A Curiosity: Who's Really Behind the Curtain at Blackbaud? Part 1

Austin Ewachiw

Confession: I’ve always been curious—especially about what happens behind the scenes. It’s probably what led me to technology: not just what something does, but how it comes to be. 

Lately I’ve been asking: when Blackbaud launches something new in education, who makes it happen? Not the marketing copy or the press release—the real people, in real conversations, making decisions that shape the tools our schools depend on. 

In The Wizard of Oz, Toto pulls back the curtain on the all-powerful wizard and reveals… a regular guy working levers behind a shiny drape. 

So I got curious: what’s going on behind Blackbaud’s curtain? 

Over the past few months, I’ve talked with people across Blackbaud—the builders, strategists, storytellers, and visionaries. I asked simple questions. The answers weren’t simple. 

This is what I found.  

The Builders: Product Managers & Engineers  

Every great product starts with an idea—and the people who make it real. At Blackbaud, that’s product managers and engineers: closest to the code, the feedback, and the day-to-day “how.” 

I sat down with Jessi Walters, Senior Product Manager, to learn what it’s like on the ground floor. 

Where do ideas come from? I expected a formal process. Instead, Jessi shared a mix: strategic initiatives, user feedback at meetups, hallway conversations, a customer idea bank—and her own experience navigating the system. 

“Sometimes the best ideas come from living that experience. Before I joined Blackbaud, I was a science teacher and my school’s site admin—so I saw the day-to-day issues and questions. Then I’d seek out subject matter experts and ask: ‘why does this work this way, and how do we improve it?’ It helped me separate nice-to-have from required for success.” 

At Blackbaud, we want to give users everything, so the tricky part is balancing ‘good enough here’ against the rest of the Idea Bank.”  

Customer feedback isn’t just one input—it’s gold. The real-world insights from educators using these tools every day are what drive meaningful improvement, and I see that firsthand in the advisory committees we serve on together. 

Ideas are cheap, though. Execution is everything. So how does her team decide what actually gets built?  

Jessi described prioritization grounded in data: frequency of requests, traffic patterns, and evidence from the field. High-impact areas rise first. Quick wins that improve someone’s day can ship fast—often without a massive approval chain. 

Big strategic projects land differently: leadership vetting, cross-team collaboration, and careful resource allocation. Jessi’s team uses data and visuals to make the case for investment. 

But here’s what stuck with me most: technical limitations sometimes mean they can’t deliver exactly what users request. When that happens, Jessi’s team doesn’t just say, “Sorry, can’t do it.” They dig deeper to understand the root problem and solve that—even if the solution looks different from what was originally suggested.  

It’s problem-solving at its purest—and deeply intentional. Which made me wonder: who’s deciding which ideas make it to this stage? 

The Strategists: Directors of Product Management  

If builders lay bricks, directors are the architects—balancing customer needs, market signals, and Blackbaud’s longer-term direction. 

I sat down with Corey Eck, Director of Product Management, to understand prioritization—and what happens when great ideas collide with finite resources. 

Corey walked me through Blackbaud's annual strategic planning process—long-range goals, customer outcomes, and alignment to broader corporate strategy. What caught my attention most was the framework they use to decide which initiatives move forward. 

They use prioritization models like R.I.C.E.—Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort—then layer in reality: dependencies, compliance and security needs, quality work, and technical debt. 

It sounds methodical—maybe even clinical. Roadmaps and prioritization can feel regimented, until Corey reframed how I think about the relationship between product managers and directors. 

“There is an art to it, some science—but there’s an art as we build out our short- and long-term vision.” 

The result? “Product managers focus on solving customer problems and finding the best solution. As directors, we focus on the larger portfolio and broader business constraints.” That includes corporate goals and the quietly nicknamed “keep-the-lights-on” items—quality, compliance, interdependencies, security, and regulations. 

In other words: Dream big. Build the impossible. Let the directors figure out how to make it real.  

Even with careful planning, I still wondered: who sets their direction? 

The Storytellers: Marketing  

Before you hear about a new Blackbaud feature, someone has decided how to tell that story. Marketing doesn’t just promote—it translates complex product work into a message that resonates with educators doing real work. 

I caught up with Lauren Barker, Senior Product Marketing Manager, and Lolly Ihrke and Elizabeth Bottonari, Principal and Senior Demand Marketing Managers, to peek behind that curtain. Their job, as they described it, is to create excitement and engagement.  

Product marketing sits at the intersection of market insight and product execution. Lauren put it simply: they listen—through research, interviews, and ongoing conversations—then translate that into gotomarket strategies and features that solve real problems. By partnering closely with product managers, they make sure what ships is grounded in real needs, and what’s announced clearly connects back to what schools asked for. 

Demand marketers take that core story and adapt it across channels. A webinar needs a different angle than an email campaign; a conference conversation needs different energy than a blog post. 

But here's what surprised me: it's not a one-way street.  

“We’re constantly processing feedback,” Lolly explained. Insights from events, webinars, and sales conversations don’t just disappear into the ether—they flow back to product marketing and product management. Sometimes that feedback refines the messaging. Sometimes it can actually shape product features.  

Elizabeth emphasized how collaborative it all is. Launches aren’t owned by one person—or even one team. Alignment isn’t a one-time meeting; it’s ongoing adjustment and refinement. 

“There are so many players and perspectives that go into bringing a product to market,” she said. “It’s complex. My gut-check is making sure everything is in alignment. But that’s also what makes our interactions work.”  

Eye-opening. The narrative is more thoughtfully crafted—and more collaboratively shaped—than I realized.

Time to go higher…

Learn More in Part 2