Sean Bhardwaj, Product Manager in Ventura, CA, United States
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Sean Bhardwaj

Verified Expert  in Product Management

Bio

Sean is an AI strategy and innovation leader. He helps companies—from startups to Fortune 20—harness AI to drive growth and transformation. He works with leadership to align AI initiatives with business goals, delivering increased efficiency, enhanced customer experiences, and new revenue streams. Sean empowers organizations to integrate innovation into their culture, unlocking AI’s potential to create lasting competitive advantage and fuel long-term success.

Project Highlights

Optimizing AI Strategy for Healthcare
Developed and executed an enterprise AI strategy that launched 12 high-impact initiatives and tripled AI investments.
Accelerating AI Product Development for a Technology Firm
Streamlined AI product development, improving efficiency by 33% and reducing time-to-market by 62%, leading to the launch of three new AI products within one year.
Transforming Customer Experience in Wellness with AI-Driven Personalization
Increased user engagement by 18% and boosted in-app purchases by 64% through the development of AI-powered personalized recommendations.

Expertise

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Chief Digital Officer
  • Digital Transformation
  • Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)

Work Experience

Staff Vice President, Strategic Initatives

2020 - 2024
Elevance Health
  • Led technology strategy and large-scale transformation initiatives for CEO and board-level enterprise priorities.
  • Oversaw the development and execution of a comprehensive enterprise AI strategy, growing to an eight-figure AI portfolio in two years.
  • Set a technology investment framework for the Digital Platforms division, balancing costs, risks, and benefits, informing build/buy/partner decisions for an eight-figure portfolio.
  • Increased operational efficiency by 30% by implementing the Agile transformation of the data science and AI team.
  • Established Digital Platforms Product Management function with cross-functional teams, achieving a 50% reduction in development time and a 90% increase in product adoption by business stakeholders.
  • Built Digital Platforms PMO team, set KPIs and OKRs, and established business intelligence framework, delivering proactive, data-driven insights and risk/opportunity guidance for executive decision-making.
  • Managed financials of P&Ls exceeding nine figures and led talent management strategy for teams of over 1,000 global, cross-functional associates.

Managing Partner and Founder

2011 - 2020
Aspire 3
  • Founded a strategy consulting firm, helping organizations grow through technology strategy, digital transformation, and product innovation.
  • Delivered increased revenue, profitability, and efficiency and sustained double-digit growth by developing and executing differentiated growth strategies for clients.
  • Cultivated strategic partnerships and joint venture opportunities, securing new business and investment valued at eight figures.
  • Set frameworks for technology strategy, product portfolio and lifecycle management, and data-driven customer experience (CX) optimization, accelerating innovation and gaining operational and competitive advantages.

Founding Partner

2017 - 2019
Pharos Center for Innovation
  • Initiated and advised on entrepreneurship, startup acceleration, and incubation programs locally, regionally, and statewide to promote workforce and economic development.
  • Led business development, recruiting 25+ strategic partners in the first year.
  • Secured $1.5 million of new business and $2.2 million of early-stage funding by mentoring a portfolio of startups.

Executive Director

2013 - 2017
Ventura Ventures Technology Center
  • Built an entrepreneurial ecosystem centered around an early-stage technology startup incubator/accelerator through a public-private partnership.
  • Defined the growth strategy, increasing membership and community engagement by 15 times.
  • Designed and built a digital learning platform to develop early-stage entrepreneurs and startups, training over 6,000 student entrepreneurs and leading to the creation of 40+ new companies.

Product Manager, Consumer and International

2009 - 2011
Axon
  • Led a $6-million personal safety product consumer business unit to record sales.
  • Improved profitability by 20% by redesigning the distribution structure.
  • Reduced budget by 80% by repackaging products to fit customer segments better.

Optimizing AI Strategy for Healthcare

Developed and executed an enterprise AI strategy that launched 12 high-impact initiatives and tripled AI investments.

Led the development of a comprehensive AI roadmap for a top health insurer, aligning AI initiatives with business priorities and enterprise strategy. Engaged the C-suite and Board to secure full buy-in, resulting in swift deployment of projects that achieved break-even in three years.

