Christopher is available for hire
Hire ChristopherChristopher B. Decker
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Atlanta, GA, United States
Toptal member since November 13, 2019
Bio
With nearly 20 years of product management experience, an MBA from Babson College, and a dual engineering degree from the Webb Institute, Chris has founded and helped companies deliver exceptional customer experiences with software. Focusing on mobile apps, Chris has worked with startups to Fortune 50 companies throughout the world, developing native and hybrid apps utilizing messaging, gamification, social media, outstanding UX/UI, and chatbots.
Project Highlights
Amazon 3P Seller Sourcing Software
Developed a set of software tools that allows a company to identify high velocity, high profitability products for Amazon.
HPE Go | Mobile Application for Hardware Vendors
Served as the product owner and led a worldwide cross-functional team to develop a mobile app for vendor order tracking.
Anthem Sydney Mobile Chatbot
Led a team to develop a mobile-based chatbot for inclusion in the launch of Anthem's new mobile app.
Expertise
- Amazon
- Amazon FBA
- Consumer Products
- Finance
- Healthcare
- Mobile Apps
- Product Owner
- eCommerce Management
Work Experience
Founder
2016 - 2024
Knot Models
- Utilized Amazon 3P selling and Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) to successfully grow an online business from $0 to over $1.5 million in sales in the current year.
- Developed internal software tools by utilizing available Amazon APIs to help target and identify products with both high sales velocity and high profit potential.
- Implemented a merchant fulfillment program to triple the number of ASINs offered through Amazon 3P selling.
- Worked extensively with 3rd-party applications Feedvisor and SkuVault to increase profitability from 9% to 16% on Amazon 3P sales.
Senior Product Owner
2018 - 2019
Anthem, Inc.
- Acted as the primary owner for building, pruning, and maintaining the team backlog (including defects) prioritized based on the business value or other key business drivers including maintaining MVP information, managing scope of the delivery and providing updates on development status.
- Partnered with the digital product manager, initiative owner, and BSA to develop hundreds of stories while validating that the development effort was meeting acceptance criteria and the definition of done.
- Drove a web-centered UI/UX team to make sure the designs and wireframes incorporated mobile best practices.
- Delivered product demos to senior management to show how the delivered work ties back to the business goals and objectives of the feature or functionality being delivered.
- Initiated and drove the implementation of key performance metrics and utilized analysis of analytics and other data and research to monitor performance and provide direction to the mobile product strategy/roadmap.
- Led other product managers to fully understand the business initiative owner’s needs, ensuring the development of product solutions that encompassed all areas of the application.
Product Owner
2016 - 2018
DXC Technology
- Delivered a product road map for the mobile application development pipeline taking into account the feedback from the dozens of teams utilizing the platform.
- Acted as the primary point of contact for onboarding new development teams to the mobile platform.
- Led the development of the HPE mission-critical HPE Go mobile app, an application targeted at HPE's 5,000+ vendors and distributors as well as C-suite executives.
- Guided the development and deployment of over 25 different mobile apps.
- Acted as the AirWatch administrator for the platform as well as the development teams that participated in the platform. This included UAT and production deployments, target user management, and forced app upgrades.
Product Owner
2015 - 2016
Homebridge Financial Services
- Assumed leadership of the team responsible for the implementation of a document management system, which was legacy-managed behind schedule and incorrectly scoped. Returned the project to schedule, with an appropriate resetting of expectations.
- Consulted on establishing PMO processes, and proof-case various efforts to determine process shortfalls and implementing PMO best practices.
- Led the effort to integrate the loan origination systems with the loan servicing system, ensuring mission-critical data was transmitted in compliance with CFPB regulations.
- Cultivated an environment of expertise related to customer complaints and anti-money laundering.
Product Owner | Project Manager
2014 - 2016
Mobiquity
- Planned, coordinated, advised, and implemented activities pertaining to multi-phased, enterprise-wide mobile product roadmaps, ensuring that project outcomes were in line with external customers’ business objectives throughout the product lifecycle.
- Successfully delivered 50+ projects spanning native mobile app development (Android and iOS), mobile assessment and strategy as well as creative design, consistently exceeding as planned profit margins.
- Managed up to 18 concurrent projects at a time.
- Consulted on long-term mobile strategies, defined the market problem and business justifications for mobile investment, culminating in a pre-sales proposal to win the business.
- Partnered with the sales team to obtain more than $5 million of business, delivering live presentations to current and prospective customers.
- Led the strategy sessions to identify customer requirements for their mobile applications which provided the key input into the design requirements.
- Provided leadership and motivation to project team members including mentoring new employees to ensure adherence to company policies and best practices.
Project Manager
2012 - 2014
Altisource Labs
- Tracked and reviewed project performance, holding regular team status meetings, reporting project status on a weekly basis to C-level management.
- Initiated and led project planning actives such as a statement of work, project change control, risk management, and executive communication.
- Led the team implementing mobile technology into the existing enterprise applications.
- Created business-feature and technical requirements for incorporating mobile functionality into inflight software development.
- Administered the agile/scrum process on all projects within the global team; including India, Europe, and South America.
Technology Manager
2009 - 2012
Ricoh
- Directed business unit profit and loss, managing a $6.2-million budget with a 53% profit margin.
- Accelerated the growth of the Charlotte market by 14% in the last 12 months of service in this role.
