Product Manager and Project Manager
2020 - PRESENTToptal- Joined the project as project manager to lead a team of mobile and back-end developers, design, and QAs with the challenge of bringing fully-featured iOS and Android apps to market for a high-profile customer in the space of four months.
- Led all aspects of the project according to Agile and Scrum principles.
- Provided product leadership and direction for the mobile apps and back-end.
Multifunctional Project Manager & Product Owner
2022 - 2022Commonwealth Financial Network- Worked as a product owner and project lead for multiple RTB (run-the-businesses) products and initiatives, including Robotic Process Automation (RPA), MSFT SharePoint application development, and public website support and development.
- Trained my team in Agile, Scrum, and Kanban methodologies as part of the enterprise's efforts to transform standard company processes.
- Co-led a project to migrate mission-critical applications from an on-premises server to the cloud.
Consulting Product Owner
2020 - 2022Jeri- Scoped, created and launched PRN (on-demand) staffing platform (iOS, Android, web app) for skilled nursing, home health and hospice, assisted living and other care facilities.
- Collaborated with the design team to turn sketches and product requirements into high-fidelity designs.
- Recruited and hired the software development team.
- Set up project management and development processes.
- Also worked with the team to implement a new service offering to augment in-house recruiting teams with nearshore recruiting assistants to lower costs and improve speed-to-hire.
[Toptal Projects] E3 Product Manager- Justin Whittaker
2021 - 2021Manhattan Digital Inc- Gathered and defined requirements for the launch of a new initiative with top game console manufacturer.
- Led Agile software development delivery team and ensured requirements were translated into easy-to-understand user stories.
- The project was delivered on time and within budget.
Adjunct Professor
2021 - 2021J. Reuben Clark Law School at BYU - LawX- Designed and taught a course to help law students learn and internalize design thinking concepts.
- Led law students through the design sprint process to ideate, research, prototype, and deliver a new law-based product/service concept to market within the course of a semester.
- Delivered an impactful solution to market to help people who are eligible, to receive criminal record expungements.
Consulting Product Owner
2020 - 2021WETx.io (Freelance)- Brought the WETx Dashboard product from conceptual design to production-ready. Led the design, customer research, recruiting, software development, and implementation.
- Developed and implemented a new product and service offering for WETx, called WETx Cloud. Led the design, customer research, recruiting, software development, and implementation.
- Executed plans to develop a strategy around a water banking system for municipalities, regional water and sewer districts, irrigation companies, and federal water conservancy districts.
Executive Vice President, Business Solutions
2018 - 2020Radiant - Video Messaging Solutions for B2B, Learning and Higher Education- Developed and implemented a customer acquisition strategy for the pre-launch of B2C streaming app, SAY. Effort resulted in a cost per acquisition that was more than 25% below industry standard.
- Oversaw product development, business modeling, and marketing launch of Kinmundo.com for sister organization, BN Media.
- Developed three different asynchronous video streaming concepts targeting; biopharma sales training, a job reporting tool for field services, and a learning tool for higher ed.
CEO
2015 - 2018Invisible Home - High-end Home Goods and Furniture- Launched an eCommerce Shopify store selling high-end, designer home home goods to customers in the US, Canada, and Europe.
- Developed a successful social marketing strategy as part of the GTM plan. Targeted design and architecture enthusiasts that garnered nearly 10,000 followers on Instagram.
- Executed on a paid media customer acquisition strategy using Google AdWords, Facebook, and Instagram ads.
- Developed a line of Invisible Home called The Fleet, which was a "storage system in a box," designed and manufactured in Scandinavia from eco-friendly materials.
Chief Product Officer
2015 - 2018Yours.co - AI-powered Home Movie Streaming Service and Optical Media Storage- Recruited the product design and software team and introduced an agile software and product development practice to the company.
- Led company rebranding efforts from MDISC to Yours.co.
- Launched two new products and raised a $4 million Series A round from TPP Capital Advisors to build and scale the business.
- Hired to ideate new digital product ideas, create proofs-of-concept, and launch new products.
Executive Vice President, Business Solutions and Marketing
2008 - 2015i.TV - TV Discovery and Social TV Platform and Second Screen TV Ad Network.- Built and led a 35-person team comprised of product managers, designers, software engineers, marketing, business development, and editorial staff in Utah and New York City.
- Managed enterprise-scale software development contracts and B2B platform licensing with Nintendo, AOL, and Huffington Post, TELUS, and DIRECTV.
