Add depth
Find balance
Grow smart

Sweet, sour, salty, bitter…
and umami — the fifth taste, the one that brings it all together.

At Umami, we blend with your teams as
advisors, fractional leaders, or transformation coaches
to build partnerships, launch products, and scale into new markets.

Complexity?
We help turn it into momentum.

How we build with you

  • Your Fractional Head of Partnerships to:

    • Design partnership strategies aligned with business and product priorities

    • Lead negotiation of agreements that drive mutual value and scale

    • Build and manage high-value, long-term partner relationship

  • Your Advisor or Fractional Lead to:

    • Define a clear product vision and value proposition

    • Establish product-market fit and GTM strategy

    • Set long-term goals and short-term OKRs to align teams and measure progress

    • Develop actionable roadmaps to prioritize product development

    • Craft expansion strategies for scaling and international growth

    • Mentor teams through agile and lean product development practice

  • Your Transformation Coach or advisor to:

    • Guide organizations from V-cycle models to iterative product development

    • Embed user-centric methods like Lean, Agile, and Design Thinking

  • Advisor to government teams building user-centric digital services.

    • Mentor teams in designing impactful, mission-aligned product strategies

    • Guide OKRs, product roadmaps, and partnership strategies within complex ecosystems

    • Help bridge institutional constraints with startup-style executio

    • Enable lasting innovation through coaching, strategic clarity, and hands-on collaboration

Meet the founder

Hi, I’m Lucia Tahara.

For over two decades, I operated at the intersection of strategy, innovation, and impact.

  • At Google, I led partnerships that scaled products like Maps, Shopping, and Arts & Culture at both global and local levels, forging landmark deals with players like SNCF and Michelin.

  • Later, I co-founded Radar, a platform to discover and share favorite places. Recognized by the French Tech incubator Willa, and by the Paris region as an innovative economic project.

  • Today, I mentor and coach purpose-driven teams tackling public sector challenges, from climate resilience to digital inclusion, through France’s national incubation program.

Whether navigating early-stage uncertainty or scaling global solutions, I help organizations turn bold visions into tangible results.

Each chapter of my journey has shaped how I lead, build, and partner today:

  • Google

  • Google Maps

  • Google Arts & Culture

  • Google Shopping

  • beta.gouv.fr

  • French Ministry for Ecological Transition

  • French Ministry of Sports equipment

  • National Geographic Institute

  • French National Buildings Database

  • Panoramax

  • Public Expertise for the Ecological Transition

  • radar

  • Women in Tech (member and mentor)

In their words

  • Robin Zueger

    Group Product Manager @YouTube

    Lucia is one of the most impressive partnerships professionals I’ve worked with—sharp on both strategy and execution. She's a rare mix of strategic vision and operational drive.

    During the launch of Google Shopping in France and Brazil, she secured all key deals, ensuring the presence of major e-commerce players. Her deep understanding of product also stood out—for instance, her insights into the Brazilian market directly led to the launch of the installments feature.

    #product #partnerships

  • Nicolas Berthelot

    Head of Incubator @French National Geographical Institute

    (operating under the Ministry of Ecology)

    "Lucia has been a key mentor within our ecosystem, bringing exceptional strategic insight to some of the most critical startups incubated at IGN. Her guidance has been fundamental in shaping go-to-market strategies, aligning product development with user needs, and ensuring long-term adoption.

    From supporting national initiatives like the RNB (French Buildings Database) to strengthening the overall capacity of State Startups, her impact is both deep and wide-reaching."

    #publicsector #GTM #mentoring

  • Elisabeth Talbourdet-Ville

    Co-founder @RNB

    “Lucia has been an instrumental mentor for our team throughout every stage of RNB. From building the foundations to accelerating our growth as France’s official buildings database, her guidance helped us shape our strategy and clarified our direction.

    She helped us structure our value proposition, define our objectives and go-to-market strategy, and grow stronger as a team. She consistently challenged us to think bigger and execute better.”

    #product #GTM #mentoring #coaching

  • Paul Bilaine

    Press Officer @SNCF Voyageurs

    “I had the chance to work with Lucia on a groundbreaking partnership: the first data collaboration between Google and SNCF. We mapped 160 train stations across France with Street View and Indoor Maps technologies, marking Google’s largest transit hub coverage at the time.

    Her vision was key. The project gave travelers a new way to explore stations remotely, proving especially useful during the EuroCup. It set a new standard for how digital tools can enhance public infrastructure and user experience.”

    #product #partnerships

  • Félix Veith

    Co-founder @RNB

    Lucia’s ability to truly understand complex dynamics makes her an invaluable mentor and advisor to our team. She doesn’t bring pre-packaged solutions but asks thoughtful questions, listens with intent, and shares insights and tools that empower us to shape and execute our strategy. Her positive energy and talent for anticipating challenges keep us aligned and moving forward.

    After nearly three years of coaching, she continues to bring fresh value—which says a lot about the depth of her experience.

    #product #GTM #mentoring #coaching

  • Amélie Crepin

    Founder @Panoramax

    "Working on a project in the midst of an acceleration phase, with more and more issues and use cases to address, we needed support to channel our energy and stay focused on priorities to optimize the impact of Panoramax and keep the community engaged. Lucia helped us clarify our vision and, from there, develop a strategy to achieve the goals we agreed on as a team.

    In addition, Lucia has been coaching me as founder. Her tailored advice has been invaluable in helping me keep the essentials in mind, gain perspective, and learn tips to assert my position.”

    #GTM #product #mentoring #coaching

  • Rémi Dhalluin

    DATA ES lead @French Ministry of Sports

    “With the Olympics hosted in France last summer and a strong public policy focus on fair access to sports, we needed to ensure DATA ES—the national database of sports equipment—provides the most accurate and comprehensive data possible since all public administrations rely on us.

    Lucia played a key role in coaching us through an in-depth investigation, helping us identify where we could deliver the most impact. Thanks to her guidance, we were able to shape a clear, focused product roadmap rooted in evidence and aligned with national priorities.”

    #product #mentoring