Janis Lanka
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Vancouver, BC, Canada
Toptal member since June 5, 2019
As a seasoned SaaS product manager, Janis has worked with venture-backed startups, biotech companies, and global consultancies, where he successfully helped them align business priorities with user needs and technology capabilities. Janis loves the messy scaleup moments and enjoys leading and mentoring talented cross-functional teams of product managers, analysts, designers, and engineers to develop innovative products that solve the real needs of their end users.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- B2B
- Business Analysis
- Business Coaching
- Product Strategy
- Roadmaps
- Web Entrepreneurship
- eCommerce
- eCommerce Management
Work Experience
Product Management and eCommerce Lead
3Waves
- Led the discovery and MVP development for a cloud marketplace client, revamping their quoting module, crafting a 3-quarter roadmap, and establishing a dedicated support team.
- Managed re-platforming initiatives (from SFCC to Shopify) for several Unilever brands, driving growth by overseeing customization efforts and the creation of custom apps to meet specific business and user requirements.
- Introduced and managed scrum processes until the successful handoff to the client's Project Manager and development team's Product Owner.
Head of Product
Interactio
- Managed several major roadmap revisions based on product opportunity scoring and quarterly assessments, strategic planning, story mapping, and other frameworks.
- Grew product and engineering units by 5X to 90+ team members within two years. Oversaw further department split and six team formation for more effective performance.
- Led technical and creative product teams and collaborated with other peer executives to rapidly scale product and engineering organizations. Also, I defined product planning and a strategy and established product operations.
Senior eCommerce and Platform Strategist
Freelance
- Coached and project-managed an introduction of eCommerce capabilities with Shopify to establish European fashion manufacturing.
- Led technology research and approach design for a bra-fitting app using a third scanning approach.
- Built a product strategy and business plan for an ingredient ontology-aware search engine used by pharmacists.
- Provided strategy advice and post-Magento2 migration platform management for US-based children's product manufacturer.
Product Strategy Adviser
Apply Digital
- Created a roadmap, lead process, and tool digitization process for a 100-year-old publishing company in the construction industry.
- Oversaw gathering of requirements and built a product strategy for a mobile platform connecting esports gamers and facilitating escrow functionality and game tracking via machine learning.
- Coached a client team to perform user research and interviews to craft a roadmap for a service targeting data scientists.
Associate Director, eCommerce & Digital
STEMCELL Technologies
- Formed multi-disciplinary groups (eCommerce enablement, insights and search engine marketing, marketing content integration, and web development).
- Led projects such as taxonomy redesign, cross-sell modeling and testing, free shipping modeling, a new shipping model design that gained margin improvement by 37%, social media playbook development, and PunchOut enablement for eProcurement customers.
- Built eCommerce experience and environment to attain 31% annual revenue growth compared to 22% revenue growth of the company.
Senior Strategist, eCommerce and Digital Platforms
Blast Radius
- Served as the senior business analyst for Nike’s multi-million dollar NG360 Golf project; exceeded 12-month goals within the first two weeks that landed the second multi-million dollar phase (focused on business analysis and roadmaps).
- Headed successful completion of requirements gathering, strategy definition, and iteration planning for Bombardier Recreational Products and Vehicles.
- Focused on customer experience, competitive audits, persona development and testing, working with international clients like Nike Golf, Microsoft, Xbox Kinect, Starbucks, Bombardier (BRP), SaskTel, and Michelin as the global digital strategist.
UX and Front-end Lead
Elastic Path Software
- Supervised the redesign, usability testing, A/B split experiments, and the store-front implementation process for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Site, Hudson`s Bay Company, and Hockey Canada for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.
- Collaborated with internal client teams as the senior lead in driving usability testing, customer experience analysis, design, wireframe creation, microsite development, and multiple store features concept development.
- Provided product development, professional services, and marketing support, increasing department growth margins as the manager of the internal front-end team and vendors.
Co-founder & CEO
Emotion
- Co-founded an international web agency responsible for business development and partnership programs, working with nine countries and over 60 high-profile clients.
- Established an outsourcing partnership program that secured international growth opportunities for Emotion; generated over 55% of the company’s revenue and exceeded planned revenue by 60%.
- Led digital project management for 60+ clients from nine countries, varying in size from sole proprietorship to international organizations.
Project History
Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics Online Store
Supervised the redesign, usability testing, A/B Split experiments, and the storefront implementation process.
This contract included a broad range of services, from UX design to front-end development. At the same time, it included doing the same with Hudson’s Bay Company and Hockey Canada online stores.
Strobox - Photography Lighting Education Platform
What started with an iPhone app grew into 12,500 submissions, 4 published books, and 68,000 Facebook fans.
Since 2009, we have provided tools and an environment for photographers to share the common goal of educating others and learning new lighting techniques. We started with building an iPhone app, which later evolved into a strong online community portal.
Nike Golf 360 App
https://news.nike.com/news/nike-golf-360-app-goes-globalIntroduced a new way of tracking, competing, and connecting with Nike Golf.
Senior business analyst for Nike’s multi-million dollar NG360 Golf project; exceeded 12-month goals within the first two weeks that landed the second multi-million dollar phase (focused on business analysis and roadmaps).
Minnit CRM
Co-founder and product owner of first on-demand CRM in Baltics.
Strategically managing a product’s strategy and roadmap, overseeing budget, team, development, design, user experience, product marketing, and client training. Coordinated a negotiation of a subsequent acquisition.
Education
Continuing Studies in Business Analysis Essentials
Simon Fraser University - Vancouver, Canada
Masters Level Courses in Organizational Leadership
Azusa Pacific University - Online
Skills
Tools
Trello, Asana, Google Analytics, Zapier, Slack, Dialogflow, Optimizely, Jira
Paradigms
B2C, Agile Product Management, Requirements Analysis, Agile Project Management, Scrum
Platforms
Magento, Shopify, Twilio, Magento 2
Industry Expertise
Biotechnology, Automotive, Telecommunications
Other
eCommerce, Product Strategy, Strategy, Digital Strategy, User Experience (UX), Product Marketing, A/B Testing, eCommerce Management, B2B, Business Analysis, Roadmaps, Coaching, Product Management, Requirements, Product Roadmaps, Go-to-market Plans, User Research, Business Models, Product Design, Product Frameworks, Innovation, Product Ownership, Product Discovery, Fashion & Beauty, Technical Product Management, Product Owner, Backlog Grooming, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Proof of Concept (POC), Wireframing, Software as a Service (SaaS), User Journeys, SaaS Product Management, Estimation & Planning, Feature Planning, Project Planning, Technical Project Management, Stakeholder Interviews, Technical Requirements, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Consulting, Project Management, Chatbots, Web Entrepreneurship, Apparel & Accessories, Fashion, Business Coaching, Business Model Canvas, Mentorship & Coaching, Business Advisory, Product Coach, Go-to-market (GTM) Strategy, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), Business Requirements, Intercom, Business Process Modeling, User Onboarding, Mobile Apps, Mobile Applications, Web & Mobile Applications, Procurement, Airtable, Product Launch, Product Delivery, Mobile UX, Games, Machine Learning, SaaS, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Change Leadership, Consumer Behavior, Notion, Elastic Path, UX Design, iOS
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