VP of Product Management
2019 - PRESENTSelf-employed- Helped out as a product owner and strategy advisor for almost four dozen startups in fintech, regtech, high-tech, and investment groups globally.
- Acted as an investment expert on high, emerging, and radical technologies for about a dozen VC and PE investment funds in Europe.
- Evaluated almost a dozen proposals for the EU Commission as the expert on radical technologies like blockchain, new business models, and AI.
- Managed small cross-functional teams of up to eight across different clients.
CTO
2021 - 2021Locksign- Performed as the interim part-time CTO to take over a project from an India-based outsourced team. Conducted full due diligence on existing software solutions and established a team to rework and launch.
- Handled the full ecosystem for document signatures with a unique patented solution.
- Led a team of three full-stack developers and acted as a product owner and product manager.
- Prepared the product for the official public launch, including martech stacks for growth, launch plans, and PR and marketing propagation planning.
CTO
2020 - 2021Converting Ads- Led a team of 12 developers and DevOps engineers, handled their entire people management as a part-time CTO.
- Worked on a real-time bidding platform focused on lead generation, affiliate networks, and conversion tracking handling transactions worth over $60 million in annual volume.
- Built a fully automated cloud DevOps with multiple sync environments.
- Managed the complete process change throughout organizations by introducing the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), other agile frameworks, and robotic process automation (RPA) to all related processes.
Group DevOps Director
2020 - 2021Aures Holdings- Managed complete process change in the whole development organization. Took them from manual builds and testing to full hybrid cloud DevOps-based on MS Azure and local DC (Kubernetes, Docker).
- Led multiple teams of more than 30 people, including a mix of product and project managers, software architects, and developers.
- Introduced SAFe and Agile methodology across the whole organization.
- Implemented changes positively impacting over 3,000 employees in multiple countries and businesses with more than €800 million annual revenue.
CEO
2019 - 2021INDIGI- Created a full growth marketing automation stack that reaches approximately 50,000 engaged users across various social media channels every week.
- Developed a fully automated opportunities generation engine processing more than 960 million monthly web crawls and follow-up robotic process automation (RPA) in search of opportunities.
- Built a 95% automated RPA sales lead engine that processes over 360 daily conversations about startup fundraising, growth, or investment.
- Led a team of seven developers, designers, and DevOps engineers to create a completely new product, from prototype to MVP and MSSP afterward.
- Shifted towards venture studio at the end, still in operation by other founders. So far, it helped to build over dozen successful startups.
CTO
2019 - 2020NITTON PLATFORM SE- Completed the product roadmap and continued with an ongoing engagement on strategic management.
- Helped the client to build a solid business case, product roadmap, and a 12-month plan which led to a seed investment of €1.8 million.
- Collaborated with the entire C-board team on the definition of digital marketing strategy aligned to the team's go-to-market plan.
CEO and Founder
2016 - 2019Simplifate- Performed several niche sector researches and business model simulations to understand hidden inefficiencies in the European B2B enterprise software market.
- Built upon those simulations with an interesting go-to-market plan. It was supported by a profitable financial projection plan. The company was then bootstrapped with a minimum seed investment to $3 million in total revenue in 21 months.
- Created new business models for our products and joint venture products with partners extensively as well.
- Created multiple teams of 26 developers, DevOps engineers, product managers, salespeople, and administrative functions, and provided leadership to that team.
- Oversaw complete financial, operations, technology, and personnel planning.
- Successfully launched several high-tech products in the SaaS vertical and cooperated on more significant deals with major regional players.
- Exited the company to a UK-based investment fund and went on a personal sabbatical.
Interim CEO
2017 - 2018Angel Ventures Group- Led a small team of four cross-functional roles for product growth with a focus on user acquisition.
- Managed two outsourced DevOps teams. They were introduced and trained in Agile.
- Performed market analysis using primary and secondary research methodologies to build an evolving product roadmap.
- Managed funding and government negotiations with EU regulators.
Business Development Manager | Central and Eastern Europe
2013 - 2016Hewlett Packard Enterprise- Created extended teams within an organization with a focus on new service offerings and product creation. Provided vision leadership to these multiple teams of 150+ people on a longer timeframe period.
