Thomas Mechelke
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Seattle, WA, United States
Toptal member since September 11, 2023
Thomas is a versatile technology leader, product manager, and software creator who is equally at home in the board room, design studio, and development scrum team. He has over 20 years of experience building solutions and commercial products ranging from departmental to internet-scale SaaS applications for business professionals and citizen and professional developers.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile
- Azure
- Cross-functional Team Leadership
- Enterprise Application Architecture
- Microsoft 365
- Product Management
- Requirements & Specifications
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
Work Experience
Governing Board Secretary
International Charter School of Atlanta
- Worked with the school administration and other governing board members to maintain financial and operational stability and exceed educational outcomes in district public schools in Georgia.
- Achieved IB (International Baccalaureate) World certification for primary and middle years.
- Led governing board meeting management, communications, and document management efforts.
- Worked with the governing board and school administration in the budget development and management processes. I also worked with them on the successful charter renewal process.
- Collaborated with other members of the governing board to investigate and address grievances and complaints.
- Received annual training in stakeholder engagement, education finance, ethics, and education policy.
- Reviewed and updated governance policies for the school regularly for all areas of school operations.
- Provided nonprofit leadership as one of the school's officers of 501(c)(3).
CEO and Principal Consultant
tmechLabs
- Transformed the company's initial $120,000 revenue in year one into over $1 million by year five, leveraging referrals and fostering robust client-supplier connections.
- Provided technical leadership for major product development efforts on behalf of enterprise clients in Europe and the US with teams of 3-25 members.
- Earned Microsoft Industry Solution Partner status in 2022.
- Provided technical staffing services for numerous enterprise application development projects.
Technical Product Manager and Architect
tmechLabs - Media Industry Client
- Led development team to implement an end user-focused media plan report designer and templating engine with real-time preview.
- Won the business by designing a much-improved business process flow and low-fidelity prototype to demonstrate the power of real-time preview in Excel.
- Turned around a failing project on behalf of the client and delivered a working product within budget.
- Reduced time spent per report by >80%, allowing end users to focus on tasks of higher value.
- Evaluated Microsoft Power Platform-based solution vs custom Excel Addin.
Software Architect
tmechLabs - Sales Enablement Client
- Worked with the director of product and CEO on a data analytics pipeline for a sales enablement product focused on technical demos to measure demo effectiveness and attribution to opportunities.
- Created a prototype Microsoft Teams application to instrument sales meetings for impact measurement and provide sales enablement functionality based on conversation prompts with the Microsoft Bot Framework.
- Presented alternative implementation options for the sales enablement data analytics pipeline with Databricks, Azure Fabric, and custom code depending on the business maturity stage and shared requirements with clients.
- Supervised web developer working on playlist functionality for the demo management product.
Software Architect
tmechLabs - Internal FinTech Product Incubation
- Implemented a hybrid human-automated trade analysis platform to help day and swing traders generate trading plans and identify trading opportunities in real time within the platform's context.
- Implemented feedback loop between manual data analysis entered into eSignal charts and automatic analysis of support and resistance patterns in the market under consideration.
- Implemented a trade plan generation system that combines stock scanner outputs and trading rules in a dynamic Excel document that can be used to execute trades and evaluate completed trades against the plan.
Software Architect
tmechLabs - Sales Enablement Client
- Worked with product marketing executive on a concept for a sample data library to accelerate pre-sales demo implementation.
- Implemented Power App, data import plugin, and data service API to generate and import relevant sample data from a library into a Power Platform tenant for use as the basis of sample applications and demos.
- Worked on the application that is designed for a large field organization and supports multiple industries and business functions. It reduces time-to-demo by about 25% on average.
Principal Consultant
tmechLabs - Automobile Industry Client
- Provided consulting as an embedded team member on SharePoint development methodologies, processes, application hosting, application onboarding, and deployment automation.
- Modernized and supported internal SharePoint admin tool to automate common administrative tasks like Site Collection Administrator assignment and management.
- Supported and continued development of custom claims provider for SharePoint.
