About De Productbaas

Anke Smilde

Head of Product

Eleven years of experience in product, tech and management, from scale-up to corporate. I love building, structuring and looking ahead. We do that together with different expertises, with energy, towards a great result.

Career

Where I learned it

Dialog (by Visma)
Head of Product
Led the product and tech department, set product vision and strategy. Part of the management team.
2025 – 2026
HEMA
Head of Product – E-commerce & Marketing
Website, app, loyalty programme and customer communication end-to-end. Team of 5 Product Owners, 5 IT analysts and 5 development teams (~45 FTE).
2022 – 2025
Coolblue
Manager & Product Owner
Built teams, vision and product from scratch.
2019 – 2022
NN Group
Innovation Lead
Coached seven international innovation teams and defined the innovation strategy.
2018 – 2019
Delta Lloyd
Management Trainee
Traineeship across various roles, from project management to setting up and leading an agile product team.
2015 – 2018

Education

Background

Universiteit van Amsterdam

MSc Entrepreneurship & Innovation

Rijksuniversiteit Groningen

BSc Business Administration

Recommendations

What others say

Every product team needs an Anke! Anke is a brilliant Head of Product, sparring partner and manager.

She keeps you informed about everything you need as a designer, developer or PO to do your day-to-day work. Throughout the process she keeps a close eye on 1:1s, where the focus isn't just on the work, but on the person too. I experienced every 1:1 as a genuine, good conversation, with room to talk about work, life and everything in between.

Anke gets her people excited right down to the details, while staying firmly in control of scope within the context of the roadmap. In meetings, she has a knack for steering conversations back to the core. Anke digs into topics and clearly communicates her vision and goals to the rest of the team.

Corné van den BoogertProduct Designer

I really enjoyed working with Anke when she was Head of Product and I was a Product Owner at HEMA. I always experienced Anke as a very empathetic manager who knew how to challenge me at the right moments. She also combines strong product knowledge with a very pragmatic, solution-oriented approach. In short, a product leader I would wish on every organisation.

Emma OotesProduct Manager

I had the pleasure of working as a developer on Anke's team, where she was my manager as Head of Product. She's best described as the perfect combination of people-focused and business-focused. In our one-on-ones, my wellbeing always came first, and she made sure I could fully be in my element. Professionally, I could trust blindly that she made the right calls in the interest of the team and the organisation. I have enormous respect for her and I'm grateful for the time we worked together. If you're looking for a top colleague you can laugh with and who gets things done, you should definitely hire Anke.

Marco OberdorfSenior Full Stack Developer

Working with Anke as Head of Product is a joy and means building on a clear vision. She provides a sharp compass for prioritising incoming requests. A communicatively strong sparring partner and a relentlessly hard worker with genuine care for the people behind the work.

Maaike Kok - van der HeijdenSenior Product Owner

Curious what I can do for your team?

Let's get acquainted.

Get in touch