About the keynote

Learn the power of listening from this inspiring keynote presentation about challenging assumptions and following the evidence to build something surprisingly different.

We often hear, “Listen to your customers.” But what does that actually look like in practice?

This keynote shares the first year of building KinTrades, a workforce platform created to expand access to skilled trades careers. What began as a mission to support second-chance hiring evolved into something much larger through hundreds of conversations with employers, educators, workforce agencies, government partners, schools, and job seekers.

Rather than validating existing ideas, these conversations challenged assumptions, uncovered entirely new customer segments, and revealed unmet needs that became new product capabilities—including career exploration, employer trust, and workforce compliance solutions.

Attendees will leave with a practical framework for transforming customer evidence into product strategy, recognizing when recurring customer problems reveal opportunities beyond the original roadmap, and building products grounded in purpose, curiosity, and measurable customer impact.

What you will take away

• A practical way to listen for more than validation—using customer conversations to challenge assumptions, expose blind spots, and reshape the product itself.
• A framework for turning recurring customer problems into product strategy, including when a pattern signals a new customer segment, capability, or opportunity beyond the original roadmap.
• A real example of evidence changing the product direction, as KinTrades evolved from a second-chance hiring concept into a broader workforce platform supporting career exploration, employer trust, and compliance.

About Shanell Guardo

Shanell Guardo is the Founder and CEO of KinTech LLC and creator of KinTrades, a community workforce platform transforming how people discover, prepare for, and connect to skilled trades careers. She also serves as a Principal Technical Program Manager (TPM) People Manager at Microsoft, where she leads teams building products and platform capabilities that help Azure engineers deploy code safely, reduce operational risk, and improve the reliability of one of the world’s largest cloud platforms. A U.S. Air Force veteran and first-generation college graduate, Shanell has spent more than two decades leading complex technology, product, healthcare, and government transformation initiatives.

Her passion lies at the intersection of product innovation, technology, and community impact. Through KinTrades, she partners with employers, schools, workforce agencies, and nonprofit organizations to expand access to skilled trades careers while building technology grounded in real customer needs. Her keynote shares how customer evidence, not assumptions, transformed an initial workforce solution into an expanding platform for hiring, career exploration, employer trust, and workforce compliance. Shanell is passionate about helping product leaders build with curiosity, validate through evidence, and create solutions that deliver measurable impact.