- Implemented application monitoring and logging extensions for custom SharePoint extensions hosted in the client's data centers.
- Implemented deployment automation in dev, test, and production environments for SharePoint extensions.
- Implemented deployment automation prototype and guidance for SharePoint Framework development.
- Provided guidance to out-sourcing provider for SharePoint Add-in hosting infrastructure.
- Provided Level 4 developer support and performance troubleshooting for project teams building SharePoint extensions.
- Supported cloud migration to Microsoft 365 for custom applications and transition guidance from the SharePoint Add-in model to SharePoint Framework.
- Provided guidance for transition from Sandbox and Farm Solutions to SharePoint Add-in model.
Technical Product Manager
tmechLabs - Financial Services Client
- Led the technical architecture and implementation of a system to provision Power BI dedicated capacity on demand for client-facing dashboarding and reporting engagements at a Big 5 Financial Services firm.
- Reduced capacity provisioning from a multi-day manual process to a seamlessly automated process within minutes of creating a new project in the host application.
- Cross-team collaboration with adjacent application service teams, end users, and executive management.
Principal Developer
tmechLabs - Financial Services Client
- Designed and implemented a web application template to easily share a Power BI dashboard with external clients in a secure way that does not require a Power BI license for the recipient (Power BI Embedded).
- Designed and implemented a DevOps pipeline template to automatically provision and deploy the Power BI dashboard, web application, and security configuration to an internet-facing web host.
- Documented the process and source code and trained the operations team to implement subsequent dashboards without support.
Principal Consultant
Mercedes AMG
- Analyzed the performance of an executive board meeting application to identify bottlenecks and suggest code fixes.
- Improved functionality performance that was previously responding very slowly or timing out by 100-500% with a combination of database profiling and JavaScript debugging.
- Provided guidance for several other bottlenecks that were later fixed by the internal development team.
Technical Product Management Lead and Architect
tmechLabs - Financial Services Client
- Worked as technical lead on a cross-functional team at a Big 5 financial services firm to build a client-facing due diligence reporting application on web and mobile devices.
- Designed and led the development of a report assembly and publishing application for high-fidelity reports with embedded interactive data analytics.
- Enabled end users to author reports in PowerPoint, which were converted to scalable web formats and augmented with virtual slides of interactive data analytics visualization.
- Delivered executive presentations and product demonstrations.
Senior Technical Program Manager and Architect
tmechLabs - Financial Services Client
- Led a blended team of developers to implement the next version of the premier application to produce quarterly and annual reports required by the Securities and Exchange Commission based on the EDGAR format.
- Designed a custom web application to author and generate SEC reports in the required format and manage the reports stored in SharePoint.
- Designed a paragraph-level versioning system to enable a granular co-authoring experience with an audit trail.
- Collaborated with a team in Ukraine and the internal development team to work on the legacy version of the application to ensure feature parity and smooth hand-off.
Principal Software Engineer
tmechLabs - Software Industry Client
- Designed and implemented sample applications for Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Add-ins.
- Authored technical documentation for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Add-ins, which was published.
- Provided expert guidance to the technical documentation team on opportunities for improvements and additions to the Office Add-In documentation site as a recently departed member of the engineering team.
Senior Program Manager and Office 365 Developer
Microsoft
- Collaborated with Windows Azure Web App Service and Azure SQL Server teams on internet-scale, high-density, low-cost hosting for SharePoint applications and databases, reducing startup time from minutes to seconds and cost by 95%.
- Led a security development lifecycle for the SharePoint app model team, including threat modeling, security reviews, mitigation implementation, and the sign-off process.
- Applied for and got awarded a US patent number 20090249280 titled "Upgrading Simple Applications to Full-scale Solutions."
- Applied for and got awarded a US patent number 20130117749 titled "Provisioning and Managing an Application Platform."
- Headed sustained engineering efforts for the whole team, including customer-found bug triage, communication of the concept of "won't fix or is by design," delivery of hotfixes, or inclusion in cumulative updates and service packs.
