Sam is available for hire
Hire SamSam Oommen
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Toptal member since January 22, 2021
Expertise
Bio
Sam is a multi-talented product manager with over 13 years of experience and the ability to lead the development of products from conceptualization through launch. Sam possesses in-depth experience in translating complex customer needs into product requirements and delivering features focusing on customer experience and business objectives in both the B2B and B2C spaces.
Project Highlights
Social Gifting for Beem It
Led and launched the social gifting feature for Beem It—achieving the #3 app ranking in terms of monthly active users among fintech apps.
Expertise
- Agile Practices
- Feature Prioritization
- Hypothesis Testing
- Product Analytics
- Product Management
- Product Research
- Product Roadmaps
- Usability Testing
Work Experience
Product Manager
2021 - PRESENT
WooliesX
- Served as the product lead for the internal conversational AI product experience designed to simplify a store team member's life by providing a one-stop experience. Achieved YoY growth of 150% in conversations with 30% of users.
- Benchmarked the conversational AI platform, developed an engagement model for HR/IT, and strategized platform and vertical plans to drive 3x faster use case realization for store teams.
- Launched the next-gen sales and invoicing microservice, resulting in a 35% reduction in costs and improved business agility.
Senior Product Manager
2019 - 2020
Beem It
- Launched a low-effort gifting feature resulting in a 7% increase in user transactions and user engagement.
- Scoped down the feature list by 30% with a prioritization framework ensuring rapid development of strategic and growth features.
- Achieved a 10% increase in user conversion in the onboarding journey.
- Established and revamped the engineering processes by implementing weekly code sprints and Agile methodologies.
- Designed and led four user research and usability studies with over 50 participants.
Global Product Manager
2013 - 2019
Samsung
- Conceived and launched the Quick Set Up feature which increased payment instruments RU (registered user) metrics for Samsung Pay by 12x increasing monthly revenue by 6x. This was done by redesigning product flows without any marketing spend.
- Increased the customer conversion rate by 1.7x and customer retention rates by 1.5x.
- Doubled revenue for UPI (Unified Payments Interface) transactions by redefining flows based on usability tests and analytics data.
- Launched the native gift card market place resulting in an increase of revenue by 10x compared to the previous microsite by redefining the user experience and cross-selling services.
- Launched Unified Payments Interface (UPI) feature and drove 75% of overall Samsung Pay revenue.
- Launched the Entitlement Licensing feature for Samsung Knox devices and B2B SaaS service, enabling Samsung to offer various business models and also resulting in quick enterprise onboarding and renewal process within a day.
- Defined, strategized, and launched premium and custom SDKs (API platforms) to the developer community, independent software vendors, and enterprises by creating new avenues for revenue and increasing adoption by 20%.
- Defined the business plan and wireframes for a shared-device feature in Knox Configure (MDM) targeted at differentiated verticals involved in rotational shift, growing revenue by 15%.
- Launched the IoT key-and-certificate lifecycle management service targeting B2B and B2C services.
- Established and managed a 6-member Samsung KNOX solutions team prior to moving up into the product team.
Senior Software Engineer
2010 - 2013
Wipro Technologies (Texas Instruments)
- Designed and developed real-time embedded drivers (an ARM Cortex-based safety MCU system), achieving reliability levels mandated by MISRA C, a functional safety standard.
- Composed the startup code for an MCU-based system and optimized the code by 80%.
- Implemented the performance analysis, SOC validation, board bring-up (pre- and post-silicon), and debugging with TI IDEs for memory related interfaces namely EDMA, EMIF, and DDR.
- Developed the board bring-up diagnostics code for TI processors.
Senior Software Engineer
2008 - 2009
Freescale Semiconductors
- Developed features for PC-based tools used in field testing and pre-silicon phase for data logging and analysis, flashing phone software, and RF parameter configuration across the cellular platform.
- Implemented a multi-flashing feature for a phone-flashing tool, reducing the man-hours spent by 80%.
