Neena Priyanka: Building a Future Rooted in Family Support

On a mission to transform small-town challenges into meaningful opportunities!

In small towns, dreams often feel like distant stars, visible yet seemingly out of reach. For Neena Priyanka, growing up in Munger, Bihar, those stars were always within sight, thanks to the foundation her parents built for her.

Her mother, a science graduate with a degree in Botany, gave up a promising teaching career to raise Neena and her siblings. She carried her own unfulfilled dreams quietly, hoping Neena would achieve what she could not. “My mother’s sacrifice was not just about giving up her career,” Neena recalls. “It was about planting a vision in me, showing me that perseverance and faith could turn dreams into reality.” Her mother’s resilience instilled in Neena a sense of purpose and a relentless drive to succeed.

Her father, Mr. Shubhankar Jha, complemented that sacrifice with trust and action. Even in difficult circumstances, he ensured Neena never lacked opportunities. She vividly remembers the day her grandmother fell critically ill. Her father traveled to Delhi to secure her school admission, prioritizing her education despite the family crisis. “Those moments taught me that true support is about showing up, not just offering resources,” she says. His faith became a compass for her own journey, shaping her understanding of commitment, responsibility, and courage.

Today, Neena carries the lessons of her parents into every step of her life. Their sacrifices, encouragement, and quiet belief gave her the confidence to dream bigger than her surroundings and to pursue paths that once seemed out of reach. Her story is a testament to how family, even in the humblest settings, can ignite ambition, fuel determination, and lay the foundation for a life built on resilience and purpose.

For Neena, those distant stars of childhood curiosity are now realities shaped by love, guidance, and belief; an alarm that the strength of our roots forms the breadth of our wings.

Let us learn more about her journey:

On a Mission to Transform Science into Real-World Impact

Guided by the influence of her parents, Neena began her academic journey in Botany at Gargi College, University of Delhi, under the mentorship of Dr. Gita Mathur and Dr. Shashi Tyagi. These mentors nurtured her curiosity and instilled the confidence needed to build a strong foundation in plant biology.

Her enthusiasm soon drove her to explore beyond classical science, leading her to the Master’s program in Environmental Studies at TERI University, with a specialization in environment and climate change. This program introduced her to Geospatial Science, a field that immediately captured her imagination and charted the direction of her career.

Neena advanced her studies with a Master’s and Ph.D. in Geospatial Science from TERI University. She complemented her scientific expertise with a degree in International Business from IIFT, recognizing the importance of combining technical knowledge with business acumen. Later, to strengthen her understanding of emerging technologies, she completed a Master’s in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning through a joint program by Great Lakes and Deakin University.

Mentorship has remained a cornerstone of Neena’s journey. Nishant Sinha, a veteran in GIS, introduced her to the fundamentals of the field and inspired her to explore its vast possibilities. Her Ph.D. guide, Dr. P. K. Joshi, served as more than an academic advisor; he encouraged her to pursue uncharted paths and supported her decision to focus on geospatial science when many peers remained in climate change research.

Her professional journey began at RMSI in the PTRI group, where working under Irfan Ullah and Sham Dhavande exposed her to diverse research projects and provided practical experience in applying GIS to real-world challenges. The next significant step was Precisely, a global leader in data integrity. At Precisely, Neena grew from an engineer to a senior product manager under the guidance of leaders such as Nishant Sinha, Kailash Mishra, Madhumita Mund Rao, Michael Ashmore, Tendü Yoğurtçu, PhD, and Brenda Kay. The organization became a space where she honed leadership, strategic thinking, communication, and innovation, shaping both her professional growth and her perspective on balancing vision with execution, as well as technical mastery with empathy.

Neena’s enduring motivation lies in bridging deep science with practical applications, creating solutions that operate quietly yet profoundly enhance how people live, move, and connect.

She often reflects: “Opportunities may be scarce, but curiosity creates its own pathways, and with the right mentors, those pathways turn into bridges to the world.”

