Johnny Chao
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Taipei, Taiwan
Toptal member since January 28, 2021
Johnny has successfully launched multiple software and telco products in various industries as a project and product manager for over 18 years. He is experienced in the banking, credit, fintech, loyalty, GIS, and telco industries, to name a few. Having worked in startups to the largest banks and software companies, Johnny is well-versed in different SDLCs and has developed a highly effective and influential work style.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile Product Management
- Agile Project Management
- Data Analytics
- Mobile
- Product Marketing
- Product Roadmaps
- Product Strategy
- Scrum Master
Work Experience
Founder | Product Consultant
Chaos Consulting
- Built B2B and B2C apps to improve customer experience as a product and technology expert with over 20 years of experience. Also served as a product innovation leader in enterprise transformations to fintech and agile.
- Specialized in helping companies create, build, and scale talent and freelance marketplaces/platforms, the credit industry and housing/rental market, loyalty programs and proprietary rewards, and banking and financial technology platforms (fintech).
- Gained experience in industries such as telecom and unified communications, GIS/online mapping, and others.
Head of Product Manager Vertical
Toptal
- Conceived, designed, and built the product management vertical at Toptal from ground zero, including market and competitive research, client interviews, and business case/model in a comprehensive prospectus and execution plan.
- Created a world-class screening framework and built a product management talent network of hundreds of the world’s best product managers and leaders.
- Grew a client base that accounts for 12+ million YoY revenue and over 300 successful engagements over a 12-month period.
- Scaled the product manager vertical strategically 10-15x over a span of 18 months with an executable plan.
Head of Data Strategy and Solutions
Transunion Canada
- Led the data strategy team, including data scientists and project/product managers.
- Handled the overall ownership for Transunion Canada’s data strategy and data roadmap execution.
- Acted as a key member of the executive governance/board reviews to steer the C suite on the latest data/technology trends.
- Led numerous projects to launch new products and solutions for clients in the financial service space.
- Managed and was responsible for $20+ million in new product growth over 2017 – 2018.
Director, Digital Product
Royal Bank of Canada
- Oversaw 12+ million dollars of product ideation, development, and launch budget over 2016-2017.
- Worked on the first and only team within RBC Digital to release new iterations to production every two weeks, making RBC truly Agile.
- Led the product/project team to run three separate agile teams—building the next-generation RBC digital products.
- Launched multiple new products for RBC and drove user growth while saving costs to customer support and acquisition.
Head of Innovation and Commercialization
Finastra (formerly Davis and Henderson)
- Led a cross-functional agile team of 20-35 in an end-to-end product innovation and commercialization process.
- Worked with and pitched to large banks and credit unions in North America to provide and enhance their product offerings and internal toolsets in core banking, loan origination, digital payments, and more.
- Led product management for new ideas in lending, payments, and new areas of focus—launching numerous products and pilots.
- Pitched to and collaborated with the executive leadership team to get the buy-in and investment for key innovation projects.
- Managed partner and vendor relationships in building an external strategic innovation lab.
Director, New Product Development
Aimia (Aeroplan)
- Managed and was responsible for North American product strategy and development in the enhancement services division.
- Created the “blueprint” for a product strategy framework, including the technology and product roadmap, business and pricing models, vendor strategy, team development, and supporting processes.
- Led a team to design/develop innovative products for our clients in the financial, mobile, and retail markets.
- Led the research analysts in on-going BI efforts to serve clients and guide strategy/product—using the leading edge options to decrease the cost and improve speed to delivery.
- Managed the vendor relationships and outsourcing partners by creating/maintaining a vendor scorecard and tiers.
- Acted as a member of the M&A advisory board to the leadership team.
Senior Manager, Product Management
MTS Allstream
- Handled the complete ownership of the Cisco, Microsoft, and video conferencing product lines.
- Drove $50 million of annual revenue as well as high margin targets and growth.
- Created a strategic vision and comprehensive business case (NPV, IRR/MIRR, ROI, payback, and so on).
- Managed large vendors—establishing close strategic partnerships with Microsoft, Cisco, Nortel, Mitel, and so on.
