Damir Bogadi, Product Manager in Zagreb, Croatia
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Damir Bogadi

Verified Expert  in Product Management

Product Manager

Location
Zagreb, Croatia
Toptal Member Since
March 19, 2021

Damir has a powerful mix of IT and business expertise with a master's in economics, 8+ years in IT project management (5 in agile settings), and experience in website development and data analysis. As a product manager and owner, he has driven the development of a self-service portal, eCommerce sites (D2C and B2B), and a B2B SaaS tool and has managed big data projects for over 4 years. Damir's consultancy experience includes operational due diligence, financial modeling, and process improvement.

Project Highlights

Product Owner for a Self-service Portal
Managed an agile team of nine people working on a telecommunications B2B self-service portal. Portal serves some 72,000 companies.
Developed Strategy for B2B Digital Channels and Roadmap Execution Coordination
Developed the strategy and roadmap for ex-T-Mobile’s B2B digital channels (web shop, self-service portal, self-service app) with the goal of increasing self-service monthly usage up to 40% and online telecommunication sales by 81%.
Footfall Analytics Commercial Service Implementation
Led the development and implementation of a footfall analytics service based on telecommunications mobile data (anonymized data from 50% of the population). It had a front-end platform for users and administrators and an extensive data back end.

Expertise

Work Experience

Market Research Analyst

2023 - 2023
SimpleTire, LLC
  • Carried out customer satisfaction (CSAT) quantitative analysis based on survey data combined with CRM data. This included data preparation, materials preparation, and presentation to relevant stakeholders.
  • Set up qualitative tests and analyzed responses, including preparing relevant materials for presentation to stakeholders. Testing methods include UserTesting.com and traditional user tests.
  • Provided assistance to other researchers, including cross-checking the research questionnaires/tasks before releasing them to the users and helping with analyzing responses from user tests.

Product Manager

2022 - 2023
Determ (formerly Mediatoolkit)
  • Created and managed the product roadmap. The product is a media monitoring tool mainly used by PR and marketing people to track the performance of brands, campaigns, and relevant people.
  • Analyzed relevant tracked data and input to determine the best prioritization and product focus.
  • Managed a scrum team of seven members (product owner/BA, QA, developers, and designers). Facilitated Agile ceremonies: daily standup, refinement, retrospective, and demo (review).
  • Integrated a tool with AI to provide PR user segments with AI-powered features. Impacted 2nd-day retention by 14%.

Senior Product Owner

2022 - 2022
Bornfight d.o.o.
  • Handled eCommerce system development as a senior product owner for a successful brand offering subscription-based products to Gen Z.
  • Steered eCommerce development and scaled to additional brands.
  • Created a roadmap and aligned with the client's brand and execution steering.

Project Manager, Coordinator, and Product Owner in Digital Department

2020 - 2022
Hrvatski Telekom d.d. (Deutsche Telekom Group)
  • Implemented a chat solution, which increased the number of sales leads by 50% and ICT sales leads by 30%. The chat solution offered cross routing from B2C to B2B and vice versa and proactive contact.
  • Developed strategy and roadmap for B2B digital channels (webshop, self-service portal, self-service app) to increase monthly self-service usage up to 40% and online telecommunication sales by 81%.
  • Worked as a product owner for a B2B self-service portal (used by more than 27,000 companies) to impact call reduction to call centers and increase digital customer experience (NPS, CES, OSAT).
  • Managed special projects for private and business users, including close cooperation with Samsung and Apple in launching new products and promotions (e.g., Note20 line and Apple Music promotion).

