Akshat Saxena

Strategy · Product · Operations

Akshat Saxena

I specialise in turning vague, messy business problems into structured, decision-ready solutions. My background blends product thinking, brand strategy and operational systems like Epicor — meaning I understand both the commercial story and the underlying mechanics.

Recent work includes: Sanofi (Lizipaina), Greggs, FMCG strategy, Epicor WIP flows, UAT and pre-sales support.

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Akshat Saxena

I’m best used when the problem is unclear, the data is messy, and the team needs someone who can turn noise into structure without slowing everyone down.

About

I’m not the person you give tasks to — I’m the person you give problems to.

How I think about problems and value.

How I think

I’m most comfortable when the brief is unclear. I like to take a messy situation, strip it down to first principles and rebuild it into a clear problem statement, options and trade-offs. I care about structured thinking more than flashy frameworks.

How I work

I move between analysis, conversation and documentation quickly: talk to people, pull the data that matters, sketch the flows, then turn it into a concise story that decision-makers can act on. I don’t hide behind jargon and I don’t produce slides that go nowhere.

Where I’m useful

Consulting-style roles where there’s real ambiguity: product strategy, PMO, pre-sales or internal projects that need someone to make sense of disconnected inputs, align stakeholders and push things over the line.

Experience

Roles where I’ve had to bring structure to unclear problems.

ERP & Operations (Epicor) - Epicor Trainee

Manufacturing · London / Remote
  • Mapped the full flow from sales order → MRP → job → WIP → shipment → invoice so the team could see, on one page, how operational steps hit financials.
  • Helped diagnose issues like missing labour costs and confusing WIP behaviour by tracing data through Epicor, identifying where configuration or process broke.
  • Turned scattered tribal knowledge into clear notes and diagrams used by juniors to ramp up faster and make fewer basic mistakes.

Justbaat – Associate Product Manager & UAT Lead

Start-up · Remote
  • Took vague feature ideas and turned them into concrete test scenarios, edge cases and acceptance criteria that engineers could actually build against.
  • Logged and prioritised bugs in JIRA by business impact (P0–P3), including clear reproduction steps, recordings and environment details to cut back-and-forth.
  • Acted as a translator between non-technical expectations and engineering reality, pushing for realistic scope, timelines and definitions of “done”.

Brand & Strategy Projects (ESADE & Freelance)

Sanofi · Greggs · FMCG
  • Led a brand audit for Sanofi’s Lizipaina, organising messy market and consumer data into a clear view of where the brand actually plays and where it ’s losing ground.
  • Analysed Greggs’ positioning and customer journeys to understand where the brand over-delivers, where it is invisible and what that means for growth.
  • Built decks that moved from problem → insight → options → recommendation, focusing on what leadership should do next, not just what the numbers say.

Case Studies

Short examples of how I structure problems and recommendations.

Sanofi – Lizipaina Brand Audit

Brand Strategy · FMCG

The situation: Legacy throat-care brand in a crowded shelf, with unclear differentiation and inconsistent in-store execution.

What I did: Structured a full-funnel audit across competition, consumer perceptions, retail presence and messaging, using a simple but rigorous framework.

Outcome: Clear strategic routes (defend, stretch, reposition) with concrete implications for pack, messaging and activation, rather than a generic “brand health” report.

Greggs – Brand & Customer Journey

Retail · Positioning

The situation: A loved high-street brand with strong habits but fragmented understanding of how customers actually experience it across touchpoints.

What I did: Mapped journeys across in-store, app and everyday behaviours, then linked those to perceptions of value, convenience and comfort.

Outcome: Identified where the brand wins by default and where it is effectively invisible, giving a clearer view of where to invest for long-term brand equity versus short-term promotions.

Epicor – Making the System Understandable

ERP · Systems Thinking

The situation: People were using Epicor every day, but very few could explain how actions in the system flowed through to WIP, inventory and margin.

What I did: Documented the end-to-end flow from sales order to invoice, highlighting where materials, labour and costs actually move.

Outcome: A simple set of flows and notes used by juniors and non-finance stakeholders to understand the impact of their choices in the system.

Skills

The mix I bring to a team.

Product & Pre-Sales

  • Requirements breakdown
  • UAT & test design
  • Storytelling & demos
  • Stakeholder alignment

Strategy & Brand

  • Brand audits
  • Positioning & messaging
  • Customer journeys
  • Decks & narratives

Technical & Tools

  • Epicor (MRP, BOM/MOM, WIP)
  • JIRA & test management
  • Spreadsheet analysis
  • Notion & documentation

Contact

If you think I can help, reach out.

I’m based in London and open to roles in product, pre-sales, PMO and consulting where there’s real responsibility and real problems to solve.

Email: akshat030600@gmail.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akshat--saxena/

I help teams get to clarity faster — whether it’s a product problem, a process problem, or a business problem with no clean owner.