Turning Maternity Leave into a Career Accelerator

A defining moment in Neena’s career arrived during her maternity leave, a period that carried deep personal and professional stakes. The rapid evolution of SaaS, API platforms, Geospatial Intelligence, and AI/ML created a fear that returning to work would feel like starting from scratch.

With unwavering support from Precisely and a committed partner at home, what initially appeared as a personal–professional conflict transformed into a pivotal growth opportunity. During this time, Neena completed her second Master’s degree, strengthening her theoretical foundation and preparing her to contribute fresh insights across new departments and projects. Upon her return, she received wholehearted support from CTO Tendü Yoğurtçu, PhD, manager Ana-Maria Badulescu, and HR business partner Monika Narula. Their guidance and encouragement transformed a potential obstacle into a smooth and empowering transition, making her return both meaningful and fulfilling.

At home, her husband Abhishek provided the steady anchor she needed. His constant motivation and engagement ensured that career progression and family life existed in harmony. By managing their home and daughter with grace, he allowed Neena to focus fully on her professional journey. His unwavering faith became a quiet, driving force behind her achievements, reinforcing that challenges can evolve into opportunities with the right support system.

This period reshaped Neena’s confidence, demonstrating that what feels like a pause often serves as the runway for the next takeoff. Setbacks became accelerators, and the experience underscored the power of resilience, mindset, and collaboration, both at work and at home.

Decoding the Unspoken Needs of Customers

Neena approaches understanding customers with deep empathy and advocacy. She observes that customers rarely express their needs in terms of features or technology; instead, they speak through their daily challenges, frustrations, and aspirations. Her role requires careful listening to both spoken words and the subtle gaps that exist between them.

Having worked across global markets and diverse industries, she recognizes that local context shapes customer needs significantly. Requirements of a retail leader in North America differ from those of a government agency in Asia or a fintech startup in Europe. This insight arises from hands-on experience, developing products, iterating based on feedback, and walking alongside customers throughout their journeys.

Neena emphasizes that clarity emerges through transparent communication and trust. By placing the customer at the center, maintaining an innovative mindset, and attentively observing their experiences, recurring patterns surface. These patterns reveal the silent, unarticulated needs that customers seek solutions for.

She often reflects, Empathy bridges the gap between what customers express and what they truly require.

Forming Perceptions to Build Trust

One of the most striking lessons from working with leading global companies such as Visa, Microsoft, and Walmart is that success often depends on shifting perceptions rather than merely delivering solutions. A memorable project involved a customer test flagging an address as valid because a popular search engine confirmed it. Verification against authoritative postal data revealed that neither the original nor the resolved address was correct.

This experience highlighted the influence of preconceived notions on customer trust. If a widely used tool indicated correctness, clients assumed it to be the gold standard. Transforming this mindset required patience, transparency, and repeated demonstrations of accuracy. It demanded more than proving the solution worked; it required showing why it offered greater reliability than entrenched assumptions.

The human insight gained was profound. Innovation faces competition not only from other technologies but also from the assumptions people accept as truth. Changing those assumptions requires empathy, resilience, and evidence that consistently withstands scrutiny. This is the foundation of lasting trust.
The central lesson remains clear: the most difficult challenge lies in confronting assumptions, not competing solutions.

Reconciling Business Growth with Responsible AI

In AI and ML product innovation, particularly in NLP and recommender systems, ethical complexity presents a constant challenge. Embracing these challenges allows acceleration with purpose rather than slowing down progress.

Neena emphasizes that a staggering 85 percent of AI initiatives fail due to poor data quality and inadequate volume. As of 2025, 78% of organizations report using AI in at least one business function, up from 55% the previous year. Despite widespread adoption, only 12% of organizations believe their data is of sufficient quality and accessibility for AI initiatives. While 57% report strong executive confidence in AI strategies, only 28.5% indicate moderate readiness to deploy AI from a data perspective, and a mere 8.6% are fully AI-ready.

