Product Manager in Camarillo, CA, United States

Led discovery for regional education and workforce development agencies to identify solutions for developing entrepreneurs from idea through launch across several markets. Created a research plan, led market research, identified target segments, solution design, and business model design.

Presented and received unanimous adoption for the proposal of a digital learning platform with modular content and lead end-to-end design and development. Responsible for building the team, overseeing the product implementation (including content strategy and curriculum structure - video lessons, tools, and online+offline coaching), and training for each of the agencies to launch the product in their service offering.

Launched pilot within one year three agencies and scored highly in both user engagement and content mastery. As a result, the product organically doubled in users annually in the first four years from word of mouth growth. Currently, the platform is used by middle schools, high schools, colleges, non-profit agencies, workforce education groups, and economic development agencies.

Worked with leadership and investors to identify product prototype gaps and determine the need for a new solution. Built product management function and educated team to create clear channels of communication between management, development, design.

Owned product roadmap and user experience to ensure product-market fit and established prioritization of features with a consumer-centric focus across all stakeholders. Instituted Agile methodologies, managed and grew product and development team from 0-6, and launched new consumer-facing MVP within 6 months with tight timelines and budget. Negotiated with vendors to secure access to inventory with low purchasing minimums.

Presented to investors from angels to VCs receiving positive feedback on app UX and team progress and traction which led to the investment.

Established Agile methodologies and clear communication between the sales and engineering teams. Worked directly with senior management to engage them in process and groom product backlog. Created the roadmap for automation, using a rules engine that aggregated and analyzed user-created rules to create suggested changes allowing batch editing of offline ledgers and banking transaction data. Described as a “killer feature” that drove early adoption within the organization and with early users.

Developed and proposed the overall product strategy of turning a fully-featured version into a proprietary internal tool and releasing a lite version to the market as a way to maintain a competitive advantage.

Developed strategic growth opportunities for a professional services company by evaluating service offerings, client usage, and workflows.

Identified opportunities to automate reporting and certain client-facing functions and shift from time-based to service-based pricing model. Developed tiered pricing strategy with higher pricing for clients requiring greater customization and interaction and advised on marketing rollout of new marketing structure to clients with minimal friction.

This resulted in a significant increase in the customer base and client retention as well as a freed up staff time for high billable projects.

Guided market research and workflow analysis for a cross-sector regional consortium of business services providers to determine growth opportunities. Analyzed primary and secondary data and internal business intelligence to develop a recommended digital strategy, including a new web platform to better acquire leads and internal process optimization to better sort and convert them.

Led implementation including sourcing and managing vendors for services, developing sales funnels and ensuring data tracking, and performing change management and training for individual member organizations. Persuaded competing organizations to focus offerings on specific market segments and collaborate in order to re-prioritize budgets while reducing redundant offerings.

Increased leads by 50%, client engagements by 15%, and growth in member applications to the consortium by 22% over 12 months. The client was awarded a contract to drive regional adoption for the digital strategy.

Led product management leading a team of seven engineers and designers through Agile methodologies to develop a web-based social game to teach math to elementary school students. Increased release cadence from 1one feature per quarter to one per month. Instituted quality assurance and bug testing process decreasing the frequency of critical failures after releases by 80%.

Created a voice of the customer focus and developed a product evangelist group of users to provide rapid feedback on new feature concepts leading to an increase of daily active users by 10x and users by 5x over 12 months.

Gathered data from market analysis, conducted user interviews, surveys and looked at usage for a for a B2B mid-sized membership-based organization to identify user segments.

Guided organization in adopting a voice of the customer focus and advocated for the restructuring from one level of service at a scaling price to a muli-tier product/pricing structure with a different feature mix for their three targets of enterprise, mid-sized, and small businesses. Strategically moved product features into three categories aligned to users requiring no additional development.

Created a data-driven marketing plan and key messaging objectives to roll out the new membership structure which was well received by existing and new users and led to an increase in the customer base by 25% and membership by 20% over the course of a year.