Daniel James
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
San Francisco, CA, United States
Toptal member since November 4, 2019
Daniel has nearly a decade of experience in strategy, operations, product, and technology. He focuses on consumer, eCommerce, fintech, insurtech, proptech, and payments and has significant experience in B2B and SaaS. He has worked every phase of the product development lifecycle, launched new concepts as an entrepreneur, shipped features to millions in Silicon Valley, and led new product development for Fortune 100 companies. Daniel is an engaging and empowering leader.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Consumer Products
- Customer Discovery
- Customer Research
- Fintech
- Insurance Technology (Insurtech)
- Management Consulting
- Product Discovery
- Product Management
Work Experience
GTM & Product Advisor
hostAI
- Partnered with the CEO to build a scalable outbound GTM engine from zero, using Python scripts and Agentic and Gen AI LLMs to extract insights from 100+ sales calls and score prospects while instrumenting funnel analytics for rapid iteration.
- Doubled industry-standard conversion rates by creating a hyper-personalized, AI-driven outbound engine to combine qualitative insights with quantitative funnel optimization to drive predictable, repeatable growth.
- Used GenAI to synthesize customer behavior and shape product strategy, and developed a hyper-personalized email product with automated segmentation and context.
- Analyzed outbound funnels to iterate on approach and inform the development of outbound strategy.
Head of Product
ReloShare
- Partnered with the CEO of a seed-stage startup to incubate a new business line at the intersection of CRE, healthcare, and PropTech, validating the market and building an eight-figure ARR pipeline.
- Conducted in-depth market research, including customer interviews to develop ICP, while analyzing proprietary data to build a business case and quantify ROI, underpinning the roadmap and GTM strategy.
- Led product and business development, forging key partnerships and defining an AI-driven, scalable GTM to accelerate customer adoption and lay the foundation for long-term growth.
- Led sales meetings with C-Suite and VP-level execs, creating all pitch and marketing materials.
- Proposed and developed GTM strategies leveraging AI agents for scalable outreach.
Product Manager
Apto Payments
- Worked with senior executives to define the product strategy for the API payments platform.
- Led an agile team of engineers to oversee the developer portal, documentation, and experience related to API library.
- Managed the development and rollout of the new security protocols and defined requirements for Auth/access for users.
- Spearheaded the design sprint to identify new opportunities and bring renewed focus to the team, enabling the development of a strategic roadmap and identification of new features.
Founder and CPO
Canopy Life Inc.
- Founded a fintech startup that enabled collaborative transaction monitoring and shared spending controls for patients with cognitive decline.
- Managed a team of five across functions and led all aspects of fundraising, product development, and operations.
- Led the discovery and oversaw the UX design and implementation with the CTO of native and responsive web apps.
- Conducted A/B tests to drive sign-ups and test features.
- Derived the product strategy, wrote product requirements documents (PRDs), and managed the backlog to prioritize product development.
Insurance Product Manager/BA—UX and Data Expert
AXA - Platform, Capabilities & Automation
- Worked with C-level execs to outline strategy related to the development of AI implementation to drive improved risk-pricing and data analytics.
- Managed multiple streams through the organization to deliver improved insight, business processes, and analytics, using the Agile method to improve efficiency.
- Articulated the product strategy to guide the delivery and execution of key initiatives, collaborating with senior leaders and team members.
- Led customer discovery relating to core business processes to deliver a prioritized roadmap of features for development.
Entrepreneur in Residence
Grand Central Tech
- Explored opportunities related to InsurTech and fintech.
- Researched various markets and technologies related to financial services and insurance.
- Interviewed SMEs to deepen the understanding of the market landscape.
- Conducted market landscaping and analyzed competitors, products, and macro trends.
- Analyzed market needs to determine new product opportunities and market entry strategies.
Founder and CEO
FuneralPlan
- Founded a funeral planning search and discovery platform to provide price transparency.
- Conducted market research, user interviews, and prototypes to inform the product roadmap.
- Built the team and managed the backlog during the build and every phase of development and rollout.
- Launched the product and conducted marketing testing using A/B testing to determine the product roadmap.
- Decided to discontinue due to poor unit economics.
Director, Product Management
CapitalOne
- Led the new product development in the NY labs, overseeing the exploration and application of new technology related to consumer finance.
- Implemented Lean and Agile to improve the production process and focus.
- Conducted market research to develop a strategy, vision, and roadmap related to delivering a new automated savings app.
- Utilized design sprints and design thinking to understand consumer needs and enable rapid iteration of the prototype.
- Managed and mentored a team of junior product managers implementing a performance measurement approach to enable improved career development.
- Devised and delivered product management training for new hires, outlining product management techniques, including Agile, Lean, and HCD, to enable rapid onboarding and training of new hires.
Product Manager—Consultant
Fortune 100 Insurer
- Brought in to build and coach a new Agile pod with cross-functional capabilities to execute against KPIs.
- Coached the product owner about best-practice related to the product, opportunity identification, backlog prioritization, and scope.
- Derived the roadmap, vision, and strategy to socialize with senior leadership and the organization.
- Worked with C-level executives to identify market opportunities and transform the organization to align with the product-thinking approach.
- Implemented best practices related to consumer insight and user testing to improve the customer focus of the design and engineering teams.
Product Manager—Consultant
Fortune 100 Insurer
- Led the new product initiative to deliver an automated pricing platform to improve the underwriting experience.
- Conducted interviews with stakeholders to understand the work process flows and document requirements.
- Worked with the UX team to wireframe and conduct user tests of prototypes before the build-out.
- Built the backlog of prioritized features and managed the cross-functional teams to deliver version 1.0 of the pricing tool.
- Socialized the effort with C-level executives to achieve buy-in and ensure continued support for the project.
