Justin Whittaker
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Salt Lake City, UT, United States
Toptal member since July 8, 2020
Justin is a project manager (PJM), a product manager (PDM), and a product marketer with over a decade of experience leading teams to create and market B2B and B2C products used by millions of people in the US, Canada, and Europe. The products that Justin has built have powered experiences for brands like Disney, DIRECTV, Nintendo, FOX, NBC Universal, TELUS, Huffington Post, and Time Warner.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Cybersecurity
- Go-to-market Plans
- Marketing
- Product Strategy
- Program Management
- Project Management
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- eCommerce
Work Experience
SVP Product and Operations
Wetx
- Served as a product owner for a blockchain-powered water rights and shares asset management software.
- Applied for and established the First Water Bank of Utah (FWBU), Utah's first statutory water bank.
- Led the development and launch of Water Savers, a gamification solution to help municipalities motivate their residents to conserve water.
Technical Project Manager
The Forward Thinking Company, LLC
- Was the first product/project manager hired by TFTC to manage the company's project and product offering. The product serves a multi-billion dollar industrial agricultural foods producer.
- Set up an Agile and Scrum project management system for a distributed team of developers working across several time zones. Repeatedly delivered on sprint goals on time and with a high degree of quality.
- Integrated myself into the team, won the trust of the client's customer, and was entrusted to work directly with the client's customer without involvement from the principals.
Multifunctional Agile Project Manager
Commonwealth Financial Network - Main
- Worked as a product owner and project lead for multiple RTB (run-the-businesses) products and initiatives, including Robotic Process Automation (RPA), MSFT SharePoint application development, and public website support and development.
- Trained my team in Agile, Scrum, and Kanban methodologies as part of the enterprise's efforts to transform standard company processes.
- Co-led a project to migrate mission-critical applications from an on-premises server to the cloud.
Product Manager | Project Manager
WaitWhat
- Joined the project as a project manager and led a team of mobile and back-end developers, designers, and QA people with the challenge of bringing fully-featured iOS and Android apps to market for a high-profile customer in the space of four months.
- Led all aspects of the project according to Agile and Scrum principles.
- Provided product leadership and direction for the mobile apps and back end.
- Worked closely with the marketing and growth team to drive paid and organic growth.
Adjunct Professor
Brigham Young University — J. Reuben Clark Law School
- Designed and taught a course to help law students learn and internalize design thinking concepts.
- Led law students through a design sprint process to ideate, research, prototype, and deliver a new law-based product/service concept to market within the course of a semester.
- Delivered an impactful solution to the market to help eligible people receive criminal record expungements.
Consulting Product Owner
Jeri
- Joined the team to ideate on product ideas, get customer feedback and define the product roadmap.
- Worked with the design team to turn sketches and product requirements into high-fidelity designs.
- Recruited and hired the software development team.
- Set up project management and development processes.
Consulting Product Owner
WETx.io (Freelance)
- Brought WETx Dashboard product from a conceptual design to a production-ready product; led the design, customer research, recruiting, software development, and implementation.
- Developed and implemented a new product and service offering for WETx, called WETx Cloud; led the design, customer research, recruiting, software development, and implementation.
- Executed plans to develop a strategy around a water banking system for municipalities, regional water and sewer districts, irrigation companies, and federal water conservancy districts.
Social Media/Video Sharing Platform Technical Project Manager
B2G Holdings
- Worked with the founder to define the scope of his MVP product.
- Defined key KPIs and milestones to prepare the founder to begin product design and software development work on the product.
- Leveraged my experience as a founding team member of multiple early-stage startups to help the founder plan for the path ahead.
Executive Vice President, Business Solutions
Radiant — Video Messaging Solutions for B2B, Learning, and Higher Education
- Led a project to develop and implement a customer acquisition strategy for the pre-launch of the B2C streaming app, SAY. The effort resulted in a cost per acquisition that was more than 25% below the industry standard.
