Purple Case Study
Purple (purple.ai) are known for captive portals and guest Wi-Fi. They’ve been around for 15 years or so, are VC-backed, and have 100+ staff. Their customer base is global — major banks, telcos, high-street chains and luxury brands.
I joined as interim Senior Product Manager to cover maternity leave. The senior PM I was replacing and the CPO were both off at the same time, and the roadmap was mid-flight. Headcount had recently been reduced, and there was a strong push on new products and on using AI to move faster.
The brief started as covering the core Wi-Fi product. It expanded to defining a new flagship product, shipping an enhanced bolt-on, coaching a junior PM, and planning the extraction of core technology from a recent acquisition.
In practice, that meant:
- Own the core Wi-Fi product and keep the day-to-day running through the maternity cover
- Define a new flagship product (Staff Wi-Fi) building on an advanced Network Access Control (NAC) discovery
- Deliver an enhanced version of Shield, Purple’s DNS filtering bolt-on
- Delivered a complete redesign of SplashPages, a core component of the purple system, simplifying the User experience and dramatically reducing funnel loss in the process.
- Coach a junior PM informally
- Map and plan the extraction of core technology from a recent acquisition into the new flagship, underpinning Purple’s identity-based networking direction
Picked up a mid-flight roadmap with the senior PM and CPO both away — and kept it moving for the full cover.
Helped Purple shape and deliver its next flagship product, Staff Wi-Fi.
Delivered a complete redesign of SplashPages, a core component of the purple system, simplifying the User experience and dramatically reducing funnel loss in the process.
Spencer joined us as an interim Product Owner during a critical period, and I cannot commend him enough for how seamlessly he integrated into the team. Stepping into a mid-flight roadmap is never easy, but he hit the ground running. He quickly grasped our complex domain and ensured that development momentum didn’t drop for a second. He has been a fantastic steward of the product, balancing stakeholder needs with team capacity. He is organized, clear in his communication, and kept information flowing freely between teams and stakeholders. Any company looking for a PO who can deliver value from day one would be lucky to have him.
Iain Jewitt
CTO
Spencer brings a wealth of experience and enthusiasm to Product at Purple which is very much welcomed. Being fairly early on in my product career, Spencer was not only a great sounding board, but someone I could go to for advice and guidance on how to handle certain situations. It is apparent he’s a natural leader and thrives in product leadership roles. He has been an asset and a great mentor, and I have no doubt he would succeed wherever he went next.
Oliver Stonehouse
Junior Product Manager
What did that look like day to day?
Interim Product Ownership:
- Stepped into a mid-flight roadmap and kept development moving from day one
- Maintained the core Wi-Fi product roadmap and day-to-day running for the full tenure of the maternity cover
- Balanced what the business needed with what the team had capacity for, through a period of change
- Kept information flowing between engineering, commercial and the leadership team
Discovery & New Product Definition:
- Picked up a well-advanced NAC discovery and shaped it into a focused Staff Wi-Fi product
- Ran customer and commercial research to sharpen what Staff Wi-Fi was actually offering
- Designed and delivered an on-site, department-wide alignment workshop
- Worked with the VP of Cloud and Head of Development on prototype planning and a technical Proof of Concept
Shipping & Enhancement:
- Delivered an enhanced version of Shield, Purple’s DNS filtering bolt-on
- Mapped and planned the extraction of core technology from a recent acquisition into the new flagship product
- Set a path to underpin identity-based networking with proven, in-house technology
Coaching & Mentoring:
- Informally coached a junior PM on day-to-day product decisions
- Acted as a sounding board on situations, stakeholders, and product craft
- Helped the wider team adopt lean, evidence-led ways of working
What changed
- A new flagship product: Staff Wi-Fi taken from an advanced NAC discovery to a focused, pre-release product with genuine excitement and real interest from buyers
- An enhanced bolt-on: A stronger version of Shield (DNS Filtering) delivered
- Roadmap and day-to-day held steady: The core Wi-Fi product kept moving through concurrent PM and CPO maternity cover
- A clear acquisition path: Extraction of core acquired technology into the flagship mapped and planned, underpinning Purple’s identity-based networking direction
- A stronger team: Junior PM coached, and the department aligned through the workshop