Project Manager and Digital Business Expert in Business Marketing Sector

2018 - 2020
Hrvatski Telekom d.d. (Deutsche Telekom Group)
  • Increased online transactions by 43% and self-service usage by 50% for B2B digital channels. Drove increased adoption by 30% through offline channels' push to online (IVR, offline contact with customers, etc.).
  • Developed strategy for the company's digital channels for the B2B customer segment and drove digital marketing campaigns that reduced average cost per click by 53% (ICT). Channels included a web shop, self-service portal, and app and ICT educational portal.
  • Led several web campaigns aimed at B2B customers, including the development of landing pages, coordination of digital campaigns, and tracking success. Campaigns led to a two-fold increase in sales during promotional periods.
  • Assisted as a part of the first agile teams spearheading the company's transformation to an agile organization. The team covered the development of the B2B web shop and managed to increase NPS and visitor conversion rates.
  • Developed reporting for ICT services portfolio with management and operational view by connecting the data warehouse with a custom database and PowerPivot. Reporting included revenue and transactions.
  • Created on its own several campaign landing pages using front-end technologies (HTML, CSS, Bootstrap).
  • Tracked analytics for B2B digital touchpoints through Google Analytics, Hotjar and Tealium.

Assistant Lecturer (Part-time)

2017 - 2020
Algebra
  • Gave lectures about digital transformation for a digital marketing undergraduate professional program. Topics included robotics, IoT, blockchain, AI, and approaches to digital transformation.
  • Gave lectures about digital data in marketing for a digital marketing undergraduate professional program. Topics included using data to make data-driven decisions and monetizing product data.
  • Conducted practical exercises in business case creation, case studies, and applicability of theory in practice.

Project Manger for Digital Transformation Projects in Central PMO

2015 - 2018
Hrvatski Telekom d.d. (Deutsche Telekom Group)
  • Managed implementation of a social network analysis based on telecommunications data to predict user churn. The project improved churn prediction by some 40%. The role covered project ideation, coordination, and team management.
  • Led a work package on the FERARI research project worth three million Euros in the field of big data financed by the EU and led by Fraunhofer IAIS. I was in charge of real use case deliverables in the telecommunications sector.
  • Oversaw a footfall analysis commercial service implementation based on anonymized telecommunications data (big data project)—spearheaded sales efforts with presentations to potential clients.
  • Led a project of humanoid robotics implementation based on the Pepper model in coordination with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing and a small startup.
  • Ran the project management office sector's operational budgeting.

Member of the Management Board

2015 - 2017
Isaca
  • Cared for the development of the IT audit and governance profession.
  • Ran community management as a member of the board.
  • Maintained communication through website, newsletters, and LinkedIn. In charge of the organization committee for conferences organized by the local ISACA.

Associate in Management Consulting Department

2011 - 2015
KPMG
  • Conducted a business plan review valued at 100 million euros for a Qatar-based investor in agricultural companies in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It included conceptual and feasibility reviews and underlying financial model logic analysis.
  • Spearheaded the operational and IT due diligence of an airport operator for a 30 years concession valued at 1.94 billion euros. It also covered cost allocation and income statement preparation per defined service lines.
  • Led a procurement process improvement project for a regional oil and gas company with a 68% market share. Also covered the development of specialized procurement reporting.
  • In charge of dozens of IT audits for the financial and non-financial sector, including a central bank and a leading bank in the country by market share.
  • Led an operational and IT due diligence of a large bank with a 5% market share.
  • Managed production process analysis, "bottleneck" identification, and improvement recommendations for a cable manufacturing company.
  • Created and maintained a cost allocation model for a large media services provider.
  • Maintained financial model for a highway concession.

Product Owner for a Self-service Portal

http://poslovni.hrvatskitelekom.hr

Managed an agile team of nine people working on a telecommunications B2B self-service portal. Portal serves some 72,000 companies.

Led roadmap execution for a B2B self-service portal. Activities included team management (nine team members), stakeholder management, KPI’s tracking, vendor management, and alignment with other digital channels aimed at B2B. Integrated the ICT marketplace into the portal to enable a one-stop shop for managing telecommunications and ICT services.

The portal is planned to increase monthly usage by 35 pp (percentage points).

The portal uses the following technologies: Liferay CMS, Redis, Java, and Vue.js.

Developed Strategy for B2B Digital Channels and Roadmap Execution Coordination

Developed the strategy and roadmap for ex-T-Mobile’s B2B digital channels (web shop, self-service portal, self-service app) with the goal of increasing self-service monthly usage up to 40% and online telecommunication sales by 81%.

