Onkar Singh Lohtham, Product Manager in London, United Kingdom
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Onkar Singh Lohtham

Verified Expert  in Product Management

Bio

Onkar has 15+ years of leadership and hands-on experience in global and startup product management. He specializes in building and launching web-based and mobile B2B and B2C products, which he has done in publishing, eCommerce, a hedge fund, agriculture, media, market research, and fashion domains in the US, UK, EU, and SEA. Onkar excels at synthesizing core business problems into actionable points by leveraging his technical and design background, business acumen, and consulting skills.

Project Highlights

Launch of Multi-vendor Online Marketplace
Conceptualized, designed, and launched an online marketplace in six months, working with UI/UX, development, marketing, sales, and copywriter teams.
Digital Transformation of Commodity Price Reporting
Conceptualized, designed, and launched an online portal to capture, review, and publish commodities pricing with a shift from Excel worksheets to an online workflow tool.
Optimize Elasticsearch Relevance for Online Job Portal
Drastically improved job search relevance, which increased job clicks by 16% and application completion by 12%.

Expertise

Work Experience

Head of Product and Marketing

2020 - PRESENT
Local Supplies
  • Conceptualized, designed, and launched an online, multi-vendor marketplace in six months, in collaboration with the UI/UX, development, marketing, sales, and copywriter teams.
  • Designed and launched Facebook marketing campaigns to promote vendor shops to the local community with average earnings of £50 for an average expenditure of £25.
  • Defined and implemented faceted search, taxonomy-based categorization, vendor registration, eCommerce via Stripe Connect, campaign discounts, shipping method, radius logic, auto messaging, stock management, bulk data import, and custom vendor fee.
  • Implemented Facebook and direct mail marketing to attract local vendors to enter the online marketplace, enabling nine vendors to join in the first three months of launch.
  • Managed tasks, risks, assumptions, issues, and dependencies across legal, content, development, and business teams.

Founder, CPO, and Lead Trainer

2018 - PRESENT
Digital Skills Mastery
  • Conceptualized, designed, and launched a digital skills training academy portal from scratch in six months in collaboration with the UI/UX, development, marketing, and content teams.
  • Designed and ran Facebook marketing campaigns to grow a subscriber base from zero to 1,000 in two months with a cost per lead of GBP .50p.
  • Created and ran a successful digital, agile product manager training program for 25 product professionals for a billion-euro market research firm, helping the firm form a solid team of product managers and product owners.
  • Defined and implemented faceted search, taxonomy-based tagging, lead magnet, subscription and registration, eCommerce via Stripe, organic list building using Leadpages, and autoresponder, using GetResponse.
  • Managed tasks, risks, assumptions, issues, and dependencies across editorial, development, copywriting, design, marketing, and business teams.

Principal Product Management Consultant

2013 - 2018
Product Hub Hob
  • Conceptualized the idea and design of an intuitive and efficient content management platform serving 50+ reporters and editors in 16 countries across the globe.
  • Conceived the idea and design of an intuitive B2B application offering information on metal prices and news used by hundreds of clients across North America, Mexico, and Europe.
  • Led the team at HM Revenue and Customs, a UK government organization, with the go-live of their beta site for Check Your State Pension (CySP), then rolled it out to 20 million+ users across the UK.
  • Migrated eight million saved searches from SQL to Elasticsearch, which led to a 15% increase in email engagement and 2% higher conversions for Reed.co.uk, a leading online job board in the UK.
  • Optimized the job search feature on the online job board site, leading to an increase in job search relevance that led to a 16% increase in job clicks and a 12% increase in application completion.
  • Conducted an A/B test with Google Search implementation on a sample dataset. We ran our search algorithm against Google’s search algorithm for three months, and we beat Google’s search results on all metrics for the job board site.
  • Conceptualized and implemented the logic for similar jobs and recommended jobs and matched jobs with clients, increasing the conversion rate from search to job application by 2-3% in six months.
  • Conceived the user journey, user experience, product roadmap, and go-to-market strategy for an agriculture-based web application with an IoT device interface to track a UK-based firm's cattle passport, weight, and measurements.
  • Analyzed and defined entity relationships for better data mapping, data migration, and data-based analysis for digital products to draw insights and prepare reports, using various tools like Tableau, Looker, and Google Analytics.
  • Automated workflow (RPA) for 100-year-old £20million commodity publishing firm. Defined the transformation from a manual data entering and publishing to a seamless semi-automated price reporting organisation by capturing, analysing, validating price.