- Formulated a plan to achieve revenue targets, profit, and ROI expectations, and presented to upper management related to the new IT services business.
- Assembled and guided a team of 21 (directly reporting to me) comprised of engineers, sales representatives, and customer system specialists.
- Engaged customers and prospects with technical presentations, supporting a separate team of 24 salespeople with specific emphasis on embedded mobile application technology.
Founder | Owner
2000 - 2009
Trident, Inc.
- Coordinated product management efforts of 300+ consumer good products from concept through introduction into major international markets.
- Strategically positioned all products to increase ROI and minimize risk.
- Designed 12 new plastic models utilizing 3D modeling and had them manufactured in China.
- Developed a type of internal software that integrated with a commercial eCommerce platform that converted ebay buyers into direct customers, growing sales by an average of 40% a year for four years.
- Aggressively drove business expansion through completing the purchase of three businesses in the manufacturing and retail space.
- Split the business into two entities—retail and manufacturing—and then sold both entities in separate transactions.
Project History
Amazon 3P Seller Sourcing Software
Developed a set of software tools that allows a company to identify high velocity, high profitability products for Amazon.
This set of tools utilized a SaaS model to parse a supplier's inventory to identify items of the lowest risk to procure for selling on the Amazon Platform. The tool would then provide a stack rank list of available products to guide the orders, sorting by the highest profit and fasting selling products.
HPE Go | Mobile Application for Hardware Vendors
Served as the product owner and led a worldwide cross-functional team to develop a mobile app for vendor order tracking.
HPE Go is a mobile app targeted for HPE's hardware resellers to allow them to track the status of their orders. Due to the complexity of HPE's back-end systems, order tracking was not readily available to the vendors and they frequently had to call a support desk to find the status of an order.
My Key Contributions:
• Integrated multiple back-end systems to provide near real-time statuses of orders in production.
• Identified a type of third-party software to enable tracking information for shipped orders.
• Led the efforts around UAT and preproduction beta testing with both HPE internal customers and HPE external vendors.
• Managed the implementation of push notifications.
Result:
HPE Go allowed HPE to increase the satisfaction of their vendor channel while reducing expensive calls into a support desk.
My Key Contributions:
• Integrated multiple back-end systems to provide near real-time statuses of orders in production.
• Identified a type of third-party software to enable tracking information for shipped orders.
• Led the efforts around UAT and preproduction beta testing with both HPE internal customers and HPE external vendors.
• Managed the implementation of push notifications.
Result:
HPE Go allowed HPE to increase the satisfaction of their vendor channel while reducing expensive calls into a support desk.
Anthem Sydney Mobile Chatbot
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sydney-health/id1463423283Led a team to develop a mobile-based chatbot for inclusion in the launch of Anthem's new mobile app.
The medical chatbot launched inside Anthem Healthcare's new Sydney Mobile app is revolutionary in that it allows a member to interact via voice or text chat with the mobile app.
The initial release could quickly provide within a chat the member's ID cards, recent claims, and a summary of their available benefits. The chatbot also was fully aware of the other features within Sydney Health, and the chatbot could guide the members to other areas of the app, such as pharmacy ordering, find a doctor, and contact their care team.
The initial release could quickly provide within a chat the member's ID cards, recent claims, and a summary of their available benefits. The chatbot also was fully aware of the other features within Sydney Health, and the chatbot could guide the members to other areas of the app, such as pharmacy ordering, find a doctor, and contact their care team.
Multi-channel Online Retailer
http://www.knotmodels.comBuilt a series of scalable processes and systems to grow an online retailer in multiple channels, including Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and Shopify.
KnotModels.com is a multi-channel online retailer that specializes in the hobby and games category. As the lead product manager, I led the development of a SaaS system that connected directly with Amazon analytics to track over 50,000 items for sales velocity and profitability.
Education
2000 - 2004
Master of Business Administration (MBA) Degree in Entrepreneurship
Babson College - Babson Park, MA, USA
1991 - 1995
Bachelor's Degree in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering
Webb Institute - Glen Cove, NY, USA
Skills
Tools
Jira, Shopify Plus
Paradigms
Agile Project Management, Agile, Scrum, Agile Product Management, Acceptance Testing, Mobile App Design
Industry Expertise
Football, Consumer Products, Consumer Finance, Healthcare
Platforms
Feedvisor, Shopify
Other
Product Owner, Mobile Apps, eCommerce Management, eCommerce, Amazon FBA, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Mobile, Mobile App Development, Stakeholder Interviews, Software Development, Web Applications, Web & Mobile Applications, Finance, Mobile UX, Mobile UI, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Amazon, Technical Product Management, Product Management, Product Strategy, Direct to Consumer (D2C), Product Roadmaps, Business Analysis, User Requirements, Functional Requirements, Business Requirements, Backlog Grooming, Backlog Management, User Experience (UX), Startups, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Requirements, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Customer Engagement, Market Research, Pricing, Software as a Service (SaaS), Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), App Product Management, Mobile Applications, Sprint Planning, Healthcare IT, Product Development, Acquisitions, Android, 3D Modeling, Project Planning, Consulting, Remote Team Leadership, Go-to-market Strategy, Web Development, API Integration, Amazon Channel Management, Amazon Seller Central, SkuVault, Documentation, iOS, User Interface (UI), Wireframing, Roadmaps, System Integration, Sales
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