Donna Kelley, Product Manager in San Francisco, CA, United States
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Donna Kelley

Verified Expert  in Product Management

Product Manager

San Francisco, CA, United States

Toptal member since March 13, 2020

Bio

Donna is a senior product manager specializing in customer experiences and SaaS platforms. A data-driven decision-maker, Donna applies analytics and A/B testing to iterate features that drive business and experience outcomes. A quick study, with solid judgment informed by broad experience and proactive collaboration, she gravitates towards innovation projects and complex problems. Donna is comfortable as an individual contributor and is also in her element leading teams.

Project Highlights

SkilledUp
Launched a B2C platform and iterated the marketing funnel and product features toward product/market fit, improving KPIs for retention, satisfaction, and outcomes.

Expertise

  • A/B Testing
  • Agile Product Management
  • Backlog Management
  • Innovation
  • Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
  • Product Owner
  • Software as a Service (SaaS)
  • User Stories

Work Experience

Senior Product Manager

2017 - 2020
Adobe
  • Owned communication experiences that help customers buy our products, use our products, and manage their accounts.
  • Owned automation innovation, testing, and developing NLP-based conversational interface bots from initial pilots through rollout.
  • Researched customer experiences and detailed journeys. Designed automation solutions to engage users, discern intent, route by access rights, and detail issue resolution workflows. Designed the account management automation flows.
  • Tested and iterated to optimize user success. The pilot achieved 76% engagement opt-in, 13% completion of self-service flows, and 4% savings in agent contact time.
  • Spearheaded business and agent user acceptance testing (UAT) globally for consumers, server message block (SMB), sales, and enterprise. Worked cross-functionally to validate and close all resolutions for on-time release.
  • Owned customer and agent messaging platform experiences on all web surfaces. Defined workflows for consumer and enterprise segments globally and specified console tools for internal agents who served them.
  • Drove requirements, content, UX/UR, development, and testing. Released experiences serving around 20 million customers globally.
  • Defined analytics requirements to observe and incrementally influence user behaviors to drive workflow engagement and customer satisfaction (CSAT). Partnered with BI analysts to specify web analytics reports and KPI dashboards.

Product Consultant, Innovation Team

2015 - 2017
Adobe
  • Reported directly to the chief strategist/VP of innovation and conducted research and Lean tests to develop strategies and requirements that would inform roadmaps for products, features, and services.
  • Worked with the VP of innovation to develop and communicate product strategy.
  • Won executive support for initiating a partnership with Twitch to launch the Creative category as a testing concierge.
  • Launched the Adobe Channel on Twitch.tv. Produced programming, managed community engagement, defined analytics, and designed product and service tests. In the first 90 days, achieved 1.5 million uniques, 30,000 followers, and 25,000 chat engagements.
  • Validated experiences to successfully onboard users, drive repeat visits, retain daily engagement, and convert to product use.
  • Hired and managed a team, including an analytics programmer, a web development team, 42 streamers, and 36 volunteer mods.
  • Ran online learning livestreams and boot camps, optimizing KPIs for learning engagement and retention and course completion.
  • Forecasted the financial plan on a quarterly basis and managed the budget.

Director of Product, SkilledUp

2014 - 2015
Apollo Education Group
  • Led an Agile team in charge of developing a platform for delivering mentored online learning boot camps.
  • Applied the Lean methodology to successfully iterate and grow a platform, B2C products, and an operational infrastructure.
  • Created a platform to deliver mentored online learning. Iterated features for mentor management and communication, student progress tracking, and competency measurement.
  • Launched two boot camp programs and iterated the marketing funnel and product features toward product-market fit, improving KPIs for retention, satisfaction, and outcomes.
  • Built a team of 22 that included product managers, engineers, instructional designers, sales staff, success coaches, and mentors.
  • Partnered with marketing and business development leaders to acquire customers, partner with content providers, and develop enterprise opportunities.

