Ali Yousaf
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Toronto, ON, Canada
Toptal member since March 27, 2020
Ali is a product and operations executive with over a decade of experience scaling SaaS companies. He has a proven track record of leading cross-functional teams, building AI-enabled products, and driving revenue growth. Ali is experienced in fundraising, team building, go-to-market execution, and analytics implementation.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile Product Management
- Product Growth
- Product Launch
- Product Marketing
- Product Roadmaps
- Product Strategy
- SQL
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
Work Experience
Head of Product | COO
NotedSource
- Scaled revenue from $500,000 to $1.7 million by leading GTM, sales ops, and product growth.
- Spearheaded the launch of the company’s 1st AI product, conducting feasibility studies on NLP-driven workflows and collaborating with engineering and data teams to deliver research-backed insights.
- Led the company website redesign and built the MVP for the initial product.
- Defined product requirements, success criteria, and MVP scope for various AI-led experiments.
- Owned product vision, roadmap, and backlog using Jira and Confluence; led sprint planning, backlog grooming, and cross-functional prioritization across engineering, design, and data science.
- Conducted requirements gathering via customer advisory boards, SME interviews, and user testing sessions; translated insights into user stories and acceptance criteria.
- Led full lifecycle of integrations, defining API requirements, managing change across internal systems, and coordinating launch with engineering and enterprise customers.
- Led the build of an AI chat interface using large language models (LLMs) and sold to enterprise solutions such as Nike and Microsoft.
- Collaborated with ML engineers and researchers to refine model outputs, improve entity recognition accuracy, and deliver measurable business insights.
- Oversaw product strategy, AI delivery, and go-to-market execution for an AI-powered research platform used by enterprise clients.
Business Analyst and Solution Owner
Pfizer - PGS Operations Insights
- Revamped digital batch tracking platform and increased utilization of the product by pitching to global Pfizer sites.
- Led tracking of product development from conception through iteration and development to release.
- Wrote user stories, reviewed design mockups in Figma, and built out the product roadmap.
Head of Product and Partnerships
HigherMe
- Helped grow the company from 750,000 ARR to 4.5 million ARR and a successful acquisition.
- Created financial models to determine which partnerships would generate the highest long-term returns and negotiated revenue share terms with top partner candidates.
- Increased the engineering team's efficiency by 30% using improved project management methodologies and roadmap planning tools.
- Developed a standardized pricing structure and workflow for API integrations.
- Presented the company's product roadmap quarterly to all employees and shareholders.
- Strengthened sales enablement in the company by doing regular product and feature demos.
- Helped build the engineering team by projecting required resources for the year.
- Created new products and features leveraging customer feedback and data analytics, plus testing out MVPs.
- Built out the company's analytics dashboards on Metabase using SQL and Amplitude, similar to MixPanel, to make product decisions and provide customers with meaningful data, highlighting the value we provided through our platform.
- Leveraged Salesforce CPQ to configure the program and pricing and apply pricing and quantity discounts.
Product Manager
ADP
- Defined top products and features for development based on extensive market and competitive research.
- Improved client satisfaction and reduced product backlog by leveraging feedback-gathering techniques, such as workshops for councils and on-site visits with client executives and operational teams.
- Led efforts for improved change management cross-functionally by running organizational readiness meetings.
- Presented vision and implementation strategy for new employee self-service mobile platform to company executives.
Business Analyst and Product Manager
Saudi Aramco
- Launched a predictive analytics platform to forecast drilling costs and resource allocation by leading cross-functional teams (engineering, business planning, development, and data science), resulting in over $2 million in annual savings.
- Led efforts to evaluate potential investment opportunities for upstream and downstream oil and gas technologies.
- Developed financial models and collaborated with the M&A team to find potential investment opportunities.
- Defined the digital strategy and built the roadmap for the implementation of the new business planning platform, resulting in a streamlined business planning process.
- Increased application utilization by 40% by collaborating with stakeholders from cross-functional teams and challenging existing methodology (i.e., workshops, market research, etc.) to successfully meet engagement KPIs.
- Served as the lead business analyst for the business planning team in the reservoir management division of Saudi Aramco.
- Leveraged Oracle EBS Order Management to configure pricing information.
Senior Consultant, Services
Ceridian
- Worked with client executives to define, execute, and monitor implementation and change management strategy for the latest Ceridian cloud technology across various industries including retail, oil and gas, and financial services.
- Served as a project lead for more than 10 SaaS implementation projects in 2014 (largest client: Molson Canadian).
- Was a member of the internal executive committee responsible for optimizing end-to-end implementation practice (pre-sales to customer support), leading to increased efficiency (53%), higher profitability, and higher customer satisfaction.
- Developed a knowledge management program and training sessions for new hires on best consulting practices.
- Directly contributed to over $1 million in one-time revenue in 2013 and impacted over 15,000 employees in North America.
