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Maria Bliley
Product Owner at Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC
Professional Background
Maria Bliley is a highly skilled professional with extensive experience in product ownership, information management, and archival services. With a career spanning several prominent organizations, Maria has developed a reputation as a leader and innovator within the realms of library science, product management, and user experience design. Currently serving as a Product Owner at Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC, she is responsible for overseeing critical product development initiatives that are essential for enhancing customer experience and driving business success.
Previously, Maria held the position of Senior Agile Product Owner at Surescripts, where she demonstrated her ability to manage complex projects within agile frameworks. Her tenure at Thrivent as Product Owner and Senior Business Systems Analyst allowed her to bridge the gap between technology and business requirements, ensuring alignment with strategic goals. Not only has she been a consultant at Solution Design Group, but her analytical skills were also honed in various capacities at UnitedHealthcare, where she served as a Senior Marketing Business Analyst and Web Marketing Business Analyst, showcasing her adaptability in both marketing and technology environments.
Among her notable roles, Maria has also worked in the technology sector as a User Experience Analyst at Best Buy, where she focused on optimizing customer interactions with digital products. Her insights into user experience and content management were further developed during her time as a Web Content Manager at Accenture within Best Buy. In addition to her corporate roles, she has demonstrated a commitment to historical preservation and information continuity as an Archivist at prestigious institutions such as the Minnesota Historical Society and Harvard Medical School. These roles not only reflect her dedication to enhancing information accessibility and organizational knowledge but also her ability to leverage these skills across various sectors.
Education and Achievements
Maria Bliley's academic background laid a solid foundation for her professional journey. She holds a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science with a focus on Archives Management from Simmons University, which is renowned for its curriculum geared towards fostering expertise in information organization, archival practices, and digital media management. This advanced study equipped her with the necessary skills to navigate and manage complex information systems.
Prior to her Master's degree, Maria earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in History and English from the College of St. Benedict. This educational pathway not only ignited her passion for understanding historical contexts but also sharpened her analytical and communication skills, which have proven invaluable in her subsequent roles.
Maria further supplemented her expertise through various courses in Information Architecture at Brainco, enhancing her ability to design and structure content effectively within digital platforms. Her early education began at Belle Plaine High School, establishing a strong academic foundation from an early age.
Those who have had the pleasure of collaborating with Maria commend her ability to align product vision with customer needs, a skill she attributes to both her education and diverse professional experiences. Her journey from archival management to product ownership is a testament to her versatility and lifelong commitment to learning and growth.
Achievements
Throughout her career, Maria Bliley has amassed numerous achievements that underline her capacity for leadership and innovation. At Ameriprise Financial Services, LLC, she has played an instrumental role in developing robust financial solutions that integrate customer feedback and data analytics, leading to improved service offerings. Her agility in managing product lifecycles has resulted in successful project completions that meet and exceed stakeholder expectations.
Her achievements at Surescripts as a Senior Agile Product Owner have also been noteworthy, as she facilitated cross-functional teams to deliver critical healthcare solutions. This role required a blend of technical understanding and user empathy, which Maria mastered to enhance healthcare delivery systems.
During her time at UnitedHealthcare, Maria’s contributions as both a Senior Marketing Business Analyst and Web Marketing Business Analyst brought innovative marketing strategies to the forefront, helping to streamline communication and improve user engagement with digital services. In her role at Best Buy, her expertise in user experience led to significant enhancements in online customer interactions, thus boosting overall customer satisfaction ratings.
Maria’s commitment to historical preservation shines through in her past experiences as an Archivist for the Minnesota State Archives and at the University of Minnesota's Charles Babbage Institute. Her work in these positions not only facilitated the preservation of significant historical records but also underscored the importance of accessible information in educational and research contexts. Her work as a Reference Archivist at Harvard University further validated her reputation in the archival field, as she was recognized for her ability to connect researchers with invaluable resources.
Maria's comprehensive background in product ownership, marketing analysis, and archival management exemplifies a career dedicated to fostering effective information access and enhancing user experiences across various domains. Her journey illustrates the interplay between historical knowledge and modern technology, setting a benchmark for future professionals in the field.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay makes it much easier to stay in touch with the people you care about. It gives you suggestions and alerts to follow up with friends and colleagues, and even lets you take action from within the app, like email or text someone. Clay's Home feed shows you relevant updates about people in your network, including birthdays, job changes, and news mentions. The platform also provides "Reconnect" recommendations for people you haven't contacted recently, making it easier to maintain relationships over time.
Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
Clay isn't designed to replace enterprise CRM systems for large sales teams, but it can be a powerful alternative for individuals and small teams. Many people use Clay instead of Salesforce, Hubspot, and Pipedrive. Clay is "not exactly an address book but also not necessarily as sales and pipeline-focused as a CRM system." The founders refer to their app as a "home for your people," carving out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. For solo entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small teams focused on relationship quality rather than sales pipelines, Clay can absolutely serve as your primary relationship management tool.
Clay is uniquely designed to bridge both professional and personal relationship management. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay helps you organize your contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. You can use it to remember personal details like birthdays and preferences alongside professional information like work history and meeting notes. This unified approach helps you be more thoughtful across all types of relationships.
Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.