Markus Sandelin
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Helsinki, Uusimaa, Finland
Toptal member since November 1, 2021
Markus has an extensive background with defense (especially CISR), maritime (especially shipping), medical (especially field medical and emergency services), fintech (especially KYC/AML/BNPL), and all types of data-driven/rich platforms (including big data, IoT sensor data, ML/AI to name a few). As a domain, he has extensive experience in customer service/support, processes, and digital transformation.
Project Highlights
Expertise
Work Experience
Transformation Director and Program Manager
Finnish Defence Forces
- Designed, planned, and executed the new work model for the Finnish Defense Forces, an organization of 12,500 people, IT operations, including cyber defense.
- Created the concept and led the development of a smarter data management system, saving over $5 million annually from a €10 million budget project, resulting in a massive ROI.
- Created a ground-breaking measuring model to allocate costs and expenses to find tens of millions of euros in earnings.
- Contributed to the AI and data community of excellence as a founding member.
- Authored and secured approval for a new data platform with a phased implementation plan, ensuring minimal disruption to ongoing operations.
- Worked as the tech lead for the medical division under the surgeon general, held national representative positions in NATO working groups (HIST, FMN, and CWIX), and spearheaded data-based development projects.
- Championed the integration of business continuity practices into C4ISR project management, ensuring critical systems remained operational during disruptions.
- Led a successful holistic digital transformation process, which included improving data integrity and disaster recovery, enhancing redundancy and uptime to mitigate operational risks, and conducting BIAs to identify critical functions and vulnerabilities.
- Identified over $40 million in annual savings through IT portfolio optimization (of €120 million annual project investment), with excellent ROI.
- Took over a stalled project and made a complete transformation turnaround in five months.
Fractional CTO
Arnolds
- Created a new business model to transform the donut company into a digital corporation, building and selling its platform.
- Built a development team from a wide variety of competencies and led them into battle to make the iterations, with the first release of the loyalty program and application in five months.
- Investigated all existing legacy systems and created a concept to connect all with APIs and a cohesive data model for a truly future-proof digital transformation of a 32-year-old company.
Fractional CTPO
Frontrow.io
- Conceived and created a blockchain and NFT-based membership program to raise $11 million for the company's future event portfolio.
- Scouted, recruited, and led a global, multinational team of elite developers, designers, and other professionals in record time to design and deliver an MVP video streaming and ticket sales platform in under a month.
- Created a concept and MVP for a blockchain-based fine art purchase and rental startup, amassing a revenue of $14 million for the first year with around 15% profitability.
- Built a video streaming concept that saves over 75% of streaming costs compared to existing and previous video streaming solutions. It saved on costs but allowed true global reach with remarkable speed for all viewers.
Fractional CTO | Fractional CPO
Grand Royal Inc
- Created a proof of concept for a new publishing industry platform for Berliner Verlag and the third-largest German daily newspaper, Berliner Zeitung.
- Formulated the concept and the business analysis. Pitched the project to the owners of Berliner Verlag to build a new type of publishing platform.
- Evaluated and transformed the process flows of a governmental construction and affordable housing company to include digital and environmental aspects and changed how the company runs its business.
- Assessed a franchise restaurant chain's digital business case and created a concept for change in the next five years, resulting in a new platform company being spun off from the parent company.
- Rescued a multinational client project for a German software developer who had a complicated project gone wrong. Not only did the customer stay, but they also increased their involvement.
AI/ML SME, Fractional CTPO
SEIDR, Ltd.
- Created a new, scalable business model for a company that had saturated its market with an internally laborious product causing people to burn out.
- Created the company's business case and a pitch deck to go with that for the investors. This work included creating a pricing model and a financial simulation to simulate revenue for the next six years.
- Coached and mentored the founders of the company about how to use structured data and AI/ML functionalities and for them to understand and embrace the proud, new world of the new concept that was created.
Founder | Chief Executive Officer
King Muffin Inc.
- Built and sold a company with a product portfolio to a global financial institution. Self-funded, with excellent ROI.
- Launched six successful SaaS products in highly regulated industries, achieving consistent seven-figure sales.
- Managed a multi-million dollar project portfolio using Agile methodologies, ensuring on-time and on-budget delivery while incorporating risk mitigation strategies to address potential disruptions.