Program Manager of SharePoint Connectivity Services
Microsoft
- Led the UI design and development of no-code tooling for SharePoint Business Connectivity Services to connect line-of-business databases and web services to external tables in SharePoint.
- Headed the design and development of the application lifecycle components for client-side caching of business data using OneDrive for data.
- Applied for and got awarded a US patent number 20140123130 entitled "Deployment of a Solution Artifact to a Client Application."
Software Design Engineer
Microsoft
- Designed and implemented an SAP data connector to extract SAP data for use in .NET applications and storage in SQL Server databases with 3 – 5 times faster data extraction than SAP's interfaces.
- Designed and supervised the offshore development of ADO Provider integration with the SAP connector.
- Applied for and got awarded a US patent number 20070214127 named "Scalable Data Extraction from Data Stores."
Enterprise Data Services Development Manager
Microsoft
- Led the development team to implement standardized data pipelines from line-of-business (LOB) systems like SAP, product catalogs, procurement, and sales for use in data warehouses and custom web applications.
- Reduced the implementation effort of data pipelines for data warehouses and LOB applications by 80%.
- Tested the prerelease versions of SQL Server with high-volume data pipelines and provided feedback to the product team.
- Trained and mentored junior and senior developers on development processes and system design.
Senior SAP Application Developer
Microsoft
- Implemented electronic data interchange (EDI) processes for procurement and sales operations.
- Implemented real-time interfaces for custom web applications over SAP functions.
- Implemented data migrations from legacy HR systems to SAP.
- Provided technical support for payroll process integration between SAP and Ceridian.
- Implemented a declarative permission model generator for custom permissions and roles.
SAP Application Developer
BASF
- Implemented data migrations from legacy mainframe systems to SAP R/2.
- Implemented data migrations from legacy mainframe systems to SAP R/3.
- Implemented country-specific customizations for international rollouts in France, England, and Switzerland.
Project History
Autohosting Infrastructure for SharePoint Online Add-ins on Azure
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/dev/sp-add-ins/sharepoint-add-insHeaded the design and development of automatic hosting infrastructure, the API, and UX for SharePoint Add-ins on Microsoft 365 and Azure App Services.
Also, I collaborated with Windows Azure Web Applications Service and Azure SQL Server teams on internet-scale, high-density, low-cost hosting for SharePoint applications and databases, reducing startup time from 10 – 15 minutes to under 10 seconds and cost from over $100 per app per month to under $5 per app per month.
Excel Add-in for Media Plan Reporting
Led design and development of Excel Add-in to produce complex media plan reports with no developer involvement and instant preview.
Interactive M&A Deal Advisory Report Composer
Spearheaded the design and development of an M&A deal advisory report composition and publishing application.
Education
Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Sustainable Business
Pinchot University - Seattle, WA, United States
Graduate Work in Counseling Psychology
Seattle School of Theology and Psychology - Seattle, WA, United States
Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and Computer Science
Cooperative University Mannheim - Mannheim, Germany
Skills
Tools
Microsoft Exchange, SAP Materials Management (MM), Jupyter, Spark SQL, Zapier, Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Power Apps, Azure Active Directory, Spotfire, Microsoft Web Services
Paradigms
Azure DevOps, Agile, Testing, Continuous Delivery (CD), Agile Project Management, Scrum, Agile Product Management, Actor Model, Low Code, User Testing, Business to Business to Consumer (B2B2C), Gamification, Microservices Architecture
Platforms
SharePoint 365, SharePoint, Azure IaaS, Azure, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Microsoft Power Automate, Jupyter Notebook, MacOS, Azure Service Fabric, Microsoft Power Platform, SharePoint 2010, SharePoint 2013, SharePoint 2016, Microsoft Bot Framework
Industry Expertise
Marketplaces, Financial Services, Education Technology (Edtech)
Other