Led the strategy and roadmap development for B2B telecommunications digital channels. Activities included alignment with the overall company strategy and stakeholders, tracking strategy execution, tracking analytics, ensuring execution, and course correction.

I was also responsible for aligning the go-to-market plan with the development roadmap. The solution is planned to increase online telecommunication sales by 81% and monthly self-service usage up to 40%.

Strategy for B2B Telecommunications Web Shop

Developed the strategy and roadmap for ex-T-Mobile’s B2B web shop with its execution resulting in a 43% increase in transactions (device, tariff sales, and option activations).

Led strategy and roadmap development for B2B telecommunications web shop. Activities included alignment with the overall company strategy and stakeholders, tracking strategy execution, tracking analytics, planning and ensuring digital campaigns execution, and course correction. The solution increased B2B online transactions by 43%.

Chat Solution for Interaction with B2B Customers on a Telecommunications Website

Implemented a LivePerson chat solution for B2B telecommunications customers on ex-T-Mobile’s portals, which resulted in increased sales leads by 50% and ICT sales leads by 30%.

Led the LivePerson chat implementation project of ex-T-Mobile’s portals for B2B customers from beginning to end. Activities included contracting, configuring the chat’s back end (user and agent surveys, routing, skills, placement, agents), adjusting front-end design, and onboarding chat agents.

The solution increased B2B telecommunication sales leads by 50% and ICT sales leads by 30% two months after implementation.

Implemented Tool for Cross Platform User Analytics

Implemented Tealium analytics solution for B2B telecommunications customers on ex-T-Mobile’s portals resulting in increased ICT sales leads by 30%.

Led a project to implement a Tealium analytics solution on ex-T-Mobile’s portals for B2B customers (with a focus on ICT) from beginning to end. Activities included contracting, vendor management, and a tracking performance tool, among others. The solution increased B2B ICT sales leads by 30%.

Coded and Launched Special Promotions Pages

Coded several pages using HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, and JavaScript for special campaigns in ex-T-Mobile, resulting in a two-fold increase in B2B web sales (device and tariff).

Self-designed, coded, and launched pages that served as landing pages for ex-T-Mobile’s digital campaigns on Facebook and Google during holiday promotions, promotions of new devices, and new packages. The development required the use of HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, JavaScript, and a custom library (similar to Bootstrap).

Campaigns and landing pages increased web sales two-fold over the promotion period (B2B offers).

News Portal Based on WordPress (Personal Project)

Created a WordPress-based news portal with a custom template which uses RSS and site scraping for news aggregation.

Developed and launched a WordPress site that collects news via RSS feeds and through web scraping. The site uses a custom template and a dozen plugins. It is a personal project that included arranging hosting, purchasing the domain, developing the site on a local host, and migrating it to production and maintenance.

Humanoid Robotics for Promoting Technological Leadership

Led the project that introduces service robotics (the Pepper model) for a telecommunications company to promote technological leadership in the market and test usability in a real-world environment.

Pepper is a humanoid robot that I introduced to a telecommunications company with several use cases to test its applicability in real-world scenarios. I also served as a speaker at a public event.

The project included an adaptation of the technology with the help of a university and a small startup. The robot was adapted to speak the local language and perform several interactive scenarios.

Footfall Analytics Commercial Service Implementation

Led the development and implementation of a footfall analytics service based on telecommunications mobile data (anonymized data from 50% of the population). It had a front-end platform for users and administrators and an extensive data back end.

The Husky platform allowed visualizing in a heatmap form and exporting anonymized movement data from 50% of the country's population. The data was also stitched together with demographic (CRM) data to get more relevant insights (1-day delay). In the processing of data, the first step was a custom-built, on-the-fly streaming and anonymization platform.

The platform was used by both clients and internally to shift the working hours according to footfall times, planning locations of ATMs and stores, gathering information on open event visitors, and plans for traffic de-cluttering.

I oversaw the project ideation, contracting, managed the development (and vendors), and pitching the solution to the clients.

The technique used to protect and anonymize data was granted permission from the Data Protection Agency. Technologies used include Cloudera, Kibana, Elasticsearch, and a web GUI.

