Jonas is available for hire
Hire JonasJonas Van Poucke
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Ghent, Belgium
Toptal member since June 4, 2020
Bio
Jonas is a product management consultant and agile and innovation coach with 25+ years of experience. His mission is to empower product teams to unlock the full potential of their creations. He excels in cultivating shared understanding about the user's core job to be done, facilitating strategic idea testing, uncovering customer desires, and guiding product launches into the market. As a Certified Scrum Master and lean startup coach, Jonas brings a proven track record of success.
Project Highlights
Recruitment and Assessment Product for SMBs
Led the product-market fit and MVP creation of a novel product in assessing candidates.
Head of Product at Swave
Led a team of 2-3 developers in delivering the features to support our marketing campaigns. Tested business model (traction), monitored acquisition performance, and adapted accordingly.
Expertise
Work Experience
Product Manager | Coach
2019 - PRESENT
ProductMicrobe (Freelance)
- Coached various startups in their early stage (business model validation, talking to customers), for example, Loop Earplugs and Swave.
- Developed a product to evaluate if a candidate was a good fit with the job, team, and company for a market (SME) that's yet untapped by the client, Hudson. The first MVP was ready but was put on hold due to COVID-19.
- Managed the development of a product (Angular, SVG, Firebase) for product managers to create flexible, visual plans that combine strategy with discovery and delivery based on impact mapping and opportunity trees.
Product Manager | Coach
2017 - 2019
ACA IT Solutions (Client: MediaGeniX)
- Introduced a product mindset and best practices: roadmap, user journey, contact with end users, and a lean UX canvas.
- Implemented a structure for scaling multiproduct teams.
- Conceptualized and built a small product to check the feasibility of converting from desktop/Smalltalk to web/Java. It was meant to only check technical feasibilities but was sold to three customers within a year (RTBF, M6, and TF1).
- Guided a product team of 12 to create a SaaS product around media rights management. The goal was to ensure that the competition does not approach existing customers and we reached our objective of two new customers by the end of 2019.
- Coached the team in the agile methodology, and after three months, the team achieved a stable velocity and delivered a new increment every two weeks, instead of every three months.
Product Manager | Coach
2017 - 2019
ACA IT Solutions
- Provided training that worked around the product management framework at ACA and multiple companies such as Becton-Dickinson, Idewe, Mobility+, and Nike.
- Successfully held an ideation workshop for Teamleader.
- Introduced and established the concept of product management into the company and trained 30+ business analysts to become product managers.
- Created a new offering around product management and coaching which combined lean startup, UX, design thinking, and agile development—generating further business with Mediagenix, Mobility+, Nike, Teamleader, Publiq, and Museum Pass.
Tribe Operations Coordinator for the Ghent Office
2016 - 2019
ACA IT Solutions
- Oversaw the program management of three software projects in parallel.
- Recruited and selected developer, UX, and product manager profiles along with optimizing team dynamics, based on roles and competencies.
- Served as the evolution coach of six and as a member of the leadership team of the business unit.
Agile Coach | Project Manager | Business Analyst
2017 - 2018
ACA IT Solutions (Client: Securex)
- Enabled the autonomy of the identity management team by introducing kanban and agile principles.
- Introduced program management by encouraging the two product owners to make decisions on a weekly basis.
- Implemented the business analysis of the onboarding process of a Securex employee.
Product Owner | Project Manager
2015 - 2017
ACA IT Solutions (Client: Isabel)
- Managed the development of an application for integrating banks. (Due to an NDA, I cannot go into more details.).
- Provided various services including business analysis, project management, story writing, prototyping (Balsamiq), and workshops.
- Established various processes to foster project delivery and communication.
Functional Analyst
2015 - 2015
Ebit (Client: Federal Cancer Registration Belgium)
- Performed a functional analysis for a new cancer registration platform.
- Guided the development team of three to build the product.
- Managed the project including providing the scope, budget and reporting to customer.
Advising Product Manager
2015 - 2015
Ebit (Client: Worldwide Parking Solutions)
- Mentored and coached the team in new product development for parking places.
- Provided guidance to create the strategy and roadmap.
- Found bottlenecks and resolved issues to facilitate project delivery.
Proxy Product Manager
2014 - 2015
Ebit (Client: Wees Wegwijs)
- Oversaw the discovery and delivery of an online learning platform for driver licenses.
- Managed a team of three in delivering the software product.
- Managed the project including scope, budget, and reports to the client.
Member of the Project Management Office
2008 - 2015
Ebit
- Handled the resource planning for ~ten projects (small and large).
- Designed the software development methodology and evaluated the results and made adjustments.
- Managed the implementation in Jira and Confluence.
- Coached employees (developers and analysts) in their day-to-day tasks.
Business Analyst | Project Manager
2008 - 2015
Ebit (Primary Client: Bayer Cropscience, Four Years)
- Defined the roadmap, vision, and strategy while aligning different business units, worldwide.
- Mapped out the customer journey of how genetic experiments are conducted, e.g., visits to labs and field trials; accompanied by a business analysis of the processes.
- Managed a team of six from concept to development including outsourcing of QA to Ukraine (three testers).
- Guided end-users in the adoption of the product, e.g., giving demos and workshops.
Architect | Team Leader
2007 - 2008
Ebit (Client: Traficon, now FLIR)
- Led a team in the maintenance of the existing product.
- Evaluated the existing product, determined needs, and added new features.
- Architected the process of implementing the project tasks.
