Hi, I'm Cliff Gilley 👋
Product Leader • Agile Evangelist • Conference Speaker
Who I Am
I'm a Pacific Northwest native and resident, combining my passions for law, gaming, product design, and community leadership into a career focused on helping organizations solve complex problems through technology and user-centered design.
I've spent the vast majority of my career working with companies focused on solving complex problems through the application of technology to traditionally human-based objectives. Being a creative problem solver requires approaching problems from all sides, communicating and coordinating the efforts of those around you toward a common goal, and being clear and direct when faced with uncertainty and changing conditions.
I've been building websites since the early 90s and continue to experiment with new web and mobile technologies. This website represents my latest update to modernize a presence that's been around in one form or another since 1993.
Personal Interests
Trivia Nights
Regular trivia host at William Grassie Wine Estates tasting room, bringing together community members for evenings of challenging questions, friendly competition, and great wine.
Board & Card Gaming
Passionate tabletop gamer with a collection spanning strategy games, deck-builders, and RPGs. Regular game nights bring friends together for epic adventures and friendly competition.
Classic Cars
Enthusiast of vintage automobiles and automotive history. Appreciate the craftsmanship, engineering, and timeless design of classic vehicles from bygone eras.
Craft Beverages
Experimenting with craft cocktails, brewing beer, and making wine. From perfecting a classic Old Fashioned to crafting homebrew recipes, always exploring the art and science of fermentation and mixology.
What I Do
Helping organizations scale their product management practices
Product Management Research
As a Gartner analyst, I work with hundreds of product teams annually to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and maturity. Created Product Management Score and Benchmarks tools. Have led Gartner Key Initiatives for Product/Service Design & Creation and Organization & Leadership.
Teaching & Speaking
Highly-rated presenter at Gartner and industry conferences (Pendomonium, Industry, ITX Design & Product). Former General Assembly instructor teaching 10-week Product Management courses. Customer Experience and Product Leadership Track Chair for past Gartner conferences.
Community Leadership
Former Board Member, Chair, Treasurer, and Adviser to the Pacific Northwest Product Management Community. President of Snoqualmie Ridge Residential Owners Association. Passionate about fostering community and bringing people together.
Professional Journey
From law to product leadership and research
VP Research Analyst: Startup/Growth CEO
Gartner
Working with startup and growth-stage companies to implement, formalize, and scale their product management practices. KI Leader for Advance Product & Services Strategy.
VP Research Analyst: Product Management
Gartner
Helped hundreds of product teams annually improve efficiency and maturity. Customer Experience Track Chair for 2022 Technology Growth & Innovation Conference.
- Highly-rated presenter at Gartner and industry conferences
- KI Leader for Product/Service Introduction & Delivery
Senior Research Director: Product Management
Gartner
Created Product Management Score assessment tool and Product Management Benchmarks tool. Focused on applying agile practices to product management processes.
- Rookie of the Year for Technology & Service Providers (2019)
- Led research on innovation vs. evolution in product planning
Technical Product Manager & Scrum/Agile Coach
K2
Technical Product Manager for K2 Blackpearl platform. Assisted development and testing teams with their transition to Scrum practices to deliver quality software at regular intervals.
Product Management Course Instructor
General Assembly
Taught 10-week part-time course covering product lifecycle, lean methodologies, Agile, market research, UX, financial modeling, and stakeholder management.
Early Career Foundation
Various Organizations
Nearly 15 years of product management, agile transformation, and system modernization experience across law firms, legal technology companies, SaaS platforms, and corporate environments. Have coached agile teams since the early 2000s. This foundation shaped my approach to user-centered design, requirements analysis, and workflow optimization.
Projects & Initiatives
Building solutions and fostering community
The Clever PM
A product management blog that grew to reach thousands of readers weekly with industry-leading newsletter open rates. Providing tips, tricks, and hacks to make people better Product Managers since 2014.
Visit Site →Product Management Community
Former Board Member, Chair, and Tech Chair. Coordinated events focused on building community and advancing product management practices in the Greater Seattle Area. Now serving as advisor to new leadership.
Get Involved →Legendary Randomizer
A full-featured deck randomizer for Marvel Legendary™ Deck-Building Game. Features intelligent algorithms that weight Hero selection based on villain attributes for balanced gameplay.
View on Play Store →Let's Connect
Interested in working together, improving your product management practices, or just want to chat about agile development and building great products?
Get In Touch