Darshan is available for hire
Hire DarshanDarshan Dave
Verified Expert in Marketing
Marketing Expert
Location
Boston, MA, United States
Toptal Member Since
May 18, 2022
Darshan is a seasoned product management and marketing specialist, a strategy and transformation catalyst, and an innovation architect. He has executive experience with multiple industries, domains, startups, and enterprises, acting as a trusted advisor, mentor, and coach to CXO and its founders. Darshan is passionate about bringing concepts and strategies to life, simplifying complexity, harnessing innovation, leveraging digital CX and emerging tech, and leading global cross-functional teams.
Product MarketingMarketing StrategyLead GenerationEmail MarketingSocial Media Marketing (SMM)Campaign ManagementBrand MarketingContent Marketing StrategyGrowth HackingBrand StrategyCopywritingGrowth MarketingGrowthCustomer AcquisitionDigital MediaRebrandingDesk ResearchSales Funnel CopywritingGo-to-Market ConsultingSales CopyCross-Channel MarketingSales FunnelAdvertising
Project Highlights
Executive Leadership | Growth, Product Management, and Marketing
Implemented product growth strategies, marketing tactics, revenue, go-to-market strategy, marketing plans, product positioning, storyboarding, marketing campaigns, lead generation, branding, repositioning, pitches, sales and marketing, and presales.
Global Product Management Leadership
Stood up for the global product management and marketing organization, innovating 25+ new products and services lines and consolidating over 40+ products across multiple industries and domains.
Business Leadership
Incubated a new business line from the ground up and grew it to $100 million in revenue.
Expertise
Work Experience
Strategy, Growth, and Transformation Coach
2021 - PRESENT
Independent Consultant and Strategy Advisor
- Coached senior executives and high-performing teams to develop growth, innovation, and transformation skills. Brought innovation culture, strategic thinking, customer centricity, growth mindset, executive presence, and stakeholder management.
- Developed tools and processes to institutionalize strategy, innovation, product management, and growth. Did business building, emerging trends analysis, ideas testing, ideation, desk research, market analysis, and concept innovation.
- Crafted growth, innovation, and transformation strategies validating problem statements vetting business ideas, empathy interviews, and market research. Created market fit analysis, segmentation, and business model canvas.
- Inspired, motivated, and guided leaders to develop strategy, vision, roadmaps, solutions, positioning, go-to-market pitch presentation, mock pitches, messaging, storyboarding value proposition, costing and pricing, and ROI analysis.
- Developed strategy, frameworks, business model canvas, PR FAQ, innovation funnels, stage gates, evaluation frameworks, research methods, interview techniques, design thinking, concept screening, SWOT, change impact, digital transformation, and more.
- Mentored startup and product teams across geographies and industries. Advised on product lifecycle, including concept definition, market validation, roadmap, MVP and whole product, commercialization, positioning, and go-to-market.
Executive Leader | Growth, Product Management and Marketing, Digital, and CX
2020 - PRESENT
Independent Consultant and Strategy Advisory
- Developed business strategies, product strategies, go-to-market and growth strategies, vision, roadmaps, design, and product portfolio management.
- Developed products and service portfolio. Managed product lifecycle, research, strategy, roadmap, market-fit, pricing, design, journey maps, UX, CX, MVP, features, epics, and backlogs.
- Implemented product growth strategies, marketing tactics, revenue, go-to-market strategy, marketing plans, product positioning, storyboarding, marketing campaigns, lead generation, branding, repositioning, pitches, sales and marketing, and presales.
- Acted as a strategist, mentor, and advisor to startups and businesses, like private equity firms, technology consulting, eCommerce, telemedicine, data science product, healthtech, healthcare product, retail firms, HR, and tech startups, among others.
- Devised innovation strategies, harnessing emerging tech, innovation framework, culture, and coaching. Also contributed to innovation playbook, ideation, hypothesis testing, breaking down complexity, simplifying concepts, and commercialization.
- Worked on business, technology, product, strategy, and consulting. Did research, discovery, ideations, interviews, due diligence, assessments, as-is analysis, transformation, optimization, future roadmaps analytics, and recommendations.