Architect | Developer | Functional Analyst
2003 - 2007
Actonomy
- Analyzed, architected, and implemented a fuzzy matching engine.
- Bootstrapped the Vacature.com job-matching site (it was the top site at that time in Belgium).
- Created a new, competency-based HR platform that was sold to the city Kortrijk.
Developer | Analyst
1999 - 2003
Devgen (now Syngenta)
- Created an internal tool for the registration of experimental data and added insights through clustering and AI. The product was used for 12 years until Devgen was acquired by Syngenta.
- Served as an architect and developer of an object-relational mapper to allow the agile development of software products.
- Analyzed and developed an intranet CMS (based on Apache Cocoon).
Researcher | Developer
1997 - 1998
Bikit
- Created a working Java desktop app for tracing parcels across Europe (based on EDI) as proof of concept (a European research project).
- Automated the insurance advice for KBC, using an object-oriented expert system (ObjectIQ).
- Provided advice on UML round trip tools (Rational Rose).
Project History
Recruitment and Assessment Product for SMBs
Led the product-market fit and MVP creation of a novel product in assessing candidates.
Elevator Statement:
We believe that there are recruiters of SMBs in Benelux Union who regularly hire candidates who need to optimize their current selection process and reduce the risk and cost of a flawed employment match. Because of CAST, they can increase the objectivity and efficiency of their selection procedure to maintain control when the selection process becomes complex.
Unlike other solutions, CAST reduces hiring time without sacrificing quality by applying scientifically validated tests, provides insights adapted to the company's needs, is straightforward to use by recruiters, and is attractive to candidates.
We know we are right when we have more than ten beta users and we have more than 200 paying subscribers in the year after the official release of version one.
We believe that there are recruiters of SMBs in Benelux Union who regularly hire candidates who need to optimize their current selection process and reduce the risk and cost of a flawed employment match. Because of CAST, they can increase the objectivity and efficiency of their selection procedure to maintain control when the selection process becomes complex.
Unlike other solutions, CAST reduces hiring time without sacrificing quality by applying scientifically validated tests, provides insights adapted to the company's needs, is straightforward to use by recruiters, and is attractive to candidates.
We know we are right when we have more than ten beta users and we have more than 200 paying subscribers in the year after the official release of version one.
A Lightweight Product Plan That is Built for Change
Developed my own side project to more easily manage products plans based on impact mapping and the Shape Up methodology (by Basecamp).
I developed a product for product managers to create a flexible, visual plan. It combines strategy with discovery and delivery and is based on impact mapping and opportunity trees.
Technologies: Angular, SVG, Firebase
Technologies: Angular, SVG, Firebase
Head of Product at Swave
http://www.swave.beLed a team of 2-3 developers in delivering the features to support our marketing campaigns. Tested business model (traction), monitored acquisition performance, and adapted accordingly.
Swave is a mobile app for a two-sided market.
For consumers (B2C): convert their banking account to an automated loyalty card and reward system.
For merchants (B2B): target consumer interests and message them more precisely than Facebook does.
For cities (B2B): attract new visitors by rewarding them with local consumption.
For consumers (B2C): convert their banking account to an automated loyalty card and reward system.
For merchants (B2B): target consumer interests and message them more precisely than Facebook does.
For cities (B2B): attract new visitors by rewarding them with local consumption.
Education
1996 - 1997
Postgraduate Degree in Information Technology (Computer Science)
Ghent University - Ghent, Belgium
1996 - 1996
Teacher's Degree in Education
Ghent University - Ghent, Belgium
1990 - 1995
Master of Science Degree in Chemistry
Ghent University - Ghent, Belgium
Certifications
DECEMBER 2020 - PRESENT
LEANSTACK Certified Coach
LEANSTACK
OCTOBER 2018 - PRESENT
Certified Scrum Product Owner
Jeff Patton & Associates
OCTOBER 2018 - PRESENT
Product Management Foundations 101 & Product Management Essentials 102
Mind the Product
OCTOBER 2016 - PRESENT
Workshop — User Story Mapping (Jeff Patton)
Mind the Product
OCTOBER 2013 - PRESENT
Mastering Business Analysis (Robertson)
IT Works
OCTOBER 2011 - PRESENT
Volere Requirements Management (Robertson)
IT Works
SEPTEMBER 2011 - PRESENT
BPMN in Practice
IT Works
JULY 2010 - PRESENT
Prince II Practitioner
Kluwer
JULY 2008 - PRESENT
Prince II Foundation
Econocom
NOVEMBER 2007 - PRESENT
Scrum Master
Prosource
Skills
Tools
Hibernate, Apache Solr, Google Analytics, AngularFire, Jira, Confluence, Slack, Zoom
Paradigms
Agile, Design Thinking, Agile Product Management, Scrum, Agile Project Management, PRINCE2
Platforms
Firebase
Other
Product Management, Product Delivery, Business Analysis, Digital Product Management, Technical Product Management, Story Mapping, User Stories, Scrum Coaching, Scrum Master, New Product Development, Product Strategy, App UX, Angular, Java, IT Project Management, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Estimations, Project Estimation, User Experience (UX), Coaching, Product Roadmaps, Impact Mapping, Lean Canvas, Lean Delivery, Lean Startups, Fintech, Wireframing, Product Strategy Consultant, Stakeholder Interviews, Software Development, Cost Estimation, Digital Project Management, Project Management, SQL, Lean UX, Notion, Google, Google Meet, Product Coach, Design, Science, Education, Information Science, Computer Science
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