To spotlight different perspectives and give an inside look at Grubhub, we’re highlighting leaders from across the organization. This month, we sat down with Ali Motto, Senior Director of Product Operations, Design Operations & UXR, to hear how she’s transforming product planning and alignment, amplifying the customer voice, and building trust across teams.
A quick round to get to know Ali:
- Favorite Grubhub order: Chicken parm with a side of rigatoni from Previti Pizza on Long Island. When I moved to a new town and realized it was still in my delivery range, I was absolutely thrilled.
- Book you’ve read recently that you’d recommend: Good Inside by Dr. Becky Kennedy. As a toddler parent, it’s become my go-to manual. It’s completely reframed how I approach tough conversations and situations with my kids while also reinforcing the importance of taking care of myself along the way.
- Coffee or tea: Coffee 100%. I’m the person who will walk through a snowstorm holding an iced coffee. My go-to is an iced caramel latte with almond milk.
- Favorite way to unwind after a busy week: Either a workout class—I love F45 and SoulCycle—or a dinner with my husband if we can get a babysitter!
- Favorite productivity hack: I am a handwritten list person through and through. There is nothing more satisfying than crossing something off with a pen. It keeps me focused and gives me a real sense of progress.
- A typical work day: I usually start before 6 a.m. with a workout, then it is the morning rush of getting my kids ready and dropping them off at childcare. After that, it is a full day of meetings, planning, and deliverables before it’s shifting back into mom mode in the evening. Once my kids are asleep, I’ll usually log back on to continue working for a bit before winding down for the night and watching a documentary with my husband.
- Weekend routine: Weekends are my family time. I try to be fully present with my kids, taking them to the park, birthday parties, or even Home Depot, which they love. In the summer, we love taking the water taxi around the harbor which has become a special tradition of ours. Once they’re in bed, I’ll do something like listen to a book on Audible while doing laundry. If you can’t tell yet by my answers, I am not great at sitting still.
You’ve had an impressive career in product operations across some major tech companies — Google, Uber, Etsy, and now Grubhub. What initially drew you to product operations, and how did you end up at Grubhub?
My interest in product operations started over a decade ago in college when I worked for Jerry Colonna, a venture capitalist and executive coach. Many of his clients were tech CEOs, and that sparked my curiosity about the industry.
After graduation, I joined Etsy, where I bridged the gap between product teams and sellers — translating launches and advocating for seller needs. That experience cemented my love for product and set me on a path of learning: at Google, I supported global Virtual Reality product launches; at Uber, I built cross-domain processes; and at Better, I created the first Product Operations PMO team, scaling it from one to 13. Each move allowed me to work with great teams, tackle new challenges, and expand my toolkit.
Over three years ago, I came to Grubhub, drawn by the challenge of a three-sided marketplace and the people. Our kind, collaborative culture makes us faster and better — solving problems is easier, alignment comes quicker, and the work itself feels more meaningful when you genuinely enjoy the people you work with.
Your role spans Product Operations, Design Operations, and UXR — that’s a lot of ground to cover. Can you walk us through what each of these areas involves and how they work together?
It is definitely a wide scope, but that’s what makes it exciting. Each of these areas plays a different role, but they are deeply connected in how we build and launch products.
- Product Operations is about creating the frameworks, processes, and rhythms that give our product teams clarity and discipline. That includes planning cycles, product brief templates, launch readiness, go-to-market playbooks, tracking adoption, and integrating AI tooling to streamline workflows and enhance decision-making.
- Design Operations makes sure our design teams can move quickly and consistently across the product development lifecycle, whether that means giving them access to new AI tools or creating standardized ways of working.
- User Experience Research helps us keep the customer at the center of everything. UXR uncovers needs, tests concepts, and ensures that our solutions resonate in the real world.
Together, these three areas function like parts of the same engine. UXR grounds us in customer insights, Design Ops scales and supports the design function, and Product Ops connects strategy to execution. It is less about three separate functions and more about one operating model that helps Product, Design, and Engineering deliver the right things in the right way at the right time.
You lead what you call “the connective tissue” between Product, Design, Engineering, and other cross-functional partners. What does that actually look like day-to-day?
My team owns the product roadmap process and partners with Engineering on capacity management to ensure priorities match resources. We drive alignment through quarterly and annual strategy decks and build visibility with newsletters, demo days, and release channels that show our entire organization what’s being built and launched.
We also make sure insights from cross-functional partners feed into the roadmap so everyone is working from the same playbook. No two days are alike — one might be spent in Jira planning, the next developing a new go-to-market playbook. At the core, my team is the glue that connects the moving parts so others can focus on delivering great products.
What’s something about Product Operations that most people at Grubhub might not realize or understand?
A lot of what we do happens behind the scenes. If we are doing our jobs well, things just feel seamless. Planning runs smoothly, launches happen on time, and everyone feels aligned on priorities. What people may not see is the coordination, framework building, and cross-functional alignment it takes to make that possible.
And Product Ops is not just about process for the sake of process. We are here to make sure the right work is resourced, customer insights shape the roadmap, and every launch has measurable impact. When we are at our best, people may not even realize Product Ops is behind it — things simply work the way they should.
One of your biggest achievements has been completely revamping how we plan our PDE roadmap at Grubhub. Can you tell us about that transformation?
When I joined over three years ago, roadmap planning across Product, Design, and Engineering was siloed — with different tools, approaches, and tracking methods. We lacked a clear view of priorities, and cross-functional teams struggled to anticipate what was coming or where to give input.
We completely redesigned the process: standardizing the planning cycle and timeline, creating a single source of truth in Jira, adding capacity checks with leadership and Engineering, and building transparency through quarterly/annual strategy decks and knowledge sharing anchored in UXR and data.
The result is a disciplined, consistent roadmap process tied directly to customer needs and business priorities. Leaders see the big picture, teams plan effectively, and launches happen with alignment.
Is there a particular project or initiative you’re working on right now that you’re most excited about?
I am genuinely excited about the work we are doing with Wonder. From the start, it has felt energizing and collaborative. One of the first things my team did was adapt our product brief template for their product growth team so they had a consistent framework to define and evaluate initiatives. Now, we are bringing our planning cycles together for the first time, which is a huge step toward shared roadmaps and priorities.
What excites me most is how much we are learning from each other. Wonder brings a startup-like pace and perspective, and we bring systems and processes that create clarity at scale. Aligning those strengths is not just about process — it is about creating a shared foundation for how we build products. It really feels like a “two brains are better than one” moment, and I cannot wait to see what more we can accomplish together.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever gotten, and how has it stuck with you as a leader?
I’ve worked with the same career coach, Burju Erdem, for over five years, and her constant reminder of the power of gratitude and affirmation has shaped how I lead. I try to listen deeply, solve problems, celebrate wins, and recognize contributions, which builds the trust that makes both structure and creativity possible. When people feel valued, they’re more willing to take risks, fail fast, and keep moving. Gratitude and kindness create the environment for technical and creative work without fear of mistakes, while process provides clarity — but it’s trust that makes those systems work and fuels innovation.
If you could have any other job in the company for a day, what would it be and why?
I would love to spend a day in PR. In a way, I already joke that I am the internal PR rep for Product, Design, and Analytics, but I have always been fascinated by how storytelling and messaging shape how people perceive a company and its products.