- Conducted RFP and RFI responses, solutions development, pricing, staffing, governance, operations models, customer presentations, storyboards, pitch decks, sales scripts, and battle cards for CXOs and senior stakeholder briefings and reports.
- Established business units, practices, and COEs for innovation, products, digital, QA, AI, CX, process, RPA, and more, including service portfolio and offerings, sales, presales, account management and marketing, consulting, advisory, and solutions.
- Led cross-functional distributed teams consisting of technical engineering, design, development, marketing, and sales using Agile and Kanban processes and methodologies and executive stakeholder management governance, metrics, KPIs, and reports.
- Handled product management and product lifecycle, including research, ideation, hypothesis testing, design, engineering, branding, positioning, go-to-market, product features and catalogs, customer stories, explainer videos, microsites, and websites.
Digital Product Strategist For A Private Equity
2020 - 2020
Independent Consultant and Strategy Advisor
- Created a digital strategy to enable virtual care, telemedicine, e-pharmacy, mental health, and other care areas.
- Identified digital debt and current state evaluation, created a digital capability canvas, made recommendations, and built an enterprise digital strategy future state model.
- Developed customized digital scenarios that will enable partnerships and acquisitions. Fostered digital capabilities to create new revenue opportunities and enhance direct to consumer (D2C) and various levels of B2B services.
- Leveraged next-generation digital technologies for a healthcare-digital strategy, including customer experience transformation, bots, AI, ML, data, API and microservices, AR/VR, Blockchain, IoMT (internet of medical things), automation, and RPA.
- Created a persona-driven digital journey, built a detailed roadmap, provided targeted recommendations, and designed an implementation plan tailored to the needs and behaviors of identified customer segments.
Managing Director
2019 - 2020
State Street Corporation
- Oversaw a large-scale transformation program and was responsible for program management and quality engineering of complex, large-scale, strategic banking initiatives, spanning multiple geographies, business units, and applications.
- Led and coached multi-domain, cross-functional, and globally distributed teams in an industrial scaled Agile and Kanban environment while driving quality, automation, performance, and security.
- Managed stakeholder relations with executive leadership, business, IT leadership, and cross-department stakeholders, implementing innovative processes, frameworks, and operating metrics.
- Drove strategic decisions, coached new leaders, established OKRs and metrics, and strategized budgets, sourcing models, and vendor strategies.
- Delivered business value and cost avoidance, optimization, automation, and savings by assuring quality and velocity.
- Developed detailed plans, specifications, and operating processes and frameworks.
- Led multiple globally distributed Agile and Kanban teams.
- Conducted performance reviews, career planning, training and compensation, and bonus frameworks.
Global Head of Product Management and Digital Assurance
2015 - 2019
Hexaware Technologies, Inc.
- Set up the product management group across geographies, business verticals, and technology functions. Designed productization philosophy, methodology, and toolkits. Developed detailed market research, product roadmaps, MVP, and specifications.
- Established product innovation incubator, entrepreneurial culture. Managed funding, investment strategies, moonshots, and hypergrowth ideas harnessing innovating and emerging technologies, including RPA, DLT, AI, CXT, data sciences, cloud, and more.
- Led startup and product teams, mentored cross-functional teams, gamification, rewards, and recognition. Developed product lifecycle, including research, prototyping, stress testing, ideation, commercialization, launch, and go-to-market strategies.
- Launched newer digital products and services, responsible for the growth of services and products, including customer experience transformation, AI- and ML-driven automation, and analytics.
- Led quality assurance and testing business, next-generation agile digital assurance. Introduced newer offerings with agile, CI/CT and DevOps, AI and bots-driven automation, usability, user experience, and multichannel testing.
- Modernized testing skills with SDETS and partnership for cloud-based infrastructure and labs, including synthetic data management.
- Guided complete corporate redesign, branding, and marketing.
- Led the business unit, developed the business strategy, grew existing customer accounts, and drove about 100 million new customer acquisitions. Managed CXO relationships and drove growth strategies, operational strategies, and people strategies.