- Headed a new product line idea and test prototype that later created a yearly revenue of €380 million across EU countries—a tool for assessment of hybrid cloud options—providing application re-platforming strategy recommendations.
- Served as a company evangelist, propagating a new style of IT vision within the region, presenting, and forming strategies with Alliance partners (Gartner, IDC, Sitecore, Mobile Iron, and Microsoft).
- Introduced DevOps, Cloud Microservices, Green House, Smart Grid, and Shared Economy product visions to major HPE clients in CEE, helping them to form their three to 10-year strategy.
- Researched and created the product strategy for low code platform Omnius, successfully sold as an MVP to several fintech clients.
- Led smaller focused senior teams of up to 15 people, mainly in solution architecture, product management, and sales functions. Managed multiple internal resource providers.
Product Owner
2012 - 2013Independent Quant- Acted as a full-time future (Oil, SP500, and DAX) trader on European and US markets.
- Developed my own algorithms and strategies and tested them out in the market.
- Solely handled the whole design, architecture, and delivery of a high-frequency scalping trading system.
- Performed extensive market research and hypothesis formulations.
- Created a forecast modeling system for wire money transfer delays.
Account Delivery Manager EMEA
2011 - 2012Hewlett Packard Enterprise- Served as the delivery manager for multinational F1000's clients within the EMEA region.
- Managed detailed financial planning, applied technical architecture, business case development, and negotiations in contract and sales changes.
- Led teams of up to 150 DevOps engineers in 20 countries.
- Oversaw the financial and operational performance on EMEA-wide accounts worth $860 million in revenue.
- Designed and created a new project rating system for the DevOps team, which consisted of a heavily modified version of scrum that is still in use.
Enterprise Solution Architect EMEA
2008 - 2011EDS- Took projects through the full lifecycle from presale, enterprise architecture, design, deployment to execution.
- Defined the roadmap implementation plans on multiple parallel product streams.
- Successfully finished more than 65 projects in 20 countries, mainly the EU, competing with major global outsourcing players.
- Ensured compliance with the designed product architecture and delivered on time with expected quality and within budget estimations.
- Managed multiple DevOps teams spanning 14 EU countries and over 1,300 people in total.
- Awarded two times by a client: "Most meaningful IT project impact of the year."
Operational Lead | Central and Eastern Europe
2005 - 2008EDS- Increased the team performance of engineers under my supervision by a measurable 12% yearly.
- Served in the role of lead developer and tester for Intermec CRM.
- Oversaw full portfolio support for WAN, LAN, EUC, hosting, applications, PBX, AD, and messaging.
- Leveraged multiple outsourcing providers and their resources to enable financial flexibility.
- Established data-driven goal performance metrics for the whole region.
Jiri Fiala
Product Manager in Prague, Czech Republic
Member since October 7, 2019
Jiri is a goal-driven manager with 16 years of global experience in product creation, organizing a team of up to 450 people, and a deep passion for business technology application. His client portfolio contains both F1000 companies like HPE, Mondelez, KBC, as well as Europe's best startups in fintech and SaaS. Jiri helps out top research initiatives in radical tech forecasts and applies that info as a valuation expert for EU boards and VC funds.
Jiri is now available for hire
Project Highlights
- A successful launch of the company and its flagship product within heavily regulated EU framework and success in fundraising effort from Idea through Seed to Series A.
- Result: Model successfully tested on over 150+ startups globally. Currently in use by several VC partners. Total company valuation processed by the model over USD $11 billion.
- Proposed solution and future architecture got a green light from all global stakeholders, a new acquisition deal, and a program encompassing 34 countries with a value of € 600 million were signed. 41 separate projects completed within three years.
Expertise
- Agile Product Management
- Blockchain Platforms
- Business Design
- Fintech
- Product Management
- Product Strategy
- Regtech
- Startup Growth Strategy Development
Select Certifications
- CERVO Institute
- Scrum Alliance
- Project Management Institute (PMI)
Employment
Project History
- Derivates and Crypto Assets ExchangeA successful launch of the company and its flagship product within heavily regulated EU framework and success in fundraising effort from Idea through Seed to Series A.
