Darshan Dave
Verified Expert in Sales
Sales Expert
Boston, MA, United States
Toptal member since January 18, 2020
Darshan is a product management and marketing specialist and a strategy, transformation, and project management expert. He is well-versed in multiple industries, domains, technologies, and markets. He is an experienced executive trusted by CXOs and founders of startups, businesses, nonprofits, and enterprises. Darshan is passionate about bringing concepts to life, simplifying complexity, crafting strategies, harnessing innovation, achieving growth, and leading cross-functional teams.
Expertise
- Brand Positioning
- Business Development
- Business to Business (B2B)
- Consulting
- Leadership
- Marketing Strategy
- Product Management
- Product Marketing
Work Experience
Strategy, Growth, and Transformation Coach
Independent Consultant and Strategy Advisor
- Coached senior executives and high-performing teams to develop growth, innovation, and transformation skills. Brought innovation culture, strategic thinking, customer centricity, growth mindset, executive presence, and stakeholder management.
- Developed tools and processes to institutionalize strategy, innovation, product management, and growth. Did business building, emerging trends analysis, ideas testing, ideation, desk research, market analysis, and concept innovation.
- Crafted growth, innovation, and transformation strategies validating problem statements vetting business ideas, empathy interviews, and market research. Created market fit analysis, segmentation, and business model canvas.
- Inspired, motivated, and guided leaders to develop strategy, vision, roadmaps, solutions, positioning, go-to-market pitch presentation, mock pitches, messaging, storyboarding value proposition, costing and pricing, and ROI analysis.
- Developed strategy, frameworks, business model canvas, PR FAQ, innovation funnels, stage gates, evaluation frameworks, research methods, interview techniques, design thinking, concept screening, SWOT, change impact, digital transformation, and more.
- Mentored startup and product teams across geographies and industries. Advised on product lifecycle, including concept definition, market validation, roadmap, MVP and whole product, commercialization, positioning, and go-to-market.
Executive Leader | Growth, Product Management and Marketing, Digital, and CX
Independent Consultant and Strategy Advisory
- Developed business strategies, product strategies, go-to-market and growth strategies, vision, roadmaps, design, and product portfolio management.
- Developed products and service portfolio. Managed product lifecycle, research, strategy, roadmap, market-fit, pricing, design, journey maps, UX, CX, MVP, features, epics, and backlogs.
- Implemented product growth strategies, marketing tactics, revenue, go-to-market strategy, marketing plans, product positioning, storyboarding, marketing campaigns, lead generation, branding, repositioning, pitches, sales and marketing, and presales.
- Acted as a strategist, mentor, and advisor to startups and businesses, like private equity firms, technology consulting, eCommerce, telemedicine, data science product, healthtech, healthcare product, retail firms, HR, and tech startups, among others.
- Devised innovation strategies, harnessing emerging tech, innovation framework, culture, and coaching. Also contributed to innovation playbook, ideation, hypothesis testing, breaking down complexity, simplifying concepts, and commercialization.
- Worked on business, technology, product, strategy, and consulting. Did research, discovery, ideations, interviews, due diligence, assessments, as-is analysis, transformation, optimization, future roadmaps analytics, and recommendations.
- Conducted RFP and RFI responses, solutions development, pricing, staffing, governance, operations models, customer presentations, storyboards, pitch decks, sales scripts, and battle cards for CXOs and senior stakeholder briefings and reports.
- Established business units, practices, and COEs for innovation, products, digital, QA, AI, CX, process, RPA, and more, including service portfolio and offerings, sales, presales, account management and marketing, consulting, advisory, and solutions.
- Led cross-functional distributed teams consisting of technical engineering, design, development, marketing, and sales using Agile and Kanban processes and methodologies and executive stakeholder management governance, metrics, KPIs, and reports.
- Handled product management and product lifecycle, including research, ideation, hypothesis testing, design, engineering, branding, positioning, go-to-market, product features and catalogs, customer stories, explainer videos, microsites, and websites.
Digital Product Strategist For A Private Equity
Independent Consultant and Strategy Advisor
- Created a digital strategy to enable virtual care, telemedicine, e-pharmacy, mental health, and other care areas.