- Managed a team of 30+ directs with a 97% retention rate, utilizing Agile methodologies. The largest number of directs was 52 employees.
- Delivered award-winning presentations and fostered a collaborative, multicultural environment.
- Learned about several new industries and managed to perform at a very high level of quality. This was tested by creating and presenting ideas and concepts for the C-level of major industry players and knowledgeable investors, such as fintech.
- Worked with companies like Nokia, Telia, Boeing, the Finnish Defence Forces, the UK MOD, and the London Metropolitan Police as a subject matter expert.
- Worked with the maritime industry as a tech subject matter expert on three continents.
Group Chief Technology | Product Officer
Top Finance Inc.
- Created a group-level 36-month product development plan that pivoted the whole company to the point that it was sold again in 18 months. Remained as a shareholder.
- Took over multinational engineering teams after acquisition and created a common way of working together both remotely and in-office during the pandemic. Negotiated terms, created the execution plan, and applied it.
- Evaluated and analyzed over 20-year legacy product portfolio with over 40 products. Created a triage plan to develop, maintain or terminate products with a technical and financial overview and action plan for the board.
- Analyzed the situation in the company, found the working environment toxic, and left to do freelance consulting instead of earning a big paycheck.
Co-founder
Pentonet
- Learned about telecommunications for the maritime industry and modern applications in record time to be able to perform, sell, and present products and showcases for global customers.
- Conceived and created several new hardware and software telecommunication products, including SaaS products for a global clientele in low-bandwidth environments.
- Penetrated a previously unknown industry to the point of becoming a go-to person to be invited to present in industry events, councils, and get-togethers.
Chief Executive Officer | Designer
Forward Helsinki (FWD Helsinki)
- Spearheaded as a lead designer a mobile operator's customer service strategy, platform design, research, and implementation. The service is still in use after a decade and has hundreds of thousands of active users.
- Headed a consumer-facing rebrand for a multinational company that included over 120 systems and over €4.5 million budget. It was a 100% hit rate as it was two weeks early and €200 thousand under the budget.
- Managed four business units and over 400 people. Reported directly to the global CIO.
- Completed a company restructure and pivot from an advertising agency into a service design agency in under 12 months while maintaining excellent profitability and client and employee retention.
- Created a way to quickly generate hundreds of measurable marketing assets for a few simple elements, allowing unprecedented conversion testing to take place.
- Sold over $2 million of annual accounts before taking over the whole company.
Account Director | Planner
Frantic
- Ran a portfolio of key accounts for the company, including publicly traded corporations with multi-million euro accounts, acting as the intermediary between business and technology.
- Participated in deciding on the company's operational direction, transforming away from a low-impact marketing activity production into leading UI, UX, and process transformation for all clients.
- Managed to save a seven-figure-per-year client single-handedly by analyzing their past years' business activities and impact. Created an approach to help the customer understand and later pitch their own accomplishments internally.
- Created new business and marketing concepts weekly and had a conversion rate of over 80% with customer pitches.
- Oversaw a team of designers and technologists and strongly co-operated with the technical branch to iterate ways of working and processes.
Freelance Consultant
Freelance
- Created and led a business pivot plan for an offshoring marketing and development agency, which allowed them to increase their profitability by 40% year over year.
- Helped develop and design a fully licensed streaming music service Tezoma for a multimedia company as the lead designer of the product.
- Created dozens over dozens of concepts and pitches and sold over $1 million per year of consulting services to several gambling, gaming marketing, and multimedia companies in Northern Europe.
- Analyzed dozens of established businesses for creative and marketing process optimization and applied marketing automation technologies and ways of working.
- Created internal and external pitches and executed projects independently or with customers' teams.
- Saved several project teams from failure by applying triage project management methodologies and helped execute pivots and iterations or educate team members to perform differently.
Executive Marketing Manager
CTXM / CTCO
- Led the international sales of gambling products sold by the company, such as poker, casual, and casino games, and oversaw sales pipeline management, marketing events design, negotiations, closing, and account management.
- Renewed the ways of how the company approached marketing, including working methods, processes, and marketing materials.
- Created several new or iterative gaming concepts either individually or together with game developers and design teams.
- Implemented an analytical approach to the sales process and helped identify new KPIs from existing accounts, improving account profitability and increasing customer retention through better communication.
