Dane
Dane Maddams — Director of Product

Building
what
matters.

Over a decade building products people actually want to use at work.
Now leading Performance at Culture Amp.
One of Amplitude's Product50.

Performance● Leadership● Culture Amp● AI● People● Strategy● Performance● Leadership● Culture Amp● AI● People● Strategy●
01 Selected work What I'm building.
01
Director of Product · Performance Owns the end to end performance review cycle at Culture Amp. Six PMs. Full suite.
Leadership
Scope
Owns the end to end performance review cycle at Culture Amp plus goals, development, and 1 on 1s. Six product managers across the full suite.
Impact
Built and socialised an ARR aligned roadmap for 2026 delivering meaningful retention uplift and unblocking key sales opportunities.
Approach
High performance without suffering. Rigorous, direct, and genuinely good to work in because the best teams are both.
02
AI Coach Agentic AI bringing insights and guidance across the entire performance suite into one unified interface.
AI · Product
What
An agentic AI interface woven across the entire performance suite surfacing insights and guidance at the moments that matter most.
Why it matters
HR tech has talked about AI for years. This ships it in a way that's actually useful: connected, contextual, and built around real manager and employee needs.
Differentiator
The only performance AI built on 20 years of people science research. Not just another AI layer — grounded in what actually drives performance.
03
1 on 1s Relaunch Rethought the experience from the ground up. Now the most used feature in the suite by MAU.
Product
What
Led an internal rollout and full rethink of the 1 on 1s experience at Culture Amp from the ground up.
Outcome
Became the most used feature across the entire performance suite by monthly active users. A meaningful result in a product where adoption is hard.
Why it worked
Focused on the moment itself the conversation rather than the admin around it. Made it feel less like a task and more like a tool people actually wanted.
04
Home Connect The most viewed page on the platform. Rebuilt to drive action. 45% lift in work-creating conversions.
Vision · Product
What
Rebuilt the most viewed page on the platform from the ground up. A unified homepage for managers and leaders that surfaces what actually needs attention.
Impact
45% lift in work-creating and converting actions from the home feed. Turned the most visited page into the most productive one.
Why it matters
Most performance tools feel like admin. This was about changing what it feels like to open the product — making leadership feel supported rather than burdened.
02 Career arc How I got here.
2007
Plastic Wax
Producer → Senior Producer · 2007–2013
Managed VFX and cinematic content for 35+ clients including Disney, Netflix, Activision, and Bethesda. Forged deep craft in storytelling, production, and delivering work at scale.
2013
Plastic Wax
Vice President of Product · 2013–2017
Led 4 department heads across Production, IT, Dev, and Post. Expanded into North America, secured 4 Fortune 500 accounts. Built the internship program — 12 full-time hires.
300%Revenue growth in 2 years
2018
Rotor Studios
Head of Product Management · 2018–2021
Drove digital strategy for toyota.com.au and lexus.com.au. Owned vehicle configuration and purchase flows. Established the PM framework, improving delivery efficiency by 20%.
20%Delivery efficiency gain
2021
Academy Xi
PM Instructor · 2021–2022
Ran a 12-week Product Management course alongside Culture Amp. 35 students. Live sessions, individualised feedback, career transitions into product roles.
35Cohort of people
2021
Culture Amp
Lead Product Manager · 2021–2025
Led Design System, 1 on 1s, and Homepage. Overhauled 1 on 1s from the ground up — became the most used feature in the entire suite by MAU.
2025
Culture Amp
Director of Product · Performance · Now
Owns the entire Performance suite: reviews, goals, development, 1 on 1s, calibrations. Six PMs. Built the 2026 ARR-aligned roadmap delivering retention uplift and unlocking key sales.
6 PMsAcross the full performance suite
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03 Podcasts, panels & talks Live feed.
Keynote
Zombies, SaaS & the power of empathy-led collaboration
Product-Led Alliance Summit · Sydney · 2024
↗
Panel
Aligning product and marketing beyond the buzzwords
Product-Led Alliance · Sydney · 2025
↗
Podcast
Psychological safety in high performing teams
Real Action · Cieden · 2024
↗
In the room
The future of product isn't feature PMs — Marty Cagan at ProductTank Sydney
ProductTank Sydney · 2025
↗
04 Background & philosophy

What
drives
the work.

I lead the Performance product at Culture Amp. Psychology, systems, AI turning ambition into something sustainable and human. Recognised as one of Amplitude's top 50 product leaders globally.

01
People first. Always.
Not as a platitude — as a design constraint. If it doesn't help a real person in a real moment, it doesn't matter how clever the engineering is.
02
AI should amplify, not author
The risk isn't that AI takes the wheel. It's that we quietly let it. I'm building tools where humans stay the decision-maker — AI brings the signal, people bring the judgement.
03
High performance isn't suffering
The best teams I've been part of were rigorous and genuinely fun. If your culture treats exhaustion as a proxy for seriousness, you're optimising for the wrong thing.
04
Clarity over consensus
Most rooms will agree on anything if you let them. The job isn't to get everyone nodding — it's to make the call, explain the reasoning, and move. Consensus feels safe. Clarity is actually safe.
05 Interactive

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