
Andrew J Richardson
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Dortmund, Germany
Toptal member since July 8, 2026
At Planet, Andrew led product for a SaaS platform portfolio serving 12,000 properties across 110+ countries and managed a 17-22 person product organization. He is a senior product manager with over 15 years of experience in B2B SaaS, platform strategy, and regulated products. Andrew shipped a net-new long-stay module from concept to production, securing one of the company's largest-ever customers.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Backlog Management
- Jira
- Product Discovery
- Product Leadership
- Product Strategy
- Stakeholder Management
Work Experience
Founder and Principal Consultant
Phare IQ
- Founded Phare IQ to build AI-powered products and agentic workflows. Owned product discovery, requirements, backlog definition, and AI solution delivery, turning business problems into production-ready solutions.
- Designed and shipped Review Agent to beta, an AI agent that generates context-aware responses to guest reviews, defining the product scope, roadmap, and positioning end-to-end.
- Engineered a local-LLM retrieval engine combining vector and graph databases to ground agent outputs in hospitality-specific knowledge, applying hands-on prompt engineering and RAG rather than off-the-shelf tooling.
- Established an EU AI Act compliance consulting practice for hotels, and pursued the IAPP AIGP certification as its credential foundation.
- Led all product, technical, and commercial decisions as sole founder, from architecture and vendor selection through go-to-market strategy.
Senior Product Consultant
Apaleo
- Ran product discovery and requirements across five concurrent product areas (tax engine, VAT/GST, deposit handling, PEPPOL/e-invoicing, data retention) on a cloud-native, API-first PMS.
- Defined future-state platform and tax architecture and a configurable, multi-jurisdiction product framework analysed across 100+ jurisdictions.
- Built a reusable, AI-accelerated discovery and compliance-research method adopted by the product team as standard.
- Led product roadmap planning for Apaleo's tax engine, prioritising fiscal and compliance features across a cloud-native, API-first PMS platform.
- Delivered the fiscal e-invoicing requirements for the Danish market, translating regulatory obligations into actionable product specifications.
- Coordinated the delivery team across the compliance workstream, aligning engineering and stakeholders on scope and sequencing.
- Built and deployed a live compliance-monitoring automation in Make, ingesting regulatory updates emailed by PwC, analyzing them for criticality via OpenAI, and posting critical items to Slack.
- Engineered a local-LLM retrieval engine combining vector and graph databases to accelerate regulatory analysis, run on demand.
General Manager
Tyngo
- Reorganized the business around product-domain ownership, improving alignment across product, engineering, and customer teams.
- Designed and shipped the TYNGO AI Hotel Information assistant, a production AI product integrated into the live SaaS platform.
- Created the first full view of product development cost and commercial viability. Built the analysis that led to retiring a multi-year, unviable product line.
- Directed general management of the business, holding accountability for operations, financial performance, and strategic direction.
- Conducted a financial analysis that surfaced a loss-making program carrying approximately €500,000 in exposure, informing the decision to discontinue it.
- Applied 30 years of hospitality and hospitality-technology experience to assess commercial viability and operational priorities across the business.
Director of Product Management
Planet
- Owned product strategy and roadmap for a full SaaS platform portfolio (cloud and on-premise PMS, APIs, integrations, mobile, booking engines, distribution) serving approximately 12,000 properties. Reported to the CEO with a multi-million-euro budget.
- Led a 17-22 person product organization. Introduced structured discovery, backlog refinement, prioritization, delivery forecasting, and product governance into an organization that previously had none.
- Ran product for the KassenSichV compliance program across approximately 6,000 customers. Shipped ahead of every regulatory deadline.
- Built product budget-planning and investment processes post-acquisition, giving the executive team product-investment visibility it had never had.
- Drove product strategy across a hybrid cloud and on-premise portfolio, balancing legacy PMS customers against migration to cloud-native products.
- Coordinated localization and regulatory compliance across a platform reaching 110+ countries.
- Prioritized the roadmap around revenue- and client-impact features by making development budgets and investment trade-offs visible to the executive team for the first time.