Senior Product Manager

2012 - 2013
WGSN
  • Prepared the business case propositions for the 2013 product roadmap with input from sales and finance teams. The business cases detailed customer benefits, business imperatives, costs, revenue, and strategic alignment scoring.
  • Led the search project for the English and Chinese sites of a £36 million product that led to an increase in retention from 57% to 85% in six months. I was accountable to the CEO for the project's ROI.
  • Defined the KPIs, scorecard, and ROI model to prioritize 15 new product development ideas, including multichannel, localization, and infographics, and aligned them to the three pillars of the business strategy.
  • Analyzed and defined entity relationships of millions of images and their attributes for a better search result. Defined the search funnel for Google Analytics to draw insights and prepare reports for product strategy.

Director of Business Process and Analysis | Web Product Manager

2009 - 2012
Datamonitor (Informa)
  • Researched, transformed, and launched a £12 million B2B online subscription drug tracking product to retain 90% of customers, increasing global customers by 3% and increasing projected revenue by 4.5% in 2012.
  • Achieved a 65% ROI in one year for a B2B online company's list-building product and managed change for product enhancements using Scrum.
  • Defined, built, led, and trained the BP&A unit in Datamonitor.
  • Managed tasks, risks, assumptions, issues, and dependencies across editorial, development, copywriting, design, marketing, and business teams. This was done across various UK, US, and India locations as the stakeholders were in different offices.
  • Analyzed and defined entity relationships for better data mapping, data migration, and data-based analysis for the digital products to draw insights and prepare reports, using various tools like Tableau and Google Analytics.
  • Scraped web (RPA) for £mm market research B2B firm. Defined project scope, business and data requirements, data entity relationships, and business rules to crawl, scrape, store and classify data from public websites to achieve seamless automation.

Consultant and Product Manager

2005 - 2009
Satyam Computer Services (Tech Mahindra)
  • Spearheaded client projects as an external product consultant for BBCWW in London. Served as a project and product manager to deliver three eExpense systems in the United Kingdom, United States, and Canada.
  • Conducted an as-is and to-be analysis and devised the architecture of an eCommerce application, evaluating both off-the-shelf products and solution design for a £50,000 eStrategy roadmap bid for LexisNexis.
  • Led the onsite business analysis and product management function for a multimillion-dollar hedge fund client in Ireland. Helped them launch a seamless, straight-through-processing system for placing and settling trades and many other modules.
  • Managed the implementation of Concur web application for BBCWW while collaborating with third party technology team, internal payroll and accounts team, and head of finance. Led the RAIDs log and conducted weekly meetings for stakeholders.

Software Developer

2001 - 2003
HCL Technologies
  • Secured a place in the core team of software engineers after delivering projects for Conexant Inc. for a short time.
  • Designed and developed web-based workflow applications in Lotus Notes Domino.
  • Managed internal audit reviews in compliance with SEI-CMM Level 5 and ISO 9000 quality procedures.

Launch of Multi-vendor Online Marketplace

Conceptualized, designed, and launched an online marketplace in six months, working with UI/UX, development, marketing, sales, and copywriter teams.

Local Supplies is a multi-vendor, online marketplace for local shops. While supermarket online sales increased by 69%, 80% of independent convenience stores had no online channel. There was no single solution to onboard the 71% unaffiliated, independent local shops. I conceptualized, designed, and launched an online eCommerce platform to fill this gap.

This marketplace allows grocery stores, garden centers, and convenience stores to set up their online shops in just under three days. They can upload their products and images and run discount and basket campaigns to build their local customer base within a 5-to-7-mile radius, offering them click-and-collect and home delivery options.

When customers search by postal code, all the available stores become visible, and they can place an order. They can buy from multiple shops in one transaction, avoid going to the shops, and shop in their trusted local shops from the comfort of their homes.

This project involved business management, retail operations, stock management, legal, vendor marketing, customer marketing, technical front-end and back-end user journeys, bulk data import, Stripe Payment, vendor management, vendor registration and onboarding, and end-to-end order management.

Digital Transformation of Commodity Price Reporting

Conceptualized, designed, and launched an online portal to capture, review, and publish commodities pricing with a shift from Excel worksheets to an online workflow tool.

Over 50 pricing reporters working for a 100-year-old metal commodity pricing publisher used disjointed Excel sheets and manual processes to capture, review, and publish commodity pricing data, providing industry benchmarks to buy and sell metal commodities.

This was a digital transformation project to build an online workflow tool that could be used seamlessly by 50+ reporters in 16 countries and adhere to the strict IOSCO guidelines for price reporting and publishing.

