opportunity seems scary. In fact, if the opportunity seems scary, it’s probably right for you. If something doesn’t frighten you just a little, you’re probably not swinging hard enough.

What are some key skills or qualities that are crucial for women and gender-diverse persons aspiring to leadership roles? Are there any specific experiences or opportunities that you recommend seeking out?

One of my favourite values we have at Intuit is “extreme ownership” and I think that’s an important quality and mindset for any leader. Own your work and own results, and that also means owning your wins and successes! Be loud about your accomplishments and back them up with data whenever you can. If you make a mistake, own that too, and come forward with a solution. Extreme ownership also means honesty, which is a very important quality for any leader and fosters that environment of radical candour.

As the workforce continues to evolve and people reevaluate what’s important when working for an organization, what major changes related to leadership do you see impacting the entire workforce, regardless of industry or sector? How do you believe this will shape the future of work?

More than ever before, impact is what matters. That means everyone needs to be focused on business objectives, without letting corporate inertia and perceived obstacles get in the way. We need to focus on results and output versus hours or minutes logged. To do that, we need to set clear expectations of what work needs to get done, and then ensure teams are empowered to deliver.

Work-life integration and a healthy work-life balance have become key priorities for many professionals. What strategies would you recommend to individuals looking to effectively integrate their personal and professional lives?

As you move up in your career, it’s important to understand that you will need to let go of the traditional idea of work-life balance and make trade-offs. I’m a mom of four so can definitely relate to competing priorities when it comes to work and family. How I’ve gotten around it is by getting creative with how I spend time with family, while also enabling my work. For example, as I’ve needed to travel to our office in San Diego more frequently, I leverage school breaks to bring my family with me!

I also try to stay hypervigilant about all priorities, whether they are work-related or personal. I once got the advice to keep laser-focused on which balls will bounce if you let go of them, and which will break. I use this philosophy every day to manage competing priorities and make necessary trade-offs. There is no do-it-all, but you can make space for what’s important.

What excites you about the future?

We are at the very beginning of the AI revolution and the use cases are infinite. It is critically important that women and other marginalized people are at the table as we build and develop AI so we can ensure we have appropriate insights and controls in place as we innovate.

I started my career at the beginning of the internet and grew up with it. Now I get to see the beginning of AI as a leader and drive that transformation. It’s incredibly exciting.