Ganesh is available for hire
Hire GaneshGanesh Letchumanan
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Location
Vienna, VA, United States
Toptal Member Since
November 5, 2019
Ganesh has over a decade of technical program management leadership experience rooted in a deep software engineering background. He's led digital transformation programs for Fortune 500 customers and launched machine learning-driven software products to market with a startup. He's adept at engaging with executives and the core team with the proven ability to see the big picture as well as roll-up the sleeves and lead the team
Project Highlights
A $4.5 Billion Global Luxury Retailer – Digital Strategy and Product Roadmap
Digital strategy and product roadmap development.
An $8 Billion Premium Apparel Retailer – Large/Complex End-2-End Digital Transformation
Large/complex end-to-end digital transformation.
A $3 Billion Premium Apparel Retailer – Fix/Save a Troubled Digital Implementation
Fix/save a troubled digital implementation.
Expertise
Work Experience
Technical Program Owner | Director
2020 - 2020
Freelance
- Led the replatform of a fast-growth B2B commerce site from strategy to launch and beyond, resulting in 30% traffic growth and 15% increased conversions.
- Led the cloud transformation of the site to AWS. Complete ownership from strategy, product, hiring /casting of the team, through delivering with quality and in a timely manner.
- Acted as a single point of accountability for the delivery of the platform. Hands-on with Cloud deployment/AWS, and led front-end developers, back-end developers, testers, and a product manager.
- Defined the scope of the platform and authored the functional specs for all the key elements of the platform for both the storefront and the admin/agent-facing dashboard.
- Defined and executed a data-driven approach for managing eCommerce performance by standing-up Google Analytics custom reports/events, Google Search console and Hotjar for customer experience, Sentry, and Elastic for technical measurement.
Vice President - Customer Success, Service Delivery, and Technology
2017 - 2019
Pervacio
- Launched a diagnostics product for a large global wireless carrier in 2 countries in Latin America, within 8 weeks of project kickoff.– from team setup through product certification, UAT, and launch. Cross-functional global leadership, including account management, program management, and product teams.
- Drove the market launch and customer adoption of a new product suite that leverages object detection using machine-learning to identify cosmetic defects (scratches, dents, cracks, smudges, etc.,) in smartphones that are traded-in by customers to wireless carriers in retail and at warehouse locations.
- Owned pitch and pilots successfully End-2-end – From business-case definition, buy-in and pitch, through to KPI definitions for the pilots, leading pilot execution across multiple locations, results review, and readout.
- Collaborated with multiple levels of stakeholders with the customer (Exec, SMEs) and acted as the single-point-of ownership internally across hardware, software engineering, product, and field-service teams to ensure the program is delivered successfully for multiple clients with varying schedules.
- Collaborated with client stakeholders in Retail and IT to ensure a smooth deployment to 1500+ retail stores and digital. Provided thought-leadership for client-led activities such as training and communication with store representatives and more to ensure adoption and roll-out of the product.
- Led a critical product pivot mid-stream during the rollout to move from a wired to a mobile app.solution to increase client success outcomes. Led multiple internal teams to arrive and deliver at the needed solution.
- Played multiple roles – customer-success, delivery lead, set up a support center to service technical issues – whatever it took to ensure client success with boundary-less thinking and hands-on execution.
Senior Director/Director
2012 - 2017
Sapient
- Led large omnichannel digital transformations ($30 million program size, 100-200 people teams) with a focus on commerce, content, and order management platforms.
- Moved the entire digital organization of such retailers (eCommerce, content, order management systems, in-store systems) - technology and people - into new platforms and delivering on the digital transformation.
- Led and delivered on the transformation - partnering with IT and marketing leadership (VPs, SVPs, CIO, CDOs). I have been accountable for the quality of the technology delivery of large digital transformation programs in the areas of eCommerce, content, and order management systems.
- Headed end-to-end client engagement - from strategy/road mapping, through discovery, implementation, launch, and post-launch ongoing support.
- Engaged with the CIO/CMOs to influence the vision and direction *and* roll-up the sleeves and get into the details with the core-working-teams to actually make the change happen.
- Shaped and sold large client engagements of all types (strategy, discovery, design, implementation, and support), casting the right team, ultimate quality accountability and escalation of all technology work delivered in the retail vertical, nurturing and growing client executive relationships and overall technology team morale and performance.
- Managed a few strategic accounts on a day-to-day basis supporting complex solutions decisions, reviewing the quality of teams' work, and guiding the client through complex technology solutions and decisions.
Senior Manager/Manager
2005 - 2012
Sapient
- Served as the lead architect for ATG Commerce re-platform for a $40 billion telco. The focus of re-platform was personalization and maintainability. Built and delivered a telco eCommerce engine with all of the multi-level business rules of device-accessory, device-plan and contract management complexity. Extensive integration with telco back-end systems.
