Michael Headrick
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
New York, United States
Toptal member since July 10, 2020
Michael is a product manager with a background in user experience design and research. He has worked on the iOS and Android mobile apps for Singapore Airlines and integrated hardware and software for Volta's EV charging network. He is also an expert in product strategy, developing P&G brand's digital strategy and product ecosystem. Michael uses his strengths in managing products through coaching and leadership in strategy, business, and design.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile
- Backlog Management
- Human-centered Design (HCD)
- Product Management
- Product Strategy
- Roadmaps
- Stakeholder Management
- User Experience (UX)
Work Experience
Product Leader
Volta Charging
- Led program to design, build, and launch new EV charging station hardware and software, including a group of over 50 in six different teams.
- Built product management practices and an OKR structure for product teams in the organization.
- Developed a product strategy that included charging systems, driver experience, and site partner experience (B2B2C).
Product Director
Huge, Inc.
- Created and managed the roadmap for a portfolio of digital products for SK-II (a billion-dollar P&G skincare brand).
- Built and managed a team of product managers across the Asia Pacific region, delivering value through managing products for SK-II and Google.
- Drove internal enablement around user-centered thinking and user research processes—created new research and measurement frameworks for design and product teams.
- Drove measurable business results for clients in areas such as user acquisition, eCommerce conversion, and business process automation/efficiency.
Volunteer Product Mentor
Singapore University of Social Sciences
- Conducted a guest lecture series at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) to support the Alibaba-SUSS minor program. Topics included product validation, user research, MVP creation, and product management.
- Guided and supported students as they built their business plans, developed MVPs, and released them to the market.
- Assisted students in raising funding from external sources such as angel investors or external incubators.
Senior Product Manager
Pivotal Labs (now VMware)
- Collaborated with IT and business executives from large organizations like DBS, Singapore Airlines, and Singtel/NCS to deliver products, establish new product development capabilities, and build product teams.
- Aligned teams of engineers, product managers, designers, and business specialists to deliver impactful products across business verticals like banking, airline, agriculture, and telecommunications.
- Made data-driven decisions based on analysis of existing data, user interviews, and prioritization processes that include business units and stakeholder strategy—leveraged mobile, web, and other applications to answer the pain points of users.
- Supported clients in reorganizing their teams, encouraging growth within the teams, and establishing best practices. Focused on enablement of agile development best practices, including lean, UCD (user-centered design), and XP (extreme programming).
- Drove stakeholder management, strategic alignment, and product success.
- Built new development capabilities for Singapore Airlines in their Mobile Technology division. Helped transition from vendor management/outsourcing to a fully functioning product team with four product managers, three designers, and 40+ developers.
Product Owner
VMLY&R
- Collaborated with Ford global and regional executives to create the roadmap for FordPass China, including localizing the FordPass experience for Ford drivers in China, generating new features based on local user needs, and launching app into the market.
- Managed design and product team of five people (three designers, one business analyst, and one other product manager). Worked alongside the marketing (ten people) and development teams (25 people).
- Conducted market research into other mobility apps in China, user interviews with Ford drivers in three Chinese cities, and beta testing of features in Shanghai.
- Prioritizated features to be developed for the China market; worked with dealer servicing teams to identify service opportunities for users.
- Launched valet dealer services and command/control functionality into China. Integrated with China payment provider: UnionPay.
- Implemented a China EV/Fuel search feature that empowered Ford drivers to find the cheapest fueling options nearby.
Analyst and Information Designer (UI/UX)
Informatics Studio
- Analyzed and mapped client business units, subsidiaries, and offices' knowledge-sharing behavior to build a knowledge-sharing product for a large non-governmental organization.
- Interviewed users (stakeholders and individual contributors) in offices worldwide and synthesized user behavior to inform UI/UX patterns and designs.
- Created designs, wireframes, and IA for the internal tools. Developed user rules and access rights for knowledge-sharing products.
