20+ years in enterprise software. Developer turned SVP. The consultant who's actually built, shipped, sold, and marketed the products — not just advised on them.
Founder, Category Leaders
Amy Collins founded Category Leaders to do one thing well: help B2B technology companies figure out what they actually stand for — and then make sure the market knows it.
Her career spans over 20 years in enterprise software — and she's done the full journey. She started as a developer, moved into solutions engineering where she personally worked on over 100 complex deals in some of the world's largest organisations, then built her career through product management, product marketing, and senior leadership.
That breadth is rare. It means she's deep enough in product to challenge it, experienced enough in enterprise to know what actually lands, and commercially sharp enough to tie every recommendation to a business outcome.
A career built across product, marketing, and commercial leadership — in the sectors where positioning matters most.
Amy hasn't just worked in marketing. She's been the developer writing the code, the solutions engineer in the room with the customer, the product manager defining the roadmap, and the SVP accountable for the number.
She doesn't translate between product and market. She inhabits both.
Cybersecurity, AI and NLP, social analytics, IT operations, enterprise software. Amy has worked across sectors where the technology is complex, the buyers are demanding, and getting your story right is the difference between winning and being overlooked.
Senior leadership roles at 1E (SVP Product, nearly a decade across two stints), Brandwatch (VP Product, Data), Signal AI (VP Product & Marketing), and Hack The Box (Sr. Director, Product Marketing). At 1E she launched products that hit 140% of target in year one.
Amy holds a patent for Configuration of Network Devices and is Pragmatic Marketing certified across Focus, Build, Market, and Launch. She's the rare consultant who's actually built, shipped, sold, and marketed the products — not just advised on them.
She doesn't translate between product and market. She inhabits both.
Amy doesn't just advise on analyst strategy — she's driven the outcomes herself.
Led 1E from Contender to Leader in the Forrester Wave for End-User Experience Management — a shift that reshaped how the market perceived them.
Read the case study →Positioned 1E for inclusion in the inaugural Gartner Magic Quadrant for Digital Employee Experience, establishing presence in a newly defined category.
Helped Hack The Box achieve a Leaders position in their first ever Forrester Wave — then moved them to second place in the 2026 evaluation.
Read the case study →Because the best strategic thinkers are shaped by more than just boardrooms.
Clients tend to say the same things: that the work is more challenging than expected, more practical than they hoped, and that they wish they'd done it sooner.
Whether you know exactly what you need or you're still working that out, a conversation is a good place to start.
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