References
for Emma B.
Product | Engineering | Marketing
From Elena Hearty, Director of Engineering
It is my bittersweet honor to write this letter of recommendation for my coworker and friend of the past four years, Emma Bohorfoush. As someone who has worked in tech for over two decades, I know just how rare it is to find a partner on the Product team who not only understands the business but also goes out of her way to truly collaborate with Engineering.
I believe Emma's official title was Associate Director of Product Management, but that doesn't begin to describe everything she did for our organization:
- Technical Product Ownership: Emma doesn't just "write requirements"; she produces flawless, comprehensive documentation and high-fidelity mocks that account for both front-end user experience and complex back-end logic.
- Operational Versatility: She is remarkably un-siloed. Whether it is architecting HubSpot workflows, assisting with QA, or diving into light scripting and tech ops, Emma proactively identifies and fills gaps before they become bottlenecks.
- Vendor & Project Management: She is a fierce advocate for the timeline and the team. Emma has an exceptional ability to manage external vendors—demanding accountability where others might settle for delays—and maintains rigorous organization through meticulous roadmap planning and action-item tracking.
- Leadership & Organization: Emma owned the timeline, tasks, and planning sessions for all of our development cycles. If anything was falling behind, she was the first to communicate it to the business. Furthermore, she sent out weekly status updates to keep the entire organization aligned.
- Team Player: Simply put, Emma has your back. She is the first person to volunteer for the miscellaneous tasks that usually slow us down. Whether it's handling administrative overhead or jumping into the weeds to unblock a developer, she does whatever it takes to keep the team on track.
And yet, in spite of all these responsibilities, Emma will:
- Still find time to ask everyone how their day is going.
- Be on a first-name basis with everyone at company events.
- Joke around in Spanish with the international employees.
- Address critical alerts on the weekend or bring amazing, thoughtful gifts to her coworkers just because.
Emma's departure was a massive blow to the Engineering team. If it were up to me, she would still be leading our product efforts today, and I am certain she will become a cornerstone of whichever team she joins next.
Best,
Elena Hearty
Director of Software Engineering
Email: ehearty@placemakr.com
Phone: 301.706.9061
From Jeff Britton, Senior Principal Software Engineer
In my 20+ years as a software developer, I've worked alongside a lot of product people. Emma is one of the best I've encountered.
We worked together at Placemakr, a hospitality startup with ambitious goals and a lean team. It was the kind of environment where resourcefulness and ownership weren't optional. Emma excelled there. Together we delivered some genuinely complex work: an online booking system and checkout process that handled millions of dollars in transactions, a contactless check-in kiosk built for properties operating with a limited staffing model, a web app that allowed guests to access their rooms and common areas, and long term stay capabilities that extended the booking system to support deposits and recurring payment installments. That's a broad range of product surface area, and Emma brought the same level of rigor and focus to all of it.
What made her so effective was the combination of qualities she brought to every project. She came prepared. When she didn't have all the answers, she sought them out, asked the right questions, and collaborated closely with me to find the right approach. She had a strong grasp of the business problems underlying each initiative, not just the features themselves. And she maintained consistent communication with both stakeholders and the technical team, ensuring alignment at every stage.
One thing I want to highlight specifically, because it's less common than it should be: Emma genuinely listened to feedback from the engineering side. Many product managers tend to manage up and delegate down without much dialogue. Emma approached it as a true collaboration. She also brought a background in graphic design to her work, which showed. She produced UI mockups herself, gave real design feedback, and we iterated together on projects in a way that made the end product better every time.
She operated with a strong sense of ownership and didn't require oversight to stay on track. She was a self starter who followed through consistently and delivered results.
Beyond her professional strengths, Emma is simply a good person to work with. She built real relationships across the organization and brought a warmth to the work that made the team better.
Any organization that brings Emma on board is gaining someone who can operate effectively in a fast moving environment and elevate the people around her. I would work with her again without hesitation.
Jeff Britton
Senior Principal Software Engineer
Placemakr
From Jessica Hoffman, Associate Marketing Director
May 15, 2026
To Whom It May Concern:
I've worked closely with Emma over the past several years at Placemakr, where I lead the Brand and Marketing team and she served as Associate Director of Product Management. Over the last two years especially, we partnered heavily on large cross-functional initiatives involving the customer journey, website and booking engine updates, Hilton partnership integration work, and extended stay experience improvements.
Emma is someone who knows how to bring people together and keep things moving. She's thoughtful, solutions-oriented, and really good at balancing customer experience, operational needs, and brand considerations all at once. She thinks holistically and consistently approaches projects with both strategy and execution in mind.
One of the things I appreciated most about working with Emma was her ability to cut through unnecessary complexity and focus on what actually needed to get done. She communicates candidly, builds trust quickly, and works extremely well across teams.
More recently, we worked very closely together on improving the customer journey and making sure guest-facing experiences stayed aligned with our brand voice while also feeling intuitive and thoughtful for the end user. At many points, Emma truly felt like an extension of the Brand and Marketing team because of how seamlessly she collaborated with us.
Emma brings a calm, proactive approach to fast-moving environments, and she's someone I'd gladly work with again.
Best,
Jessica Hoffman
jhoffman@placemakr.com
706-280-9287