Objective: Create a full product-market fit strategy, hypothesis verification criteria, and roadmap to accomplish it. Manage the company in the execution of those.
Role: CEO
Detail: Part of the team behind one of closely watched cryptocurrencies exchanges to launch in 2018 (in the role of interim CEO). Negotiated with national and EU regulators on transparency towards bank houses, asset classification, regtech licensing requirements, i.e. Designed and tested with small UX team a perfect onboarding process, modular trading environment and advance features like cross-platform trading, traditional finance instruments)
Tech Stack: Enterprise-grade hybrid cloud security, HSM keys, code vaults, and custom security solution. Used a combination of .NET Core, Python, Java microservices solution with several distributed storage options (Maria DB, Redis, Oracle) and latest microservices orchestration tools (Docker, Kubernetes).
Lessons Learned: How to made data-driven decisions on for company growth, tied to technical execution. How to establish operational and business models with metrics linked to performance evaluation of responsible people. - MARTECH Analytics PlatformA project discovery led to the new product roadmap and reworked business strategy outline leading to success in a follow up investment round of USD $1.5 million.
Objective: Perform full Project Discovery and propose a product roadmap redesign to suit follow up investment round.
Role: Project and Product Manager
Result: A project discovery led to the new product roadmap and reworked business strategy outline leading to success in a follow-up investment round of USD $1.5 million.
Detail: Performed full due diligence of the product and team with own N6DD methodology according to the wishes of the significant potential investor. Helped out the team to redesign the product map and find its way back to the product-market fit thesis. Introduced them to applied scrum automation toolset and helped to set up the process.
Tech Stack: Microsoft Azure, .NET Core, SQL
Lessons Learned: How to synthesize a new product thesis into a successful investment round. - New Due Diligence Model: N6PDDResult: Model successfully tested on over 150+ startups globally. Currently in use by several VC partners. Total company valuation processed by the model over USD $11 billion.
Objective: Create a new valuation model for high-tech and radical tech startups based on data science and prediction models.
Role: Product Owner
Result: Model successfully tested on over 150+ startups globally. Currently in use by several VC partners. Total company valuation processed by the model over USD $11 billion.
Detail: Complete product creation of a new valuation model through combined algorithms usage from idea conception, through detail research, modeling tests, and to final product delivery. Adaptable to rapidly shifting business models due to their platform economy nature, be it in any of subtle varieties like sharing, gig, hybrid, open innovation, or decentralized blockchain application. At its core is done by running six different independent algorithms (Point of Views) on the same core dataset (provided manually), but with different outside repositories allowed crawl data sets and macro forecast settings (growth, social, madtech metrics).
Tech Stack: Google Cloud, Big Query, Trifecta, Python, Integromat, Moz, BuzzSumo, Tensor Flow
Lessons Learned: How to build /not to build a startup and its products on over 150 live examples. How to setup autonomous discovery, evaluation, and connection algos. - Volkswagen Group - Global Dealership Support PlatformResult: A successful project discovery and proposal with new Enterprise Architecture led to €38 million contract. The new solution was then Deployed at 600+ sites in 24 countries.
Objective: Perform full project discovery, envision the enterprise architecture, and propose to a client a new approach to an existing platform.
Role: Enterprise Architect & BDM
Result: A successful project discovery and proposal with new enterprise architecture led to €38 million contract. The new solution was then deployed at 600+ sites in 24 countries.
Detail: Support, automation, and knowledge platform used for custom dealership solution deployment and monitoring at B2B Volkswagen partners locations. Served all brands that are part of the group and external dealers as well.
Tech Stack: Microsoft Azure, .NET Core, MS SQL, Haven, IDOL
Lessons Learned: Multiple parties negotiation (had to be approved by six brands and 24 countries. HW/SW global deployment and support bundle proposition. - Mountain Rage - Mobile Game DevelopmentA small success with a few hundred thousands downloads, not a commercial hit. Costs recovered. Followed by two other cross-platform titles.