Founder and CEO
RevMax
- Founded a company focused on revenue optimization for SMBs in the hospitality space, namely hotels.
- Built the founding team and identified the market opportunity based on SME interviews and outreach.
- Conducted market research and competitor analysis to determine the go-to-market strategy.
- Developed the customers for the initial proof of concept, negotiated contracts, and partnership agreements.
- Gathered requirements from partners and built a roadmap for the feature roadmap.
Product Manager
Zynga
- Shipped seven new product features for the flagship FarmVille franchise with around two million daily active users (DAU).
- Conceived and executed a puzzle-based game to drive engagement and retain users. The social aspect sourced around 10% of DAU and generated around$100,000 in revenue through the product lifecycle.
- Created and released a themed feature set, with staged release to reduce complexity and risk, resulting in around a 5% increase in user engagement and a 17 bps lift in retention.
- Identified and targeted less engaged user segments with a revenue-focused "promotional" feature, using multi-variate testing to optimize discount and duration, resulting in around 3% of daily incremental revenue lift.
- Gathered requirements and worked with cross-functional teams to deliver the product.
Consultant
Boston Consulting Group
- Oversaw the product development and project managed the initial rollout of a complex, multimillion-dollar trading platform, building roadmaps for a leading global hedge fund to save $100 million in three years.
- Spearheaded the tech implementation and winner of the 12th Annual "Polaris Award" for outstanding client impact when implementing improved operations for a global hedge fund leading to $1 billion NPV in savings.
- Developed the growth strategy and identified a go-to-market strategy for a $10 billion consumer goods company, recommending an organic growth strategy yielding $200 million in potential incremental revenues.
Project History
Enterprise-wide Pricing Platform for Fortune 100 Insurer
Launched an automated pricing platform, rolling out to an entire division of over 100 underwriters.
Led the product development process, from discovery to execution and rollout. Conducted user interviews to map the work process flow and gather user requirements. Led user testing to refine prototypes and data visualization before division-wide release.
Automated Saving App for Mobile Banking
Led conception, discovery, and execution of a mobile-first automated saving app for a Fortune 100 financial services firm.
Owned the strategy, roadmap, and vision for the new product development focused on solving America’s under-saving problem, leading customer research and product development for alpha rollout. I managed a team of four during the development
New Product Launch
Designed, built, and launched a new product to provide transparency in the funeral planning industry.
Conducted market research, user interviews, and built a team to deliver the product to the market. Gathered pricing data and used existing APIs to create a comprehensive database of existing businesses to enable consumers to plan while providing transparency.
Education
Master's Degree in Business Administration
Kellogg School of Management - Illinois, USA
Bachelor's Degree in Economics
University of Bristol - Bristol, England
Skills
Tools
Sketch, Jira, Trello, Balsamiq Mockups, InVision, Figma
Paradigms
Agile, Design Thinking, Rapid Prototyping, Agile Product Management, Marketplace Platforms, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), Kanban
Industry Expertise
Insurance, Financial Services, Consumer Products, Life Insurance, Marketplaces, Insurance Technology (Insurtech), Hospitality
Other
Customer Analysis, Management Consulting, Market Fit, Lean, Product Mapping, Roadmaps, Backlog Grooming, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Backlog Management, Feature Roadmaps, Prototyping, eCommerce, Mobile Banking, UX Design, Strategy, Market Research & Analysis, Competitive Strategy, Competitor Analysis & Profiling, Fintech, Product Owner, Product Management, Product Roadmaps, Product Vision, Vision Development, Product Discovery, Discovery, Customer Research, User Interviews, Customer Interviews, Customer Discovery, Customer Development, Stakeholder Interviews, Design Sprints, Startups, Business Cases, Early-stage Startups, Lean Canvas, Lean Startups, Product Strategy, Product Thinking, Platforms, New Products, New Product Development, Ideation, Ideation Workshops, Revenue Strategy, Market Research, Business, Business Strategy, Business Models, Company Strategy, Competitive Intelligence, Business Planning, Product Conceptualization, Validation, Conceptualization, Responsive Web Apps, Data Analytics, Product Development, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Wireframing, Mobile Applications, Pitch Decks, User Experience (UX), Digital Product Management, Direct to Consumer (D2C), Customer Segmentation, Market Demand, Sprint Planning, Business Plan Consulting, Product Consultant, Business Consulting, Go-to-market (GTM) Strategy, Consumer Insights, Research, Apps, Product Analytics, Project Management, Business to Consumer (B2C), Subscriptions, User Journeys, Stakeholder Management, Web & Mobile Applications, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), User Flows, User Stories, Web App Design, Web Project Management, Product Design, Go-to-market Plans, Operational Workflow, Go-to-market Optimization, Digital Marketing, Website Conversion, User Research, Business to Business (B2B), User Feedback, Mentorship, Coaching, Mentorship & Coaching, Mockups, Budgeting, Launch Strategy, Software as a Service (SaaS), Dashboards, Data Reporting, Cross-departmental Collaboration, Beta Testing, Industry Analysis, Product Strategy Consultant, Marketing Strategy, Agile Program Management, Executive Consulting, Product Leadership, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), Mobile Apps, Web Applications, Artificial Intelligence (AI), iOS, Machine Learning, Data, Pricing Strategy, Channel Strategy, ClickUp, Economics, Payment APIs, Developer Experience (DX), Documentation, UX Flows, UI Design, Data Analysis, Pricing, Web Content, Content Management, Process Optimization, Community Growth, Service Design, Website Traffic, Digital Advertising, Travel & Leisure, Sales, Online Payments, Flutter, Operations, Business Analysis, IT Business Analysis, Systems Analysis, Client Management, Global Product Management, Technical Product Management, Email, SaaS, Enterprise, MVP Design
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