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If you ask Jenna Poste, VP Product at Wagepoint, what she does, the answer isn’t simple. To her, product leadership is about figuring out the real problems customers face, and working with the team to build solutions that are actually useful and usable. It’s about bringing clarity: what you’re building, why it matters, and who it’s for.
The dinner party version? She’s a translator. Someone who helps connect the dots between business, engineering, and customers, deciding which problems are worth solving and how to solve them in a way that creates real value. A mix of detective, coach, and strategist.
One thing people don’t always realize: it’s hard. Taking in all those signals and deciding what to work on isn’t just about building fast. It’s about saying no to the right things, making informed tradeoffs, and getting people aligned on what matters most.
Jenna’s path started with Legos. She loved building things as a kid and still does. When her dad said, “You should be an engineer,” she hesitated, not entirely knowing what that meant. But in high school, she discovered STEM and industrial design, and fell in love with problem solving. Engineering became the natural choice, “a degree in problem solving,” as she puts it.
She chose industrial engineering for its focus on people: designing processes for humans rather than just machines. That intersection of people, business, and systems was a perfect fit for product.
Looking back, she wouldn’t change much. Starting her career at BlackBerry was the right move. She wanted to be surrounded by smart people and have the resources to grow. During Blackberry’s hypergrowth, she worked with some of the sharpest minds in tech, earned her MBA, and gained the foundation she later brought into smaller, growing companies.
Her advice to new grads? Go learn from great people. Whether it’s a big org or a small one with strong leadership, seek out the places that will stretch you.
During her time at BlackBerry, Jenna experienced both the highs of hypergrowth and the challenges of a company facing headwinds. She stepped into management early, leading people twice her age and navigating tough decisions as the company downsized. One of her biggest lessons came from that period: the importance of leading with empathy. Even when it was hard, she stayed open and transparent about the challenges, building trust through people-first leadership.
Another defining moment came when she and her husband left their careers and home in Ontario to move to New Zealand, with no jobs lined up. It was a leap of faith, filled with uncertainty. But it led to her first role in a large-scale software and product organization, and ultimately sparked her shift into product management. It was a major pivot and one that gave her not just a new career path, but a new appreciation for balance, nature, and the value of starting fresh.
Jenna leads with a people-first mindset. One of the best compliments she’s received is that she has a high say:do ratio, she follows through on what she says she’ll do. For her, integrity is everything: walking the walk, building trust, and showing up consistently. It’s how she’s always led, and something she works to embody every day.
When it comes to hiring, she looks beyond technical skill for curiosity and initiative. She’s drawn to people who take ownership, those who don’t wait to be told what to do, but ask the right questions, seek clarity on direction, and run with it. The ones who take an idea, evolve it, and know when to loop her in.
Jenna felt a true sense of belonging during her time at LVL, a company built around wellbeing. The culture wasn’t just talk, leaders like CEO Gary lived the values they shared with customers. They prioritized wellness with 4.5-day workweeks, Recharge Fridays, a holiday shutdown, and even incentives to get enough sleep. That openness around wellness really resonated. When people feel supported to take care of themselves, they show up stronger for the business.
She’s a big believer in work-life balance - staying active, getting outside, and creating space to recharge.
When it comes to leadership, she sums up her style in three words: Empathetic. Clear. Empowering.
In product, empathy is essential, for customers, teammates, and yourself. Clarity is just as critical: setting expectations, aligning across the business, and making sure everyone knows what they’re working toward. And empowerment means giving people the tools, trust, and guardrails to make decisions and grow.
If Jenna could invent one piece of tech, it’d be teleportation, no question. A lifelong Star Trek fan, she’d love to hop to New Zealand for the weekend or cross the country in an instant.
The most exciting (and complex) shift in tech right now? AI. Used well, she sees it as a tool to supercharge creativity and innovation, especially when refining and improving ideas. But she’s cautious too. There’s a risk that overreliance could dull our critical thinking or disconnect us from the human elements that matter most. Her hope is that AI helps us lean more into what humans do best.
As a mom of two and a tech leader with two decades in the industry, Jenna is also deeply mindful of tech’s impact on kids. Her work with Unplugged Canada has fueled her advocacy for responsible product leadership. She hopes more builders pause to ask not just can we build this, but should we? Especially in an AI-driven world, those questions matter more than ever.
Connect with Jenna on Linkedin!
Want to work with Jenna? Wagepoint is hiring!
Read more insights from our team.
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