- Identified digital debt and current state evaluation, created a digital capability canvas, made recommendations, and built an enterprise digital strategy future state model.
- Developed customized digital scenarios that will enable partnerships and acquisitions. Fostered digital capabilities to create new revenue opportunities and enhance direct to consumer (D2C) and various levels of B2B services.
- Leveraged next-generation digital technologies for a healthcare-digital strategy, including customer experience transformation, bots, AI, ML, data, API and microservices, AR/VR, Blockchain, IoMT (internet of medical things), automation, and RPA.
- Created a persona-driven digital journey, built a detailed roadmap, provided targeted recommendations, and designed an implementation plan tailored to the needs and behaviors of identified customer segments.
Managing Director
State Street Corporation
- Oversaw a large-scale transformation program and was responsible for program management and quality engineering of complex, large-scale, strategic banking initiatives, spanning multiple geographies, business units, and applications.
- Led and coached multi-domain, cross-functional, and globally distributed teams in an industrial scaled Agile and Kanban environment while driving quality, automation, performance, and security.
- Managed stakeholder relations with executive leadership, business, IT leadership, and cross-department stakeholders, implementing innovative processes, frameworks, and operating metrics.
- Drove strategic decisions, coached new leaders, established OKRs and metrics, and strategized budgets, sourcing models, and vendor strategies.
- Delivered business value and cost avoidance, optimization, automation, and savings by assuring quality and velocity.
- Developed detailed plans, specifications, and operating processes and frameworks.
- Led multiple globally distributed Agile and Kanban teams.
- Conducted performance reviews, career planning, training and compensation, and bonus frameworks.
Global Head of Product Management and Digital Assurance
Hexaware Technologies, Inc.
- Set up the product management group across geographies, business verticals, and technology functions. Designed productization philosophy, methodology, and toolkits. Developed detailed market research, product roadmaps, MVP, and specifications.
- Established product innovation incubator, entrepreneurial culture. Managed funding, investment strategies, moonshots, and hypergrowth ideas harnessing innovating and emerging technologies, including RPA, DLT, AI, CXT, data sciences, cloud, and more.
- Led startup and product teams, mentored cross-functional teams, gamification, rewards, and recognition. Developed product lifecycle, including research, prototyping, stress testing, ideation, commercialization, launch, and go-to-market strategies.
- Launched newer digital products and services, responsible for the growth of services and products, including customer experience transformation, AI- and ML-driven automation, and analytics.
- Led quality assurance and testing business, next-generation agile digital assurance. Introduced newer offerings with agile, CI/CT and DevOps, AI and bots-driven automation, usability, user experience, and multichannel testing.
- Modernized testing skills with SDETS and partnership for cloud-based infrastructure and labs, including synthetic data management.
- Guided complete corporate redesign, branding, and marketing.
- Led the business unit, developed the business strategy, grew existing customer accounts, and drove about 100 million new customer acquisitions. Managed CXO relationships and drove growth strategies, operational strategies, and people strategies.
- Oversaw complete rebranding of corporate websites, content, messaging, flow, site structure, interactive chats, and case studies. Crafted new pitch decks, microsites, and campaign landing pages, including pitch, message, content, and user flows.
- Developed a new business unit strategy for solutions and product marketing, including account-based marketing, direct marketing, campaigns, channels, partners, and vendors.
Vice President Digital and Quality Engineering
NIIT Technologies, Inc.
- Led the digital practice and conceptualized and created the full stack of next-generation digital services portfolio, including mobility, analytics, UI/UX, and CX.
- Developed differentiating value propositions, go-to-market strategies, and partner ecosystems.
- Served as a trusted advisor and empowered Fortune 1000 customers to transform their business and gain market share through productized digital solutions, including analytics, mobility, user experience. and social media solutions.
- Enabled next-generation quality engineering and testing expertise for the digital age.
- Accelerated business agility, ensured seamless business orchestrations, and reduced operations cost by harnessing lean QA CoEs, testing as-a-service models, and innovative automation accelerators.
