Wole Faroun
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Alpharetta, GA, United States
Toptal member since February 15, 2022
Wole is a serial tech entrepreneur and product management professional with over 20 years of experience in product ideation, design, development, and management. He has worked on building, commercializing, and managing tech-based products at Fortune 500 companies and startup environments. Wole enjoys building and managing Agile product teams focused on timely delivery and a positive return on investment (ROI) for organizations.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- APIs
- Agile
- B2B
- B2C
- ProductPlan
- Strategy
- eCommerce
Work Experience
Vice President (VP) of Business and Expansion
1World Online
- Led a business expansion to the African, Latin African, and Asia Pacific regions.
- Coordinated the development of a blockchain-enabled digital content and advertorial marketplace for advertisers, which translated into product and market development priorities.
- Oversaw building a multi-functional regional team to support product and business expansion.
Chief Product Officer (CPO)
NetPlusDotCom
- Developed a product portfolio of leading eCommerce and digital payment solutions and aggregated over 500 thousand merchants processing over $30 million in transactions monthly with consistent growth.
- Raised over $5 million in VC funding and consistently grew revenue and EBITDA by 300% and 125% YoY since inception. Managed and set strategic directions for over 50 full-time and part-time employees across various job functions to achieve these.
- Developed an omnichannel payment app accepting cards, QR codes, unstructured supplementary service data (USSD), and account-based payments. Developed strategic relationships and APIs with multiple partners for easy integration and adoption.
Product Director
Elsevier
- Managed a $300 million flagship product, delivering 5% year-over-year revenue growth through innovation and product improvement.
- Developed strategic partnerships with third-party entities to accelerate product development, resulting in ten new products, apps, and enhancements with over $250,000 development costs in 2011, driving adoption by over 10%.
- Oversaw a team of product managers, UI designers, and developers to execute product roadmap delivery. Managed the developer API program to improve the external developer participation in product development.
- Led customer research and insight projects to ensure user-centric product development.
Project History
Digital Acceptance Solution for Emerging Markets
Developed and launched a complete eCommerce acceptance solution integrated into merchant operations and piloted and adopted by over 1,000 merchant locations. Drove the registration and interest from additional one million emerging market businesses.
I worked as a product and project lead to develop a digital payment solution for an eCommerce merchant in emerging markets. The solution was specifically developed to solve the trust issue between the buyer and seller in an eCommerce digital setting. I collaborated closely with partners from MasterCard to create and test the solution in multiple emerging markets.
Enhancement of API Tools for ScienceDirect
Scoped and developed an API system for a legacy platform. Drove the development of three significant applications as proof of concept for the solution and adoption of the API system to build a developer program and application marketplace.
As a product director, I built and created a value proposition for developers and businesses in the healthcare and health information verticals to develop a solution that leverages our platform content using the APIs. I oversaw the ideation and positioning of the idea and product internally as a primary requirement to keep our position as a leader and drive incremental revenue for the business.
Development of Logistics Management Platform
Created and designed the product while managing a 25-person development team that included product designers, managers, engineers, and QA analysts. Integrated it into the existing ERP solutions.
The platform provides end-to-end management of eCommerce sales to fulfillment. The solution is targeted to be used by eCommerce merchants and logistics companies that do not have a fulfillment platform to track and manage customers’ orders, payments, and returns. I established a partnership with development partners, which led to the product integration into the existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions.
Education
Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA)
Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Certifications
Practical Product Management
Pragmatic Marketing
Skills
Tools
Skype, Zoom, Jira, Slack
Paradigms
B2B2C, Business to Business to Consumer (B2B2C), Agile, Data Product Management, B2C, Scrum, Agile Product Management, Agile Project Management, Requirements Analysis, User Testing
Platforms
ProductPlan
Industry Expertise
Financial Services, Healthcare, Digital Banking
Other
Strategy, APIs, eCommerce, B2B, Backlog Management, Taxonomy, Learning Management Systems (LMS), Service, Non-fungible Tokens (NFT), Feature Backlog Prioritization, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency, Travel, Fundraising, Marketing, Market Entry, Card Payments, Mobile UX, Mobile UI, Product Roadmaps, Market Segmentation, Product Strategy, Business Models, Product Launch, Product Management, Planning, Progress Reporting, Advertising, Publishing, Digital Marketing, Metadata, Go-to-market Plans, Go-to-market (GTM) Strategy, SaaS, Market Fit, Market Strategy and Research Product Manager, User Interviews, Technical Project Management, Technical Product Management, Business Strategy, Business to Business (B2B), Discovery Workshops, Mobile Apps, Project Planning, Technical Requirements, Web, Fintech, Mobile Applications, Process Optimization, Roadmaps, Sprints, Ideation, Conceptualization, Proof of Concept (POC), Web Applications, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Sprint Planning, SaaS Product Management, Stakeholder Management, Product Discovery, User Stories, Requirements, Discovery, Organizational Design, User Experience (UX), Startups, Value Proposition, Fintech Consultant, Technology Consulting, Solution Architecture, Project Management, Launch Strategy, Content Marketing, Email Campaigns, SEO Tools, Financial Software, Online Payments, Strategic Planning, MVP Design, Requirements & Specifications, Marketing Strategy, Customer Discovery, User Validation, Business Plan Consulting, Pitch Deck Consultant, Consulting, Business Planning, Pitch Decks, Digital Product Management, B2B Product Management, Monetization, Monetization Models, Sales Growth, Revenue Strategy, New Product Development, Project Consultancy, Early-stage Startups, Lean Startups, Lean Project Management, Wireframing, Product Strategy Consultant, Design, Qualitative Research, User Feedback, User Interface (UI), UX Design, Feature Roadmaps, Product Coach, Software Development, Credit Cards, Market Research & Analysis, Chief Product Officer (CPO), Creative Thinking, Product Design, Mentorship & Coaching, Consumer Technology, Vendor Management, Analytical Thinking, Medical Software, Product Frameworks, Software as a Service (SaaS), Feature Prioritization, Cost Analysis, Product Ownership, Web App Development, Platform as a Service (PaaS), Quantitative Analysis
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