Publication
HiPPOs and the Product Roadmap: How to Manage Senior Stakeholder Intervention
https://www.toptal.com/product-managers/product-management-consultant/hippos-product-roadmap
Ryan is available for hire
Hire RyanRyan Strong
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Location
Dallas, TX, United States
Toptal Member Since
January 11, 2022
For over a decade, Ryan has been leading agile teams, building inspired products for delighted users. He creates an environment cultivated to deliver product-market fit. His successes have spanned across many industries and target markets, returning value to all parties involved. Ryan has managed software and hardware tech projects in large corporate settings and for lean startups and explored greenfield possibilities, using data to guide direction and validation at every step along the way.
Project Highlights
Cashier-less
Led the design, development, and initial launch of a new innovative convenience store format for a Fortune Global 500 retailer.
7NOW Redesign
Led the redesign of the 7NOW app that averages over 50k downloads a month.
LXRInsights Product Launch
Led the product and market fit discovery and validation efforts for a new AI-driven MarTech platform targeting online retail.
Expertise
Work Experience
Owner
2023 - PRESENT
The Vray
- Created an online business utilizing AI tools to create apparel for a direct-to-consumer business.
- Utilized A/B testing marketing tactics using AI to grow my eCommerce business to over $1,000 in sales in the 1st month of existence.
- Designed an eCommerce site that is optimized for conversion using AI.
CEO
2022 - PRESENT
Proudct Pal
- Worked with multiple SMBs to incorporate and/or integrate large language models into their business to streamline and automate their processes.
- Developed a revolutionary product management app that allows users to instantaneously understand market conditions and rapidly create detailed product requirements that automatically sync with engineering development tools like Jira.
- Scaled the business from zero to over a quarter million dollar annual revenue in the initial 12 months of existence.
Product Manager
2023 - 2023
Stephen M Childers
- Consulted with the client to ideate a product with great market potential in the underserved construction technology market.
- Created a comprehensive business proposal for building a revolutionary communication tool for in-the-field construction workers leveraging cutting-edge technology like hands-free voice technology and generative AI.
- Led the discovery of a new groundbreaking construction communication tool that leverages multi-lingual translation capabilities, document capture and storage, and workflow management for general contractors.
Product Manager | Business Analyst
2023 - 2023
Tom Mallet
- Created a pitch deck for the new health and wellness app concept.
- Created a monetization strategy for the new product.
- Defined a go-to-market strategy for the launch of a new health and wellness app targeting professional fitness trainers.
- Worked with the project manager, technical advisor, and product designer to create a complete technical plan for the execution of the new app, including a product requirements document defining features and market positioning.
Vice President of Product
2020 - 2021
Spacee
- Developed innovative smart inventory and digital advertising products for brick and mortar retailers.
- Worked with founders and board members to build a product roadmap in line with the investment timelines.
- Built a department of product managers, quality assurance engineers, user experience designers, and market researchers.
- Led the design, prototyping, market testing, and product launch for two product lines.
- Established agile software development practices and release cycles to provide more consistency and reporting on effectiveness to the executive leadership.
- Collaborated with marketing partners to create and launch a global go-to-market strategy.
- Served on the executive committee where the company strategy was set based on the founder's vision.
- Attended sales calls, meetings, and conferences as the solutions expert.
- Owned and managed the budget for the product and quality departments.
Director of Product Management
2019 - 2020
7-Eleven
- Played a key role in the team that created the first cashier-less store for 7-Eleven.
- Led multiple teams of machine learning engineers, hardware engineers, software developers, product managers, and designers.
- Created and launched into the market a technology stack that led to 800+ publications and thousands of impressions since opening Q4 2019.
- Launched the lowest cost solution in the market with a unit profit margin of 70%.
Senior Manager of Product Management
2018 - 2019
7-Eleven
- Led a team of software engineers, front-end developers, and UX designers that rearchitected the 7NOW customer app.
- Managed a portfolio of products that led to a 5x increase in sales conversions and $35 million in incremental annual revenue compared to the previous year's version.
- Created the 7Pins and the 30-minute delivery to 3,000 parks, schools, and churches across the lower 48.
- Established a product manager council to share learnings and set norms and standards.
- Performed business analyst duties such as building and presenting reports on business unit performance, market research, and customer analytics.