- Helped clients improve key performance indicators (KPIs) through the execution of change management.
- Facilitated the development of internal knowledge-sharing programs for clients before product launch.
- Implemented tailored reports and dashboards for clients using the Dayforce reporting module.
Project History
Paperless Onboarding Product
Led product design and development of a paperless onboarding product for restaurant chains across North America.
HigherMe’s onboarding product provides a faster and more streamlined onboarding experience for all new restaurant employees. With seamless integrations for background checks and e-verify, employers have an all-in-one solution at their fingertips!
Education
Master's Degree in Business Administration
Rotman School of Management (University of Toronto) - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Bachelor's Degree in Electrical Engineering
University of Waterloo - Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Skills
Tools
Asana, Figma, Google Analytics, JD Edwards, Slack, Zoom, Sketch, UX Tools, Jira, Trello, NetSuite, HubSpot
Paradigms
Key Performance Metrics, Agile Product Management, Agile Project Management, Rapid Prototyping, User Testing, Change Management, Requirements Analysis, B2B2C, Agile Software Development, Marketplace Platforms, Business to Business to Consumer (B2B2C), Continuous Delivery (CD), Azure DevOps, Agile, Scrum
Platforms
Monday.com
Industry Expertise
Health, Biotechnology
Other
Product Management, Startups, Roadmaps, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Feature Planning, HRIS, Data Analytics, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), User Metrics, Business Planning, Business Analysis, Software as a Service (SaaS), Sprint Planning, Product Launch, Product Strategy, Business Strategy, Product Roadmaps, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Data Analysis, Product Marketing, Business Processes, Process Mapping, Business Process Optimization, Strategic Planning, SaaS, B2B, Value Proposition, Market Fit, B2B Partnerships, SWOT Analysis, Competitor Analysis & Profiling, eCommerce, Product Discovery, User Experience (UX), Web Applications, Wireframing, User Stories, Agile Leadership, Strategy, UX Strategy, Lean Product Manager, Mentorship & Coaching, Early-stage Startups, Qualitative Research, Project Scoping, Business Plan Consulting, New Product Development, Revenue Strategy, Product Development Manager, Digital Product Development, Market Research & Analysis, Vendor Selection, Automation Tools, Conversion Rate, User Onboarding, Onboarding, Leads, Sales, Marketing, Conversion, Product Strategy Consultant, Platforms, Digital Marketing Strategy, Funnel Analysis, Audience Targeting, Planning, MVP Design, Feature Prioritization, Scope Management, Early-stage Funding, Investments, Go-to-market (GTM) Strategies, Project Timelines, Coaching, Cost Analysis, Use Case Analysis, Feature Analysis, Minimum Marketable Product (MMP), Pricing Strategy, Product Positioning, Market Entry, Go-to-market Optimization, Market Strategy and Research Product Manager, Investor Presentations, Pitch Decks, Valuation, Pitch Deck Consultant, Business to Business (B2B), Product Frameworks, Stakeholder Management, Customer Insights, Payroll & Benefits, Backlog Management, Product Leadership, Sales Enablement, Workflow, Product Vision, Operations, Product Owner, Data, Product Development, Organizational Change Management (OCM), Consulting, Unstructured Data Analysis, Mockups, Business Transformation Program Management, Integration, Project Planning, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Workflow Tools, Product Ownership, PI Planning, Data Cleansing, Program Management, Large Language Models (LLMs), Retrieval-augmented Generation (RAG), Execution, Process Analysis, Workflow Diagrams, Documentation, Claude Code, Technical Project Management, ADP, Payroll & Benefits, Agile Project Management, Business Transformation Project Management, Product Growth, Pricing, Product Design, Company Strategy, SQL, Business Process Analysis, Business Intelligence (BI), Business Transformation, Process Management, Management Consulting, Innovation, Business Process Improvement (BPI), Process Improvement, Process Optimization, Business Cases, Branding, User Personas, Use Cases, Technical Product Management, Amazon Web Services (AWS), User Interface (UI), Software Development, Product Coach, Cost Estimation, Community, React Native, Financial Forecasting, Project Budget Management, Positioning, Market Research, Pricing Models, Fundraising, Corporate Strategy, Feature Roadmaps, Scope, Mobile Apps, Online Payments, APIs, Finance, QA Testing, Product Operations, Operations Improvement, Salesforce, Financials, Fintech, Project Management, Amplitude, Analytics, IT Business Analysis, Continuous Integration (CI), Aha!, Direct to Consumer (D2C), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Ideation, Machine Learning, Product Delivery, Team Leadership, Big Data, Data Science, Clubhouse, Airtable, Retail & Wholesale, Mobile UX, Adobe Experience Design (XD), Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), SAP, Trading, Technical Requirements, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), Competitive Analysis, Functional Specifications, Artificial Intelligence Product Manager, Supply Chain, Manufacturing
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