- Oversaw product development, business modeling, and marketing launch of Kinmundo.com for sister organization, BN Media.
- Led the build and market product concepts for B2B audiences including building three different asynchronous video streaming concepts targeting biopharma sales training, a job reporting tool for field services, and a higher ed learning tool.
Chief Product Officer
Yours.co — AI-powered Home Movie Streaming Service and Optical Media Storage.
- Recruited the product design and software team and introduced an agile software and product development practice to the company.
- Led company rebranding efforts from MDISC to Yours.co.
- Launched two new products and raised a $4 million Series A round from TPP Capital Advisors to build and scale the business.
- Led digital transformation of the company from a manufacturing company to a SaaS-first company.
CEO
Invisible Home, LLC — High-end Home Goods and Furniture
- Launched an eCommerce Shopify store selling high-end, designer home home goods to customers in the US, Canada, and Europe.
- Developed a successful social marketing strategy as part of the GTM plan. Targeted design and architecture enthusiasts that garnered nearly 10,000 followers on Instagram.
- Executed a paid media customer acquisition strategy using Google AdWords, Facebook, and Instagram ads.
- Developed a line of Invisible Home called The Fleet, which was a "storage system in a box," designed and manufactured in Scandinavia from eco-friendly materials.
Executive Vice President, Business Solutions and Marketing
i.TV — TV Discovery and Social TV Platform and Second-screen TV Ad Network
- Built and led a 35-person team comprised of product managers, designers, software engineers, and marketing, business development, and editorial staff in Utah and New York City.
- Managed enterprise-scale software development contracts and B2B platform licensing with Nintendo, AOL, Huffington Post, TELUS, and DIRECTV.
- Directed a highly successful joint marketing program with the world's top entertainment brands (ABC, NBC, FOX, AMC, HBO, and Time Warner), resulting in tens of millions of social media shares and hundreds of millions of social media impressions.
- Led pre-acquisition negotiations and post-acquisition merger activities and integrated GetGlue's team and technology into i.TV's operations when i.TV acquired GetGlue in 2012. Managed customer relationships with TV networks and advertisers.
Account Executive
CONNECT MARKETING
- Placed and worked on top accounts with Symantec and Siemens Enterprise Communications.
- Assisted clients in gaining earned media coverage and drove awareness around strategic communications objectives.
- Positioned executives as thought leaders and drove coverage in publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CIO, MSNBC, and others.
Operations Director, EMEA
Bridge Atlantik — Business Development and Marketing Firm
- Led the successful European launches for multiple clients (security, edtech, home goods, distributed computing, and HVAC, to name a few).
- Established new sales and distribution channels for clients across Europe, including with public sector procurement organizations and pan-European distributors.
- Spearheaded successful marketing and public relations campaigns to establish clients as leaders in their respective fields, garnering coverage with top-tier media outlets worldwide.
- Led the business development efforts to sign on European reference customers for our edtech and security clients as part of the market launch.
Project History
TELUS Optik Smart Remote — Enterprise White Label and Implementation Project
https://www.theinvisible.co/telus_osrLed the design, development, launch, and operation of a successful white label and integration project for the TELUS Opitik IPTV service.
TELUS Optik Smart Remote apps for iOS and Android were powered by the i.TV platform and offered TELUS Optik IPTV customers TV guide (EPG), DVR control, TV remote control, and rich TV metadata for all TV shows available through the service.
Mission:
I led the product development and integration team at i.TV to build and deploy a white-label version of the i.TV Platform to TELUS Optik IPTV customers.
Accomplishments:
• Built and led a dedicated agile product development and integration team to customize the i.TV platform to the client's specifications.
• Established QA and release management processes that were aligned with the client's internal processes.
• Consistently delivered stable, feature-rich, and performant experiences to the client's end-users.
i.TV Platform and White Label
https://www.theinvisible.co/i_tv_platformLed the team that productized and licensed i.TV technology to B2B companies like Nintendo, Time-Warner, DIRECTV, and nearly every major TV network in North America.