Senior Product Manager
2016 - 2018
Brinks Home Security
- Led the team of engineers and business analysts that implemented a strategic partnership with Nest—now Google Home—to provide exclusive security monitory for Nest Secure.
- Built the first eCommerce platform for Brinks Home Security with my team, leading to a 43% increase in new monthly account generation and a 70% reduction in acquisition cost per unit.
- Worked on the eCommerce platform alongside the Nest development team to develop API integrations to completely automate sales operations and fulfillment.
Product Manager | Business Analyst
2013 - 2016
AIG
- Developed three new features for AIG's Retirement Services online portal: retirement income calculator, alerts and notifications, and insights.
- Built a retirement income calculator, FutureFIT, increasing one-time contributions to IRAs by 58%.
- Created a data lake for customer data that implemented industry-leading data security technology.
Project History
Deming ROVR
Led the design and launch of a CV-based roaming robot for Spacee's top client.
ROVR is a proprietary robot that uses patented technologies to collect live inventory data for in-store retailers. This data is used to satisfy audits and optimize supply chain logistics with third-party distributors. I led a team of product managers, UX designers, market researchers, and QA to design a product that is near the cheapest in the market and has the least amount of impact on the consumer shopping experience of any competitor.
Cashier-less
Led the design, development, and initial launch of a new innovative convenience store format for a Fortune Global 500 retailer.
My teams improved the customer's in-store shopping experience for the cashier-less project by removing the cashier and all physical self-checkout stations from the checkout process. I oversaw the product design, go-to-market strategy, development, and initial launch.
7NOW Redesign
Led the redesign of the 7NOW app that averages over 50k downloads a month.
For this project, I managed the redesign of the 7Eleven delivery app, 7NOW. I oversaw the initial market research and testing that led to the redesign business case through the app design and development to the initial launch. The app's rating improved by 20% and conversion 5X due to the improved UI and reduced steps in the sales pipeline.
Nest Secure Partnership
Managed the successful integration and market launch of Nest Secure's exclusive security alarm monitoring.
I led the project team that designed, integrated, and launched Nest Secure's first exclusive monitoring service—now part of the Google Home division. I managed UX designers, software engineers, QA analysts, and product marketers to build a new eCommerce site catered to Nest users and brand guidelines with Google branding. Three months from launch, Nest Secure sales represented 28% of total sales. By year-end, Nest Secure sales were over 40% of total sales.
Real Estate CRM Product Discovery
Led the design and requirements discovery phase for a new real estate CRM product.
The product vision was to create a CRM tool for an NYC real estate company that specializes in the permitting process for property construction projects. The project was to make initial discoveries to determine the product and market fit, design initial prototypes, and gather requirements that an offshore development team could execute.
LXRInsights Product Launch
http://www.lxrinsights.comLed the product and market fit discovery and validation efforts for a new AI-driven MarTech platform targeting online retail.
LXRInsights is an AI-powered digital marketing platform that elevates Google Ads performance by providing Google Ads AI-generated customer segments, targeting customers with the highest value and, thus, the highest likelihood to repeat shop.
ChatGPT Integration
Led the design and integration of ChatGPT that allows for automated response generation for a marketing referral business
Best Company is a leading marketing technology business that provides outbound communication to a client's customers to receive referrals and reviews of the client. Best Company's processes were manual and Product Pal helped them automate their process by integrating ChatGPT saving the business thousands of dollars in the first few months launch.