- Oversaw complete rebranding of corporate websites, content, messaging, flow, site structure, interactive chats, and case studies. Crafted new pitch decks, microsites, and campaign landing pages, including pitch, message, content, and user flows.
- Developed a new business unit strategy for solutions and product marketing, including account-based marketing, direct marketing, campaigns, channels, partners, and vendors.
Vice President Digital and Quality Engineering
2014 - 2015
NIIT Technologies, Inc.
- Led the digital practice and conceptualized and created the full stack of next-generation digital services portfolio, including mobility, analytics, UI/UX, and CX.
- Developed differentiating value propositions, go-to-market strategies, and partner ecosystems.
- Served as a trusted advisor and empowered Fortune 1000 customers to transform their business and gain market share through productized digital solutions, including analytics, mobility, user experience. and social media solutions.
- Enabled next-generation quality engineering and testing expertise for the digital age.
- Accelerated business agility, ensured seamless business orchestrations, and reduced operations cost by harnessing lean QA CoEs, testing as-a-service models, and innovative automation accelerators.
- Grew the digital practice portfolio to $25 million in annual growth from the ground up.
- Led the quality engineering business unit for the Americas and delivered $40 million in annual growth.
- Headed marketing strategy and partnerships, including account-based marketing. Collaborated with corporate marketing, partners, technical, inside sales, channels, and field sales teams.
- Drove marketing plans, campaigns, and outreach for inbound and outbound.
- Oversaw strategic account management and managed stakeholder relationships, account growth strategies, and customer success.
Senior Director Strategic Services and Solutions
2003 - 2014
Atos-Syntel, Inc.
- Led a global technology consulting and solutions portfolio of $250 million.
- Spearheaded the quality and testing services business unit to 6X growth achieving $100 million in revenue.
- Established the global technology presales, consulting, and advisory organization to harness innovation and emerging technologies across analytics, infrastructure, ERP, QA, and so on.
- Developed new offerings, solutions, and services; led go-to-market and analyst and alliance interactions.
- Architected the transformation and optimization programs for Fortune 500 customers.
- Set up the global QA and testing service line from the ground up, including conceptualized offerings, services, and competencies.
- Handled go-to-market strategy, alliances, partnerships, positioning, value propositions, and messaging for solutions and products. Coordinated with different marketing, solutions, and technical teams to drive adoption and customer acquisition.
- Established QA COEs and provided consulting and solutions to Fortune 500 customers across the globe.
Regional Head Quality Assurance
2002 - 2003
Agilysis
- Served as the head of the quality engineering group and achieved maximum revenue across global operations.
- Set up the test lab, methodologies, and matrices; and implemented global practices for certifying products and solutions.
- Represented the leadership council and the governance board.
- Led the global CMM/ISO certification. Oversaw assessments, audits, and reports.
Product Lead
2000 - 2001
Tech M
- Led the new product division and the full product lifecycle, including innovation, go-to-market, implementation, and software quality-control function.
- Developed branding and cross-channel strategy and campaigns for the portfolio of products.
- Managed product quality and set up product performance and usability test labs.
- Implemented a balanced scorecard and reengineered the organization-wide quality processes.
- Led the CMM 5 certification and conducted assessments and audits.
Product Implementation Consultant
1998 - 2000
Digite, Inc.
- Led the implementation, business analysis, quality assurance, and testing of the product suite.
- Simulated usage scenarios and analyzed user data and insights.
- Led end-to-end testing, conducted performance benchmarking, and performed audits.
- Managed customers' solutions design and implementation.
Project Leader
1993 - 1998
Toyo Engineering India, Ltd.
- Served as a project engineer and managed the project monitoring and control activities of mega-multinational projects.
- Developed computer-based interactive tracking and monitoring system using Primavera.
- Project management, project planning, monitoring, control, budgets, forecasting, and reporting.
Project History
Executive Leadership | Growth, Product Management, and Marketing
Implemented product growth strategies, marketing tactics, revenue, go-to-market strategy, marketing plans, product positioning, storyboarding, marketing campaigns, lead generation, branding, repositioning, pitches, sales and marketing, and presales.