Objective: Develop a medium size mobile game, test our understanding of B2C segments and logics driving mobile application downloads and usage—archive minor commercial success.
Role: Business Stakeholder and Product Owner
Result: A small success with a few hundred thousand downloads, not a commercial hit. Costs recovered. Followed by two other cross-platform titles.
Detail: Designed full application logic, led a small team of four developers and designers. From whiteboard scratch to the deployed game, both at Android and iPhone. Minor success with few tens of thousands of downloads.
Tech Stack: Xamarin, Ionic, Unity, Android, IoS
Lessons Learned: Full mobile app design and launch cycle. A more in-depth understanding of the retail segment and human behavior-driven development. - Deutsche Bank – Cloud and CI MigrationMy parts of automated infrastructure re-platforming cloud orchestration were on time and budget (USD $4.6 million) Microservices and cloud orchestration designs and patterns still in use.
Objective: Run automated project discoveries and business requirements gathering for automated orchestrated hybrid cloud migration of 16 data centers at four continents.
Role: Enterprise Architect
Result: My parts of automated infrastructure re-platforming cloud orchestration were on time and budget (USD $4.6 million) Microservices and cloud orchestration designs and patterns still in use.
Detail: Part of an international architecture team for full cloud migration automation through a big bang approach. 20,000+ servers migrated within a week after 15 months of preparations and automated pattern discovery feed to custom cloud orchestration designs.
Tech Stack: Openstack, CTP Application Migration Framework, MVC, AWS, GCP, VPC
Lessons Learned: Automation of large patterns discovery and their migration. Hybrid cloud architecture. DevOps at large scale. - KBC Group –Strategic Innovation and Cost Savings ProgramResult: A full analysis of the complete project and program portfolio led to a start of 34 separate projects with a budget of over €3 billion aimed at 32% cost reduction and numerous innovation.
Objective: Perform a broad Program Discovery across the whole KBC group IT projects portfolio in several countries of choice. Propose innovation and cost savings projects where feasible.
Role: Enterprise Architect and Program Manager
Result: A full analysis of the complete project and program portfolio led to a start of 34 separate projects with a budget of over €3 billion aimed at 32% cost reduction and numerous innovation.
Detail: Complete disassembly and recreation of the entire application and infrastructure portfolio using advanced data science project discovery services. Applying the latest theoretical methodologies against practical constrains in a multinational bank.
Tech Stack: Elastic, Hadoop, REST
Lessons Learned: How to run a massive project discovery, setup the board-driven KPI's for project success, and meticulously defend the outcome of project thesis.
Link: none, all results NDA gated - Innogy: Low Code ERP PlatformResults of the PD was a newly proposed low code consolidation platform at Innogy Group with a three-year development plan for migration of all legacy applications. Project delivered within two years and USD $3.9 million budget.
Objective: Run a project discovery and business requirements gathering for a set of dozens of non-critical legacy applications with the aim of their migration or re-platforming.
Role: Enterprise Architect, Product Manager and Project Manager
Result: Results of the PD was a newly proposed low code consolidation platform at Innogy Group with a three-year development plan for the migration of all legacy applications. Project delivered within two years and USD $3.9 million budget.
Detail: Managed a team of 30+ developers, designers, and business analysts that re-platformed 26 existing applications into a completely new lightweight platform within two years and on time and budget, as originally estimated.
Tech Stack: PHP (Laravel), Java (Spring), Scala (Play), Mongo, Postgres SQL, Oracle, Apache
Lessons Learned: How to architecture and deliver a fully working hybrid cloud solution and develop from scratch a multi-use low code platform. Later on, a subset of the platform was released under MIT. - Vestoo – Blockchain Insurance Investment PlatformBuilt a blockchain-based revolutionary risk management solution that manages actuarial insurance risk's through the capital markets in less than four months. The solution handles billions $ value of securitized blockchain assets.
Objective: Plan and execute high tech product launch in less than three months timeframe.
Role: Project Manager and Enterprise Architect
Result: Built a blockchain-based revolutionary risk management solution that manages actuarial insurance risk's through the capital markets in less than four months. The solution handles billions $ value of securitized blockchain assets.
