Head of Product
2019 - PRESENTRiven- Led a customer research initiative to get us out of the building and speaking directly with over 50 potential customers. This resulted in 100+ unique customer insights that provided the basis for our product feature prioritization and business model.
- Built the financial model that assisted in raising over $1.5 million in our pandemic fundraising round.
- Quickly built out and launched an additional line of service business to assist in shoring up the cashflow during the pandemic downturn.
Chief Operating Officer
2018 - 2019Ondaka, Inc.- Co-founded a company that makes industrial sites easier to understand using Computer Vision and machine learning to deliver digital twins of sites built. Helping customers like Schlumberger, Chevron, and Caterpillar improve their time to revenue, decrease their health and safety risk, and reduce downtime costs.
- Maintained projected burn rate by successfully overseeing full P&L responsibility.
- Led product strategy, and defined product roadmap–100% of product milestones achieved as projected.
- Led team of engineers, developers, and designers–launching two core products using a combination of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) to enable intuitive interactions with 3D models of equipment alongside mission-critical data (iOS and web).
- Led all recruiting, hiring, and staffing plan efforts, resulting in 0% turnover.
- Led market analysis and pricing strategy activities, resulting in $250,000 in annual recurring revenue within ten months.
- Defined detailed operational strategy and projected financials–instrumental in a successful $1.6 million raise.
- Researched and defined tech stack, and led all developer operations, resulting in 99.999% uptime.
Chief Executive Officer
2016 - 2017PureCarbon- Co-founded a wearable fitness company that used technology to provide insights to fitness enthusiasts and professionals, helping them track their progress and reach their goals. The core product used smart textiles and motion sensors to detect weight lifted, exercise performed, and repetitions completed.
- Invented and patented the Delta Gloves’ technology (hardware, firmware, software, algorithm), resulting in two patent grants.
- Managed an internationally distributed team of industrial, apparel, graphic and UI and UX designers, electrical and mechanical engineers, back-end and app developers, and data scientists through the successful development of the beta version of the Delta Glove system.
- Conducted ethnographic style research consisting of over 150 customer interviews, lift alongs, gym sessions, and alpha hardware tests.
- Co-produced launch video, which successfully led to over 60,000 views and over 2,000 interactions in the first few days after launch.
- Launched a performance marketing campaign to refine variables such as price, copy, and creative, ultimately lowering CPA by 76%.
- Cultivated and maintained strategic partnerships with Intel, Flex, Olympia Sport Co., Nanopaint, and Interwoven Designs.
- Built a world-class advisory board with former executives from Best Buy and Under Armour, and domain experts from Seahawks, IBM, and Bain.
- Raised $300,000 in venture funding.
Head of Office
2012 - 2016Idea Couture- Managed all aspects of the office’s operations, including business development, financial planning, and the hiring and development of new employees for a strategic, innovation and experience design firm that leverages anthropology, foresight, and business strategy to help clients build plans for sustainable growth.
- Led teams of designers, developers, strategists, anthropologists, and engineers on multi-million dollar projects for Fortune 500 clients in the technology, business service, retail, and consumer goods verticals.
- Leveraged the principles of design thinking and traditional business strategy to deliver award-winning innovative solutions in the product, service, and experience categories.
- Led office business development efforts, increasing office revenues an average of 60% year-over-year for each year of my tenure.
- Managed an award-winning project (nine CES innovation awards) to define the client’s product strategy for the future of the connected home, and retained to build out functional prototypes as a part of a larger home kitchen experience prototyping project (global appliance manufacturer).
- Led two projects defining the future of premium and value grocery, a key component of the client’s portfolio diversification strategy resulting in a $9.4 billion private equity buyout (national food retailer). Clients included: AT&T, Avaya, Citibank, FedEx, HTC, Linde, Mozilla, Pepsi, Reckitt Benckiser, Safeway, Samsung, United Technologies and Whirlpool.
Senior Strategy Analyst
2011 - 2012American Airlines- Worked with sales, operations, and finance teams within the cargo division of American Airlines to manage cargo revenue growth.
- Managed Western US and Asia cargo products, worth over $320 million in annual revenues.
- Managed the domestic mail cargo product with the US Postal Service worth over $43 million annually.
- Headed the effort to create and promote the first internal competitive cargo unit revenue metric, which led to the identification of revenue opportunities worth over $100 million.
- Optimized traffic mix, resulting in a 7-month, year-over-year revenue increase of $11 million or 14% on the optimized lanes.
Patent Examiner
2005 - 2008US Patent and Trademark Office- Examined patent applications from a technical standpoint, to arrive at a final determination of patentability.
- Developed an expert level of knowledge in both patent law and the technical art of image processing, which included but was not limited to biometrics, machine learning, and Computer Vision.
