Daniel Lipton
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
New York, NY, United States
Toptal member since July 28, 2020
Daniel is a seasoned product management leader with 15+ years of experience who excels in driving innovative product strategies and market growth. Formerly a software engineer and financial analyst, he's led teams of up to 30, delivering millions in new revenue. Daniel's expertise spans fintech, digital entertainment, and marketplaces, showcasing a solid blend of strategic leadership, data-driven decision-making, and international team management.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- App Product Management
- Head of Product
- Marketplace Platforms
- Product Leadership
- Product Strategy
- Video Streaming
- eCommerce
Work Experience
Product Manager
Allen Media Group - theGrio
- Created a detailed roadmap to reduce declining app usage and grow installs over the next year.
- Provided critical insights into a product strategy for executives through extensive data analysis.
- Project managed a rebranding effort involving developers and marketing.
VP of Product Management
Auction Technology Group
- Drove marketplace payments acceptance from 40% to 65%, resulting in an anticipated additional $4 million in revenue. This was the primary driver for the division's revenue growth.
- Oversaw the successful launch of new SEO features, resulting in a 20% increase in Google traffic and a 60% increase in impressions.
- Developed a comprehensive top-down model to establish a clear correlation between operating results and financial outcomes, enabling me to provide insights on changing results and create a growth roadmap with precise financial projections.
- Led multiple A/B tests to enhance email, search, and page engagement, effectively reversing the decline in user acquisition.
VP Product Management
Hagerty
- Reinvented Hagerty's core insurance systems, including insurance product management, rate calculations/stabilization, quote, application, and policy management such as STP, report management, billing/payments, and more.
- Managed an international team of AWS back-end service developers.
- Redesigned the internal service application and built a prototype using Flutter.
Product Manager
Piggy
- Launched the company's coupon and cashback mobile app on Android and iOS from scratch, managing an international team of designers and developers.
- Ran optimization campaigns and user research on sign-up flows to turn LTV positive.
- Performed proprietary consumer and industry research to create the company's first portfolio strategy.
Head of eCommerce
BELL + MODERN (Freelance)
- Created and developed an eCommerce business from scratch.
- Designed and set up the Shopify website as well as integrations with eBay, Walmart, and Amazon channels.
- Ran SEO and content creation efforts. Managed agency-run digital marketing campaigns, including paid performance and social media.
Chief Product and Technology Officer
NEOU Fitness
- Signed-up over 30,000 paying subscribers who watched over 74,000 hours of videos.
- Established the core data infrastructure, enabling the company to analyze marketing performance and tie it to specific user engagement. This dramatically lowered acquisition costs as well as churn.
- Changed the Google Play Store app listing on-page metadata and images and ran store experiments which grew the conversion rate by 5%.
- Hired the developer team and wrote all functional documentation, allowing the company to rewrite the system from scratch.
Vice President | New Product Development and Strategy
Harland Clarke Holdings
- Piloted changes to $1.7 billion in print and in-store marketing products for clients, including Revlon and AT&T, by creating an omnichannel offering. Utilized advanced technologies, including beacons, augmented reality, chatbots, and digital watermarks.
- Created a new prepaid card program for underserved and millennial audiences. Negotiated over $10 million in funding from Visa/MasterCard.
- Established Valassis's core product team from scratch by training existing employees in agile product management techniques.
- Rebuilt and optimized the eCommerce system for check-ordering and personalized stationery. Analyzed and optimized flows by looking at web analytics data and performing consumer interviews.
- Worked with the leaders of a $4 billion private equity portfolio of companies to re-orient their business strategies and create innovative marketing and banking products. Performed over $750 million in acquisitions.
Wallet Product Lead
Softcard
- Created the first national mobile wallet with over 3 million registered mobile users. The app was pre-loaded on all phones sold by AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon, enabling people to pay and save with their phones.
- Improved the system usability score from less than 60 to over 80.
- Increased the net promoter score (NPS) from less than -10 to over 30.
- Grew the app store rating from less than three stars to over four.
- Introduced a user-focused approach to the company, including usability and field-testing, focus groups, and quantitative surveys.
Vice President, Global Products
Fox Mobile
- Signed up over half a million subscribers in the US, UK, and Canada for a mobile games-for-prizes service.
- Launched the industry's first mobile video streaming service (Bitbop) with TV and movies from various content providers.
- Created mobile content subscription services in Brazil and Thailand.
- Designed and built the first Facebook video game targeting the core gamer audience.
Equity Research Senior Associate
JPMorgan Chase
- Advised investment clients on the small/mid-cap software and interactive entertainment industries. Advised clients on company earnings and the impact of industry news on valuations.
- Analyzed industry M&A transactions, including Activision, Vivendi, EA, and Take 2, using an accretion/dilution and value-based framework to create investor recommendations; advised clients on other potential M&A in the industry.