Vice President | Sales and Marketing
Magenta Sites Ltd. / Ruukki Group Plc.
- Conceived and ran the project to create the first customer self-service platform for hosting companies, decreasing the workload of common tasks from our technical team by 90% and massively increasing customer satisfaction.
- Represented the company in EMEA, Asia and Oceania, and North America and oversaw all sales and marketing activities, following the sales pipeline and key accounts with a solid track record.
- Completely took ownership of all company's marketing materials, rebuilding and redesigning everything into a dynamic approach focusing on UX, which won several clients over in a highly competitive field.
Sales Manager
Data Group
- Created and executed an influencer marketing campaign on a specific niche target group of overclocking enthusiasts and achieved massive sales success on particular products.
- Developed the company's first eCommerce site for direct-to-consumer sales, helped design the user interface and user experience, and built a large part of the software required.
- Participated actively in the company's P&L functions, learning the ropes of becoming an entrepreneur later in life.
- Doubled the business unit's revenue by opening up a new B2B sales channel professionally. Closed the largest individual deal by selling over 200 computers.
IT Support and Webmaster
PostNord (then Datacom Finland)
- Created the company's first website that featured dynamic graphics and first steps to selling the company's products online.
- Maintained the IT environment for the whole production facility and related office.
- Worked with Unix and Linux stations to handle data deliveries and FTP file transfers.
- Created a concept and built a simple modem-based synchronization tool to get the current database of products available to the salesperson while allowing them to input the orders directly on their computers, which improved the delivery times.
Project History
Crypto SME and Lead Product Manager
https://www.tookitaki.comTurned an AI/ML AML company to support web3/crypto and helped their product team update offering. Negotiated partnership deals with the top four on-chain analytics companies in the world in record time.
I jumped in as a web3 subject matter expert and joined their product management team as a mentor/coach. My first mission was to onboard myself to the company and their offering. Then enhance it with all crypto-related things, both product, UI/UX, and technical angles. Afterward, I coached and mentored their product management teams to embrace the new world, push out new products, and start selling.
The last meeting was a sales call with a web3 client where I had to say very little because the team was prepared, and the offering was viable and good to go.
Compomatic
https://www.dropbox.com/s/g3nnxscyi025r4r/compomatic-presentation.pdf?dl=0Conceived, designed, and created a SaaS product to make sweepstakes easier and finally turned it into a process agnostic, API-driven lead generation tool.
The core working principle was to flip the usual sweepstake game of taking in 100 thousand applications, rewarding one winner, and letting no one else hear about the competition ever again. What Compomatic did, was automate the winner, but mainly focus on those who participated but did not win. Each "loser" would receive an automated message as part of the UX process and receive a discount, benefit, or other activation to keep the brand work ongoing.
Compomatic was selected as one of the top 100 startups in Slush 2016.
Signet App
https://signet.app/Led the concept and business design for a military-level cryptography application easy enough for kids to use.
Berliner Zeitung 2.0
https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/Took over a project amidst the chaos, found the focus for the team, and created a concept that was both doable and an improvement to the existing method of operations.
Digital Transformation for Military
In only nine months, I identified, interviewed, and committed over 150 stakeholders to the foundation for the largest digital transformation in the last decade. I created a hypothesis, built it up into a working, and implemented transformation.
Digital Transformation for a Donut Company
https://arnolds.fiThis project involved the complete digital transformation of a 32-year-old donut company. The goal was to transition the business from a traditional brick-and-mortar model to a digital corporation with its own platform and online presence.
• Developed a new business model: Arnolds led the creation of a new business model focused on a digital platform. This model would allow the company to build and sell its products directly through the platform.
• Built and led a development team: A development team with diverse skills was assembled. This team was responsible for rapid iterations and development, resulting in the launch of a loyalty program and mobile application within five months.
• Legacy system integration: A thorough investigation of all existing legacy systems was conducted. Arnolds then led the effort to connect these systems using APIs and create a unified data model. This would ensure a future-proof foundation for the company's digital operations.
BENEFITS
• Increased sales and customer engagement through the new digital platform.
• Improved operational efficiency through streamlined data management.
• Enhanced customer experience with features like loyalty programs and a mobile app.
