Eric Kovar
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Menlo Park, CA
Toptal member since October 11, 2019
Eric is a senior product management professional with a proven track record of success in multiple industries. He's worked with both Fortune 100 companies in Manhattan and startups in San Francisco. Eric has been featured in the NY Daily News, CB Insights, and USA Today for product innovation.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Customer Research
- Market Research & Analysis
- Product Roadmaps
- Product Strategy
- Product-market Fit
- Technical Design
- UX Roadmaps
- User Experience (UX)
Work Experience
Senior Technical Product Manager
Gartner - Digital Markets Non-Engineering
- Redesigned the user journey and increased page views by 10%.
- Mentored offshore engineers, POs, and scrum masters.
- Led the redesign of one of the main pages for user testing.
Senior Product Manager (via Toptal)
McKinsey & Company
- Launched the MVP of an internal McKinsey financial data visualization product that was the 1st to use AI.
- Helped design an application that reduces the current manual two-week data collection and analysis process down to two days.
- Led a cross-functional team of partners and engineers from seven countries and had a budget of $100,000+ per week.
Senior Product Manager
Startup Client
- Worked side by side with a brilliant female founder and helped her turn her vision into a software platform and product that saves lives worldwide.
- Led the team of engineers and designers as we designed, built, and launched an MVP for User testing.
- Led the worldwide team that launched the V1 product in the critical care space.
Senior Product Manager
Pfizer (via Toptal)
- Acted as a product manager for the Digital Companion team at Pfizer. Helped recruit, train, and coach a cross-functional team that developed the product roadmaps, release plans, and Jira use and reporting that is now the standard at Pfizer.
- Led and coached senior managers (10-20+ years at Pfizer) as they learned to design, build, and launch new digital products in their capacity as stakeholders.
- Served as part of the leadership team for the digital transformation. Provided coaching, seminars, and team-building as an additional scope.
- Involved in a project with hardware that collected data passively from users that were used later as part of a data science project to inform providers.
Senior Product Manager
Startup Client
- Developed a computer vision system for a retail environment that recognized customers and sent them texts.
- Led a very successful project that produced excellent data.
- Oversaw the project that was terminated due to data privacy issues at that time.
Owner | Builder
Real Estate Developer
- Built over 100 SFRs, 1000 MFRs, and several mixed-use projects. Worked with architects and general contractors.
- Bought land, obtained entitlements, built roads and utilities for five projects in Florida, USA.
- Built the Lofts of Winter Park Village. I was featured in USA Today, HGTV, and The Urban Land Institute.
Operations Officer and Manager
Sun Bank Data Center
- Managed the Sun Bank's data center and improved the level of service from 67% to 96%.
Project History
Launched Internal Data Visualization Product for McKinsey
Led the MVP launch of an internal financial data collection and analysis product that reduced the existing manual process from two weeks to two days.
Financial data collection, analysis, and use case modeling product that automates the current manual process for every firm engagement. Industry Benchmarks and internal IP are constantly updating and populating scenarios for clients.
Product Manager for a New Pharma Product Launch
Part of the Pfizer's new digital leadership team that is launching 15 new digital products to match with new drugs to be released over the next 3-5 years.
As a product manager and agile coach, I mentored senior leaders starting Pfizer’s digital transformation and learning Agile software development. We launched the new digital companion that would be the model for the next 14 products. We set up systems and protocols for more product launches as Pfizer embraced Agile and Scrum methodologies using Jira and Marvel.
Serve Anywhere
CB Insights recognized the hospitality product I designed for innovation and called it one of the 89 applications reinventing the restaurant industry.
ServeAnywhere is an education and training software platform for the hospitality industry. Created the product roadmap and helped launch with initial customers. I led a young, cross-functional team of designers, engineers, and marketing professionals using the Agile methodology.
RadiusBlue
One of the first web applications to learn about customers through posts on Facebook and use it to better serve them.
A B2C mobile app for apartment owners, managers, and residents. This software platform aims to increase apartment lease renewals through better engagement with customers, based on their social profiling.
Some of the technologies used include HTML, CSS, JS, Python, SQL, iOS, and Java.
Sitehound SDK collaboration
Created a computer vision product for the retail industry.
2084 Tech used computer vision to recognize repeat customers and send them coupons. On property facial recognition matched with social media searches that are used to wend direct messages to customers with 97% accuracy.
Education
Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration and Finance
University of Florida - Gainesville, FL
Honors Engineering Program in Industrial Engineering
University of Pittsburgh, College of Engineering - Pittsburgh, PA
Certifications
HTML, CSS, JS, Python, SQL
Coursera
Harvard Book Award
Harvard University
Skills
Tools
Jira, Confluence, Slack, Google Analytics
Paradigms
Agile Product Management, Agile
Industry Expertise
Hospitality, Real Estate Development, Pharmaceuticals
Platforms
AWS IoT
Other
Digital Transformation, Go-to-market Plans, New Business Development, Strategic Partnerships, Product Roadmaps, Technical Design, Business Strategy, Business Development, Product Management, UX Design, Software Innovation, Team Building, Product Strategy, Product Innovation, Data Analytics, Data Visualization, Dashboard Design, Data Science Product Manager, UX Roadmaps, Project Management, Roadmaps, User Experience (UX), Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Business Analysis, Software Design, Financial Modeling, Product-market Fit, Customer Research, iOS App Design, SQL, Data Analysis, Websites, Mobile Apps, Market Research & Analysis, SaaS, Sponsorship, Data, Finance APIs, Miro, Teams, Algorithms, Product Launch, Social Media Platforms, APIs, Internet of Things (IoT), Hardware Design, Technical Product Management, Construction Estimation, Architecture, Local & Municipal Government
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