Courtney Ryan Jones
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Pittsburgh, PA, United States
Toptal member since October 26, 2023
Courtney is a versatile and relationship-oriented product manager who can quickly break complex problems into actionable solutions. He enjoys driving innovation in B2B2C organizations and has managed products in all stages of the SDLC, including reservation systems, subscriptions, eCommerce, MarTech, content management systems, customer data platforms, and OTT/VoD. Passionate about family and sports, Courtney is a team player known for his ability to foster trust and build strong relationships.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile
- B2B2C
- Backlog Management
- Client Relationship Management
- Confluence
- Jira
- Relationship Building
- Sprint Planning
Work Experience
Product Manager | Data Platform and Tools
FloSports
- Pioneered platform tools as a dedicated product focus, owning the core DB and API, CMS, Search, VoD archives, and critical ETL functions as the platform grew from 300,000 to over 1 million subscribers.
- Led product discovery focused on the navigation of web, iOS, Android, and OTT apps; conducted interviews with the CEO, multiple SVPs, and external customers; launched a solution that decreased site search usage by 5% and increased page views by 10%.
- Led a vendor evaluation of headless CMS platforms, including Contentful, Sanity, and Strapi; worked cross-department to gather and prioritize requirements for launching a solution to production with OKRs for improving key workflows and distribution.
- Led a vendor evaluation for master data management (MDM) solutions, including Informatica, Boomi, and Talend; gained executive sponsorship on an execution plan for improving data quality and scalability of a data-only subscription plan.
- Generated a 500% YOY increase in site traffic on one of the company's six priority sites by leading the cross-functional integration of an acquired property through data migration and lean delivery of critical feature parity.
- Increased click-through rate (CTR) on global site search by 16% through a combination of optimizing the inherited Algolia implementation and targeted replacement with Elastic.
- Led an engagement with Google Field Sales, regional CTO, strategy and partnerships, and multiple product managers to qualify FloSports for a preview opportunity using a pilot search product targeting media and content use cases.
Product Manager
NBC Sports Next
- Increased annual recurring revenue (ARR) by $2 million with significant growth potential by launching a predictive insights platform focused on dynamic pricing of golf reservations.
- Conducted a feature gap analysis and led product discovery with key clients to devise a consolidation plan of three MarTech/CRM products used by 9,000 clients to reach 100+ million active subscribers.
- Branched across NBC Universal and Comcast to ensure favorable contract terms with key vendors such as Twilio SMS, SendGrid, Segment, and MessageBird (SparkPost).
- Maintained a PCI-compliant eCommerce solution used by operators to sell gift certificates and merchandise ($200,000 in average volume across 1,500 operators), integrated with point-to-point encryption (P2PE) using 3rd-party processors and internal payments platform.
Product Manager
EZLinks Golf (acquired by NBC Sports Next)
- Solidified dominance of the market-leading solution for golf course reservation management, point-of-sale, and CRM tools by working closely with key clients, ultimately resulting in an acquisition by NBC Universal.
- Launched a white-label content management system (CMS) solution targeting golf course and restaurant operators that increased ARR by $1 million.
- Saved over $5 million in ARR that was at risk of being lost. Did so by working closely with key clients to mitigate concerns that were leading them away from the company.
- Discovered an opportunity to increase the total addressable market by 5% by leveraging key industry relationships and ideating a product that would allow travel agents to book multi-day golf and lodging itineraries.
Senior Customer Success Manager
EZLinks Golf (acquired by NBC Sports Next)
- Owned all inbound feature requests from a team of 25 CSMs and funneled those requests into the product team to build requirements.
- Worked with CSMs to assist with mitigating risk and identifying upsell opportunities with their highest-value clients.
- Conducted monthly review meetings with the technology leadership team to report on industry trends and the status of major projects.
Customer Success Manager
EZLinks Golf (now NBC Sports Next)
- Saved three key relationships worth a total of $2 million in ARR by effectively reporting upwards to senior leadership and product management.
- Achieved an average of 97% retention across 175 named accounts, including the company's highest-value relationships.
- Developed the CSM standard operating procedure (SOP) document to increase the quality of the onboarding process for new hires and define standard processes for existing team members.
Outside Sales
Heartland Payment Systems
- Closed a complex payroll/HCM software deal with a 6-location retailer of ski and outdoor equipment, including prospecting, customer discovery, solution design, and implementation.