I conceptualized the product architecture and user journeys and streamlined complex reporting procedures into one uniform process. To start, I spoke with 20+ pricing reporters, customers, and pricing editors to understand the business domain and designed the new online workflow tool that could be used by multiple reporters and departments in several countries simultaneously.

The project included the front-end price reporting workflow, back-end data capture and storage, time-sensitive price publication, and an intuitive admin system allowing editors of various domains to add their commodities with specific attributes and business rules. As an early adopter of the digital workflow tool, the firm leveraged superior data insights and became an industry leader.

Optimize Elasticsearch Relevance for Online Job Portal

http://www.reed.co.uk

Drastically improved job search relevance, which increased job clicks by 16% and application completion by 12%.

Reed.co.uk had implemented Elasticsearch to power its job search function on a B2C job portal. The job search results were poor, leading to many customer complaints and loss of trust in the data shown. This was bleeding the conversion rate and causing a lower ROI on marketing spend.

I analyzed the existing search mechanism and sifted through thousands of customer complaints to distill the business problem into four specific areas: job search, location search, job alert relevance, and data quality. Then I prioritized the issues, discussed the roadmap with the technical search team, and devised a plan to migrate eight million saved searches and job alerts.

Next, I devised a product release plan in tranches of one million to minimize risk. Upon the product launch, the metrics were analyzed and showed a significant improvement in the quality of search results. The search funnel saw a drastic improvement: job clicks increased by 16% and application completion increased by 12%.

A parallel project was run for three months, using Google Search on a different cohort of customers. My search project metrics and the quality of search results beat the Google Search implementation, so we shut down the Google Search project.
2003 - 2004

Master's Degree in Business and Management

University of Strathclyde - Glasgow, Scotland, UK

1997 - 2001

Bachelor of Technology Degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering

Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra - Ranchi, India

JUNE 2015 - PRESENT

Leadership Academy

Robbins Research International, Inc.

JUNE 2014 - PRESENT

Agile Certified Product Manager

AIPMM

AUGUST 2008 - PRESENT

Managerial Excellence Program Certification

Duke University, Corporate Distance Learning

Tools

Atlassian Suite, Confluence, Jira, Asana, Trello, Figma, Stripe Checkout

Paradigms

Agile Product Management, Scrum, Data Product Management, Requirements Analysis, Agile Project Management, Testing, Agile, Design Thinking, Agile Software Development, User Testing, Kanban, B2C, Scalable Application, Marketplace Platforms, DevOps

Industry Expertise

Education Technology (Edtech), Blogs, Marketplaces, Agrotech, Healthcare, Agriculture, Financial Services, Logistics, Pharmaceuticals, Banking & Finance