The i.TV Platform powered EPG (Electronic Program Guide), DVR control, and TV remote control experiences for TV providers and media companies.
Tasks Performed:
• Led the design and development of multiple white-label versions of i.TV for TV providers and media companies.
• Successfully integrated services and data from partners like Roku, TiVo, TMS, Amazon, Apple, and others.
• Repeatedly delivered quality work and products that resulted in multi-year contract renewals and tens of millions of dollars in revenue.
• Led the design and build of i.TV's ad platform that served hundreds of millions of ad impressions and delivered successful campaigns for brands like Pepsi, Microsoft, Disney, and others.
TVtag
https://www.theinvisible.co/tvtagLed my team to deliver a product that reached over ten million people every month and that every major TV network in the US and Canada came to rely on to drive tune-in and engagement with their TV shows.
Mission:
Create a second screen, social TV experience for consumers that would drive massive engagement around TV shows and televised sporting events. Develop TVtag as a platform that would power experiences for TV networks, tech companies, and brand advertisers.
Tasks Performed:
• Led the design and development of an in-app experience specifically for sporting events called "Run or Pass" that synchronized second-screen content with the live TV broadcast.
Results:
• TVtag content reached over ten million people every month) and drove 1/3 of Twitter traffic around primetime scripted TV.
• Nearly every major TV network in the US and Canada utilized the TVtag platform to drive tune-in and engagement around their shows. TVtag white-label partners included DIRECTV, Nintendo, Time Warner, and others.
Kinmundo Proof of Concept
https://www.theinvisible.co/kinmundoLed a product and marketing team to develop and launch a proof-of-concept product.
Kinmundo—literally meaning "family world"—is inhabited by 16 different family cultures. To find out which is yours, just take Kinmundo’s expert-designed Family Culture Quiz. It measures your family on multiple dimensions that define family life. Each of your family members' quiz results is combined to find out which of the 16 cultures your family lives in. Why is family culture important? Because making positive changes from within your existing family dynamic is much easier than changing how your family works completely.
Mission:
Develop, brand, and launch a scientifically valid family assessment tool to help families understand their family culture.
Tasks Performed:
• Led a team of product managers, designers, software developers, and marketers to create and launch a proof-of-concept product for Radiant.
• After Kinmundo's launch, I led the team through a design sprint to ideate, prototype, and test new approaches to monetizing Kinmundo, which led to a product extension called 21 & Done to help families and individuals develop positive behavioral habits in 21 days.
Yours.co — Video-streaming Service for the Memories Stored on Your Phone
https://www.theinvisible.co/yoursDeveloped two new products for Yours. The company was able to raise $4 million in Series A funding, based on these products.
Lead Yours.co (formerly MDISC) through a digital transformation process in preparation for new rounds of venture capital funding.
Tasks Performed:
• Innovated two new products (MDISC Archive Service and Yours.co).
• Recruited, built, and led software development and technical fulfillment teams.
• Led a robotic automation project for the MDISC/Yours.co fulfillment center.
• Led the rebranding of MDISC to Yours.co. Instituted agile software development processes.
Result:
The company raised $4 million in Series A funding from TPP Capital Advisors.
About:
Yours.co automatically transformed video and photos in your camera roll into long-form home movies. The movies were streamed via the web, mobile, and OTT apps on Fire TV, Roku, and Apple TV, as well as on archive-grade DVDs and Blu-rays.
SAY — Video Messaging Applications for Business and Education
Led the SAY Business Solutions product team, tasked with leveraging the SAY Video Messaging platform for B2B applications.
SAY is a Bonneville Communications company (formerly Radiant).
Brand Marketing
https://www.theinvisible.co/brandmarketingPersonally led multiple brand identity and brand marketing projects throughout my career.