- Wrote the initiation report on Red Hat, the world's leading commercial Linux company. Developed the key investment thoughts, financial model, and valuation.
- Wrote the initiation report on GameStop, the world's leading specialty video game retailer. Determined a valuation using multiple approaches.
- Created an industry report that delved deeply into the casual game market, MMOs, social networking in games, user-generated content, digital distribution, and the future of interactive entertainment.
- Developed a proprietary model to project monthly video game industry and company sales.
- Wrote a 90-page report on the trends and strategic rationale towards a globalized electronics supply chain as a summer equity research associate at Bear Stearns, covering the EMS industry.
Senior Developer
Accenture
- Consulted with clients to perform technical business analysis, build detailed requirements documentation, developed project plans, wrote RFP bids, and created detailed systems architectures.
- Designed and built Java-based, multi-tiered software solutions using open architectures and leading-edge technologies.
- Developed an electronic quote system for the Pink Sheets, which brought a hundred-year-old paper-based stock and bond quotation system online and quadrupled market activity.
- Developed and extended an equity trading system for PaineWebber, which allowed clients to enter orders directly across the Internet to create more trading volume with lower costs.
- Led teams of software developers to meet system requirements, perform unit and integration testing, and deploy software for the equities, fixed-income, FX, and derivatives spaces.
Project History
NEOU Fitness
https://neoufitness.com/Led all product management and development for NEOU's fitness-video streaming platform, including the company's next-gen subscription-based video streaming platform. Signed up over 30,000 subscribers who watched over 74,000 hours of videos.
Bell and Modern
https://bellandmodern.com/Created an eCommerce business from scratch for an existing bathroom fixtures distributor. Responsibilities included all technology, design, branding, and operations.
Softcard Mobile Wallet
Led the product team for Softcard, the first national mobile wallet and a joint venture of the U.S. phone companies. Increased the SUS from <60 to >80, increased the NPS from less than -ten to over 30. Successfully signed up over three million users.
Education
MBA in Business
Columbia Business School - New York, NY
Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science
Tufts University - Medford, MA
Certifications
CFA level 1
CFA
Series 7, 63, 86, 87
FINRA
Skills
Tools
BigQuery, Slack, Trello, Google Docs, Jira
Paradigms
Scrum, Agile Product Management, B2B2C, Agile Project Management, Agile, Iterative Development, Requirements Analysis, Marketplace Platforms, Usability Testing, Kanban, Augmented Reality (AR), Business to Business to Consumer (B2B2C)
Industry Expertise
Consumer Products, Insurance, Automotive
Platforms
Shopify, Zendesk, Google Analytics 4
Other
Lean Product Manager, App Product Management, Product Leadership, Product Strategy, Business Strategy, Direct to Consumer (D2C), Finance, Technical Design, Design Specifications, Requirements & Specifications, Software Requirements Specifications (SRS), Head of Product, Director of Product, Technical Product Management, Mobile Apps, Product Ownership, SaaS, Customer Experience, Transformational Leadership, Startups, Software as a Service (SaaS), Stakeholder Management, Product Positioning, Digital Product Management, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Agile Leadership, Sprint Planning, Product Management, Mobile App Development, Feature Roadmaps, Feature Prioritization, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Cost Estimation, Product Roadmaps, Product Growth, Cost Management, Scope, Mobile, Apps, User Requirements, Consulting, Project Estimation, Market Research, Market Research & Analysis, Project Planning, App Growth, Product Development, New Product Development, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Product Coach, Product Launch, Interactive UI, Investments, Financials, Business Analysis, Technical Analysis, Technical Requirements, Customer Research, Web Applications, Two-sided Marketplaces, Multi-sided Marketplaces, Roadmaps, MVP Design, Corporate Finance, eCommerce, Video Streaming, Board Games, Digital Payments, B2B Product Management, Usability, Big Data, SQL, Java, Pitch Decks, Presentations, Chatbots, Fintech, UX Design, Over-the-top Content (OTT), Strategy, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Customer Success, Customer Service, Websites, Product Design, User Experience (UX), Revenue Strategy, Messaging, Business Process Modeling, Business Process Analysis, Omnichannel Marketing, Project Management, A/B Testing, Data Analysis, Digital Project Management, CTO, Segment, Subscriptions, Product Research, Supplier/Vendor Selection, 2D Games, Extreme Programming, Print Ads, Payment Networks, Branding, iOS, Android, Innovation, Digital Transformation, Program Management, Web Services, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Digital Marketing, CRM Systems, React Native, Fitness, Marketing, B2C Marketing, Printing, Alternative Payment Methods, New Products, Card Payments, Video Games, SMS Marketing, SMS, Customer Acquisition, International Growth, P&C Insurance, Insurance Product Manager, Flutter, SEO Tools, Optimization, Modeling, Analysis, Software, Machine Learning, Python, Interim CPO, Drop Shipping, Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
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