Dena Sands is a Director of Product Portfolio Management at Thrivent, a Fortune 500 financial services firm, a leader driving the adoption of a product operating model across 20+ portfolios—shifting the organization from project-based delivery and annual strategy resets to consistent, outcome-focused strategy execution that delivers greater value for clients and advisors. Her work centers on building maturity across product teams—using data-driven insights to identify gaps, prioritize the highest-impact improvements, and guide targeted coaching and enablement at scale. Through a connected system of maturity assessments, portfolio insights, workshops, and coaching, teams are able to continuously improve how they plan, execute, and deliver value. Dena focuses on turning fragmented, team-by-team practices into cohesive, portfolio operations by combining practical frameworks, routines, and tools that make maturity visible and actionable. She is known for bringing diverse teams together around shared outcomes and for emphasizing simple, usable approaches—where even a checklist can unlock deeper, more meaningful conversations. Passionate about practical innovation, Dena is actively integrating AI into product operations to accelerate analysis, surface insights, and extend coaching beyond traditional models—helping organizations scale maturity and value delivery in a way that is both effective and sustainable.