Andreas Bartels, Product Manager in London, United Kingdom
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Andreas Bartels

Verified Expert  in Product Management

Product Manager

Location
London, United Kingdom
Toptal Member Since
March 8, 2022

Andreas is an accomplished product leader with 20+ years of experience delivering high-profile products, services, and business transformation. He's an expert in startup, scale-up, and established business environments, developing products and product strategies from concept to launch employing Agile methodologies. Andreas is a proven people leader with strong stakeholder management skills, from cross-functional teams to external investors, agencies, or suppliers.

Web DevelopmentProduct ManagementSaaSWebDigitalProduct OwnerProject ManagementeCommerce PlatformsProduct CoachB2B Product ManagementWebsitesData ReportingMobileWebsite RedesignLeanStakeholder ManagementProduct Sourcing

Project Highlights

Financial Times's Paid Content and Subscription Service | ft.com
Defined and successfully launched ft.com's content subscription model (paywall).
Apple iPhone UK Wi-Fi Service and Mobile App
Successfully delivered end-to-end user and device registration service enabling millions of O2 customers to access free wi-fi across the UK.
Free Public Wi-Fi
Rolled out the most extensive free Wi-Fi network in the UK, starting with 1,200 McDonald's.

Expertise

Agile Product DeliveryCross-functional Team LeadershipGo-to-market StrategyProduct DevelopmentProduct ManagementProduct MarketingProduct StrategySaaS

Work Experience

Technical Product Lead

2023 - PRESENT
Inspired Education Group
  • Created the learning management roadmap, feature discovery, and school migration process. Inspired Group runs 100 independent schools globally, serving 80,000 students and supporting over 10,000 teachers.
  • Performed the regional requirements gathering, localization, integration, and roll out of a new simplified payment platform for parents, providing unification of multiple payment systems and cost savings.
  • Brought in to create a new product department, managing a team of two product managers, two business analysts, and UI/UX designers. Instilled product-led approach to managing portfolio and Agile.

Product Lead

2022 - 2023
Comniscient Technologies LLC dba Comlinkdata
  • Defined and improved product team organizational structure, including updating role definitions, defining new job specifications for new hires, and providing ongoing coaching in Agile and product best practices.
  • Worked with senior stakeholders on rationalizing the company's big data and analytics product set and developed revised product roadmaps.
  • Delivered new UI/UX data-driven dashboards and analytics products and revised mobile app designs to align with the new corporate strategy ahead of the major launch in early 2023.

Product Director

2020 - 2021
XLN
  • Owned the product roadmap, go-to-market, feature backlog, and supplier management through a team of product managers working across the business, supporting over 100,000 small business customers.
  • Overhauled the company's product strategy. The rationalization of the portfolio saved more than £1 million annually while the resolution of feature gaps led to a 4x sales increase in one product alone.
  • Delivered XLN's environmental program. Under carbon neutral certification, the company is committed to protecting 100,000 acres of rainforest by 2025, and reducing single-use plastics within the supply chain, either directly or with suppliers.
  • Directed XLN's COVID-19 response for staff and customers to protect the business and minimize churn; In addition, worked with the CEO and CFO on the successful completion of £125 million in debt refinancing.

Head of Digital Marketing

2016 - 2020
XLN
  • Directed the digital and physical growth and product marketing strategy with an annual budget of more than £2 million.
  • Led a multi-disciplinary marketing team of over 20 specialists, including designers, user experience (UX) professionals, web developers, digital marketers, campaign managers, copywriters, and data specialists while overseeing agency relationships.
  • Revitalized the monthly marketing campaign framework from ideation to execution across digital and physical channels–search, social, email, text, direct, product collaterals, sales collaterals, awards, and user journeys.
  • Initiated optimization processes that resulted in a 20% reduction in the cost per action (CPA) through data segmentation and analysis, sales funnel optimization, A/B testing, user needs, customer research, NPS, roadmap, and backlog prioritization.
  • Guided and launched the company's GDPR compliance program within six months, including the development of new processes, technical safeguards, and the establishment of the data protection function.

Director of Product Management

2011 - 2016
Sky UK
  • Steered the successful integration of the business into BSkyB, activated Sky's 3 million broadband customers for the service, and managed the rapid expansion of the cloud's network and platform capability within Sky's business division.
  • Handled the accelerated scale-up of staff and the 5x increase of network locations to over 20,000.
  • Integrated Sky news and sports content and APIs for marketing automation and analytics for B2B customers.