Business Process Analysis, System Design, Microsoft 365, Product Management, Azure PaaS, Visual Studio, APIs, Document Design, Distributed Systems, Relational Database Design, SaaS Product Management, SaaS Design, Enterprise Systems, Enterprise Application Architecture, Requirements & Specifications, Windows, Cross-departmental Collaboration, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Requirements, Conceptualization, Proof of Concept (POC), Software as a Service (SaaS), Technical Documentation, Design Documentation, API Design, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Product Delivery, Engineering, Innovation, User Journeys, API Development, API Integration, Business Analysis, Databases, Software Development, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), User Stories, User Workflows, Cloud, Web Applications, API Documentation, Technical Product Management, Integration, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Sprint Planning, Functional Requirements, Technical Requirements, Data Integration, Software Engineering, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, ABAP, Entrepreneurship, Triple Bottom Line, Cloud Security, Azure SQL, No-code Development, Microsoft Teams, Visual Studio Code (VS Code), NoSQL, Cloud Migration, SharePoint Framework (SPFx), Office Add-ins, Data Pipelines, Product Roadmaps, MVP Design, Chatbot Conversation Design, Roadmaps, Documentation, Document Management Systems (DMS), Business, Product Strategy, Management, Project Management, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Language Learning, Continuous Discovery, B2B, Market Opportunity Analysis, Market Research, SaaS, User Experience (UX), Quality Assurance (QA), Proposals, RFPs, RFQs, ITTs, Responses, Proposals & Quotes, Feature Prioritization, Frameworks, Project Management & Work Tracking Tools, Risk Analysis, User Interface (UI), User Onboarding, Fintech, Forms, API Platforms, Communication, Business to Business (B2B), Data-driven Decision-making, Enterprise, Product Analytics, Team Leadership, Platform as a Service (PaaS), Ideation, Business Process Automation, Analytics, Product Growth, Learning Management Systems (LMS), Prototyping, Low-fidelity Prototypes, Workflow Tools, Backlog Management, Stakeholder Interviews, Go-to-market Plans, Wireframing, Project Timelines, Product Research, Pitch Presentations, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), COBOL, SAP, IBM Db2, Systems Thinking, Accounting, Relational Dynamics, Psychology, Relational Hermeneutics, Storytelling, Staffing, Angular, React, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), SQL, Microsoft SQL Server, SAP Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Active Server Pages (ASP), SAP Sales and Distribution (SAP SD), Microsoft Excel, TypeScript, Xamarin, Aspose Components, Document Parsing, TIBCO Spotfire, F#, Python, JavaScript, Databricks, Data Lakehouse, Kubernetes, Linux, Machine Learning, iOS, Conversational AI, Unity3D AI, Unity3D, Apache Spark, Market Research & Analysis, Competition Research, Competitive Analysis, Intercultural Competence, Marketing, Budgeting, Budget Management, Governance, Policy, Board of Directors, Local & Municipal Government, K-12 Education, Multi-sided Marketplaces, Business to Consumer (B2C), Artificial Intelligence (AI), User Research, Mobile Applications, eCommerce, HRIS, Large Language Models (LLMs), Natural Language Processing (NLP), Python 3, Azure Synapse, Demos, Non-profit Leadership, Conflict Resolution, UX Design, Business Process Modeling, Amazon Athena, Redis, ASP.NET Core, Stakeholder Engagement, Software QA, Project Planning, Project Estimation, Executive Presentations, Product Demonstrations, Cross-functional Collaboration, eSignal, Microsoft Graph API, Data Visualization, Financial Data Analytics, Trend Analysis, Trading, Stock Market, SharePoint Service Applications, SharePoint Farm Solutions, Web Hosting, Web Servers, IT Consulting, Continuous Integration (CI), Workflow, SAML, Web Security, AngularJS, Data Analytics, Intranets, Extranets, ASP.NET, SQL Server 2014, Web UX Design, Mobile UX Design, PingFederate, Workshops, Serverless Architecture, Excel Add-ins, Okta, ASP.NET MVC 5, SQL Server 2012, C#, Website Performance, Performance Analysis, Data Warehouse Design, Streaming Data, Pandas, NumPy, Dapr, Terraform, PySpark, Trading Systems, Go-to-market Strategy, Pitch Decks, Android, Mobile Apps, Climate Change, Environment, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG)
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