Valerio Zanini
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Washington, DC, United States
Toptal member since August 28, 2019
With 15+ years of hands-on experience, Valerio is a certified CST, SPC, MBA, and agile product trainer and coach—leading product and tech teams across various industries. He delivers training and coaching on product management, innovation, Agile, SAFe, and design thinking. Recently, Valerio founded Truly Scrum, a training and coaching company. Working at the intersection of technology, business, and human-centered design, Valerio is passionate about creating digital products that customers love.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile Coaching
- Agile Product Management
- Agile Software Development
- Design Thinking
- Digital Product Management
- Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
- Scrum
- Software Development
Work Experience
Product Owner
Truly Scrum
- Founded Truly Scrum, a training and coaching company. Set the strategy and the overall vision for the service.
- Managed a team of agile coaches and scrum masters to provide advice and coaching to potential candidates.
- Provided a community-driven service to help people learn about Scrum, master Scrum, and find jobs as scrum masters.
CEO | Trainer | Consultant | CST | SPC
5D Vision
- Provided consulting and training on digital and product innovation, design thinking, human-centered design, agile transformation, SAFe implementation, and system development for various clients including several Fortune 100 organizations.
- Helped organizations spark innovation, develop great products, and empower teams to be more productive.
- Worked at the intersection of product management, design thinking, and agile practices.
- Merged a passion for human-centered design with expert application of agile and development practices.
- Authored the books “Deliver Great Products That Customers Love” (2018) and “The Spark Engine” (2017).
Director of Digital Product Development and Retail Bank
Capital One
- Led digital product development for the retail bank.
- Formed and coached teams of product managers/owners and software developers, spearheading the strategy and execution for several digital initiatives.
- Won the CEO’s “Circle of Excellence 2015” award, given only to the top ten teams in Capital One every year.
- Oversaw the largest-to-date Salesforce implementation in the banking industry, resulting in deeper customer insights for bankers.
- Built a data integration across a variety of data sources and delivered a new front end for retail branches which was rolled out to the entire branch network with an MVP in production in just 4.5 months from inception (a record delivery speed for this type of Salesforce implementation). The project was selected as a successful case study at Dreamforce 2017, the annual Salesforce worldwide conference.
- Reinvented the banker-customer experience in the retail bank's locations through a $4+ million introduction of iPads and public WiFi in all 900+ locations.
- Led the product strategy and development in a cross-functional team of 30+ members from concept to delivery.
- Helped the bank to be the first among major US banks to introduce iPads and public WiFi in all retail locations.
- Led the development of an innovative lobby management tool on iPads, a tool used to increase the efficiency of branch operations. The tool streamlined the customer experience and helped bankers serve customers more efficiently.
- Coached a team of product managers/owners on product, agile, SAFe, and design thinking principles.
- Infused a culture of creating value-driven MVPs and rapid ideation with customers, earning a reputation for “Valerio-driven development”.
- Led teams which won two “tech excellence” awards for agile/SAFe adoption and ATDD practices.
Vice President of Technology and Product
Marketresearch.com
- Led the technology and software development teams.
- Oversaw and was responsible for all web services, new product/feature development, IT infrastructure and support, quality control, and data administration.
- Directed and completed a complex system integration project aimed at consolidating a company-wide database that the company had planned for more than two years but was previously unable to execute.
- Redesigned the main eCommerce website, resulting in a +30% conversion rate and -10% bounce rate.
- Rebuilt the technology team from a group that was barely on speaking terms to a cohesive-and-collaborative unit using IDEO-inspired methods.
Co-founder | CEO | Head of Product
Goozex.com
- Co-founded Goozex.com and led the company to become the #1 video game and movie trading service online. Sold the company in 2012 to a private equity group in New York.
- Led product development, business development, and partnership activities.
- Managed a team distributed locally and internationally with agile practices.
- Developed customer-driven new features, including a set of public APIs for web and mobile apps.
Product Marketing Associate | Systems Engineer
Cisco
- Was instrumental to the development and launch of the Cisco Mobile Wireless Router product.
- Deployed a $1.1-million project for Telecom Italia Mobile's innovative SS7 over IP signaling network.
Co-founder | Web Technologist | Developer
Novaera Information Technology
- Founded one of the first web development companies in Italy and delivered projects to Telecom Italia, Iridium, and several SMBs.
Project History
Cyber-risk Platform Development
Got the team unstuck and able to demo a working product at the end of each iteration in less than a month.
Tasks Accomplished:
• Coached and trained the product team to develop a platform for cyber risk.
• Helped organize and prioritize the product backlog.
• Infused a culture of customer-focus development.
• Created collaboration between teams that were working in silos.
• Developed a one-year roadmap that was shared among stakeholders for increased alignment and visibility
Salesforce Platform for Client Engagement
Developed and launched an MVP of an innovative platform built on Salesforce to 5,000 bankers in less than five months.
Tasks Accomplished:
• Led the ideation and development of an innovative platform built on top of Salesforce with the platform being used for client engagement by bankers.
The project was recognized as the largest in financial services industry to date and was presented at the annual Dreamforce conference.
MVP Plan for a New Security App
Created a plan for the MVP and prioritized the backlog for development, product vision, and alignment with stakeholders.
Tasks Accomplished:
• Organized and led a two-day product discovery and planning workshop.
• Worked with a cross-functional executive team to implement the product vision, ideation and prioritization of features, product journey mapping, and identification of an MVP (minimum viable product).
Education
Master of Business Administration (MBA) Degree in Business Administration
University of Maryland - College Park, MD, USA
Master's Degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering
University of Rome - Rome, Italy
Certifications
Certified Scrum Trainer
Scrum Alliance
Kanban Management Professional KMP II
Lean Kanban Institute
Certified Product Innovation Trainer
Spark Engine
Design Thinking Insights for Innovation
IDEO
SAFe Program Consultant SPC
Scaled Agile Framework, Inc.
Certified Scrum Master
Scrum Alliance
Certified Scrum Professional (CSP)
Scrum Alliance
Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
Scrum Alliance
Skills
Tools
Trello, Jira, Confluence, Zoom
Paradigms
Agile Product Management, Scrum, Design Thinking, Agile Software Development, Kanban, Agile
Industry Expertise
Telecommunications, Banking & Finance, Hospitality, Healthcare, Entertainment & Leisure
Other
Feature Backlog Prioritization, Digital Product Management, Agile Coaching, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Web, Portfolio Management, Lean, Salesforce, Software Development, Mobile, UI Design, User Experience (UX), Information & Communications Technology (ICT), Product Management, Product Owner, Miro
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