- Represented product at the CEO and executive level, translating technical and delivery topics into commercial decisions.
- Conducted product and technical due diligence on potential acquisition targets, assessing product fit, technical debt, and integration risk to inform executive investment decisions.
Senior Protel IO Integration Team Lead
Integrations Secondment - Protel Hotel Software GmbH
- Led a globally distributed integration team across Singapore, Germany, and Australia, coordinating the successful delivery, testing, and deployment of more than 55 concurrent enterprise integration projects for hospitality clients worldwide.
- Designed and documented functional specifications that mapped Protel IO PMS capabilities to HTNG and OTA industry standards, enabling scalable communication between the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) and third-party hospitality platforms.
- Partnered with engineering teams and integration vendors to define API behaviour, authentication methods, data mappings, and interface specifications, ensuring reliable interoperability across multiple enterprise software solutions.
- Delivered enterprise integrations with leading hospitality technology providers, including Cendyn, TravelClick, Sabre, Revinate, and Windsurfer, supporting major hotel groups and complex multi-property deployments.
- Led the rollout of the Cendyn-Protel IO integration across more than 60 TFE Hotels, coordinating technical teams and stakeholders across Singapore, Germany, Australia, and the United States.
- Served as the primary technical liaison between product management, engineering, implementation teams, integration partners, and enterprise customers, translating business requirements into scalable technical solutions.
- Recognised for technical leadership and deep product expertise through an invitation to relocate to Germany and join Protel’s Product organisation, following the success of the enterprise integration programme.
- Defined the canonical mapping between Protel IO PMS functionality and HTNG/OTA messaging standards, producing the technical specifications used by engineering teams to build scalable enterprise integrations.
Product Director, PMS
Xn protel Systems (Asia)
- Led discovery on a 1,700+ requirement enterprise RFI, identified a critical gap, and designed and shipped a net-new long-stay module, securing the Ascott account and opening the serviced-apartment segment across 17 countries.
- Owned the product for an enterprise CRM integration unifying 6+ million guest profiles across 24 countries.
- Rescued a failed £250,000 booking-engine product via Scrum and weekly customer demos. It was shipped live and grew to approximately $5 million lifetime revenue with a second enterprise adopter.
- Established a Systems Integration division (standardized scoping, pricing, delivery) and commercialized bespoke work into reusable product kits, later sold for approximately £275,000.
- Directed product strategy for a PMS platform deployed across 110+ countries.
- Protected approximately £2 million in annual maintenance contract (AMC) revenue in the UK, whilst based in Singapore.
- Ran a custom development team generating approximately SGD 400,000 in annual revenue.
- As group client services director, led a support turnaround that raised CSAT from 80% to 94% in six weeks and cut out-of-hours escalations by 85%, improving service quality across a global client base.
Director, UK Technical Services and Support
Xn Hotelsystems
- Built and led multi-product implementation and support teams serving over 200 hospitality customers across Europe. Acted as an executive escalation lead for strategic accounts including Rocco Forte Hotels and Virgin Limited Edition.
- Established a 15-minute call response time across UK and European support operations.
- Led a six-person UK/Europe support team, coordinating with a Vietnam-based development team and protel's German support team.
- Implemented Salesforce CRM across the UK client base with a supporting knowledge base, centralizing support and account management.
Project History
Web Booking Engine Recovery
- $5 Million — Lifetime Revenue Generated
- +5% — Direct Booking Conversion Rate
- 4-year — Client Deal Secured
I inherited a stalled program with no working web booking engine in place and a contractual commitment to QHotels at risk, carrying exposure to financial penalties and reputational damage. QHotels, a strategic development partner with 26 four-star hotels and 3,650+ rooms, needed a next-generation, fully configurable engine to grow direct bookings and cut acquisition costs, on a firm timeline.
I took over with no working product and rebuilt the web booking engine from the ground up within xmsEnterprise CRS. As product owner and program lead in a strategic development partnership with QHotels, I owned scope, backlog and priorities, ran a Scrum-based delivery cadence, and shaped features around guest recognition, bespoke booking journeys and full configurability. I coordinated development and integration across GDS, channel management, and direct web, ran UAT and release management, and delivered the engine to live general release in March 2017, underpinning a four-year deal.