- Directed a highly successful joint marketing program with the world’s top entertainment brands (ABC, NBC, FOX, AMC, HBO, Time Warner), resulting in tens of millions of social media shares and hundreds of millions of social media impressions.
- Co-created all product concepts from early-stage ideas to user testing, designing and building the software to executing on GTM plans and market launch. (i.TV for iOS and Android, tvtag, Nintendo TVii, AOL TV, TELUS Optik Smart Remote, and more).
- Owned i.TV B2C and B2B marketing: branding, PR (driving coverage in NYT, WaPo, The Verge), user acquisition (more than seven million downloads), agency leadership, events, and trade shows, partner marketing, email marketing, paid media marketing.
Account Executive
2007 - 2008Connect Marketing - Marketing Communications and Public Relations Firm- Placed on top accounts with Symantec and Siemens Enterprise Communications.
- Assisted clients in gaining earned media coverage. Drove awareness around strategic communications objectives.
- Positioned executives as thought leaders and drove coverage in publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CIO, MSNBC, and others.
Operations Director, EMEA
2004 - 2007Bridge Atlantik - Business Development and Marketing Firm- Led successful European launches for multiple clients (security, edtech, home goods, distributed computing, and HVAC, to name a few).
- Established new sales and distribution channels for clients across Europe, including with public sector procurement organizations and pan-European distributors.
- Led successful marketing and public relations campaigns to establish clients as leaders in their respective fields, garnering coverage with top-tier media outlets worldwide.
- Led business development efforts to sign on European reference customers for our edtech and security clients as part of the market launch.
Justin Whittaker
Product Manager in Salt Lake City, UT, United States
Member since May 9, 2020
At Toptal, Justin is both a product manager (PDM) and a project manager (PJM) and is also a product marketer with over a decade of experience leading teams to create and market B2B and B2C products used by millions of people in the US, Canada, and Europe. Products Justin has built have powered experiences for brands like Disney, DIRECTV, Nintendo, FOX, NBC Universal, TELUS, Huffington Post, and Time-Warner.
Justin is now available for hire
Project Highlights
- Led the development and creation of i.TV's platform and white label practice.
- Led the design, development, launch, and operation of a successful white label and integration project for the TELUS Optik IPTV service.
- Led my team to deliver a product that reached over ten million people every month and that every major TV network in the US and Canada came to rely on to drive tune-in and engagement with their TV shows.
Expertise
- Agile Product Management
- CPO
- Design Sprints
- Ideation Workshops
- Innovation
- Mobile Apps
- Product Marketing
- Product Strategy
Employment
Project History
- i.TV Platform and White LabelLed the development and creation of i.TV's platform and white label practice.
About:
The i.TV Platform powered EPG (Electronic Program Guide), DVR control, TV remote control experiences for TV providers, and media companies.
Mission:
Lead the team that productized and licensed i.TV consumer offerings for B2B customers.
Accomplishments:
Led the design and development of multiple white label versions of i.TV for TV providers and media companies. Successfully integrated services and data from partners like Roku, TiVo, TMS, Amazon, Apple, and others. Repeatedly delivered quality work and products that resulted in multi-year contract renewals and tens of millions of dollars in revenue. Led the design and build of i.TV's ad platform that served hundreds of millions of ad impressions and delivered successful campaigns for brands like Pepsi, Microsoft, Disney, and others. - TELUS Optik Smart Remote - Enterprise White Label and Implementation ProjectLed the design, development, launch, and operation of a successful white label and integration project for the TELUS Optik IPTV service.
About:
TELUS Optik Smart Remote apps for iOS and Android were powered by the i.TV Platform and offered TELUS Optik IPTV customers TV guide (EPG), DVR control, TV remote control, and rich TV metadata for all TV shows available through the service.
Mission:
Lead the product development and integration team to build and deploy a white label version of the i.TV Platform to TELUS Optik customers.
Accomplishments:
Built and led a dedicated agile product development team to customize the i.TV platform to the client’s specifications. Established a QA program that aligned with the client’s internal QA and release management processes. Consistently delivered stable, feature-rich, and performant experiences to the client’s end-users. - tvtagLed my team to deliver a product that reached over ten million people every month and that every major TV network in the US and Canada came to rely on to drive tune-in and engagement with their TV shows.
About: tvtag was a social TV engagement and advertising platform for iOS, Android and white label partners.
Mission:
Create a second screen, social TV experience for consumers that would drive massive engagement around TV shows and televised sporting events. Develop tvtag as a platform that would power experiences for TV networks, tech companies, and brand advertisers.