Detail: An MVP build with the fragmentation of existing insurance securities into smaller tokenized asset packages and their resell on blockchain connected marketplace. Complete project discovery and delivery provided. Managed full team of 30+ developers, designers and analytics.
Tech Stack: Solidity, ETH, .NET Core, Maria DB
Lessons Learned: How to run a fully remote MVP build across the globe with minimum specifications, fast. - NDA Gated: Large EU eCommerce holding - Blockchain loyalty platformPlanned and modeled a deployment of a unified blockchain platform across a broad set of 40+ corporate eCommerce stores in Europe. The project got a green light with a €16+ million budget.
Objective: Evaluate and discover business and technical requirements of a unified loyalty platform for dozens of multiple brands across all EU countries. Provide a feasibility study on tokenization and blockchain deployment of such a platform.
Role: Enterprise Architect and Product Manager
Result: Planned and modelled a deployment of a unified blockchain platform across a broad set of 40+ corporate eCommerce stores in Europe. The project got a green light with a €16+ million budget.
Detail: Responsible for full requirements gathering, architecture, financial planning, and business case creation. Planned and modelled a deployment of a unified blockchain platform across a broad set of 40+ corporate eCommerce stores in Europe and prepared board.
Tech Stack: jQuery, Bootstrap, HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, Node.js, Redis, MongoDB, JVM, EOS, GCP, AWS
Lessons Learned: Project discovery greatly increased my understanding of current loyalty program dysfunctions and more extensive data set modelling biases. Also, legacy eCommerce integration issues with multinational holdings.
Link: none, all results NDA gated, in development - Mondelez Int. – M&A Due Diligence and Acquisition IntegrationProposed solution and future architecture got a green light from all global stakeholders, a new acquisition deal, and a program encompassing 34 countries with a value of € 600 million were signed. 41 separate projects completed within three years.
Objective: Perform due diligence on recently acquired biscuit business of Danone (34 countries, 38k people, and over 14k applications) and propose the best migration option to a unified enterprise tech stack. Perform the migration on per country project base.
Role: Enterprise Architect and Project Manager
Result: Proposed solution and future architecture got a green light from all global stakeholders, a new acquisition deal, and a program encompassing 34 countries with a value of €600 million was signed. 41 separate projects completed within three years.
Detail: Responsible as a core architect for EMEA in Mondelez acquisition of Danone biscuits operations and follow up integration into existing outsourcing model with the current provider. Included high-level network and ERP partial join solution for temporary access, migration of a few hundred applications, and 15,000+ users across EMEA.
Tech Stack: SAP, multiple ERP systems, global WAN, LDAP, AD, SMCC, LAMP stacks, Java, ROR stack, .Net stack, Delphi, Lotus Notes, AS400
Lessons Learned: Running multiple projects at the same time, global company enterprise architecture principles and practice, managing large teams of over 400 people across multiple countries. - Model Hypothesis AuthorAlways on time with delivery. Got republished several times.
Participated in the conception of several whitepapers centered around blockchain technology models. Written several theses on future business models.
- INDIGI: Robotic Sales PlatformAfter eight months of development time, a fully automated lead generation engine was created. Currently processing monthly 960 million crawls and starting around 10k interactions with potential leads.
Objective: develop a new integrated tech stack to process robotic sales through big data engagement.
Role: CTO
Result: After eight months of development time, a fully automated lead generation engine was created. Currently processing monthly 960 million crawls and starting around 10k interactions with potential leads.
Detail: Managed a team of 10+ distributed developers, designers, and marketing automation experts. The project is expanding rapidly with MRR growth over 34% monthly.
Tech Stack: Google Cloud, Big Query, Integromat, .NET Core, Python
Lessons Learned: Latest advancements and usage of HiPaaS and RPA tools on the market. Formed partnership with the leaders in the field.
Certifications
- International Law in Digital Startup WorldDECEMBER 2019 - PRESENTCERVO Institute
- Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)JUNE 2016 - PRESENTScrum Alliance
- Project Management Professional (PMP)FEBRUARY 2012 - PRESENTProject Management Institute (PMI)