I turned a stalled program with penalty and reputational exposure into a documented success: delivered the web booking engine to live, lifted QHotels’ conversion to over 5% and secured a four-year deal, generating $5 million lifetime revenue.
KassenSichV Compliance Delivery, Germany
- 6,000 — Properties Protected
- 100% — Customer Base Onboarded
German fiscal law (KassenSichV/TSE) required every point-of-sale and PMS to have a certified technical security system for tax compliance by a hard deadline. Non-compliance exposed hotels to fines and legal risk. protel/Planet had around 6,000 German properties all needing a compliant solution specified, built and rolled out in time, with no room to slip.
I led product and program governance for the KassenSichV compliance program. I translated the fiscal and TSE regulatory requirements into clear product specifications, then coordinated engineering, certification partners and rollout teams to deliver them. I put governance in place to track progress across the full customer base, managed testing and certification, and ran a structured, phased onboarding of properties with clear customer communication. I steered priorities and risk against the fixed regulatory deadline, keeping the program on track to get every property compliant in time.
I delivered KassenSichV fiscal compliance to around 6,000 German properties, on-time to a hard regulatory deadline with 100% of the customer base onboarded, protecting hotels from fines and keeping the platform legally compliant.
Long Stay Management Platform
- 1,700+ — RFI Requirements Rationalized
- 300-400 — Functional Requirements Defined
- 140+ — Properties in 17 Countries Implemented in 12 Months
- **$2 Million ** — Project Secured and Supported Over 10 Years
- 20,000+ — Apartment Units
Ascott, a leading global serviced-apartment operator, ran long-stay properties on a PMS built for short-stay hotels. Extended bookings, recurring billing, and corporate tenancy contracts had no native support, forcing manual workarounds that didn’t scale. The RFI ran to 1,700+ requirements with no market product that fit, putting a core business line and a major account at risk.
I ran structured discovery with Ascott’s operations, finance and corporate teams, working through a 1,700+ line RFI and rationalizing it into 300-400 clear, testable functional requirements. I then designed the solution architecture for long-stay management, covering unit-level tenancy, recurring and pro-rata billing, corporate and relocation contracts, and extended-stay reporting. I guided the build with the development team, ran UAT and beta validation with pilot properties, and managed a phased rollout across APAC, China, and Europe, taking it from concept to live enterprise deployment.
I gave Ascott native long-stay management across APAC, China, and Europe, closing a critical product gap and helping secure one of its largest enterprise wins at the time.
Global CRM Integration
- 6+ Million — Guest Profiles Unified
- 24 — Countries On One Platform
- 140 — Hotels Syncronized to one CRM
Ascott’s guest data was fragmented across dozens of properties, systems, and countries, with no single view of the guest. Duplicate and siloed records made personalized marketing, recognition, and loyalty impossible to run at scale, and left the group unable to leverage one of its most valuable assets: 6+ million guest profiles spread across 24 markets.
I led a SGD $1 million program to consolidate Ascott’s guest data onto a single global CRM. I designed the data architecture and integration approach, mapping source systems and PMS feeds across 24 countries, then defining matching, de-duplication and data-quality rules to merge 6+ million profiles into one trusted model. I coordinated development and 3rd-party vendors, ran data-migration testing and UAT, and managed a phased rollout market by market, taking it from fragmented silos to a live, unified CRM platform supporting marketing and loyalty.
I unified 6+ million guest profiles across 24 countries onto a single global CRM, giving Ascott one trusted view of the guest and enabling personalized marketing, recognition, and loyalty at scale.
Custom Software and Systems Integration Team
- **5-person ** — Integration Team Built
- 8-years — Zero To Profitable Practice
Xn Protel Asia had growing demand for bespoke system integrations, connecting PMS to CRS, CRM, payment and 3rd-party interfaces, but no dedicated capability to deliver them. Work was handled ad hoc, with no methodology, no costing model, and no delivery team. This capped how much integration work the business could take on and left recurring services revenue on the table.
