James Flynn
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Boston, MA, United States
Toptal member since October 23, 2019
With over three years of experience in product management for AI at Google, James is an expert in product strategy and product development. He has implemented digital transformation at a $1 billion market-cap bank. In 2016, he built and ran a product team that invented a multi-platform digital application, acquired into global distribution by Samsung and took top honors at CES. He was hired into an Innovation Lab by Samsung after founding a mobile app and sensor hardware company.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile Transformation
- Consumer Behavior
- Consumer Electronics
- Financial Modeling
- Innovation Management
- Strategy
Work Experience
Senior Product Manager
- Designed and implemented a centralized consent design and development workflow, integrated with AI and used by Google Search, Google Ads, YouTube, Google Play, Pixel, Google Wallet, and others.
- Drove business-forward, effective, and compliant user onboarding and consent campaigns across 1P products and international jurisdictions, including personalization for Ads and Gemini.
- Directed consent UX research, including user-facing patterns and internal AI-driven data mining.
- Won three Tech Impact Awards and was awarded one patent in voice invocation.
- Led a project to increase the scope of user biometric voice ID from a single product (Assistant) to cover all Google products, including Gemini.
Product Strategy Consultant
Samsung NEXT
- Advised on portfolio strategy for Samsung Next to deliver differentiating consumer-facing software and services, leveraging Samsung's strategic market advantages.
- Built a causal model for product strategy, incorporating informatics, technology, and behavioral psychology.
- Researched specific product categories and developed a market-entry and hypotheses-validation strategy.
- Built a roadmap for product go-to-market and lean hypothesis validation.
Product Strategy Advisor
IDEO Design
- Consulted on strategy for new product definition and validation.
- Prototyped a new venture for a Fortune 100 energy company.
- Identified and defined opportunities in consumer electronics.
SVP Digital Banking
Techcombank
- Assessed infrastructure, system software, architecture, vendors, personnel allocation, and strategy for technology throughout the organization.
- Redesigned a digital banking development roadmap, factoring in banking and operations strategy, investment requirements, technology, and human resource implications, working from high-level company goals.
- Investigated and prototyped deep-learning AI technologies for process optimization.
- Directed the design and provision of an HR optimal matching software platform.
- Led internal reorganization to establish a cross-functional product team structure for differentiating software.
- Implemented workflow changes for retail mobile and internet banking, resulting in improved usability, increased customer satisfaction, and significant cost savings.
- Conducted an analysis of regional fintech activity and market trends. Informed bank strategy on acquisition targets and startup partnerships.
Product Team CEO
Samsung NEXT
- Built and managed cross-functional digital innovation teams.
- Managed post-acquisition integration and a global roll-out of multi-platform consumer applications with Samsung Digital Appliances.
- Invented and trialed integrated hardware and software products with a mandate to deliver novel recurring revenue products for Samsung.
- Presented projects, methodology, and results to Samsung CEOs.
- Directed strategy, team design, hiring, and project management.
Founder
Extrasensory Devices
- Founded a technology startup with multiple products.
- Invented and brought to market mobile applications and accessory hardware.
- Directed marketing, crowd-funding campaigns, and digital advertising.
FPGA ASIC Engineer
Wideband Semiconductor
- Integrated a circuit design for communication infrastructure and medical devices.
- Designed DSP and logic design for communications and medical device FPGAs and ASICs; contributed to three patents.
- Designed image-processing, multi-path equalization, proprietary industry-standard protocols, control, synchronization, and automation algorithms.
Project History
Central Internalized Labor Market
Brought a novel industrial organization project from concept through to delivery with a remote team.
Designed, built, and managed an optimal-matching labor market platform for a financial-sector company. The platform algorithmically reassigned 350 personnel within a 2000-employee Sales and Distribution division, resulting in an 8% increase in monthly sales.
Stickiboard App
Hypothesized, prototyped, and rapidly iterated a unique connected device application that quickly gained traction with users.
Stickiboard was a multi-platform consumer app for families. Took the project from concept through to acquisition by Samsung Digital Appliances in 15 months, winning the top award at CES 2016. The project involved hardware prototypes in a geographically-distributed user co-creation process that facilitated the validation of product features by observing real engagement in natural settings.
Retail Bank Digital Transformation
Established cross-functional product development at a national bank with lasting positive organizational impact.
Established product teams in a legacy-structured 5,000 employee bank. Took over retail banking software development and trained new project managers in user-focused design, Agile methodology, and strategy. Quickly captured $300,000 per month in cost savings and improved user ratings.
Education
Diploma in Leadership
Harvard Business School - Boston MA
Bachelor's Degree (Honors) in Physics
Canterbury University - New Zealand
Certifications
Certified Privacy Technologist
IAPP
Skills
Tools
Git, Jira, Trello, Pivotal Tracker, MATLAB, R, Slack, Zoom
Paradigms
Agile, Agile Product Management, Agile Project Management, Change Management
Industry Expertise
Startup Accelerators, Product Ideation, Banking & Finance, Exercise & Fitness
Other
Strategy, Development Transformation, Agile Transformation, Digital Transformation, Consumer Electronics, Innovation Management, Internet of Things (IoT), User Engagement, Startups, Product Roadmaps, New Product Development, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Workflow Automation, Stakeholder Management, Requirements, Project Scoping, iOS App Design, Consumer Behavior, Project Tracking, Financial Modeling, Signal Processing, Presentations, Statistics, Electrical Engineering, Change Leadership, Startup Growth Strategy Development, Artificial Intelligence (AI), AI Agents, Retrieval-augmented Generation (RAG), Android, SaaS Design, Pricing Strategy, Discovery Workshops, Product Marketing, Data Science, Software Architecture, Innovation Labs, Software Innovation, Sensors & Actuators, Audio, Python, Algorithms, Ideation, Product Benchmarking, Portfolio Management, Teams, Google Meet, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Analysis, Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, Privacy Design, Business
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