- Acted as the integration architect for the merger of commerce platforms between two of the top four telcos in the US as a part of their overall merger. Technologies – Custom JEE, Oracle, Enterprise APIs. Built a service-layer abstracting all external 3rd parties and provided simulators for the front-end-clients and built test-harnesses for the back-end for testing API performance and ensuring abstraction.
Senior Associate
2001 - 2005
Sapient
- Contributed to various enterprise-server side Java development project for web applications.
Associate
1999 - 2001
Ernst and Young
- Provided technology consulting on engagements with Fortune 500 companies with a specialization on server-side Java applications for the web.
Project History
A $4.5 Billion Global Luxury Retailer – Digital Strategy and Product Roadmap
Digital strategy and product roadmap development.
1. Led the development of a digital roadmap (.com, mobile apps, instore-tech, loyalty) to counteract the reduced foot-traffic in stores and headwinds in retail.
2. Led the development of a high-level 2-year roadmap with both foundational capabilities build-out for long-term value realization and quick-hits for immediate value realization. Built a detailed backlog and feature list for Release 1.
3. Led the definition of a target future-state architecture starting from a business vision and a review of current-architecture – Deliverables included a system-context diagram, vendor choices for each element of the architecture, and decision paths for key decisions.
4. Built an end-2-end cost model accounting for all elements of program cost (IT – software, hardware, projects, maintenance, internal personnel, and business – creative, digital marketing) to support the business case and RoI analysis.
2. Led the development of a high-level 2-year roadmap with both foundational capabilities build-out for long-term value realization and quick-hits for immediate value realization. Built a detailed backlog and feature list for Release 1.
3. Led the definition of a target future-state architecture starting from a business vision and a review of current-architecture – Deliverables included a system-context diagram, vendor choices for each element of the architecture, and decision paths for key decisions.
4. Built an end-2-end cost model accounting for all elements of program cost (IT – software, hardware, projects, maintenance, internal personnel, and business – creative, digital marketing) to support the business case and RoI analysis.
An $8 Billion Premium Apparel Retailer – Large/Complex End-2-End Digital Transformation
Large/complex end-to-end digital transformation.
1. Solution Lead for a $30+ million, 200 people+ program. Single point of solution and product quality accountability across a program with five swim-lanes of execution - commerce, content, order-management, API Gateway, PIM, DevOps, and over 30+ enterprise and third-party integrations.
2. Led the project from the pitch, through the architecture and design phase and the completion of the first release.
2. Led the project from the pitch, through the architecture and design phase and the completion of the first release.
A $3 Billion Premium Apparel Retailer – Fix/Save a Troubled Digital Implementation
Fix/save a troubled digital implementation.
1. Engaged during week-12 (of a 24 week) eCommerce project, to course-correct delivery challenges (quality/schedule).
2. Identified the key problems/root-causes in a 4-day period with intensive workshop sessions
3. Implemented open-honest communication between multiple geographies and move away from finger-pointing.
4. Identified key gaps in team capabilities and obtained external support where possible and creatively leveraged existing team members, where external support was a challenge.
5. Held the client accountable for key dependencies to ensure overall program success.
6. Got hands-on to help in resolving key technology challenges related to the Order API and guide the team.
7. Successfully launched the project on-time/quality and increased order-conversion rate by 105%.
2. Identified the key problems/root-causes in a 4-day period with intensive workshop sessions
3. Implemented open-honest communication between multiple geographies and move away from finger-pointing.
4. Identified key gaps in team capabilities and obtained external support where possible and creatively leveraged existing team members, where external support was a challenge.
5. Held the client accountable for key dependencies to ensure overall program success.
6. Got hands-on to help in resolving key technology challenges related to the Order API and guide the team.
7. Successfully launched the project on-time/quality and increased order-conversion rate by 105%.
A Fast-growth B2B eCommerce Retailer
Led digital transformation and eCommerce platform buildout.
The client was experiencing fast business growth but was hampered by unresponsive outsourced IT. I led all aspects of the digital transformation and eCommerce platform buildout including discovery/planning, casting, and project execution in an agile approach.
Discover/Planning - Strategy and plan for in-house custom eComm development
Execution - Single point of accountability for delivery - Team casting, Agile project management, Technical product management. Also performed hands-on DevOps on AWS
Discover/Planning - Strategy and plan for in-house custom eComm development
Execution - Single point of accountability for delivery - Team casting, Agile project management, Technical product management. Also performed hands-on DevOps on AWS
Education
1998 - 1999
Master of Science Degree in Information Systems
Case Western Reserve Unviersity - Cleveland, OH
1992 - 1996
Master's Degree in Management Studies with a STEM Foundation
Birla Institute of Technology and Science - Pilani, India
Certifications
NOVEMBER 2019 - NOVEMBER 2022
Amazon Web Services - Certified Cloud Practitioner
Amazon Web Services
FEBRUARY 2017 - PRESENT
Machine Learning Foundations - A Case Study Approach
University of Washington - Coursera
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