Product Director

2008 - 2011
The Cloud
  • Coordinated the platform scale-up through successful business development partnerships with well-known brands, including O2, Vodafone, Nintendo, McDonald's, Burger King, Pret-a-Manger, Eat, Network Rail, and Mitchells and Butler.
  • Introduced Agile development methodologies to the software engineering teams to deliver software as a service (SaaS), reducing development cycles to two weeks and regression testing to hours from days.
  • Led product presentations to investors culminating in the successful sale of the business to BSkyB for £48 million, underpinning Sky's mobile ambitions and complementing existing broadband and content services.

Head of Product Development

2004 - 2008
The Cloud
  • Managed the product set up for a venture capital-backed startup, rolling out public Wi-Fi platform in five European markets.
  • Supervised the cross-functional team that launched the Apple iPhone Wi-Fi solution in the UK together with O2, and also a unique one-time registration process and mobile application to support millions of end customers.
  • Completed a successful €15 million funding round with the CEO and CFO, due diligence, and integration of new acquisitions into the business.

Director of Product Management

2002 - 2004
Financial Times
  • Progressed to head of ft.com's product function and joined the leadership team.
  • Led the definition and global delivery of the Financial Times's online subscription and content model, creating 75,000 paying digital subscribers.
  • Played a key role as responsible for the commercial P&L for the Financial Times’s online channels with revenues in excess of £25 million.
  • Achieved the online break-even as part of ft.com’s management team in Q4 of 2002.

Director of Product Development

2000 - 2002
Financial Times
  • Established the initial product strategy for a startup venture with CBS.Marketwatch.com, including go-to-market, technical and operational delivery, commercial development, and the service launch into two European markets.
  • Managed distributed engineering resources between the US and UK.
  • Integrated the news and content platform into ft.com.

Senior Manager eCommerce Strategy

1998 - 2000
Fidelity Investments
  • Coordinated the company's 1st online offerings–websites, online account management, and investment fund trading platforms–for brokers and individual investors across the European and other international markets.
  • Defined the European online strategy for the mutual fund business across multiple territories and distribution channels, including the 1st online fund launch.
  • Presented to audiences with more than 400 clients and professional investors at nationwide roadshows covering investments and online platforms.

Financial Times's Paid Content and Subscription Service | ft.com

http://www.ft.com

Defined and successfully launched ft.com's content subscription model (paywall).

Led the definition and global delivery of Finacial Time's online subscription and content model. Working across internal teams—marketing, editorial, engineering, and finance—and third-party suppliers generated 75,000 paying digital subscribers.

Apple iPhone UK Wi-Fi Service and Mobile App

Successfully delivered end-to-end user and device registration service enabling millions of O2 customers to access free wi-fi across the UK.

Supervised the cross-functional team that launched the Apple iPhone Wi-Fi solution in the UK together with O2, including a unique one-time registration process and mobile application to support millions of end customers.

Free Public Wi-Fi

Rolled out the most extensive free Wi-Fi network in the UK, starting with 1,200 McDonald's.

Coordinated the platform scale-up through successful business development partnerships with well-known brands, including O2, Vodafone, Nintendo, McDonald's, Burger King, Pret-a-Manger, Eat, Network Rail, and Mitchells and Butler.

XLN Product Restructuring

Reset the overall product strategy leading to cost-saving and revenue growth.

Overhauled the company's product strategy–product viability and rationalization of the portfolio saved more than £1 million annually. The resolution of feature gaps led to a 4x sales increase in one product alone.

Fidelity Investments Websites and Online Account Management Platforms

Rolled out the 1st online web and account management services outside the US.

Coordinated the company's 1st online offerings—websites, online account management, and investment fund trading platforms—for brokers and individual investors across European and other international markets.

XLN's Environment Programme

Designed and launched XLN's "Better for Business. Better for the Planet" initiative.

Delivered XLN's environmental program. Under carbon neutral certification, the company is committed to protecting 100,000 acres of rainforest by 2025, and reducing single-use plastics within the supply chain, either directly or with suppliers.

GDPR and Data Privacy

Ensured XLN conformed to the new GDPR and data privacy laws.

Guided and launched the company's GDPR and data privacy compliance program within six months, including the development of new processes, technical safeguards, and the establishment of the data protection function.

Launch of the Opensignal Network Experience Suite

Worked with the client to define and deliver a new product portfolio based on billions of rows of global crowd-sourced data from mobile app SDKs.

Opensignal converts crowd-sourced mobile network performance data into detailed analytics and network performance scores for operators, regulators, and analysts globally.

Through a recent acquisition, the company sought to create a unified product portfolio to leverage the strengths of two legacy business units and improve its competitive position. The project focused on three key areas: product team organizational alignment, product portfolio redesign, new product portfolio delivery/launch, and roadmap development.
2011 - 2013

Master of Science Degree in Finance and Investment

Bayes Business School - London, UK

SEPTEMBER 2023 - PRESENT

No Code AI and Machine Learning

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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