Neena reconciles rapid innovation with responsible AI by embedding ethics into the core of AI development. She highlights three priorities:

• Prioritizing Data Quality: Ensuring data is accurate, complete, and relevant, as poor-quality data undermines AI outcomes.

• Fostering Transparency: Building AI systems that are explainable and accountable, so users can trust and understand automated decisions.

• Championing Inclusivity: Designing AI solutions that are fair and unbiased, reflecting real-world diversity.

At Precisely, Neena observes that the team does not merely discuss responsible AI; they implement it. The CTO, Tendü Yogurtçu, PhD, champions ethical practices to ensure innovations meet the highest standards.

For Neena, responsible AI is not a roadblock but an accelerator. Aligning ethical considerations with business objectives creates smarter systems, fosters trust, and drives innovation, paving the way for a future where AI benefits all.

Most Cherished Innovation

If she had to choose one innovation she feels most emotionally attached to, it would be a patent application that has yet to be granted but remains closest to her heart: SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR IMPROVING GEOCODING PERFORMANCE (Publication No. 20210026893).

This idea holds power because it addresses one of the biggest bottlenecks in the geospatial world, geocoding performance, and solves it with an elegantly simple approach. The algorithm has the potential to render results 100 times faster, unlocking speed at scale for applications that handle millions of addresses every day. It represents more than an innovation; it is a rethinking of how geocoding could be done.

Beyond the technical achievement, this patent is special because of the two mentors who shaped it with her: Nishant Sinha and Michael Ashmore. Their visionary approach, innovative spirit, and guidance taught her not only the science of addressing but also the art and business of it. They helped her see how something as technical as geocoding could have a profound real-world impact.

This idea remains her favourite because it represents both the technical leap and the human mentorship that have defined her journey in the addressing world. She believes that the true power of innovation lies in solving problems while being guided by mentors who teach one to see beyond the problem itself.

Power of Precise Location

Geospatial and address intelligence may appear highly technical, yet its influence on everyday life is profound and deeply human. It quietly shapes the way people live, shop, connect, and receive essential services. A simple example lies in e-commerce, where an incorrect address can create significant ripple effects: deliveries fail, returns accumulate, customers lose trust, and businesses bear the cost. Each failed delivery represents more than a financial setback; it creates a gap in trust between a company and its customers.

Next-Generation Address Autocomplete solutions transform this experience. Leveraging geolocation search, authoritative identifiers, multilingual support, and advanced filtering, businesses can reduce failed deliveries, streamline logistics, and elevate customer satisfaction. Operations run smoothly, errors decrease, and organizations gain confidence in reaching every address accurately.

The impact extends beyond commerce. In insurance, precise address intelligence ensures accurate property valuations and fair risk assessments. Telecom providers identify coverage gaps and improve connectivity. In healthcare, medicines and critical supplies reach patients exactly where they are, when they are needed most.

This experience revealed a larger truth: address intelligence transcends data quality. It builds trust, expands access, and creates tangible impact. Whether ensuring groceries arrive on time, delivering fair insurance coverage, or providing life-saving medicine in emergencies, precision in location has the power to transform lives and strengthen communities.

Ultimately, location is far more than coordinates; it is a lifeline.

Overcoming Language and Confidence Barriers in Global Leadership
Cultural and communication barriers often shape leaders in profound ways, and for Neena, the most defining challenge was mastering English communication while building confidence. Originating from a small town in India, where Hindi served as her first language, stepping into a global company like Precisely initially felt overwhelming. Every presentation brought nervous anticipation. The ideas were clear and well-prepared, yet hesitation lingered, fueled by concern about how others would perceive her.

This challenge was transformed through a strong support system within the organization. Programs such as WE LEAD, Customer Advocates, and Education Assistance offered structured growth opportunities and practical guidance. They became stepping stones that empowered her to refine her communication skills and embrace her potential.