I founded and built the Systems Integration division from scratch. I created the delivery methodology and a structured, process-driven quotation model that priced each project against calculated cost of delivery, then recruited and led a five-person team based in Vietnam. I ran the practice end to end, scoping and architecting bespoke integrations for clients such as The Ascott Limited, managing build, testing and deployment, and owning delivery and P&L. Over eight years I grew it from zero into a profitable practice generating around SGD 300,000-400,000 a year in recurring services revenue.
Built a systems-integration practice from zero to around SGD 300,000-400,000 a year in recurring revenue over eight years, with a dedicated delivery team and repeatable methodology. The division’s assets were later acquired by Planet.
Global Corporate Rate Management Tool
- SGD 80,000-100,000 — Program Delivered
- SGD 50,000 — Reccuring Revenue Secured
Ascott managed corporate and negotiated rates manually across a large global portfolio. Updating rates property by property was slow, error-prone and didn’t scale, making it hard to roll out corporate rate agreements consistently or react quickly to commercial change. The group needed a way to apply bulk rate updates centrally, across many properties at once.
As product owner and solution designer, I designed and delivered a web-based tool for bulk corporate rate management. I gathered requirements from revenue and commercial teams, designed the workflow and interface for applying rate updates across many properties at once, and defined the logic for corporate and negotiated rate structures. I managed the build, ran UAT and deployment, and rolled the tool out across Ascott’s global portfolio. I deliberately designed it to be generic and configurable rather than Ascott-specific, which later allowed a second operator, TFE Hotels, to adopt it.
I delivered a web-based bulk rate management tool (SGD 80,000-100,000 program) that let Ascott apply corporate rate updates across its global portfolio centrally. Its configurable design proved reusable and was subsequently adopted by TFE Hotels.
Global Distribution Migration
- 130-150 — Properties Migrated
- 20+ — Countries Unified
Ascott needed to migrate the global distribution stack for 130-150 live properties across 20+ countries onto a new architecture. Because these were operating hotels taking live reservations, any error in the cutover risked lost bookings, rate and availability mismatches, and revenue impact. The migration spanned a complex chain of PMS, middleware, CRS and OTA channels that all had to stay in sync
As product manager and integration lead, I orchestrated the migration across the full distribution chain: PMS to MuleSoft middleware to SynXis CRS to OTA channels. I defined the integration architecture and mapping, coordinated internal teams and 3rd-party vendors, and sequenced property cut-overs to protect live reservations. I ran connectivity and end-to-end testing for rate, availability and booking flow, then managed a controlled, country-by-country rollout across 20+ markets, keeping each property live throughout the transition.
I migrated 130-150 live properties across 20+ countries onto a unified distribution stack (PMS to MuleSoft to SynXis to OTA) with no disruption to live reservations, giving Ascott a consistent, scalable distribution architecture.