At i.TV, I worked with world-class designer Adrian Pulfer to create the i.TV brand identity. At tvtag, I led the team that created the brand identity and implemented the brand into i.TV-owned user experiences, as well as all tvtag partner experiences (DIRECTV, Nintendo, ABC, NBC, and HBO, to name a few.) At MDISC, I was tasked with rebranding the company to Yours.co.
i.TV for iOS and Android — TV EPG App
https://www.theinvisible.co/i_tv_platformCo-led the creation of i.TV mobile apps. In the iOS App Store, i.TV achieved a #1 overall ranking and a top 100 ranking in its category.
As a co-founder of i.TV, I co-created the app, including the following features:
• TV guide
• DVR scheduling
• Remote control for TiVo, Roku, DIRECTV, and TELUS Optik TV
• Entertainment news and other content
• Social TV features
WETx Cloud
http://www.wetx.ioDeveloped a new product offering for water service districts, irrigation companies, manufacturing and industrial customers, and municipalities to help these organizations inventory, understand, and manage their water resources and infrastructure.
I was hired as a consulting product owner to work with the executive team and customers to discover customer needs and design and build a solution to fit those needs. My work also included recruiting and leading the software development team and hiring and managing a technology services fulfillment team.
Role: Consulting Product Owner and Project Manager
Education
Master's Degree in European Union Policy
University of Birmingham - Birmingham, United Kingdom
Bachelor's Degree in German
Brigham Young University - Provo, Utah, United States
Skills
Tools
Trello, Mailchimp, Asana, Project Management & Work Tracking Tools, Jira, Sketch, Adobe Experience Design (XD), Google Analytics, Facebook Ads Manager, Facebook Connect, Stripe Checkout, Firebase Analytics, Firebase Authentication, Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM), Advertising Tools & Platforms, Adobe CC, Slack, Zoom, Apple Keynote, Microsoft PowerPoint, Figma, GitHub, Salesforce, HubSpot, Confluence
Paradigms
Agile, Scrum, B2B2C, Agile Project Management, Design Thinking, Scalable Application, B2B, User Testing, Agile Product Management, Lean, Mobile App Design, Testing, Digital Marketing Best Practices, Change Management, Management, Requirements Analysis, Agile Leadership, Business to Business to Consumer (B2B2C), App Store Optimization (ASO), Gamification, UX Design, Responsive Web Design (RWD), Kanban
Platforms
iOS, Android, tvOS, Mixpanel, Shopify, WordPress, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Firebase, Google Ads, Amazon EC2, Blockchain, Zendesk, SharePoint 365, Azure, Monday.com, Blockchain Platforms
Industry Expertise
Digital Marketing, Consumer Products, Digital Agencies, Marketing Programs, New Business Ventures, Technology, Healthcare, Telecommunications, Industrial & Manufacturing, Education Technology (Edtech), Sports, Public Sector, State Government, Law, Government, Agribusiness
Other
Design Sprints, Business to Business (B2B), Education, Project Discovery, Go-to-market Plans, Brand Marketing, Software as a Service (SaaS), Business Requirements, Digital Transformation, Launch Strategy, Brand Building, Brand Management, Branding, Consumer Branding, Publicity, Product Launch, Ideation, Senior Executive Management, Journalism, Feature Planning, Mobile Ads, Innovation Labs, Innovation Management, B2B Lead Generation, Product Strategy, Ideation Workshops, Marketing, Mobile Marketing, Mobile Apps, Lean Startups, B2C Marketing, Competitive Intelligence, Creative Briefs, Creative Direction, Executive Consulting, iOS App Design, Languages, Strategy, Social Media Marketing (SMM), Social Media, Viral Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Agile Program Management, Product Marketing, App Store, Technical Project Management, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Product Owner, Product Ownership, Project Budget Management, Project Estimation, Requirements, Social Media Platforms, User Experience (UX), Vendor Selection, Wireframe to Product, Web Project Management, Product Roadmaps, User Interviews, User Interface (UI), Mobile UX, EMEA, Discovery Workshops, Digital