A pivotal moment arrived when Neena was appointed Chairperson of Precisely Women in Technology (PWIT). The role carried both honor and responsibility, providing a platform to amplify women’s voices in technology while simultaneously fostering her own growth as a leader. This position enabled her to transform personal challenges into opportunities for broader impact, advocating for others while strengthening her own confidence.

Mentorship played a crucial role in this journey. Guidance from veterans such as Brenda Kay helped Neena evolve beyond basic communication skills into effective presentation, connection, and negotiation abilities. Learning to negotiate created a powerful shift, offering a voice to advocate for herself and others in situations where hesitation might otherwise prevail.

Even today, Neena views her journey as a reminder that leadership is a continuous process. Growth arises not from eliminating fear but from navigating it with resilience, supported by mentors, and fueled by determination. Transforming personal barriers into bridges for growth remains the most rewarding aspect of leadership.

Innovation Thrives Within Constraints

When Neena first worked on hyper-local delivery ecosystems, she learned quickly that scale is not just about size, it is about impact. A single failed delivery could result in a frustrated customer, a costly return, and lost trust. Hyper-local systems thrive on timeliness and accuracy, but without good data analytics to learn from, adapt, and predict, even the best last-mile strategies fall short.

Later, when she moved into enterprise-scale data analytics, the dynamics changed. At this level, the focus shifts from one address or one customer to millions of data points that must be validated, governed, and scaled with resilience. Both worlds represent two sides of the same coin, one hyper-focused on customer intimacy, the other on systemic intelligence. Both reveal the same truth: all innovation is ultimately backed by data, whether small or large.

Constraints play an unexpected role in fostering innovation. Common wisdom suggests that removing barriers allows innovation to flourish. Research indicates the opposite. According to a Harvard Business Review report, when there are no constraints, teams follow what psychologists call the path of least resistance, settling for obvious ideas. In contrast, constraints sharpen creativity, forcing connections across sources and resulting in better, more novel solutions.

Neena’s journey illustrates this principle. Whether solving hyper-local delivery challenges or building enterprise data platforms, constraints fuel innovation rather than limit it. They demonstrate that scale is not just about doing more but doing smarter. Often, the very constraint that appears to hold progress back becomes the force driving the most effective and inventive solutions.

Assessing Market Readiness for Disruptive Products

When leading product roadmaps that sit at the intersection of emerging technology and market adoption, Neena emphasizes that timing is everything. A disruptive product can be technically brilliant, yet if the market psyche is not ready to embrace it, adoption slows and the innovation risks becoming shelfware.
Neena evaluates readiness through a balance of two forces:

• Psychological Readiness: Are Customers Primed for Change? She looks for pain signals, frustration with current solutions, growing interest in alternatives, or competitor disruption. When customers begin to question the status quo, an emotional opening for innovation emerges. Research supports this approach: a Harvard Business Review study shows that constraints, rather than unfettered freedom, spark creativity. Without constraints, teams often lapse into complacency, opting for obvious solutions instead of breakthroughs. It is the friction between need and means that ignites true innovation.

• Operational Readiness: Can the Ecosystem Support Disruption? Neena assesses whether infrastructure, partner networks, regulatory frameworks, and internal skills are in place. Even the most brilliant product can fail in an ecosystem lacking support. According to Gartner’s 2025 Hype Cycle, AI agents and AI-ready data are among the most rapidly advancing technologies, signaling that operational enablers are maturing to support real-world adoption. IDC further reports that 78% of mid-market organizations have already adopted AI, while 77% are experimenting with generative AI. This indicates that foundational technologies are becoming mainstream, reducing friction for more advanced innovations.

Neena frames adoption readiness with this question: “Is the problem burning hot enough in the customer’s mind, and is the ecosystem robust enough to deliver the solution?” Real disruption occurs at the intersection of customer urgency and ecosystem ability.