Education
Executive MBA in International Business
Stockholm School of Economics - Stockholm, Sweden | Riga, Latvia
Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration
Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences - Helsinki, Finland
Skills
Tools
Slack, Figma, Jira, ETL, GitHub, HubSpot, Amazon CloudFront CDN, Mailchimp
Paradigms
Agile, Hosting, Agile Project Management, Data-driven Design, Data-driven Development, Rapid Prototyping, Rapid Interactive Prototyping, Web Architecture, Agile Product Management, Data Product Management, B2C, Requirements Analysis, Iterative Development, Design Thinking, User Testing, Change Management, DevOps, Microservices, Scrum, Kanban, B2B2C, Agile UX, Digital Marketing Best Practices, Behavior-driven Development (BDD), Augmented Reality (AR), Business to Business to Consumer (B2B2C), Spatial Databases, Agile Workflow, Agile Software Development, API Architecture
Platforms
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Blockchain, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Azure, Shopify, Blockchain Platforms, Mandrill
Industry Expertise
Consumer Products, Digital Agencies, Cryptoeconomics, Film & Television, Consumer Finance, Digital Banking, Military Intelligence, Government, Bitcoin, Building & Construction, Education Technology (Edtech)
Other
Conceptual Design, Proof of Concept (POC), Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Software, Presentations, Projects, Marketing, Business Administration, Management, Offshoring, Offshore Team Management, Startups, Startup Consulting, Early-stage Startups, Project Management, Program Management, Fintech, B2B, Pitch Decks, Sales Pitches, Pitch Preparation, Pitch Presentations, Multicultural, Business to Business (B2B), Business to Consumer (B2C), Marketing Mix, IT Projects, New Products, Product Management, Sales, MVP Design, B2B Lead Generation, Platforms, Planning, Email Marketing, Tech Sales, Pitch Deck Consultant, Search Engines, Process Flows, Websites, Dedicated Web Hosting, Web Hosting, Web UI Design, Web Marketing, Online Marketing, IT, Business Analysis, Product Ownership, Product Owner, Documentation, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Consulting, Management Consulting, Business Consulting, Digital Marketing, Digital Marketing Strategy, Digital Marketing Design, Digital Marketing Product Manager, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), IT Consulting, Product Strategy, Head of Product, User Experience (UX), User Research, Roadmaps, Product Discovery, A/B Testing, MVT Testing, Data Analysis, Data Analytics, Data, Data Flows, Open Data, Databases, Data Visualization, Data-driven Marketing, User Stories, Strategic Design, Strategic Partnerships, Strategic Planning & Execution, Integration, Technical Product Management, Mobile Apps, CTO, New Product Development, User Interface (UI), Graphical User Interface (GUI), Wireframing, Consumer Applications, Geolocation, Market Research, Marketing Research & Analysis, User Personas, Feature Prioritization, Validation, Feature Planning, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Feature Analysis, Technical Consulting, Platform as a Service (PaaS), Strategy, Product Vision, Agile Sprints, Requirements, Subscriptions, User Journeys, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Big Data, Social Media Analytics, Social Media APIs, Data Science, Data Science Product Manager, 3D Games, Adventure Games, Game Development, Go-to-market Strategy, Go-to-market Plans, Backlog Grooming, Conceptualization, Dashboards, Digital Product Management, Ideation, Operations, Process Mapping, Product Design, Project Planning, Teaching, Workshops, Fundraising, Data Architecture, Customer Experience, Transformational Leadership, Stakeholder Management, Wireframe to Product, User Feedback, User Needs, UX Wireframes, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Financials, Mobile App Development, Value Proposition, Product Consultant, Monetization, Revenue Strategy, User Requirements, Product Launch, Digital Brand Identity, Scope, Project Timelines, Cost Analysis, Resource Management, Advisory, Product Delivery, Distributed Team Management, Web App UX, Use Cases, Business Cases, Financial Modeling, Business Models, Chief Product Officer (CPO), Technology Strategy & Architecture, Regtech, User Validation Testing, Project Consultancy, Lean Startups, Lean Product Manager, Project Management & Work Tracking Tools, Product Development, Discovery Workshops, Project Delivery, Web Applications, Branding, Marketing Strategy, Cryptocurrency Wallets, Digital Campaigns, Web Scraping, Business Strategy, Mentorship & Coaching, Creative