Calvin is available for hire
Hire CalvinCalvin Hawkes
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Location
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Toptal Member Since
September 8, 2020
Calvin is an entrepreneur with nine years of experience in product leadership for global brands. As a head of product, he has led two startups to successful exits. In addition, he also works with larger multinationals and has advised Fortune 500 companies in the healthcare and finance industries on their technology strategies. Calvin's background as an entrepreneur, consultant, and full-stack developer makes him uniquely suited to solve a diverse set of problems in various industries.
Project Highlights
TripHappy Travel App
Co-founded, led product vision and front-end development for TripHappy, a travel website named one of the Top Travel apps of 2017 and sold to Trivago in 2018.
SoulCeramics eCommerce Store
Created the leading online retailer of ceramic and knife-making kilns, which was sold to a private investor in 2018.
Expertise
Work Experience
Product Lead
2018 - 2020
Trivago
- Achieved $15+ million in incremental revenue while overseeing the monetization strategy of eight product teams.
- Introduced a new revenue stream worth an estimated $10 million annually by managing a cross-functional team of 27 people to the creation of "Trivago exclusive rates."
- Increase hotel-comprehension speed 240%, and conversion rates 2.8% by implementing significant changes to the user-flow, content architecture, and price-comparison experiences.
- Developed 2020 SEO strategy for a single-page application containing over 6 million unique pages.
- Negotiated distribution agreements with hotel wholesalers to add additional low-cost inventory to the platform.
- Managed a team of eight data scientists and cloud engineers to create the "Trivago Price Index", a rating that measures the value for money of a hotel's rate given a variety of live and historical data signals.
- Increased conversion rate by 8% for location-sensitive travelers through a significant overhaul of Trivago's map experience.
- Integrated location-aware functionality into Trivago's app, enabling tailored, geo-fenced offers to travelers based on their current location and travel state.
Head of Product, Co-founder
2015 - 2018
TripHappy
- Created visual trip planner used to map 2.1 million trips by travelers worldwide. The tool was named the Top 50 Travel Apps by Travel & Leisure magazine and is remains the #1 map planner on Google.
- Achieved 1.5 million content impressions and features in global publications with a readership of 20 million through a no-cost data visualization marketing campaign.
- Increased organic traffic 342% via a 9-month, 100,000+ page SEO campaign.
- Developed mobile-responsive hotel booking comparison from scratch using React and Ruby on Rails.
- Systematically identified and characterized 28,000 neighborhoods worldwide using 12+ million geospatial data points gathered from over 200 unique sources.
Head of Business Development, Co-founder
2014 - 2017
SoulCeramics
- Attained 2,900% ROI after three years of growth when SoulCeramics was sold to a private investor in 2018.
- Generated $600,000 in revenue in the first 18 months through CPC-based performance marketing channels.
- Streamlined operations to require <1 hour of work per week from the founding team by hiring/training the customer service team and automating business processes.
- Performed detailed market analysis, defined go-to-market strategy, formed partnerships with established manufacturers, and negotiated drop-shipping arrangement.
- Created the leading, direct-to-consumer retailer of ceramic and knife-making equipment on Shopify's platform.
Technology Strategy Consultant
2013 - 2015
Deloitte Consulting
- Led the development of a $500,000 case management module for the Department of Consumer Protection for the State of Kentucky.
- Reduced processing time by 85% for monthly data imports through the setup of the data pipeline and the creation of scripts that automate the ETL process.
- Managed team of 40 oversees developers in India for the development of the Kentucky Health Insurance Exchange, which serves a population of 4 million residents.
- Created Tableau dashboard of 3 million members to facilitate migration planning of health insurance customers post-acquisition.
Project History
TripHappy Travel App
Co-founded, led product vision and front-end development for TripHappy, a travel website named one of the Top Travel apps of 2017 and sold to Trivago in 2018.
TripHappy aims to help travelers figure out where to stay in a city by matching their interests to our database of 28,000 neighborhoods around the globe. As the head of product, I focused primarily on driving product vision, validating product and market fit, and engaging with early customers to identify and address their most pressing needs. I was also heavily involved in developing our go-to-market strategy, consisting primarily of organic traffic growth and viral marketing campaigns.
SoulCeramics eCommerce Store
https://www.soulceramics.com/Created the leading online retailer of ceramic and knife-making kilns, which was sold to a private investor in 2018.
SoulCeramics was a pioneer and one of the first websites to bring the sale of industrial ceramics equipment online. As a co-founder and head of business development, Calvin was in charge of identifying and negotiating agreements with target manufacturers. Calvin led the development of the website on Shopify's platform and was responsible for setting up sales and customer service operations.
Education
2008 - 2012
Bachelor of Arts Degree in Economics
New York University - New York, NY
2008 - 2012
Bachelor of Arts Degree in Computer Science
New York University - New York, NY