Social Network Analysis for Churn Prevention

Led the big data project, which used telecommunications data to create a model that predicted potential churners with an increase in accuracy of 40% over traditional statistical models.

Telecommunications operators use statistical models to predict user churn, which impacts 10-20% of the user base in a year. To increase prediction accuracy, I led a team of internal stakeholders and internal and external data scientists that leveraged telecommunication traffic data (with consent) to create a new big data model that, in the end, increased churner identification by 40%.

I spearheaded the whole project from ideation, contracting, managing the team and sponsors, and project results.

Tools used in the project included Python, R, and SPSS.

Business Plan and Financial Model Assessment

Led the analysis of the business plan and supporting financial model for an agricultural investment project estimated at 100 million euros for a Qatar-based investor.

Qatar-based investors wanted to invest up to 100 million euros in the agricultural sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina by consolidating existing companies in the market and expanding the company's reach to new markets, primarily Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

I carried out a high-level analysis of the business plan for the period 2014–2019. The focus was on the critical assumptions underlying the business plan and provided a view of the level of reasonableness of such assumptions.

The business plan included information on investments in different project phases and a P&L for the entire project. The plan also assumed parallel investment streams in wholesale, production, processing, and land acquisition.

Procurement Process Assesment for an Oil and Gas Company

Led the procurement process improvement and approval matrix simplification for non oil and gas tenders.

Project objectives included designing a more efficient and less time-consuming procurement process, establishing a simplified procurement approval procedure, and implementation of a simplified approvals scheme in respect of SAP MM and FI documents.

To achieve project objectives, I led the following major tasks: Reviewed non-HC procurement process, gap analysis, and proposed simplifications which includes paper documents reduction, the reduction of needed paper signatures, reduction in lead times, and increased leverage of IT tools. I implemented proposed and approved procurement process simplifications to improve process efficiency. I reviewed the approval matrix related to the non-HC procurement process and proposed simplifications, including faster internal decision making and workload reduction, and implemented changes in the approval scheme within the SAP system for MM and FI modules documents.

I also designed and created a tool for tracking the efficiency of the procurement with an Excel-based interface.

Operational and IT Due Dilligence of an Airport Operator

Performed an analysis of the airport operations and IT. Created a P&L analysis of the proposed service lines for the buy-side. The concession was valued at almost two billion euros.

A France-based concessioner performed a high-level analysis of airport operations (maintenance, logistics, back office), IT (synergy potential, contracts), and a P&L analysis of the service lines of the subject concession. The concession agreed to ti a 30 year-period valued at 1.94 billion euros.

Big Data Science Project Financed by European Commission

Led a work package on the FERARI research project worth three million euros in the field of big data financed by the EU and led by Fraunhofer IAIS. I was in charge of real use case deliverables in the telecommunications domain.

The FERARI project had several objectives:
Provide support for large-scale services by making the sensor layer a first-class citizen in big data architectures;
provide support for Complex Event Processing technology for business users in big data architectures; provide support for integrating machine learning tasks in the architecture; provide support for flexible and adaptive analytics workflows; exemplify the new architecture's potential in the telecommunication and cloud domain.

I was responsible for delivering real-world applications to the project: Fraud detection in telecommunication networks and preventive fault detection in DSLAM devices.

The project received the highest mark from the EU Commission.

Planned and Executed Digital Campaigns for Telecommunications Company

Led planning and execution of digital advertising for ex-T-Mobile's services (telecommunications and ICT) with regards to seasonality, special promotions, budget and company targets. With smarter targeting. I lowered CPC by 40% for ICT in 1.5 years.

Coordinated a team consisting of communication experts, copywriters, designers, analysts, developers, and an agency to deliver campaigns for ex-T-Mobile's ICT portfolio, telecommunications promotions envisioned internally or in cooperation with external partners (e.g., Samsung, Apple).

Digital campaigns covered Facebook, Google, native articles, newsletters, and in-app advertising. The campaign budget was planned one year in advance with rolling re-planning. Continuously tracked campaign data to further optimize impact (CTR, the number of leads) and cost (CPC). Managed to drive CPC by 40% for ICT in 1.5 years.

