Leonard is available for hire
Hire LeonardLeonard Lin
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Location
Lausanne, Switzerland
Toptal Member Since
April 21, 2022
Leonard is a B2C eCommerce marketplace specialist who uses IT innovations for complicated supply chains, such as JIT, perishable goods, temperature-controlled, asset-light, international, crowd-sourced, volatile, and seasonal. He is an expert in integrated fulfillment and operations for consistent customer experience and a skilled leader in software engineering, machine learning, and product management. Leonard can quickly build fast-iterating product teams to find product-market-fit.
Web DevelopmentWebsitesIT Project ManagementWebTechnical Project ManagementProduct ManagementLean ManufacturingMinimum Viable Product (MVP)Project ManagementProduct Requirements Documentation (PRD)Market Strategy and Research Product ManagerProduct ConsultantMonetizationProduct Development ManagerProduct Strategy ConsultantStakeholder EngagementProductivityDigital
Expertise
Work Experience
RFP for API Marketplace and Integration
2023 - 2023
Optor AG
- Worked with the leadership team of the client (Sales, CEO, Technology) to develop a vision of how their application becomes API-enabled due to customer demand. I helped them specify the target situation, define implementation options, and run an RFP.
- Assessed customer needs and matched them against the current technical landscape based on workshops and interviews.
- Conducted workshop with tech lead on how to design and build modern APIs that are easy to integrate with.
- Run RFP—defined RFP process, RFP documentation, invited companies, and review solutions.
Strategic Manager
2023 - 2023
Cognifle Ltd
- Partnered with the founder to define merchant processes on a marketplace: onboarding, profile building, publishing products, taking orders, custom quotes, and delivery process.
- Defined merchant acquisition material, pitch documents, and video script.
- Collaborated with the copywriting team and UX developer to finalize the merchant experience and merchant profiles for the marketplace.
Head of Product
2021 - 2023
Swiss Marketplace Group | Previously AutoScout24
- Led consumer-facing car and motorcycle classified marketplace product teams, earning CHF48 million in revenue, acquiring 3.6 million web and app monthly active users (MAU), and driving over one million transactions a year.
- Introduced customer-segment thinking. Transformed the leading Swiss mainstream car marketplace into a platform serving multiple customer segments by realigning product organization to drive product-market fit per customer segment.
- Introduced team north stars and OKRs, allowing product teams to progress in an agile, metric-driven, and autonomous manner.
- Grew the new car segment by 13.7%. Enhanced a financial service business by 21% by improving integration along the customer lifecycle.
- Increased the session duration by 2.5 times and decreased the bounce by 12.5% for new users-segments through on-site personalization.
Strategic Manager | eCommerce Fashion Marketplace
2022 - 2022
Cognifle Ltd
- Designed a sourcing and fulfillment model for the founder of a fashion eCommerce marketplace. Identified market segments and offered solutions and costing for the different market segments.
- Evaluated global manufacturing options from the US, EU to China, including costing and logistics options.
- Defined user journeys for different platform stakeholders and drew high-level mocks as input for the product team.
Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO)
2019 - 2020
Pur Suisse
- Developed business for a multichannel food startup through merging a brick-and-mortar concept with a pure online player.
- Designed and introduced a hybrid, online, brick-and-mortar food management system for a 14-person retail and gastronomy concept, including category management, eCommerce, POS, mobile checkout, ESL, scales, and B2B and B2C loyalty cards.
- Scaled eCommerce fulfillment processes within three days to handle ten times the volume during the COVID-19 pandemic with a team that grew four times, resulting in a 2.5 times productivity increase.
Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Product, Engineering, and Operations
2017 - 2019
Imnoo
- Launched a machine learning-based SaaS quotation-calculation app for contract manufacturing with over 100 accounts within two years by transforming an in-house digital transformation app of the BBC Group to a standalone service offering.
- Launched two additional MVP products, each within three months, to target additional customer segments by introducing a quick product-market-fit iteration process to a 27-person company.
- Negotiated partnerships with enterprise resource planning (ERP) providers and commodity suppliers as distribution partners.
- Grew the product development, inhouse and nearshore engineering, customer success, and onboarding departments and scaled a team of three to a team of 18 members.
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
2016 - 2017
Freshmarket
- Built a farmer-to-consumer (F2C) fresh grocery eCommerce platform within four months. Designed a business model, built financial models, set up the launch plan, and recruited four members to the startup team.
- Launched the platform with 400 stock-keeping units (SKUs) in all main grocery categories, including salad, fruits, meats, dairy, pantry, oil, and beverages.
- Developed a content and marketing strategy that reached 800 newsletter subscribers and 1,000 Facebook followers within two months of the launch.
- Built a just-in-time (JIT) supply chain. Acquired and negotiated a partnership with 14 partners, including suppliers, couriers, and order fulfillment managers.
- Extended the platform to 2,500 products and more than 260 producers in three temperature zones, i.e., frozen, fresh, and dry, resulting in a 10% increase in month-to-month organic growth.
- Introduced tablet-based inventory and fulfillment processes to reduce cost savings by 50%.
- Extended the catalog and reduced inventory risk by introducing a consignment system and supplier portal.
Vice President of Operations and Technology | Founding Team Member
2012 - 2017
The Bouqs Co
- Became a founding team member of an online farm-to-consumer (F2C) flower delivery service that grew six times year over year.
- Transformed B2C flower trading digitally to include an eCommerce, flower-production, and fulfillment ERP platform for international and domestic supply-chain that delivers US-wide and can handle over 50,000 shipments per day.
- Enhanced productivity three times year over year, encompassing customer service, supplier and logistic integration, product and project management, and software engineering by improving processes and tools and lowering error rates.