- Recognized with the BRAVO award for the quick ramp-up, owning, and feature enhancement of the entire phone-flashing tool.
Project Engineer
2005 - 2007
Wipro Technologies (Texas Instruments)
- Developed audio applications by using audio driver APIs, buffer port APIs, and various hardware audio codec units in a multi-threading environment (TI BIOS as the OS).
- Designed and developed real-time embedded libraries (Chip Support Library) in C and assembly involving multi-core programming and complex hardware IPs.
- Developed diagnostic software in C and assembly for silicon bring-up activities involving verification, performance analyses, and profiling for system-on-chip and various hardware IPs.
Project History
Social Gifting for Beem It
https://beemit.com.au/blog/1500000217381Led and launched the social gifting feature for Beem It—achieving the #3 app ranking in terms of monthly active users among fintech apps.
Beem It is an instant payment app owned by three of Australia’s biggest banks: CBA, NAB, and Westpac, with a 1 million user base in Australia.
The gifting feature was launched in a very iterative mode to get to the final shape reimagined at every stage by great customer insights and with a clear-cut business goal.
I worked on the initial product roadmap, leading the UX team to validate the hypothesis, ideation, and later iterating the solution. The product was launched initially with payment stickers and later underwent successive changes to its final full-fledged version with gift card integration.
The gifting feature was launched in a very iterative mode to get to the final shape reimagined at every stage by great customer insights and with a clear-cut business goal.
I worked on the initial product roadmap, leading the UX team to validate the hypothesis, ideation, and later iterating the solution. The product was launched initially with payment stickers and later underwent successive changes to its final full-fledged version with gift card integration.
1-click Quick Set Up for Samsung Pay
https://www.samsung.com/in/samsung-pay/Conceived and launched the Quick Set Up feature, which increased the payment instrument's RU (registered user) metrics for Pay by 12x, resulting in 16x in monthly revenue. This was done by redesigning product flows without any marketing spend.
Samsung Pay is a mobile payment service that enables debit/credit cards, wallets, and the Unified Payments Interface (an instant payment system launched in India).
I led payments with a user base of 20 million users. Using data, we designed the user journey funnel to evangelize stakeholders and the team for SamsungPay's growth team.
Later, I worked in customer validation and prototyping by working with the UX team and engineering team to launch the Quick Set Up feature for Samsung Pay. The Quick Set Up feature bagged the best innovative feature globally from Samsung in 2019.
I led payments with a user base of 20 million users. Using data, we designed the user journey funnel to evangelize stakeholders and the team for SamsungPay's growth team.
Later, I worked in customer validation and prototyping by working with the UX team and engineering team to launch the Quick Set Up feature for Samsung Pay. The Quick Set Up feature bagged the best innovative feature globally from Samsung in 2019.
Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for Samsung Pay
https://www.samsung.com/in/samsung-pay/upi/Launched Unified Payments Interface (UPI) feature and drove 75% of overall Samsung Pay revenue.
The Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is a smartphone application that allows users to transfer money between bank accounts. It is a single-window mobile payment system developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).
I led the UX and engineering team from ideation to launch an easy peer-to-peer and merchant payment solution to the Indian market.
I led the UX and engineering team from ideation to launch an easy peer-to-peer and merchant payment solution to the Indian market.
Education
2001 - 2005
Bachelor of Engineering Degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering
National Institute of Technology, Karnataka (NITK) - Mangalore, India
Skills
Tools
Jira
Paradigms
Usability Testing
Other
Product Management, Product Roadmaps, Agile Practices, Hypothesis Testing, Product Analytics, Impact Mapping, Product Research, Product Growth, Product Launch, Go-to-market Plans, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), User Flows, User Personas, Funnel Analysis, Funnel Optimization, Competitor Analysis & Profiling, Digital Payments, B2B Product Management, Monetization, Technical Training, Customer Research, Analytics, Stakeholder Engagement, UI Prototyping, Validated User Research, Survey Development & Analysis, Feature Prioritization, A/B Testing, Ideation, User Interviews
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