Project History
Singapore Airlines Mobile App
https://apps.apple.com/sg/app/singapore-airlines/id515287841Led the product development team that refactored, redesigned, and redeveloped the Singapore Airlines mobile applications.
When released, the mobile app allowed users to search for flights 5x faster than with previous flows. The new application allowed Singapore Airlines to increase its App Store rating from below 4.0 to above 4.5 stars.
There were many challenges working on this product, including lack of agile education for stakeholders, multiple business units requesting feature prioritization, and a fresh development team. The team was also able to achieve a modern TDD environment with unit, integration, and end-to-end testing. Because of the many source systems and data integrations, this testing suite helped us maintain visibility on the overall application's code quality and experience.
Sustenir Indoor Farm Management Tool
Partnered with Sustenir CEO and founder to develop a custom suite of software that monitored and managed environmental conditions of Sustenir's indoor farms.
This product had some exciting challenges around creating products that could integrate with all hardware components (e.g., air conditioning, water pumps, and nutrients pumps), read sensor information to monitor the farm's environmental condition, control environmental conditions, create custom environmental conditions for specific crops and manage crop lifecycle (e.g., timelines around planting, harvesting).
The new products allowed Sustenir to automate some extremely manual processes and increase the efficiency of the farm overall (reducing waste crops).
SK-II Digital Ecosystem
Launched and managing a portfolio of retail operations applications for SK-II retail employees at over 1,000 stores in Japan. Increased efficiency and accuracy of employee workflows including inventory, timesheets, and transactions.
Education
Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology
Teachers College, Columbia University (TC) - New York City, USA
Bachelor of Arts Degree in Architecture
The University of Hong Kong - Hong Kong
Skills
Tools
Jira, Pivotal Tracker, Slack, Zoom, Figma, Sketch, ProdPad, Google Analytics, Basecamp
Paradigms
Agile, Design Thinking, Agile Product Management, Agile Project Management, Human-centered Design (HCD), Scrum
Platforms
Adobe Suite
Industry Expertise
Aircraft & Airlines, Transportation & Shipping, Agriculture, Automotive
Other
Product Management, Roadmaps, Backlog Management, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Product Strategy, Mentorship, Stakeholder Management, User Interviews, User Experience (UX), Consulting, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Agile Coaching, Discovery, Discovery Workshops, Product Ownership, Estimation & Planning, Agile Program Management, Fashion & Beauty, Prototyping, Consumer Services, UX Strategy, Project Scoping, Feature Prioritization, MVP Design, Product Coach, Project Timelines, Technical Requirements, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), User Stories, Website Redesign, Mobile Apps, Product Discovery, Digital Transformation, Sprint Planning, Strategy, Product Consultant, Customer Experience, User Research, Innovation, Design Strategy, Innovation Strategy, Mobile Applications, Wireframing, Ideation, Conceptualization, Digital Product Management, Pitch Decks, User-centered Design (UCD), User Journeys, Project Management, Lean UX, Analytics, Team Management, iOS, Web, Private Banking, Skincare, Fintech, Enablement, Product Research, User Interface (UI), Data Analytics, Team Leadership, Lean Startups, Service Design, Project Planning, Resource Allocation, Structure & Organizational Design, Team Building, Product Validation, New Product Development, Customer Service, Business Plan Consulting, Cost Estimation, Revenue Strategy, End-to-end Implementation (E2E), Dashboard Design, Scope Management, Scrumban, Web Content, Business Consulting, Market Research, Gantt Chart, Web UI, Retail & Wholesale, Sales Operations, Product Strategy Consultant, Product Roadmaps, CX Strategy, Software Ecosystems, Agile Product Delivery, Lean Product Manager, Lean Product Management, Pair Programming, Extreme Programming, Agile Delivery, Facilitation, Coaching, Mentorship & Coaching, Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), Organizational Strategy, Research, Information Architecture (IA), WordPress, Data-driven Dashboards
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