I performed product management and handled the marketing lifecycle, including research, ideation, hypothesis testing, design, engineering, branding, positioning, go-to-market, product features and catalogs, customer stories, explainer videos, microsites, and websites.
Global Product Management Leadership
Stood up for the global product management and marketing organization, innovating 25+ new products and services lines and consolidating over 40+ products across multiple industries and domains.
I acted as the global head of product management and developed marketing and digital marketing strategies, partnerships, and go-to-market roadmaps for a portfolio of 25+ products. I also handled product positioning, branding, messaging, channel strategy, account-based marketing, sales, and pre-sales.
Business Leadership
Incubated a new business line from the ground up and grew it to $100 million in revenue.
I spearheaded the business strategy, new market entrance, branding, positioning, and go-to-market. I also worked on solutions and strategic marketing, partnerships, and digital marketing, defining growth strategies and marketing across multiple industries, domains, and geographies covering North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific.
Exceptional Pitch Decks | Product, Business, Investor Strategy, Fundraising and Pitch Training
Helped early-stage startups ($250,000 to $11 million), mid-stage ($4 million to $40 million), and $100+ million companies in funding for scale-ups and enterprises with my successful track record in investor strategy, pitch decks, and fundraising.
I am an experienced pitch deck, presentation, and storytelling expert. l am also a reputed startup mentor, pitch judge, investment qualifier, product, marketing, and business strategist. I help enterprises and founders at all stages, from idea, pre-seed, and seed to series A-C, with product, business, marketing, and fundraising strategies.
I am an expert at crafting compelling pitch decks, investment pitch memos, fundraising briefs and pitch decks, customer decks, marketing decks, one-pager briefs, elevator pitches, pitch training, presentation training, mocks, demo-day strategy, and much more.
I specialize in bringing design and aesthetics, business acumen, product expertise, financial modeling, and go-to-market strategy to craft unique and compelling pitch decks that provide successful outcomes. I offer complete end-to-end service from research and positioning to market fit, revenue and financial modeling, product strategy and roadmaps, investment asks, and roadmaps.
Starting a new venture is tough, and raising capital is even more challenging. By working together, we can create a winning pitch deck.
I am an expert at crafting compelling pitch decks, investment pitch memos, fundraising briefs and pitch decks, customer decks, marketing decks, one-pager briefs, elevator pitches, pitch training, presentation training, mocks, demo-day strategy, and much more.
I specialize in bringing design and aesthetics, business acumen, product expertise, financial modeling, and go-to-market strategy to craft unique and compelling pitch decks that provide successful outcomes. I offer complete end-to-end service from research and positioning to market fit, revenue and financial modeling, product strategy and roadmaps, investment asks, and roadmaps.
Starting a new venture is tough, and raising capital is even more challenging. By working together, we can create a winning pitch deck.
Education
1991 - 1993
Postgraduation in Management and Computer-based Project Management (Master's Degree Equivalent)
NICMAR - Pune, India
1987 - 1991
Bachelor's Degree in Engineering
University of Mumbai - Mumbai, India
Certifications
MARCH 2021 - PRESENT
Continuous Product Design
Quantum Metric
JANUARY 2021 - PRESENT
Human-centered Design
IDEOU and Allianz Academy
JANUARY 2021 - PRESENT
Lean Startup for Social Good
IDEOU and Allianz Academy
NOVEMBER 2020 - PRESENT
AI Applications, NLP, Chatbots, Machine Vision
IBM
OCTOBER 2019 - PRESENT
Getting Started with AI and Watson
IBM
SEPTEMBER 2019 - PRESENT
Digital Catalyst
State Street Corporation
FEBRUARY 2019 - PRESENT
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
UIPath
JULY 2015 - PRESENT
Product Management and Marketing Strategy
SPICE
MAY 2014 - PRESENT
Uplifting Service Leader
Ron Kaufman
JANUARY 2014 - PRESENT
TOGAF Foundation
TOGAF
JANUARY 2013 - PRESENT
Associate of BI
BI
JANUARY 2005 - PRESENT
ASTQB
QAI
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