Accomplishments:
tvtag content reached over ten million people every month and drove 1/3 of Twitter traffic around primetime scripted TV. Led the design and development of an in-app experience specifically for sporting events called "Run or Pass" that synchronized second screen content with the live TV broadcast. Nearly every major TV network in the US and Canada utilized the tvtag platform to drive tune-in and engagement around their shows. tvtag white label partners included DIRECTV, Nintendo, Time-Warner, and others. - Kinmundo Proof-of-ConceptLed a product and marketing team to develop and launch a proof-of-concept product.
About:
Kinmundo—literally meaning “family world”—is inhabited by 16 different family cultures. To find out which is yours, just take Kinmundo’s expert-designed Family Culture Quiz. It measures your family on multiple dimensions that define family life. Each of your family members’ quiz results is combined to find out which of the 16 cultures your family lives in. Why is family culture important? Because making positive change from within your existing family dynamic is much easier than trying to completely change the way your family works.
Mission:
Develop, brand, and launch a scientifically valid family assessment tool to help families understand their family culture.
Accomplishments:
Led a team of product managers, designers, software developers, and marketers to create and launch a proof-of-concept product for Radiant. After Kinmundo’s launch, I led the team through a design sprint to ideate, prototype, and test new approaches to monetizing Kinmundo. The result was a product extension called 21 & Done to help families and individuals develop positive behavioral habits in 21 days. - Yours.co - Video Streaming Service for the Memories Stored on your PhoneDeveloped two new products for Yours. The company was able to raise $4 million in Series A funding based on these products.
About:
Yours.co automatically transformed video and photos in your camera roll into long-form home movies. The movies were streamed via the web, mobile, and OTT apps on Fire TV, Roku, and Apple TV, as well as archive-grade DVDs and Blu-rays.
Mission:
Lead Yours.co (formerly MDISC) through a digital transformation process in preparation for new rounds of venture capital funding.
Accomplishments:
Innovated two new products (MDISC Archive Service and Yours.co). Recruited, built, and led software development and technical fulfillment teams. Led a robotic automation project for the MDISC/Yours.co fulfillment center. Led the rebranding of MDISC to Yours.co. Instituted agile software development processes. The company raised $4 million in Series A funding from TPP Capital Advisors. - SAY - Video Messaging Applications for Business and EducationLed SAY Business Solutions product team, tasked with leveraging the SAY Video Messaging platform for B2B applications.
SAY is a video messaging platform for Android and iOS (think "video Slack") that enables users to communicate and engage around digital content via video messages.
SAY is a Bonneville Communications company (formerly Radiant). - BrandingPersonally led multiple brand identity and brand marketing projects throughout my career.
Throughout my career, I have been directly responsible for leading efforts to create new brand identities and rebrand existing products and companies.
At i.TV, I worked with world-class designer Adrian Pulfer to create the i.TV brand identity. At tvtag, I led the team that created the brand identity and implemented the brand into i.TV-owned user experiences, as well as all tvtag partner experiences (DIRECTV, Nintendo, ABC, NBC, and HBO, to name a few.) At MDISC, I was tasked with rebranding the company to Yours.co. - i.TV for iOS and Android - TV EPG AppCo-led the creation of i.TV mobile apps. In the iOS App Store, i.TV achieved a #1 overall ranking and a top 100 ranking in its category.
i.TV for iOS and Android was the #1 TV guide app in North America for nearly seven years before it was acquired by another company. As a co-founder of i.TV, I co-created the app, which included the following features:
-TV guide
-DVR scheduling
-Remote control for TiVo, Roku, DIRECTV, TELUS Optik TV
-Entertainment news and other content
-Social TV features - WETx Cloud - Consulting Product OwnerDeveloped a new product offering for water service districts, irrigation companies, manufacturing, and industrial customers and municipalities to help these organizations inventory, understand, and manage their water resources and infrastructure.
WETx is a blockchain-based technology platform that helps water special service districts, agriculture and irrigation companies, M&I and municipalities to inventory and manage their water resources and the infrastructure that delivers water to their customers.
I was hired as a consulting product owner to work with the executive team and customers to discover customer needs and design and build a solution to fit those needs. I also recruited and led the software development team and hired and managed a technology services fulfillment team.
Education
- Master's Degree in European Union Policy2002 - 2004University of Birmingham - Birmingham, United Kingdom
- Bachelor's Degree in German1995 - 2002Brigham Young University - Provo, Utah, USA