Platforms

WooCommerce, Shopify

Other

Business Analysis, B2B Product Management, Business Strategy, Product Management, Product Launch, Pricing Strategy, Customer Segmentation, Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), Product Roadmaps, Email Marketing Automation, Stripe Payments, Product Strategy, Release Management, Content Management Systems (CMS), Scrum Product Owner, Faceted Search, Keyword Searches, Discovery Workshops, Workshop Facilitation, Technical Business Analysis, Product Discovery, Agile Product Delivery, Product Research, Learning Management Systems (LMS), User Journey Maps, User Stories, Story Mapping, Roadmaps, Product Owner, Product Vision, Software as a Service (SaaS), eCommerce Management, Web Product Management, Feature Prioritization, Subscriptions, Process Improvement, User Journeys, Customer Engagement, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), Business Requirements, Technical Requirements, Order Management, New Product Development, Customer Journeys, Backlog Management, Product Coach, SaaS, GAP Analysis, Technology, Website CMS, WordPress, Project Management, B2B Product Management, Data Analysis, MVP Design, Digital Product Management, Websites, Project Estimation, Budgeting, Wireframe to Product, News Media, Cost Estimation, UX Wireframes, Feature Roadmaps, User Experience (UX), Startups, Customer Success, Customer Experience, Stakeholder Management, Discovery, Scope of Work (SOW), Requirements & Specifications, Business to Consumer (B2C), Global Product Management, Product Planning, Product Strategy Consultant, Minimum Marketable Product (MMP), QA Testing, Team Management, Platforms, Product Ownership, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Stakeholder Engagement, Vendor Selection, Wireframing, User Needs, User Feedback, Product Consultants, Web & Mobile Applications, Auditing, Distributed Team Management, Product Frameworks, Scope Management, Educational Platform Design, Business Models, Pricing Models, Digital Product Development, Journey Mapping, eCommerce UX, eCommerce UI, Product Design, Dashboard Development, Business Model Canvas, Training, Coaching, Value Proposition, Training & Training Content Development, Mentorship & Coaching, Innovation Workshops, IT Business Analysis, New Product Rollout, Documentation, Hiring, Project Scoping, Market Research & Analysis, Product Development, Product Delivery, Technical Writing, Front-end, Back-end, Software Development, Applications, Chief Product Officer (CPO), Edtech Design, Planning, Strategy, Website Redesign, Consulting, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Business Processes, Backlog Grooming, Client Reporting, Waterfall Delivery, Client Relations, Feature Planning, Product Enhancement, Project Timelines, Databases, Data Visualization, Product Analytics, Team Mentoring, Business to Business (B2B), Qualitative Research, Design Systems, Data, Project Planning, User Research, User Requirements, Cross-functional Collaboration, Customer Insights, Enterprise, Search Engines, Process Documentation, Project Management & Work Tracking Tools, Mobile/Web Project Management, Professional Development, Career Coaching, Estimation & Planning, Platform Design, Pricing, Subscription Pricing, Data Products, Team Leadership, Conceptualization, Requirements, Two-sided Marketplaces, Ideation, User Experience Design, Analytical Thinking, Process Ownership, Process Optimization, Workflow, Product Operations, Software Integration, Stakeholder Interviews, Prototyping, Sprint Planning, Agile Leadership, Web Platforms, Web Product Management, Product Leadership, Design, Specs, Dashboards, Web Applications, Project Tracking, UX Assessment, Remote Team Leadership, A/B Testing, Recommendation Systems, Program Management, Communication, Training Materials, Ideation Workshops, Workshops, Content Management, Conceptual Design, Functional Requirements, Functional Specifications, Stripe, Legacy Software, User Behavior, User Flows, User Personas, Digitization, Process Automation, Mobile UI Design, Web UI Design, Mockups, UX Design, Continuous Discovery, Scrum Master, Content Creation, Helpdesk, Manuals & Documentation, Writing & Editing, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Use Cases, Web UX Design, User Workflows, Learning & Development, Artificial Intelligence Product Manager, Aha!, Data Analytics, B2C Marketing, Vendor Management, Data Reporting, Taxonomy, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Multi-sided Marketplaces, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Marketing Automation, Inventory Management, eCommerce, Launch Strategy, Go-to-market Strategy, Market Research, Product Growth, Competitor Analysis & Profiling, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Web Scraping, Data Scraping, Go-to-market Plans, Market Fit, Growth Strategy, Technical Product Management, Web API, Data Product Manager, Public Sector, API Integration, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), WordPress eCommerce, Rebranding, Business Planning, Pitch Decks, Competition Research, Transformational Leadership, Solution Architecture, Product Positioning, Content Strategy, Product Marketing, SaaS Product Management, Mobile, Payment APIs, Marketing Strategy, Digital Transformation, User Interface (UI), SEO Tools, Data-driven Dashboards, Grocery Delivery, Innovation, ServiceNow, Legal Technology (Legaltech), Research, Technical Hiring, Marketing Technology (MarTech), Technology Trends, Development, Business Development, Web Content, Content Marketing, Digital Marketing Strategy, Web Design, Revenue Strategy, Web App Development, Quantitative Analysis, Staffing, Business Process Automation, Business Process Improvement (BPI), Automation Tools, APIs, Quality Assurance (QA), Invoicing, Data Migration, Payroll & Benefits, UI Design, Inventory Management Systems, Optimization, Finance, Analytics, User Interviews, Feasibility Studies, Data Collection, Monetization Models, Price Analysis, Revenue Modeling, Negotiation, Online Payments, Predictive Analytics, Data Science, Predictive Modeling, Digital Marketing, Investor Presentations, Lead Generation, Machine Learning, Customer Support, Sales, Marketing, Marketing Campaigns, Sales Forecasting, Sales Pipelines, Technical Leadership, Integration, WP Engine, Content Writing, Personal Branding, Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Fintech, Monetization, Healthcare IT, Healthcare Software, Stripe API, OpenAI, Large Language Models (LLMs), MEAN Stack, Cloudflare, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Mobile Apps, Mobile App Development, Chatbots, eCommerce APIs, iOS, Mobile UX, Go-to-market Optimization, Rewards Programs, Loyalty Programs, Technical Project Management, Apparel & Accessories, Financial Software, Cloud, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Copywriting, Programming, Wix, Forex, Balance Scorecards

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