- Created sales training content by mentoring sales personnel of the product values/benefits and helping the sales team master the ROI, value propositions and elevator pitches.
Director, Product Management and Development
Mapfusion Corporation
- Acted as the departmental director of 18 resources (PMs, developers, testers, tech writer, including an offsite Indian office).
- Balanced the departmental budget and was responsible for staffing, employee reviews, employee career growth, and training.
- Brought a major product launch to fruition that has been over one year late—saving the company credibility and brand identity.
- Researched and implemented a go-to-market strategic plan with a detailed snapshot of the market demographics, potential market share (revenue), and market verticals to attack.
- Constructed 18-month roadmaps and PRD for the strategic planning and execution team.
- Designed the next generation of product interface and functionality.
- Project-managed three consecutive product launches with a budget of $2+ million each.
Program Manager
Microsoft
- Acted as the release manager for voice services 1.1 going live ahead of schedule, successfully avoiding antitrust violations by separating functionality of MSN Messenger from Windows Messenger.
- Lobbied and received an executive buy-in through an internal campaign that met the needs of marketing/sales team and product team—allowing key messenger features to be launched in version 6 and 6.2.
- Led a team of nine in R&D to track schedule and triage bugs, finishing 30 pages of detailed design specifications under 36 hours.
- Acted as the primary contact for a partnership launch campaign with Bell, British Telecom, and Callserve for MSN Voice Services—successfully launching Voice-to-PC subscription calling via MSN Messenger.
Project History
MSN Messenger PC-PC calling
Designed and implemented an MSN Messenger calling feature used by 50 million+ users, saving millions of dollars of long distance fees
The feature boasts a telephone level quality of voice and delay using SIP.
I also managed partnerships with telecoms to allow paid users with a real phone number on their MSN Messenger app.
Education
Bachelor of Applied Science Degree in Computer Engineering
University of Waterloo - Waterloo, Canada
Certifications
Product Roadmap + Portfolio
Pragmatic Institute
Certified Scrum Master
Berteig
Skills
Tools
Slack, Zoom, Trello, Asana, Confluence, Figma, Jira
Paradigms
Agile Product Management, Agile Project Management, B2C, Scrum, Key Performance Metrics, Gamification
Industry Expertise
Banking & Finance, Residential Real Estate, Marketplaces, Real Estate, Automotive
Other
Product Management, Product Strategy, Product Roadmaps, Leadership, Mobile, Fintech Consultant, Product Owner, Digital Product Development, Business Requirements, Technical Product Management, Developer Relations, Strategy, Project Management, Market Research, UX Design, UI Design, Chinese-English Translation, Market Research & Analysis, eCommerce, Mobile App Development, Roadmaps, Competitive Analysis, Launch Strategy, Strategy Planning, Development Strategy, Data Collection, Requirements & Specifications, Revenue Strategy, User Stories, Monetization Models, Software, Jira Administration, Sprint Planning, Requirements, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Agile Leadership, Digital Transformation, Specs, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), User Journeys, Go-to-market Strategy, Pricing Strategy, Business Strategy, Presentations, Subscriptions, Feature Prioritization, Business Planning, Conceptualization, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Ideation, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Coaching, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Digital Product Management, Software as a Service (SaaS), Stakeholder Management, A/B Testing, Customer Engagement, Continuous Discovery, SaaS Product Management, Go-to-market Plans, SaaS, Distributed Team Management, Technical Project Management, Backlog Management, Competition Research, Competitive Intelligence, Competitor Analysis & Profiling, Market Research Analyst, Feature Planning, Functional Requirements, UX Wireframes, Web Content, Real Estate Management, Product Ownership, Data, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Data Analytics, Scrum Master, Product Marketing, Fintech, Mobile Apps, Consumer Banking, Data Management, Software Development, Technical Business Analysis, Data Science, Startups, Monetization, Pitch Decks, Notion, Quality Assurance (QA), Documentation, Customer Retention, Loyalty Programs, Business Analysis, Content Strategy, API Integration, APIs, Design, Feature Roadmaps, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Computer Engineering, Data Science Product Manager, Planning, Web UX, App UX, Web UI, App UI, Remote Team Leadership, CRM APIs, CRM Systems
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