- Grew revenue by 12% and customer acquisition by 15% by setting up a crowd-sourced on-demand florist delivery network to deliver products in the US within two hours, reaching over 32% of the population in three months and 12% of additional revenue.
- Built and managed the growth of the domestic farm-direct supply chain, starting at zero and accounting for 37% of the revenue.
- Maxed out 100% of our flower availability during peak holidays by synchronizing merchandising, marketing, and farm partners and leveraging sales and preference analytics.
Assistant to the Trade Delegate
2009 - 2011
Austrian Commercial Office | Taipei Consulate's Economic Section
- Advised Austrian firms on market entry decisions by providing industry research, regulatory knowledge, and cultural insights.
- Increased Austria’s food and beverage footprint three times in Taiwan by organizing trade fairs, tastings, and promotions with Taiwanese importers and retailers. Met local business contacts and handled import and logistics work.
- Initiated and led an office process transformation project, which reduced accounting costs by 50% through new tools and procedures and increased overall office efficiency by 30%.
Analyst and HR Management Consultant
2006 - 2009
Accenture
- Headed the recruiting team of 20 members. Developed a recruiting marketing strategy, communication guidelines, and a KPI framework by matching global recruiting guidelines and targets against local capabilities, competition, and employer brand.
- Increased the company's recruiting activities three times by introducing a new operating model for organizing events and campaigns. Developed a new planning methodology to assure events and campaigns' quality and strategy alignment.
- Lowered learning and development (L&D) costs and reduced compliance risk by globally harmonizing L&D at a leading insurance company. Led a rollout to 28 countries of a global learning management system for 140,000 employees.
- Advised senior client management on a new future global L&D operating model for 140,000 employees by moderating interdisciplinary meetings between functional experts and HR management. Delivered new model concepts to the client.
- Lowered IT infrastructure costs by globalizing the private banking IT platform. Implemented an operating model and developed an organizational sizing model for Asia's new IT operation center.
Architect and Software Developer
2003 - 2006
Freelance
- Enabled organizational growth of a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) with 60-100 employees by leading total quality management implementation and coaching new process owners in the transformation to an ISO 9001 compliant process organization.
- Led a software architecture team and advised product management on the technical aspects of the logistics ERP system.
- Headed the software development of the container management module within a transport management solution.
- Developed a CRM application for a leading Swiss bank, enabling clients to automate private banking campaigns.
- Improved code quality and lowered development time by introducing new development processes and quality assurance tools that enabled the company to retain its main client, which brought 80% of its revenue.
Project History
Farm-to-table Grocery Delivery Company
Built a farm-to-consumer fresh grocery eCommerce platform in four months, including designing a business model, building financial models, setting up a launch plan, and recruiting four members to the startup team.
My work on this project included the following:
• Extending the platform to 2,500 products and over 260 producers in frozen, fresh, and dry temperature zones.
• Increasing organic growth by 10% month to month.
• Extending the catalog and reducing inventory risk by introducing a consignment system and supplier portal.
• Introducing tablet-based inventory and fulfillment processes to increase cost savings by 50%.
• Scaling eCommerce fulfillment processes within three days to handle ten times the volume during the COVID-19 pandemic with a team that grew four times, resulting in a 2.5 times productivity increase.
• Extending the platform to 2,500 products and over 260 producers in frozen, fresh, and dry temperature zones.
• Increasing organic growth by 10% month to month.
• Extending the catalog and reducing inventory risk by introducing a consignment system and supplier portal.
• Introducing tablet-based inventory and fulfillment processes to increase cost savings by 50%.
• Scaling eCommerce fulfillment processes within three days to handle ten times the volume during the COVID-19 pandemic with a team that grew four times, resulting in a 2.5 times productivity increase.
CNC Milling Quotation App Based on Machine Learning
https://imnoo.com/Launched a SaaS quotation-calculation app based on machine learning for contract manufacturing with over 100 accounts within two years by transforming an in-house digital transformation app of the BBC Group into a standalone service offering.
Imnoo is the quoting app with artificial intelligence that adapts to any computer numerical control (CNC) company and protects their know-how. The sales process is automated step by step in order to win more orders. My work on this app included the following:
• Launching two additional MVP products, each within three months, to target additional customer segments by introducing a quick product-market-fit iteration process to a 27-person company.
• Negotiating partnerships with ERP providers and commodity suppliers as distribution partners.
• Developing the product development, inhouse and nearshore engineering, customer success, and onboarding departments and scaling a team of three to 18 members.
• Launching two additional MVP products, each within three months, to target additional customer segments by introducing a quick product-market-fit iteration process to a 27-person company.
• Negotiating partnerships with ERP providers and commodity suppliers as distribution partners.
• Developing the product development, inhouse and nearshore engineering, customer success, and onboarding departments and scaling a team of three to 18 members.
Hybrid Online and Offline Gastro-retail Concept Pur Suisse
http://www.pursuisse.chDeveloped a business for a multichannel food startup by merging a brick-and-mortar concept with a pure online player.
This online and offline gastronomy concept features Swiss food and beverages via the online and offline food retail and restaurant concept. I have designed and introduced a hybrid, online brick-and-mortar food management system for a 14-person retail and gastronomy concept that includes category management, eCommerce, POS, mobile checkout, ESL, scales, and B2B and B2C loyalty cards.
Education
2011 - 2013
Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Entrepreneurship, Logistics, and Marketing
UCLA Anderson School of Management - Los Angeles, California, United States
2009 - 2010
Non-degree Training Program in Mandarin
National Taiwan Normal University - Taipei, Taiwan
2003 - 2006
Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration
University of St. Gallen - St. Gallen, Switzerland
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