Disruptive products succeed when they strike at that exact inflection point. One example is AI-powered autocomplete and address intelligence. A few years ago, it would have felt like a “nice-to-have.” With the rise of e-commerce and hyperlocal delivery, address precision moved from convenience to competitive advantage. The alignment of market psychology, customers expecting instant, error-free experiences, and operational reality, logistics networks capable of consuming this intelligence, enabled adoption to accelerate.

Sustaining Creative Energy Amid Executive Pressures

Sustaining creative energy amid executive pressures and relentless change is rarely about doing more; it is about listening better and working wiser. One of Neena’s leaders once told her she has “big ears,” and she takes that as one of the greatest compliments. Truly listening to customers, to signals in the market, even to faint hesitations in a team, can surface insights that no presentation slide ever could. Data supports this approach: when employees feel genuinely heard, engagement and performance improve significantly, according to Harvard Business Review.

Yet listening is often more challenging than it seems. Forbes notes that many leaders listen so poorly they miss critical insights, early warning signs or breakthrough opportunities, essential for informed strategic decisions. That serves as a real wake-up call.

To counter this, Neena chooses her presence carefully. If she is not contributing in a meeting, she steps away and reserves that time for focused work, time where ideas actually germinate. Harvard research shows that small improvements in active listening significantly boost communication effectiveness and productivity. Carving out uninterrupted “think time” is not indulgent; it is essential.

When unexpected challenges arise, Neena leans on a guiding principle shared by Tendu: look for the resolution, not just the problem. That kind of pragmatic optimism, paired with sharp listening and protected focus, keeps creative energy alive and sustainable.

Persuasion Through Understanding Human Fears and Aspirations

One vivid moment occurred during the rollout of AI in engineering processes, specifically automating build and QA workflows. On paper, the case appeared clear: faster releases, fewer defects, and improved efficiency. The numbers were solid.

Yet even with irrefutable data, adoption lagged. The hesitation stemmed from deeper concerns: anxiety about being sidelined by automation. People wondered whether their expertise remained valued and feared being replaced rather than elevated.

In that moment, persuasion shifted from logic to empathy. Neena reframed the narrative: AI was not replacing judgment—it was freeing it. It shifted mundane tasks to AI so humans could engage in curiosity, craftsmanship, and critical thinking—tasks where human intuition truly matters.
Once that mind shift occurred, AI moved from mere acceptance to full embrace. The transformation became a story of empowerment rather than displacement.

This experience illustrated that in human-focused innovation, logic plays a role, but emotions decide the outcome.

Reimagining Learning for Children

If a product could be created free from constraints of budget, timelines, or market pressures, it would be dedicated entirely to children. The motivation is clear: many essential elements missing from today’s education system surface in the lives of young learners. Despite progress in numerous fields, schools and institutions often retain structures and practices that resemble those of decades past. Observations from a recent school function reinforced this reality, as a parent remarked, “Even after 25 years, nothing has changed; children still memorize lines and repeat them.”

Children learn most effectively through experience. They grow by playing, experimenting, creating, and embracing failure. Current systems, however, often emphasize rote performance over self-expression. A truly transformative platform would rekindle the natural joy of learning through reading, outdoor play, and family engagement. It would focus on human-centered, joy-driven experiences where:

• Reading becomes immersive storytelling that children eagerly revisit.
• Outdoor activities are guided, safe, and seamlessly woven into daily routines.
• Families actively participate, transforming learning into a shared adventure.
• Children are empowered to express ideas in their own words, rather than repeating scripts.

The ultimate measure of success lies in whether a child can step onto a stage or into a classroom and confidently share knowledge with curiosity and authenticity. Research supports this approach: studies indicate that outdoor play enhances creativity, resilience, and language development. UNICEF reports that just two hours of outdoor activity daily increases physical activity by nearly 30% and promotes emotional well-being, yet one in three children spends no time outdoors after school.

The gap between natural learning and traditional teaching continues to grow. Building a platform for children today forms the future of human potential. By nurturing authentic curiosity, creativity, and confidence, such an initiative would influence not only how children learn but also how humanity evolves tomorrow.