Andrew O'Connor, Product Manager in London, United Kingdom
Andrew is available for hire
Hire Andrew

Andrew O'Connor

Verified Expert  in Product Management

Product Manager

London, United Kingdom

Toptal member since February 22, 2022

Expertise
Product ConsultantsFractional CPOsPrincipal Product Managers
Bio

Andrew is passionate about transforming companies with pragmatic solutions. He has an astute and committed senior product leader, accomplished in driving products and product portfolios with strong commercial and P&L ownership. This has included launching major new products, such as passenger flow solutions and airport self-service solutions. Andrew has a unique ability to handle complexity, both product-based and organizational.

Project Highlights

Airport Passenger Processing Platform
Led the tech and commercial refresh of a mature, legacy airport passenger processing platform, leading to customer footprint growth near 50% in under three years.
Strategic Product Acquisition
Initiated, drove, and integrated the strategic acquisition of a start-up (Type 22 BV)

Expertise

  • Innovation
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Teams
  • Microsoft Word
  • New Products
  • Product Management
  • Product Strategy

Work Experience

VP Product Strategy & Innovation

2019 - 2021
SITA
  • Identified and executed three key partnerships and acquisition deals in travel technology.
  • Streamlined SITA’s broad portfolios reducing around 150 products to 40 by leading deep-dive analyses, identifying potential vital actions, and presenting options to the board.
  • Executed significant change through 2020, building a new team of 50 people by evaluating organizational design principles, determining which roles would be needed, and determining whether those roles would fit the existing employee pool.

VP Product, Airline & Government

2017 - 2019
SITA
  • Concluded successful renegotiation of supplier contract reducing costs by 5% and removing obligations to purchase multiple services exclusively. This pertained to SITA’s network provision for airlines globally.
  • Transformed the border (government-related) business by increasing product reach by 50%. This was achieved by evaluating options and pitching extensions into new areas with executive management.
  • Grew the border (government-related) business by 10% per year during my tenure.

VP Product, Airports

2015 - 2017
SITA
  • Led and drove brand new cross-portfolio integrations of five portfolios, setting up a future new growth stream, achieved by identifying and setting up virtual teams working across different product portfolios.
  • Initiated and drove the strategic acquisition of a startup (Type 22 BV), which was then integrated and became SITA Ypenburg BV.
  • Surpassed annual objectives by more than 5% (revenue and margins), by rapid relationship building with SITA’s regional organizations, by balancing the needs of both new and recurring sales.

Project History

Airport Passenger Processing Platform

Led the tech and commercial refresh of a mature, legacy airport passenger processing platform, leading to customer footprint growth near 50% in under three years.

SITA's airport passenger processing platform consists of a hardware and software solution for all the passenger touchpoints in an airport: checking, boarding, all newer self-service components like self-check-in kiosk, self-bag drop positions, self-boarding gates, etc. I led the turnaround of a legacy platform, which included a tech refresh and a significant commercial "reboot" in terms of the offering to market, the pricing and pricing options, etc.

Strategic Product Acquisition

https://www.sita.aero/solutions/sita-at-airports/sita-passenger-processing/sita-smart-path/sita-smart-path-bag-drop/

Initiated, drove, and integrated the strategic acquisition of a start-up (Type 22 BV)

I initiated and drove the strategic acquisition of a start-up (Type 22 BV) that integrated and became SITA Ypenburg BV. We moved their robotic self-service bag-drop product into SITA's wider passenger processing portfolio.

Education

2020 - 2020

Certificate in Executive Leadership

IMD - Lausanne, Switzerland

2015 - 2016

Certificate in Product Strategy & Marketing

Kellogg School Of Management - Chicago

1995 - 1998

Master's Degree in Electronics and Information Engineering

University of Southampton - Southampton UK

Skills

Tools

Jira, Office 365, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Outlook, Skype, Zoom, Slack, Figma

Paradigms

Requirements Analysis

Industry Expertise

Product Ideation

Other

Microsoft PowerPoint, New Products, Product Management, Product Strategy, Innovation, P&L Management, Business, Product Roadmaps, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Project Timelines, Technology Trends, Product Vision, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Chief Product Officer (CPO), B2B Product Management, Enterprise SaaS, Requirements, Data Analytics, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), Team Management, Product Consultant, Consulting, User Journeys, User Feedback, Digital Product Management, MVP Design, Web Applications, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Technical Product Management, Large Language Models (LLMs), Data Aggregation, Microsoft Teams, Teams, Microsoft Excel, Software, Innovation Labs, Biometrics, General Management, Mobile Apps, Copywriting, Subscriptions, Social Networks, Landing Pages, Unified Communications, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Leadership

Collaboration That Works

How to Work with Toptal

Toptal matches you directly with global industry experts from our network in hours—not weeks or months.

1

Share your needs

Discuss your requirements and refine your scope in a call with a Toptal domain expert.
2

Choose your talent

Get a short list of expertly matched talent within 24 hours to review, interview, and choose from.
3

Start your risk-free talent trial

Work with your chosen talent on a trial basis for up to two weeks. Pay only if you decide to hire them.

Top talent is in high demand.

Start hiring