Created a strategic framework to guide further AI investments, ensuring the strategic growth of the AI portfolio. The success of this approach led to a threefold increase in AI investments and solidified the company’s market leadership in AI-driven innovation.

Accelerating AI Product Development for a Technology Firm

Streamlined AI product development, improving efficiency by 33% and reducing time-to-market by 62%, leading to the launch of three new AI products within one year.

Resolved chronic delays and misaligned priorities in a $1 billion tech company's AI product development process. By restructuring teams and aligning product portfolios with business goals, eliminated bottlenecks and created a standardized cost framework to ensure sound financial decision-making.

This shift not only accelerated product launches but also maximized ROI, positioning the company for future growth in AI-driven products and innovation.

Transforming Customer Experience in Wellness with AI-Driven Personalization

Increased user engagement by 18% and boosted in-app purchases by 64% through the development of AI-powered personalized recommendations.

Worked with a digital wellness platform serving 10M+ members to overcome low product engagement by integrating AI personalization. Analyzed user behavior and implemented an AI-driven recommendation engine that tailored product offerings and actions to individual preferences.

The result was a significant improvement in both user engagement and purchase conversions, positioning the platform for sustained growth and enhanced customer loyalty through advanced AI capabilities.

Revenue Model Restructuring

Innovated on product processes and restructured revenue models increasing the customer base by 40% and retention by 50%.

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.

Digital Learning Platform

Led the conception, design, development, and deployment of a digital learning platform to develop early-stage entrepreneurs

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.

Consumer-Facing Mobile App for Two-Sided Marketplace

Built product development team and mobile app with B2C and B2B marketplace leading to seven figures of funding.

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.

SaaS Web App

Led product management for a mid-sized accounting technology firm to create a SaaS web app and reduce workflow by 50%.

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.

Digital Strategy for Lead Generation

Led the development of high performing digital strategy, web platform, and internal sales process increasing qualified leads.

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.

Gamified Social Learning Web App

Led product management and marketing functions for a B2C and B2E (education) startup resulting in investment and acquisition.

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.

Product Feature Redistribution

Developed the business and product strategy using design thinking increasing membership by 20% by adjusting product features.

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.
2005 - 2009

Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration

University of Southern California - Los Angeles, California

Tools

Google Workspace, Board Reporting, Asana, Slack, Office 365, Zoom

Paradigms

Agile, Agile Product Management, Agile Workflow, Design Thinking, Human-centered Design (HCD), Change Management, Gamification

Industry Expertise

Healthcare, Education Technology (Edtech), Higher Education, Nonprofits

Other

Product Management, Product Owner, Innovation, Education, Product Strategy, Digital, Business Strategy, Leadership, Coaching, Business Models, Product Discovery, Product Delivery, Product Development, Consulting, Change Leadership, Stakeholder Management, Strategy, Customer-centered Product Development, New Product Development, Management, P&L Management, Business to Business (B2B), Solution Design, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Public Speaking, Mentorship & Coaching, Mentorship, Team Mentoring, Business Coaching, Agile Coaching, Business Development, New Products, Innovation Management, Strategic Planning, Strategic Partnerships, Strategic Planning & Execution, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Artificial Intelligence Product Manager, Senior Executive Management, Board of Directors, Chief Digital Officer, Chief Strategy Officer (CSO), Fractional CTO, Fractional Chief AI Officer (CAIO), Pricing Strategy, Digital Transformation, Business Consulting, Technology Strategy & Architecture, Startup Consulting, Educational Platform Design, Technology, Digital Strategy, Customer Insights, Consumer Insights, Market Insights, Research Analysis, Market Research & Analysis, Roadmaps, Product Roadmaps, Agile Product Delivery, Entrepreneurship, Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Large Language Models (LLMs), Product Research, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Product Planning, Business to Consumer (B2C), Consumer Behavior, Teams, Project Management, Chatbots, Machine Learning, Community Growth, Innovation Labs, Product Mapping, Organizational Design, Leadership Development

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