Project Management, Agile Sprints, Business to Consumer (B2C), User Research, Customer Interviews, Requirements & Specifications, User Stories, Marketing Strategy, Product Vision, Product Research, Messaging, Content Marketing, Email Marketing, Executive Support, Coaching, Company Strategy, eCommerce, Social Media Strategy, Social Media Content, Technical Leadership, Technical Product Management, Program Management, Gaming, Video Ads, Mobile App Testing, Mobile App Development, Mobile Applications, Web & Mobile Applications, Innovation, New Business Development, New Products, New Product Development, Market Entry, Native Mobile Apps, Native Ads, Scrum Product Owner, Global Operations, Reporting, Project Reporting, Digital Marketing Strategy, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Data Analysis, Startups, Early-stage Startups, Startup Consulting, Startup Funding, Startup Growth Strategy Development, Media, Videos, Technology Trends, Project Planning, Project Timelines, Roadmaps, E-learning, Organizational Leadership, Change Leadership, Cybersecurity, Stakeholder Management, Stakeholder Engagement, Stakeholder Interviews, Scrum Master, Cloud, Management Consulting, Leadership, Team Leadership, Remote Work, Remote Team Leadership, Business Analysis, Web Platforms, Product Discovery, Discovery, Team Management, Client Management, Client Relations, Clients, Distributed Team Management, Integration, Data Integration, API Integration, Software Integration, Software Implementation, Software Innovation, Germany, Portfolio Management, Business Transformation Program Management, Communication, Project Management, Market Fit, SaaS Product Management, Product Growth, Cost Estimation, Digital Advertising, Digital, Project Consultancy, Documentation, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Sprint Planning, Consulting, Branded Content, Team Effectiveness, Process Improvement Project Management, Large-scale Projects, Scope, SaaS, Scope Management, End-to-end Implementation (E2E), Music Industry, People Management, Content Creation, Project Coordination, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Backlog Management, Backlog Grooming, PMO, Workshops, Go-to-market Strategy, Training, Training & Training Content Development, Manufacturing Project Management, Advertising Technology (Adtech), Web Shops, Warehouse Operations, Drop Shipping, IT Security, Video Streaming, Funnel Marketing, Marketing Technology (MarTech), Lead Marketing, YouTube Marketing, LinkedIn Marketing, Unbounce, A/B Testing, User Journey Maps, User Journeys, Functional Requirements, User Flows, Wireframing, Google SEO, Email Marketing Automation, Email Design, Digital Asset Management, Mobile eCommerce, Marketing Automation, Personalization, Social Media Analytics, SEO Marketing, Stripe, QA Testing, Software QA, Manual QA, Quality Assurance (QA), Consumer Electronics, Data Analytics, Mobile Games, Fantasy Sports, Responsive Layout, Hardware Integration, Content Management Systems (CMS), Workshop Facilitation, Medtech, Affiliate Marketing, Automation, IT Projects, Pricing, Facebook Ads, Security, System Migration, Process Documentation, Marketing Attribution, Operations Improvement, Process Design, Intranets, CRM Systems, HubSpot CRM, Data Migration, Migration, Over-the-top Content (OTT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), System Integration, Data Management, Training Content, Hootsuite, MongoDB, React, React Native, SEO Content, Amazon S3 (AWS S3), Google APIs, Product Management, Elasticsearch, Dashboards, Dashboard Design, Dashboard Development, Distributed Ledgers, Government Contracting, Hydrology, Business Development, Customer Research, Software Development Management, Storyboarding, Story Mapping, Customer Insights, University Teaching, Teaching, University, Budget Management, Two-sided Marketplaces, Proof of Concept (POC), Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Web Development Strategy, ClickUp, REST APIs, Salesforce Lightning, Development, System Architecture, Flutter, Dart, Water Resources, Venture Funding, Grants, Grant Proposals, Public Policy, Customer Data Platform (CDP)
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