- Completed a rigorous and nationally recognized sales training program.
- Doubled the expected quota of qualified sales meetings secured in the 1st month of joining the team.
Class A PGA Professional
PGA of America
- Increased merchandise revenue by an average of 30% per year over a 3-year period as the primary buyer at a high-end private golf facility.
- Managed a team of 30 staff members through daily operations at the flagship 36-hole golf facility within a 7-course, 8,300-acre private community and the site of the 2012 Schwab Cup Championship.
- Established strong executive presence by interacting daily with Fortune 50 executives, politicians, and community leaders in the DC metro, Scottsdale, AZ, and Sewickley, PA.
- Caddied for Charles Schwab in the celebrity Pro-Am of the 2012 Schwab Cup Championship (PGA Champions Tour).
Project History
Migration from Homegrown CMS to Contentful
Led vendor evaluation, selection, and contract negotiation to ensure alignment with the detailed requirements discovered and defined by myself and a team of seven representatives from a larger group of 60+ full-time content producers.
• Extensively interviewed representatives from the content team to build a requirements document that got sign-off from the CMO and chief content officer.
• Worked closely with engineering to deliver a live working site for the first of 26 sites to be converted.
Convergence of a Major Acquisition
https://www.flohockey.tv/Drove a 500% YoY increase in site traffic to one of the company's six priority sites by guiding the company's 1st successful integration of an acquired property through data migration and lean delivery of features required for parity.
Introduced Predictive Pricing to the Golf Industry
Worked closely with data scientists to build the 1st predictive pricing model for the golf industry focused on the optimization of tee time reservations.
Education
Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA)
W. P. Carey School of Business – Arizona State University - Online
Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration
Penn State University - University Park, PA, USA
Certifications
Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
Scrum Alliance
Skills
Tools
Jira, Slack, Confluence, Elastic, Figma, Zapier, Shopify Plus
Paradigms
B2B2C, Agile Product Management, Agile Project Management, Agile, Kanban, Requirements Analysis, Scrum, Cross-platform, Desktop Web Design, Low Code
Platforms
Contentful, Mixpanel, Google Analytics 4, Shopify, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Twilio
Industry Expertise
Marketplaces, Football
Other
Relationship Building, Client Relationship Management, Customer Success, User Requirements, Data Analysis, Business Analysis, Project Management, Product Management, Product Strategy, Customer Research, Business Strategy, Feature Roadmaps, Product Planning, Web Development, Feature Prioritization, Sprint Planning, Backlog Grooming, Backlog Management, Sprint Retrospectives, Over-the-top Content (OTT), APIs, Product Discovery, Software Implementation, Vendor Management, Vendor Selection, Business Requirements, Technical Product Management, eCommerce, Video Streaming, Subscriptions, Product Roadmaps, User Experience (UX), Marketing Technology (MarTech), Market Research, Web Applications, Software as a Service (SaaS), Technical Requirements, Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Media, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Stakeholder Engagement, Requirements & Specifications, Wireframing, Design, Software Development, User Behavior, Data Management, Business Intelligence (BI) Platforms, Third-party Management, Partnerships, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Content Management Systems (CMS), Mobile, Payment Gateways, Consulting, Fantasy Sports, API Integration, Data, Data Cleansing, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), Google Meet, Salesforce, Segment, Microsoft 365, Marketing, Strategy, Financial Forecasting, Sales Forecasting, SaaS, SaaS Product Management, Pricing Strategy, Economics, Business, Finance, Accounting, Master Data Management (MDM), Algolia, Datadog, Customer Discovery, Project Consultation, B2B Partnerships, Customer Service Support, B2B Sales Management, B2B Sales Pipeline, B2B Lead Generation, System Requirements, Data Migration, Stakeholder Management, Stakeholder Interviews, Mobile Apps, Data Science, Product Launch, Direct to Consumer (D2C), Customer Service, Customer Retention, Supply Chain, Marketing Research & Analysis, Revenue Optimization, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Agile Product Delivery, Sales, Cold Calling, Cold Emailing, Pricing Consulting, Merchandising, Team Leadership, Management, Retail & Wholesale, Retail Merchandising, Instruction & Coaching, Communication, Online Payments, Software Architecture, SMS, No-code Development
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