Thinking, Digital Payments, Payment Processing, Card Payments, Payment APIs, Online Payments, Monetization Models, Mobile Applications, Billing Systems, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Product Leadership, Sales Enablement, Workflow, Product Operations, Sales Operations, Operations Improvement, Business, Digital Transformation, Quality Assurance (QA), Web App Development, Budgeting, Invoicing, Data Reporting, Team Leadership, Cloud Computing, Sprint Planning, Community, Social Networks, Front-end Development, Web3, Requirements & Specifications, Communication, System Integration, Internationalization, Localization, Team Mentoring, Collaboration, International Projects, International Growth, App Support, Software Development, Investor Presentations, UX Assessment, Project Tracking, Copywriting, Product Marketing, Product Sales, Growth, Reporting, Technical Project Management, Payment Gateways, Stripe Payments, Coaching, Analytics, UX Design, UI Design, Finance, Cryptography, Security, Cloud, Applications, APIs, Architecture, Portfolio Management, Agile DevOps, Fintech Consultant, Anti-money Laundering (AML), Know Your Customer (KYC), Loans & Lending, Company Strategy, SaaS Product Marketing, SaaS, SaaS Design, Enterprise SaaS, SaaS Product Management, Software as a Service (SaaS), Customer Support, Customer Service, Web Analytics, Interviewing, User Interviews, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Process Flow Design, UX Process, Process Design, Networks, Mobile, Events, iOS, Business Logic, Internet of Things (IoT), Media Planning, Email Marketing Automation, Paid Search, Growth Hacking, WordPress, PHP, SQL, eCommerce, Product Information Management (PIM), Research, Agile Leadership, Agile Delivery, Onboarding, User Onboarding, PIM, Process Improvement, Process Improvement Project Management, Business Process Improvement (BPI), Quantitative User Research, Qualitative Research, Product Roadmaps, UX Roadmaps, Feature Roadmaps, Behavior-driven Design, Data Quality Management, Data Quality Analysis, Data Quality, Search Engine Development, Mobility, Machine Learning, AI Design, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Predictive Analytics, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency, Non-fungible Tokens (NFT), Virtual Reality (VR), Game Design, Cryptocurrency, AML, Crypto, Ethereum, Smart Contracts, Ethereum Smart Contracts, Event Planning, Business Intelligence (BI), Data Engineering, Customer Success, Cybersecurity, Backlog Management, Product Growth, Market Research & Analysis, User-generated Content, Business Process Re-engineering, Business Processes, Process Optimization, Business Process Optimization, Process Management, Business Process Analysis, Business Process Modeling, Business Transformation, Investments, Project Reporting, Growth Marketing Product Manager, Artificial Intelligence Product Manager, Algorithms, White Labeling, Loyalty Programs, PayPal, Workflow Tools, Organizational Change Management (OCM), Data Migration, Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), ChatGPT, User Journey Maps, Translation, Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT), Satellite Images, IT Audits, Product Descriptions, Landing Pages, Market Fit, Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM), Trading Systems, VoIP, Risk Analysis, Software Design, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), React, Node.js, Security Audits, Certifications, Android, IoT Protocols, Account Management, Games, Gaming Platforms, Gaming, Automation, Agile Coaching, Agile Practices, Agile Marketing, Agile Deployment, Agile Data Science, Agile Transformation, Agile Product Delivery, Agile Software Testing, Agile Program Management, PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP), Project Rescue, Project Design, Project Scoping, Project Finance, Project Support, Project Analysis, Design, Analysis, Build Processes, Platform Design, Event Management, Event Management Platforms, Videos, Video Streaming, Gatsby, Mobile Ticketing, English, Writing & Editing, Accounting Modernization, Mentorship, Board Presentations, Business Advisory, Payroll & Benefits, Social Media, Technology Transformation, Data Transformation, Team Building, Digital Transformation Program Management, Development Transformation, Business Transformation Program Management, Complex Program Management, Business to Government (B2G), Purchasing, Negotiation, Solana, Leadership, Creativity, Creative Tech, Content Creation, Data Modeling, Concept Art, Enterprise Architecture, Decentralized Finance (DeFi), Restaurants & Dining, Remote Team Leadership
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