Matt Johnson, Product Manager in Easton, PA, United States
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Matt Johnson

Verified Expert  in Product Management

Product Manager

Location
Easton, PA, United States
Toptal Member Since
March 25, 2019

Matt is a product-oriented strategic thinker and the co-founder of a successful venture-backed startup, MediaXstream. Recently, he’s also co-founded Rational Pilot: an initiative that improves analytics and forecasting within teams. Prior to that, Matt was a key executive at a global telecoms operator where he was responsible for product management while leading an international team.

Project Highlights

Analytics Software as a Service
Co-founded software startup focused on providing analytics and ETL services to enterprises.
Telephony Infrastructure for an Instant Messaging Application
Supplied critical telephony infrastructure to a global provider of instant messaging.
Content Exchange Service
Created a multi-terabit/second infrastructure for the purpose of exchanging live uncompressed television content.

Expertise

Work Experience

Co-founder

2017 - PRESENT
Rational Pilot
  • Authored a web-based application based on Python; utilizing Django, JavaScript, and Pandas libraries to create a statistical forecasting tool for enterprises.

Owner

2015 - PRESENT
Presence Group
  • Provided services including strategy, corporate development/transactions, product development, product management, pricing, collateral, and bid response in the areas of network infrastructure and cloud services.

SVP Products & Strategy

2010 - 2015
Hibernia Networks
  • Created the company’s offerings in network infrastructure, media, IP, and CDN services sold to large carriers, content, social and broadcast media, and financial companies.
  • Oversaw and was responsible for the company’s strategy, PR, product marketing, product development, and product management.
  • Fulfilled additional executive assignments including leading vendor management and sales engineering teams.

Co-founder | Vice President of Corporate Development | CFO

2008 - 2010
MediaXstream
  • Co-founded a venture-backed media-tech startup providing services to large broadcast media companies.
  • Created and sold services ranging from occasional events to multi-year contracts to numerous broadcast and cable television networks and cable/satellite operators.
  • Established the company strategy and identified potential acquisitions.
  • Led due diligence and eventual sale of the company to a strategic buyer.

Business Development Consultant

2007 - 2008
Level 3 Communications
  • Managed and was responsible for transitioning support for the company’s channel sales initiatives post-acquisition of Broadwing.

Product Development

2005 - 2007
Broadwing Communications
  • Responsible for guiding company’s product development efforts of networking technologies such as Ethernet, MPLS, and VOIP.
  • Led business development initiatives to accelerate growth from emerging social and web-centric segments through direct and channel sales.

Product Development

2003 - 2005
Focal Communications
  • Responsible for defining product development priorities and managing cross-functional team of approximately 30 individual contributors and supporting strategic sales and product development initiatives.

Product Management

1999 - 2001
Level 3 Communications
  • North American product management lead for Softswitch/VOIP services.
  • Responsible for defining new products and coordinating global GTM for new technologies around company’s Softswitch and SIP architecture.

Network Architect

1996 - 1999
CT Communications
  • Led the software and network engineering teams to develop large regional telecommunications network and related services.

Analytics Software as a Service

Co-founded software startup focused on providing analytics and ETL services to enterprises.

I taught myself Python, JavaScript, and related technologies/libraries including PostgreSQL, Django, Celery, Pandas, and D3.js. The system is hosted in an AWS EC2 instance running Ubuntu 16.04 with a codebase in a private BitBucket repository. I also led the product definition and software development utilizing Agile practices.

Telephony Infrastructure for an Instant Messaging Application

Supplied critical telephony infrastructure to a global provider of instant messaging.

On this project, I worked with a client to define the requirements for integrating telephony features (PSTN calling, E911 support, location/presence) into their popular instant messaging application. I also coordinated the product development, vendor negotiations and development timelines/priorities with the client.

Content Distribution Network

Launched a new CDN in 19 countries utilizing efforts from the internal software development team.

Here, I led the product management efforts to refine and launch a CDN based on modifications to open source and support within the IP network. The CDN supported video streaming, static content, and an integration with our live contribution network.

International M&A

Formulated the strategy and identified M&A potentials. Led teams on two completed acquisitions.

Here, I worked as the lead executive defining the company's acquisition strategy and the successful acquisition of two companies. The acquisitions led to an increased presence internationally and the addition of new product lines. I also temporarily served as reporting manager for technical and sales teams post-acquisition and led efforts to integrate systems and people into the larger organization.

Business Plan Formulation

Worked across the founding team, investors, and strategic vendors to define a detailed business plan.

Here, I created detailed pro-forma financials including income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statements and supporting formulas for headcount, capex, opex, and revenue projections. The business plan became a key guiding document enabling Series A fundraising and ongoing budgeting/planning.

Technical Product Documentation

Authored a technical manual combining inputs from numerous departments to document technical processes and best practices.

This role was a temporary assignment to a technical cross-functional team tasked with running numerous sprints to achieve rapid improvement in product quality. I volunteered to chair the team documenting the product and providing operational guidelines for the company's operations teams.

Commercialization/New Product Development

Helped guide the company's efforts and set the technical and business strategy within its technology patent portfolio.

Here I worked closely with network and software architects, key vendors, strategic account management, and legal counsel to identify opportunities leveraging company's patent base (stemming primarily from its telephony operations). I led the efforts to investigate a number of opportunities from technology licensing, contract manufacturing, and other forms of strategic enablement. The team's efforts ultimately resulted in company aligning with and leading standards track initiatives within the VoIP industry becoming an early sponsor of developments supporting the session initiation protocol (SIP).

Sales Documentation

Created an extensive library of product information to support sales and sales engineering efforts.

On this project, I led a team that built an interactive sales guide and sales training initiatives designed to build competence and product expertise within our sales and sales engineering community.

The documentation ranged from how to handle typical situations, when to recognize customer patterns and how to respond to the vital technical aspects of our products. I also formulated the training strategy to help members of the sales team build specializations and be recognized within the internal sales community for their unique knowledge. As specializations emerged, I ensured our product managers created and routinely engaged in team meetups to deliver vital information updates, provide support for complex customer engagements and receive feedback to incorporate into our product development sprints.

Content Exchange Service

Created a multi-terabit/second infrastructure for the purpose of exchanging live uncompressed television content.

Here, I worked as the product manager with television networks and cable/satellite operators to define a meeting point service where live uncompressed HD programming could be encoded and transferred between networks. The service included live signal quality monitoring and real-time failover with 100% quality of service (QoS).
1992 - 1996

Bachelor's Degree in History

University of North Carolina at Charlotte - Charlotte, NC, USA

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