Bogdan Paun
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Bucharest, Romania
Toptal member since March 16, 2021
Bogdan is a technical product manager with diverse hands-on and strategic leadership expertise. With 11+ years of experience in the software industry, his roles progressed from support engineer, developer, and technology evangelist to the head of product and product strategy consultant. While most of Bogdan's experience is in B2B and enterprise applications and platforms, he also works with startups and established companies to define nimble product strategies and execute them efficiently.
Project Highlights
Expertise
Work Experience
Product Strategy, Design, and Development Consultant
Self-employed
- Worked with small and medium-sized companies to define and refine their product strategies in the fields of human resources, productivity and business applications, eCommerce, insurance, wellness, and mental health.
- Enrolled and coordinated design and development partners on different projects.
- Spoke at product, design, and innovation events and meetups.
- Created a trusted brand for my consulting practice.
- Implemented Headless Commerce at PepsiCo, enabling tailored filtering and logic for distinct customer segments across multiple storefronts, each with unique views, UXs, and products.
Product Manager
PepsiCo
- Built a new invoicing and fraud review feature, bringing in an estimated $5 million within 12 months.
- Undertook diverse projects in the most critical parts of the platform, delivered on time and within expectations.
- Enhanced the admin interface for both user convenience and more power.
- Finished a series of critical features that were abandoned due to internal problems and obstacles.
Product Manager, Infrastructure Team
Elucidat
- Delivered a new level of asset (images, videos, text) security layer, which brought in larger enterprise customers (multi-million dollar net new sales).
- Worked with engineering leadership and external consultants to enhance continuous delivery, automated testing, and release management practices.
- Managed the 3rd-party library and vendor solutions portfolio and upgraded to newer, more secure versions.
Principal Technical Product Manager
Axway
- Launched an e-invoicing and e-procurement product line from ideation to design of functional specs and oversight of MVP development in approximately three months.
- Improved customer satisfaction through better backlog prioritization and the introduction of a more efficient feature definition and development process.
- Doubled development velocity by actively addressing technical debt.
- Coordinated the planning, development, and testing of a new cloud-based product usage metrics system.
Director of Product
SpringCM
- Hired a team of two product managers, two UX designers, and one technical writer.
- Mentored three cross-functional product teams and integrated strategy into day-to-day research and development activities.
- Built a partner integration strategy that led to the company being acquired.
Head of Product
Ajusto
- Reached operational breakeven less than six months into starting the project from scratch through tight collaboration between product and marketing.
- Expanded the project with an overseas spin-off within nine months and performed dozens of user interviews.
- Interviewed, hired, and managed a team of four external engineers.
- Assisted with technical and product due diligence for an acquisition.
Product Manager
Oriel Ventures
- Built engaging and concise investor and sales pitch decks.
- Researched and developed a product pricing strategy, taking into consideration the competition and customer dynamics.
- Led the design of several landing pages and onboarding tutorials for new features.
Cloud Developer Evangelist
Oracle
- Quickly learned the core Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) and Oracle Cloud Platform offerings.
- Wrote articles and tutorials, showcasing the capabilities of Oracle products.
- Presented products and features at technology conferences and meetups.
Full-stack Software Engineer
Newsroom AI
- Built an SMS payments system within three months of starting the job.
- Improved the existing Braintree payments integration.
- Refactored and repurposed older software modules in Python, Django, and Angular.
Technical Support Engineer
Microsoft
- Rapidly integrated an experienced and highly technical team.
- Quickly grew competencies and responsibilities beyond initial expectations.
- Mentored new employees and worked on important customer accounts.
Escalation Group Engineer
Axway
- Assisted in resolving complex technical and situational problems as an escalation from previous levels of support.
- Collaborated with engineering to troubleshoot and debug delicate production issues.
- Mentored support teams on best practices and the technical intricacies of Axway software.
- Built a knowledge base with best practices and self-help information for Axway's customers and partners.
Project History
Online Course Authoring SaaS (via Toptal)
http://elucidat.com/Led a newly formed team of developers and testers that enhanced the security of the product across both primary personas: course creators and course consumers. Also worked with the platform/infrastructure team to refine their backlog and roadmap.
Remote Employee Engagement App Prototype (With Teams, Slack, and HipChat Integrations)
Performed research, brainstorming, MVP requirements definition, and feasibility analysis, and built a working prototype in less than one week.
Mobile Music Therapy App (Including Back-end Business Logic)
https://wavepaths.com/Researched, brainstormed, and defined the entire back-end logic and mobile application requirements, including development estimations and detailed UX designs, in less than 10 days.
Employee Engagement and Team Culture Social Network
https://cv30.co/Led a two-week product discovery and design project that ended with a prioritized feature backlog, including user experience suggestions and task estimations.
