Eric Crane, Product Manager in Atlanta, GA, United States
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Eric Crane

Verified Expert  in Product Management

Product Manager

Location
Atlanta, GA, United States
Toptal Member Since
February 6, 2019

Eric is passionate about building teams that find and solve difficult problems in collaborative environments. His experience in a variety of industries and functions helps him effectively blend technical, business, and behavioral considerations during product/market development efforts. Eric specializes in creating valuable new products and organizing businesses to sell.

Project Highlights

Envoy Deliveries
Led product development and marketing efforts for Envoy Deliveries which grew to 500+ business customers within six months.
Energy Internet
Led the transition of Energy Internet from a lab research project into a real company with a sustainable business model.
Lovely Direct
Designed and implemented the rental industry's first end-to-end automated leasing service for independent landlords.

Expertise

Work Experience

Product and Business Strategy Advisor

2018 - PRESENT
Insight Optics
  • Created a product roadmap.
  • Advised on R&D and IP strategy.
  • Rebuilt the company's business plan.
  • Devised marketing materials for physicians and patients.
  • Led the company strategy and goal setting sessions.

Founder

2018 - PRESENT
Agile Energy Networks, LLC
  • Created and refined the business model.
  • Recruited customers.
  • Set the company vision and mission.
  • Recruited advisors and employees.
  • Defined the product roadmap.

Product and Business Strategy Advisor

2018 - PRESENT
Flatfile
  • Led Flatfile's go-to-market strategy.
  • Interviewed customers to develop case studies and profiles.
  • Managed the GDPR readiness process.
  • Refined the positioning, value statements, and brand.
  • Recruited and hired for our distributed, part-time team.

Product Manager (Business Development and Product Marketing)

2016 - 2018
Envoy
  • Led the research, design, implementation, and marketing strategy for Envoy's second business product deliveries, which grew to 400+ customers, $600,000+ ARR, and NPS +52 in the eight months since the launch.
  • Built Envoy’s integrations platform alongside enterprise technology partners like Cisco, Hewlett-Packard (HP), and Box.
  • Organized and led large research initiatives to define the company’s long-term product vision.
  • Crafted a needs-based product roadmap for Envoy visitors to reverse a negative trend in customer growth.
  • Defined the product marketing process and goals.

Competitive Analyst Consultant

2016 - 2016
FullStory
  • Created a competitive positioning analysis for FullStory based on product features, pricing, and performance.

Advisor, Zumper VIP

2016 - 2016
Zumper
  • Advised Zumper on a direct leasing model for landlords, similar to Lovely Direct.

General Manager and Product Lead — Lovely Direct

2015 - 2016
Lovely
  • Developed a new business model and source of revenue and inventory with a leasing service model for independent landlords.
  • Led the 10-person product and engineering team to a 62% unit cost reduction.
  • Refocused the four members of the sales and marketing team from a traditional outbound sales model to an inbound marketing program, reducing customer acquisition costs by 65%.
  • Developed pricing and listing features, reducing the average time on the market from 32 to 18 days.
  • Prioritized and met customer needs, earning a +80 NPS, 4.5 Yelp rating, and 4.7 Google+ rating.

Marketing Consultant

2015 - 2015
MeTL
  • Advised Tanzania's largest private enterprise on the launch strategy for their new line of soft drinks.
  • Performed local market research and developed positioning for the new brands.

Marketing Lead (Part-time)

2014 - 2015
FullStory
  • Performed a channel analysis to determine the most effective marketing channels.
  • Developed cases and partnerships that improved lead conversion by 3x and 6x, respectively.
  • Revised marketing automation process, improving the prospect engagement by more than 40%.
  • Worked closely with the founding team to gather customer feedback and develop into a long-term product roadmap.
  • Fulfilled my duties while also attending grad school.

Founding Team Lead

2014 - 2014
ProsumerGrid fka Energy Internet
  • Developed the company's go-to-market strategy.
  • Defined the early business model and validated with customers.
  • Created financial projects and investor materials.
  • Led the pitch team that won the National Clean Energy Business Plan competition, attracting customers and earning us $100,000 in seed capital.

User Success Intern

2014 - 2014
SalesforceIQ fka RelateIQ
  • Completed a dozen different projects to improve the company’s operational efficiency.
  • Revamped customer support processes to reduce time spent per request by 30%.
  • Built SQL-based reporting to help customer success teams identify potential churn candidates.

Customer Success Owner

2012 - 2013
Crimson Hexagon
  • Worked as the first large account owner and was responsible for developing relationships with major brands like Toyota, Nike, and Samsung.
  • Managed a $2 million+ business with a net-negative churn of 20%.
  • Led all of the new enterprise client engagements.
  • Developed a sustainable implementation strategy for major accounts.
  • Coordinated with agency partners for value-added reporting services.

Technical Coordinator

2009 - 2012
Epic Systems
  • Led a team of eleven during an on time, under budget, on a $100 million install of Epic's electronic medical record software for St. Luke's Health System in Idaho.
  • Provided proactive and reactive technical support to major healthcare systems.
  • Wrote custom code and integrations for Epic's Professional Billing software suite.
  • Collaborated with customers on systems design for optimal AR/AP automation.

Envoy Deliveries

http://envoy.com/deliveries

Led product development and marketing efforts for Envoy Deliveries which grew to 500+ business customers within six months.

Envoy Deliveries makes receiving and managing packages effortless so you can work on what matters. By simply snapping a photo with any smartphone, Envoy Deliveries will “read” the shipping label, log the package into inventory, and automatically notify the recipient they have a delivery to pick up.

As the lead product manager at Envoy, I was responsible for the entire discovery process, defining the customer problems, developing the early prototypes, MVP definition, and the public launch. I worked with a lean team, ensuring that everyone was involved and engaged in our efforts.

Deliveries helped Envoy transition from a single-product company to a platform of services designed to improve workplace experience.

Energy Internet

Led the transition of Energy Internet from a lab research project into a real company with a sustainable business model.

When I first met the team at Energy Internet, they had an interesting technology—an algorithm to dynamically calculate energy supply and demand in various parts of the electric grid. I joined to help the team develop a business out of this technology. Through customer discovery and multiple rounds of pitches to prospects and investors, we were able to create a solution that customers were interested in adopting.

My efforts led to the formation of the company and receipt of $100,000 in seed capital.

Lovely Direct

Designed and implemented the rental industry's first end-to-end automated leasing service for independent landlords.

Lovely Direct is a technology-enabled end-to-end leasing service for independent landlords and property managers. Lovely's parent company, RentPath, was struggling to capture the long tail of independent landlords' properties, which comprised up to 80% of the inventory in many regions. Inventory is king in the independent listing service industry, and in order to capture this inventory, we needed to provide this segment a model that wasn't simply pay-per-lead.

Over an eight-month-long period, I helped refine the content, test various parts of the leasing process, and build technological tooling to optimize the experience. From tenant recruitment to pricing, marketing to lease creation, we were able to reduce landlords' leasing costs by more than 70% while also capture a new revenue stream and repeat customers.
2013 - 2015

Master of Business Administration (MBA) Degree in Technology and Innovation

Georgia Tech - Atlanta, GA, USA

2006 - 2009

Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) Degree in Finance and Consulting

Emory University - Atlanta, GA, USA

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