- Spearheaded the development and implementation of the first intranet patent examiner collaboration tool, resulting in an estimated 10% average reduction in examination time. Recognized and awarded by the Director.
Telecom Engineer
2004 - 2005US Army- Provided engineering solutions for relocation, upgrades, modifications, and new acquisitions of telecom infrastructure.
- Performed site surveys to gather user requirements, develop cost estimates, and prepare system design plans and drawings for upgrades to existing telecom systems.
- Led the telecom design and implementation effort for the Command Operations Center, completing it early and over $100,000 under budget.
Electrical Engineering Intern
2001 - 2002NASA Ames- Engineered the mechanical and electrical components for scientific instruments used in the processing of data obtained from astronomical infrared detector arrays and developed the firmware to run these systems.
- Successfully completed three major projects in the time allotted for one including designing and implementing technical solutions for the AIRES and KEPLER projects.
Jonathan Schaffer
Product Manager in Burlingame, CA, United States
Member since July 24, 2019
Jonathan is an unabashedly customer-centric product innovator and entrepreneurial leader, operating at the cross-section of business strategy, technology, and design. Jonathan offers over a decade’s worth of experience in innovation strategy, product development, and business operations, working with some of the most well-known brands in the world. He is a team player recognized for the ability to motivate through inspiration and lead by example.
Jonathan is now available for hire
Project Highlights
- Led product design and development of over 70 connected concepts across four brands leading to nine CES Innovation Awards.
- Led a critical aspect of the portfolio diversification that resulted in a $9 billion private equity buyout.
- Won $100,000 and secured the distinction of undefeated fan favorite in audience voting on a show with over 1 million viewers.
Expertise
- Augmented Reality (AR)
- Customer Research
- Design Thinking
- Financial Modeling
- Hardware
- Machine Learning
- Pricing Strategy
- Product Management
Education
- University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business
- Cornell University, S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management
- Northeastern University
Select Certifications
- United States Patent and Trademark Office
Employment
Project History
- The Path Toward Connected LivingLed product design and development of over 70 connected concepts across four brands leading to nine CES Innovation Awards.
Challenge:
With the expectation that the future of the home is increasingly connected, the client recognized that as an appliance manufacturer and not a consumer technology company, it was at a disadvantage relative to its more connected competitors.
Objective:
- Connect the brand of today to the brand of tomorrow.
- Identify the value drivers, impacts, and desired consumer and enterprise experiences for connected products and solutions across a three to five-year time horizon.
- Define and prioritize the aspirational value of the brand for the target consumer in the context of the client’s existing brand architecture.
- Understand the customer intersection of the connected segments with the client’s existing segments.
- Explore and recommend preferred ecosystem partnerships to deliver consumer and enterprise benefits that can leverage a deeper and more integrated end-to-end experience.
- Define a range of user benefit scenarios for the client to achieve aspirational consumer connectivity benefits.
- Build out an entire connected kitchen experience prototype, complete with four completely new functioning appliance concepts. - The Changing Heroes of GroceryLed a critical aspect of the portfolio diversification that resulted in a $9 billion private equity buyout.
Challenge:
Changing consumer expectations require a reimagined portfolio strategy. In an effort to reassure potential investors in their bid to return to private ownership, the client’s leadership team needed to develop a comprehensive strategic plan designed to stem market losses resulting from the continued bifurcation of the grocery retail market into stronger premium and value offerings.
Objective:
-Define a master vision, value proposition, and unique characteristics for two holistic store concepts to include a design theme in each of the value and premium segments.
- Develop a thorough macro competitive positioning and differentiation strategy for each of the two concepts.
- Identify assortment gaps, merchandising principles, and consumer-centric curation for each category.
- Create “hero” concepts and experiences for each premium and value category.
- Determine high-level category space allocations.
- Develop an overview of the shopper journey, which includes a store flow concept.
- Deliver forecasted financials based on key store economic assumptions. - America's Greatest MakersWon $100,000 and secured the distinction of undefeated fan favorite in audience voting on a show with over 1 million viewers.
Challenge:
Compete in a product design reality television competition which aired on TBS and was produced by Emmy-award winning producer Mark Burnett in collaboration with Intel. 24 teams of inventors selected from thousands of applicants contended for the title of America’s Greatest Maker.
Education
- Berkeley | Intel Hardware Accelerator Program in Hardware Product Management2015 - 2016University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business - Berkeley, California, USA
- Master's degree in Business Administration2008 - 2010Cornell University, S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management - Ithaca, New York, USA
- Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering2002 - 2004Northeastern University - Boston, USA
Certifications
- ASA Certified Skipper (ASA 101, 103 & 104)JUNE 2010 - PRESENTSunsail
- Registered Patent AgentNOVEMBER 2006 - PRESENTUnited States Patent and Trademark Office