Director of Product, Marketplace Content

2013 - 2014
Apollo Education Group
  • Selected for an innovation team within the Apollo Group focused on offering instructional products and data-driven insights to tech career seekers, course providers, and employers.
  • Drove the course marketplace merchandising strategy, evaluating 260 providers to offer consumers coverage and variety of content, delivery modes, and price points.
  • Teamed with the business development team to secure marketing partnerships with enterprises, including Amazon, Yahoo, Adobe, EMC, VMware, and Cloudera.

Director of Product, LMS Platform

2010 - 2013
Apollo Education Group
  • Recruited the founding team of an innovation lab tasked with creating a SaaS learning platform that would improve retention and learning outcomes through analytics-driven personalization.
  • Drove product ownership for key components of a next-generation LMS for the University of Phoenix (the largest private university in the world at the time) with enrollments of 300,000 students accounting for $3.7 billion in revenue.
  • Built a platform to deliver personalized learning experiences and demonstrate outcomes, integrate operational requirements, and create an outstanding experience for students, instructors, and administrators in this highly regulated industry.
  • Led the product team for all content services, including authoring, versioning, metadata, access/auth, IP rights management, cross-platform delivery, and assessment.
  • Owned the relationship with business unit leaders, partnering with them to manage a phased rollout.
  • Deployed 11 pilots, iterating product fit to business, student, and instructor needs. Shipped two major platform releases with quarterly upgrades.

Product Manager, Global New Media

2007 - 2010
Cengage Learning
  • Led the development of instructional media and assessment products for the mathematics and science higher education markets.
  • Managed the integration of products and staff from a major acquisition, defining and rolling out platform tools, branding, and content for product-focused websites across all disciplines.
  • Led the definition, development, and launch of 40 major online homework products in seven months in course areas across the mathematics markets. Increased revenue for the product line by $2 million in the first year.

Project History

SkilledUp

Launched a B2C platform and iterated the marketing funnel and product features toward product/market fit, improving KPIs for retention, satisfaction, and outcomes.

SkilledUp was a platform that would allow any mentor to interact with learners, teaching them real-world skills using hands-on projects and producing a portfolio of results.

I started the team from scratch, with a staff of one engineer, one product manager, and an outsourced development team. We tested messaging, ad targeting, platform experience engagement, and course completion. The team grew to include content developers, marketing, sales, success coaches, and mentors. Brand partnerships with mentors and pricing experiments were the next steps.

Education

2011 - 2011

Certificate in Executive Education Program (Product Management)

Haas School of Business, University of California Berkeley - Berkeley, CA, USA

Certifications

FEBRUARY 2018 - PRESENT

Certified Scrum Product Owner

Scrum Alliance

FEBRUARY 2018 - PRESENT

Certified Scrum Master

Scrum Alliance

Skills

Tools

Google Analytics, Tableau, Slack, Jira, Asana, InVision, GitHub, Microsoft Power BI

Paradigms

Agile Product Management, Requirements Analysis, Agile Project Management, Agile

Industry Expertise

Education Technology (Edtech)

Platforms

LivePerson, SharePoint

Other

Product Roadmaps, Product Management, Team Management, Jobs to be Done (JTBD), Backlog Management, Backlog Grooming, User Stories, User Requirements, Product Owner, Education, Product Launch, Requirements, Scrum Master, Customer Journeys, Innovation, Localization, Software as a Service (SaaS), Analytics, Offshore Team Management, Pitch Decks, User Research, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Product Strategy, User Interface (UI), Wireframing, Agile Product Delivery, B2B, Startups, Web Applications, Roadmaps, Project Management, B2B Product Management, Feature Prioritization, User Journey Maps, Training, Microsoft Excel, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Adobe Experience Design (XD), Lucidchart, Adobe Photoshop, Language Understanding (LUIS), Rasa.ai, Cloud, Go-to-market Plans, User Experience (UX), Chatbot Conversation Design, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Messaging, A/B Testing, Customer Experience, Chatbots, Documentation, UX Analysis, Digital Marketing, Lean Product Manager, Design Sprints, Content, E-learning, SaaS Product Management, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Content Management, Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT)

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