Education
Bachelor's Degree (Honors) in Hospitality and Tourism Management
Anglia Polytechnic University - United Kingdom
Certifications
Introduction to Agentic AI Governance
LinkedIn Learning
Responsible AI: Principles and Practical Applications
LinkedIn Learning
AI Agility
Scrum Alliance
Model Context Protocol (MCP): Hands-on with Agentic AI
LinkedIn Learning
Create a Go-to-market Plan
LinkedIn Learning
Creating a Product-centric Organization
LinkedIn Learning
Product Management: Building a Product Strategy
LinkedIn Learning
Agile Project Management Foundations
LinkedIn Learning
The Data Scientist's Toolbox
Coursera (Johns Hopkins University)
Demand Management: Breaking Down Today's Commercial Silos
ESSEC Business School (Coursera)
Innovation for Entrepreneurs: From Idea to Marketplace
University of Maryland (Coursera)
The Fundamentals of Revenue Management
ESSEC Business School (Coursera)
The Fundamentals of Hotel Distribution
ESSEC Business School (Coursera)
Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
Scrum Alliance
Skills
Tools
Jira, Confluence, Claude, R, Git
Paradigms
Requirements Analysis, Agile Product Management, Scrum, Agile
Industry Expertise
Hospitality
Other
Roadmapping, Backlog Management, Stakeholder Management, Web Platforms, API Products, Regulated Industries, Cross-functional Collaboration, Business Requirements, Hospitality Technology, Property Management Systems, Data Mapping, Software Integration, Agile Product Delivery, Agentic AI, Agentic AI Systems, Automation, Product Design, Integration, User Experience (UX), Technical Product Management, REST APIs, XML, Enterprise Software, API Design, Integration Testing, Quality Assurance (QA), HTNG, OTA Standards, Enterprise Architecture, API Management, Technical Leadership, Enterprise Applications, System Design, AI Product Management, Digital Product Management, Documentation, API Documentation, Product Strategy, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Workflow Automation, Product Discovery, APIs, .NET, Business Management, Operations Management, Hospitality Management, Customer Service, Marketing Fundamentals, Financial Literacy, Management Accounting, Revenue Management, Strategic Planning, Communication, Product Management, AI Agents, Applied AI, Prompt Engineering, Retrieval-augmented Generation (RAG), No-Code / Low-Code Automation (Make, workflow automation), Go-to-market Strategy, Roadmaps, Platform / API Product Management (Apaleo is API-first), Regulatory Compliance (e-invoicing, VAT, PEPPOL, fiscal/tax), Requirements, Workflow Automation (Make), General Management, Financial Analysis, P&L Management, Business Analysis, No-Code AI / AI Product Development, Cost Optimisation, Product Leadership, Product Portfolio Manager, Cross-functional Team Leadership, People Management, Team Building, Budgeting, CAPEX Budgeting & Inventory Management, Budget Management, Financial Forecasting, Cost Analysis, Cost-benefit Analysis, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Operating Expenses (OPEX), Time Management, Project Review, Customer Success, Client Services Leadership, Global Team Leadership, Software Development Team Management, Account Management (Enterprise / Key Accounts), System Integration, Delivery Management, Technical Support Management, Service Delivery Management (SDM), Software Implementation, Deployment, Escalation Management, SLA Management, Team Leadership, Account Management, Key Account Management, Customer Service Support, Requirements Engineering (RFI analysis, requirements rationalisation), Solution Design / Solution Architecture, Enterprise SaaS, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Beta Testing, Quality Assurance / Software Testing, Release Management, Deployment / Implementation / Rollout, Product Launch, Technical Documentation, Training & Change Management, Solution Architecture, Data Integration, CRM, Data Architecture, Enterprise Integration, Data Migration, Programme / Vendor Management, Practice / Division Building, Professional Services Delivery, Vendor / Partner Management, Business Development, Regulatory Compliance, Programme Governance, Programme / Delivery Management, Risk Management, Software Release Management, Product Ownership, Programme Recovery / Turnaround, Agile Delivery, Requirements Management, Global Distribution Systems (GDS), Go-to-Market / Launch, Rate / Revenue Management, Web Application Delivery, Solution Design, Product Adoption / Reuse, Architecture, Distribution Systems (CRS / GDS / OTA), MuleSoft / Middleware, API Integration, Migration Management, Stakeholder / Vendor Management, Model Context Protocol (MCP), LLM Integration, Tool Use / Function Calling, AI in Agile, Agentic AI,, AI Adoption, Product Marketing, Launch Planning, Product Positioning, Project Management, Sprint Planning, Pricing, Demand Forecasting, Commercial Strategy, GDS, Distribution Management, Channel Management, Hospitality Commercial, Demand Management, Cross-functional Alignment, Product Innovation, Go-to-market Plans, Go-to-market Optimization, Go-to-market (GTM) Strategies, Commercialisation, Idea-to-Market, Entrepreneurship, Responsible AI, AI Ethics, AI Risk Management, Data Analysis, Data Science Foundations, Analytical Thinking, Infrastructure, Marketing, SaaS, Software Architecture, Large Language Models (LLMs)
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