Reporting for ICT Products and Services Performance

Created a reporting tool (Excel with Power Pivot), which ingests data from a data warehouse and an MS Access database. The tool presents data on gross adds, churn, revenue and plans. It also enables users to easily compare data.

Created a report for a telecommunications company (T-Mobile brand) for its ICT portfolio performance reporting. The report combined data from the company's data warehouse and a locally created MS Access database. It made it possible for the users to compare data from various periods, examine the performance of specific ICT products or services, and plan fulfillment. The report ingested around five years of historical data. The report itself was created with the help of Power Pivot.

Subscription eCommerce Website Scaling

Acted as a senior product owner for a Swedish brand with more than 65,000 subscriptions on their eCommerce platform and helped them scale to an additional brand.

Worked for a Swedish brand whose core product is razorblades and associated products targeted at Z gen in the form of monthly subscriptions. I helped them with decreasing churn and increasing conversion rates.

I also contributed to scaling and launching a separate vitamin subscription brand.

Media Monitoring SaaS Product Management

Introduced AI into the app for media monitoring which helped users save time and cost while analyzing content.

An app with more than 3,000 users worldwide (predominantly PR). I managed nine people in a scrum team. I prepared the roadmap and Jira tickets and interacted with users. I successfully launched AI in the app, which helped users get better insights into their media monitoring results.
2006 - 2010

Master's Degree in Business Informatics

Faculty of Economics and Business - Zagreb, Croatia

MAY 2020 - PRESENT

JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures

freeCodeCamp

JANUARY 2019 - PRESENT

Responsive Web Design

freeCodeCamp

MARCH 2018 - PRESENT

Certified Scrum Master

Scrum Alliance

APRIL 2014 - PRESENT

Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)

ISACA

Tools

Power Pivot, Hotjar, Slack, Skype, Excel 2016, Google Analytics, Jira, Cloudera, Kibana, R, IBM SPSS

Industry Expertise

Telecommunications

Platforms

LivePerson

Paradigms

Scrum, Agile, Agile Project Management, Data Science, Desktop Web Design, Agile Product Management, Quantitative Research

Other

Information System Audits, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), IT Audits, Report Development, Project Management, Analytics, B2B, Information & Communications Technology (ICT), eCommerce, Web Shops, Digital Strategy, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft PowerPoint, Business Cases, B2B Product Management, Project Coordination, Digital Marketing Strategy, Agile Leadership, Affiliate Marketing, Microsoft Excel, Content Management Systems (CMS), Analysis, Data, Business Planning, Scrum Master, Digital Transformation, IT Program Management, Big Data, Data Science Product Manager, Digital Transformation Program Management, Robotics, HTML, CSS, WordPress, Digital Marketing, Profit & Loss (P&L), Process Mapping, Financial Analysis, Pitch Presentations, Contract Drafting, Product Owner, WordPress Plugins, Web Development, Management Consulting, Product Management, Education, Web Applications, Advertising Campaigns, Digital Advertising, Advertising, Paid Advertising, Data Reporting, Product Marketing, Data Analytics, Data Analysis, Data Visualization, Business Consulting, Market Research, Consulting, Business Strategy, Business Analysis, European Union (EU), Projects, Software as a Service (SaaS), Economics, Software Development Management, Financials, Due Diligence, Financial Modeling, Process Improvement, Business Plan Consulting, Community Growth, Community Development, Professional Development, Teaching, Data Lakes, Research, Science, Robotics Product Manager, Front-end Development, Net Promoter Score (NPS), Excel VBA, Churn Management, Big Data Architecture, Elasticsearch, Business Models, Startups, Coding, Bootstrap, JavaScript, Live Chat, Contract, Back-end, Tealium AudienceStream, Feature Roadmaps, WordPress Design, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Responsive Web Design (RWD), React, Machine Learning, Customer Acquisition, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Edtech Design, Content Management, User Experience (UX), Media, Monitoring, Financial Statement Preparation, Funding Process, Web UX, SaaS, Team Management, Data Scraping, Qualitative Research, Focus Groups, Interviews, Survey Design

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