Other Experience
Education
2008 - 2011
Master's Degree in History
Texas Tech University - Lubbock, Texas, USA
2003 - 2008
Bachelor's Degree in History
Texas Tech University - Lubbock, Texas, USA
Skills
Tools
Slack, Confluence, Zoom, Trello, Jira, Affinity Designer, Google Analytics, Microsoft Power Apps, Microsoft Power BI, Shopify Plus
Paradigms
Agile UX, Agile, Agile Software Development, B2C, Agile Product Management, B2B2C, Agile Project Management, Data Product Management, Design Thinking, Scrum, Business to Business to Consumer (B2B2C), Augmented Reality (AR), Gamification, Continuous Delivery (CD), Requirements Analysis
Industry Expertise
Marketplaces
Platforms
Shopify, Google Analytics 4, Monday.com
Other
Microsoft Office, Aha!, Empathy, Research, Storytelling, History, Product Design, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Product Launch, Product Management, Leadership, User Experience (UX), Product Strategy, Market Research, Project Leadership, Prototyping, App UX, Client Management, Digital Product Management, Product Vision, Product Owner, New Products, Product Roadmaps, Business to Consumer (B2C), Web, Planning, Deployment, Consulting, Discovery, Roadmaps, Conceptualization, Backlog Grooming, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Stakeholder Management, Feature Prioritization, Product Consultant, Apps, Project Planning, User Research, Project Consultancy, Monetization, ROI, Product Discovery, Culture Management, Product Ownership, Communication, Market Insights, Technical Product Management, MVP Design, Ideation, Scope, Team Leadership, Creative Thinking, Critical Thinking, Competitive Analysis, Stakeholder Interviews, Teaching, Human Factors, Psychology, Sociology, Product Sales, Product Marketing, Business Cases, Quality Assurance (QA), Agile DevOps, Hardware Development, Board Presentations, Senior Executive Management, Computer Vision, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Software Design, Software QA, Executive Reporting, Executive Presentations, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Web Analytics, UI Design, Project Management, Adobe Workfront, eCommerce UX, eCommerce Design, Hardware Integration, UX Design, Story Mapping, Storyboarding, API Integration, Third-party Management, Sales Support, Product Coach, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Big Data, Data, Data Integration, Head of Product, Product Mapping, Product Growth, Data Products, B2B, Responsive Web Apps, Web App UI, Web App Development, Web & Mobile Applications, Web App Design, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Direct to Consumer (D2C), eCommerce, Business Strategy, Market Research & Analysis, Market Strategy and Research Product Manager, New Product Development, Mobile Apps, Mobile App Development, User Interface (UI), Wireframing, Growth Marketing, Marketing, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Distributed Team Management, Data Analytics, Digital Marketing, Enterprise SaaS, Digital Marketing Strategy, Market Entry, Startups, Chief Product Officer (CPO), Technology Strategy & Architecture, A/B Testing, App Growth, Growth, Go-to-market Strategy, Software as a Service (SaaS), Machine Learning, Business to Business (B2B), Digital Marketing Product Manager, Business Development, Strategy, Management Consulting, Startup Consulting, Competition Research, Subscriptions, Marketing Strategy, Design, Branding, Marketing Technology (MarTech), Requirements, Two-sided Marketplaces, Pitch Decks, Benchmarking, Customer Experience, Operations, Data Analysis, Customer Experience Management, Customer Support, Mockups, Web Product Management, APIs, Software Development, Creative Tech, Internet of Things (IoT), Mentorship & Coaching, Cross-functional Collaboration, Project Coordination, Project Timelines, Artificial Intelligence Product Manager, IT Product Management, Content Writing, Writing & Editing, Technical Documentation, Design Specifications, Development Strategy, Launch Strategy, Strategy Planning, GPT, Project Management & Work Tracking Tools, Small Business, Process Improvement, Coaching, Program Management, Remote Team Leadership, Business, Data-driven Decision-making, Product Analytics, Continuous Discovery, Platform as a Service (PaaS), API Documentation, Requirements & Specifications, Payment APIs, Stripe Payments, VoIP, Backlog Management, Functional Requirements, Build/Buy Analysis, Conversational AI, Feasibility Studies, Adobe Experience Design (XD), Patents, Data Governance, Manufacturing, Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM), Validation, Design Validation, IOTA, Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG), Product Development, App Store Acceptance Process, App Store, Mobile Applications, iOS, Android, Mobile, Call Centers, CRM Systems, Dynamics CRM 365, Microsoft, Discovery Workshops, Sprint Planning, Marketing Analytics, Marketing Automation, Lead Generation, Marketing Mix, Go-to-market Plans, SaaS, SaaS Product Management, SaaS Product Marketing, Data Visualization, B2B Product Management, Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPT), Sales, Apparel & Accessories, Fitness, Content Strategy, Content Marketing, Facebook Ads, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), ChatGPT, Chatbots, Miro, Microsoft 365, Quantum Computing, Stripe API, Regulations, CEO, Enterprise, Business Analysis, Supply Chain, Learning Management Systems (LMS)
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