Summers Hutchings, Director of Product Delivery & Portfolio Management at CarMax, joins host Deidre Paknad to share how CarMax has leveraged OKRs to bring their corporate and product strategies to life, and emphasizes the importance of empowering cross-functional teams to solve problems and create great outcomes that are connected to the corporate strategy.
Summers Hutchings is a product delivery powerhouse and Director of Product Delivery & Portfolio Management at CarMax, where she bridges strategy, product, and tech to double innovation speed in a fragmented used-car market.
From corporate strategy roots, she leads cross-functional digital teams—marrying product managers, delivery, and engineers via OKRs to operationalize 3-5 year visions into omnichannel wins like price negotiation and nationwide expansion.
Her consulting background fuels ruthless prioritization, replacing friction with transparency that aligns health metrics and accelerates outcomes for CarMax's 4-5% market lead.
Deidre Paknad has founded and led three tech startups, acquired companies and been acquired, and led a high-growth business as an executive at IBM for several years; this affords her a unique perspective on using both speed and scale to drive growth. In her role as CEO at WorkBoard, she works with senior leadership teams at some of the world’s largest companies to clarify, align, and drive strategic priorities with greater speed and agility. She is a frequent speaker on Outcome Mindset™ and tapping into ambition.
Deidre has over a dozen patents and has twice been inducted into the Smithsonian Institution for innovation. Goldman Sachs named her one of the 100 most intriguing entrepreneurs of 2019. Deidre hosts The OKR Podcast, which focuses on accelerating outcomes and fostering an outcomes culture.