Fashion eCommerce Website
https://aerwear.com/Developed an eCommerce website from scratch in 3-4 months, using Ruby on Rails, vanilla JavaScript, jQuery, HTML, CSS, MySQL, and Git.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science
Polytechnic University of Bucharest - Bucharest, Romania
Coursework Toward Bachelor of Engineering Degree in Engineering
National Institute of Applied Sciences - Rouen, France
Skills
Tools
Slack, Zoom, Jira, Trello, Git, GitHub, GitLab, Logging, Redmine, Braintree SDK
Paradigms
Agile Software Development, Scrum, Agile, Agile Product Management, Requirements Analysis, Design Thinking, Marketplace Platforms, Web Architecture, Agile Project Management, Rapid Prototyping, Kanban, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), B2B2C, Business to Business to Consumer (B2B2C), Continuous Delivery (CD)
Platforms
Ubuntu Linux, Windows Server, Software Design Patterns, Ubuntu
Industry Expertise
Marketplaces, Chemistry
Other
Product Owner, Stakeholder Management, Product Roadmaps, Product Strategy, Technical Product Management, User Stories, Technical Requirements, B2B Product Management, Integration, Product Management, Product Ownership, Digital Product Management, Roadmaps, Functional Requirements, Business Analysis, Enterprise SaaS, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), APIs, User Experience (UX), Strategy, Partnership Strategies, Landing Pages, Landing Page Optimization, Backlog Grooming, Competitive Intelligence, Market Research & Analysis, UX Research, Estimation & Planning, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), Minimum Viable Product (MVP), User Research, Feature Analysis, Pitch Presentations, Startup Consulting, Competitive Strategy, Platform as a Service (PaaS), Business Applications, Software Development, Agile Leadership, Feature Planning, Business Research, SaaS, Product Discovery, REST APIs, API Integration, Business Requirements, Software Integration, System Integration, Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), Product Analytics, Market Research, Web Development, Websites, Website CMS, UX Analysis, Scrum Product Owner, New Product Development, Linux Servers, eCommerce, Mobile Apps, User Interface (UI), UX Flows, UX Design, Requirements & Specifications, Startups, Early-stage Startups, Lean Startups, Product Coach, Training Content, Research, User Journeys, Education, Onboarding, Quality Management, Quality Management Systems (QMS), Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Documentation, Technical Documentation, Enterprise Integration, B2B, Product Design, Two-sided Marketplaces, Product Vision, Consulting, Business Logic, Data-driven Decision-making, Feature Prioritization, Product Delivery, Agile Practices, Product Launch, Cloud Services, Web & Mobile Applications, Enterprise Software, Remote Team Leadership, Product Operations, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Requirements, MVP Design, Process Automation, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Sprint Planning, Voice of the Customer (VoC), Wireframing, Mockups, Technical Writing, Product Consultant, Competition Research, Project Planning, Direct to Consumer (D2C), Software as a Service (SaaS), Competitor Analysis & Profiling, Discovery, Functional Specifications, Critical Thinking, User Experience Design, Product Planning, Product Leadership, Use Case Analysis, Team Leadership, Architecture, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, Ruby, Python, Business to Business (B2B), Data Transformation, Customer Analysis, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Systems Analysis, Technical Hiring, Team Management, Mentorship & Coaching, Cisco Webex Meetings Server, Linux, Feature Roadmaps, Analytics, Backlog Management, User Interviews, A/B Testing, Sales Pitches, Price Analysis, Experimental Research, Investor Presentations, Product Research, Sinatra, Rapid Application Development (RAD), Feasibility Studies, Project Management, Management, Java, Oracle Cloud, Cloud, Product Marketing, Cloud Infrastructure, Blogging, Product Demonstrations, Oracle Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Troubleshooting, Customer Support, Time Management, Clustering, Distributed Systems, Django, Angular, HTML, CSS, Digital Payments, JSON, XML, C, Conflict Resolution, Knowledge Management, Innovation Labs, Negotiation, Direct Marketing, Sales, Brainstorming, French-English Translation, SaaS Product Management, SQL, Ruby on Rails (RoR), Conversion Rate, MySQL, JavaScript, Front-end Development, Front-end, Back-end, Content Management Systems (CMS), Edtech Design, Client Reporting, Release Management, Beta Programs, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Containerization, E-learning, Prototyping, Technical Recruiting, Pricing Strategy, Go-to-market Strategy, QA Testing, Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), Project Coordination, Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT), Machine Learning, Contract Management, Legal Technology (Legaltech), Aha!, Business to Consumer (B2C), Headless Commerce, AI Product Management, Technical Leadership, Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO)
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