- Grew the digital practice portfolio to $25 million in annual growth from the ground up.
- Led the quality engineering business unit for the Americas and delivered $40 million in annual growth.
- Headed marketing strategy and partnerships, including account-based marketing. Collaborated with corporate marketing, partners, technical, inside sales, channels, and field sales teams.
- Drove marketing plans, campaigns, and outreach for inbound and outbound.
- Oversaw strategic account management and managed stakeholder relationships, account growth strategies, and customer success.
Senior Director Strategic Services and Solutions
Atos-Syntel, Inc.
- Led a global technology consulting and solutions portfolio of $250 million.
- Spearheaded the quality and testing services business unit to 6X growth achieving $100 million in revenue.
- Established the global technology presales, consulting, and advisory organization to harness innovation and emerging technologies across analytics, infrastructure, ERP, QA, and so on.
- Developed new offerings, solutions, and services; led go-to-market and analyst and alliance interactions.
- Architected the transformation and optimization programs for Fortune 500 customers.
- Set up the global QA and testing service line from the ground up, including conceptualized offerings, services, and competencies.
- Handled go-to-market strategy, alliances, partnerships, positioning, value propositions, and messaging for solutions and products. Coordinated with different marketing, solutions, and technical teams to drive adoption and customer acquisition.
- Established QA COEs and provided consulting and solutions to Fortune 500 customers across the globe.
Regional Head Quality Assurance
Agilysis
- Served as the head of the quality engineering group and achieved maximum revenue across global operations.
- Set up the test lab, methodologies, and matrices; and implemented global practices for certifying products and solutions.
- Represented the leadership council and the governance board.
- Led the global CMM/ISO certification. Oversaw assessments, audits, and reports.
Product Lead
Tech M
- Led the new product division and the full product lifecycle, including innovation, go-to-market, implementation, and software quality-control function.
- Developed branding and cross-channel strategy and campaigns for the portfolio of products.
- Managed product quality and set up product performance and usability test labs.
- Implemented a balanced scorecard and reengineered the organization-wide quality processes.
- Led the CMM 5 certification and conducted assessments and audits.
Product Implementation Consultant
Digite, Inc.
- Led the implementation, business analysis, quality assurance, and testing of the product suite.
- Simulated usage scenarios and analyzed user data and insights.
- Led end-to-end testing, conducted performance benchmarking, and performed audits.
- Managed customers' solutions design and implementation.
Project Leader
Toyo Engineering India, Ltd.
- Served as a project engineer and managed the project monitoring and control activities of mega-multinational projects.
- Developed computer-based interactive tracking and monitoring system using Primavera.
- Project management, project planning, monitoring, control, budgets, forecasting, and reporting.
Education
Postgraduation in Management and Computer-based Project Management (Master's Degree Equivalent)
NICMAR - Pune, India
Bachelor's Degree in Engineering
University of Mumbai - Mumbai, India
Certifications
Continuous Product Design
Quantum Metric
Lean Startup for Social Good
IDEOU and Allianz Academy
Human-centered Design
IDEOU and Allianz Academy
AI Applications, NLP, Chatbots, Machine Vision
IBM
Getting Started with AI and Watson
IBM
Digital Catalyst
State Street Corporation
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
UIPath
Product Management and Marketing Strategy
SPICE
Uplifting Service Leader
Ron Kaufman
TOGAF Foundation
TOGAF
Associate of BI
BI
ASTQB
QAI
Skills
Tools
Salesforce
Competencies
B2B, eCommerce, Communication, B2C, Pricing Strategy, Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Roles
Sales Enablement
Demand Generation
Brand Building, Paid Advertising
Other
Product Marketing, Product Management, Digital Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Brand Positioning, Business to Business (B2B), Business Development, Sales, Consulting, Digital Marketing Strategy, Partnerships, B2B Lead Generation, Lead Generation, Leadership, Growth Marketing, Business Models, Management Consulting, Go-to-market (GTM) Strategies, Project Management, Marketing, Branding, Positioning, Growth Model, Pricing, Market Fit, Market Research & Analysis, Market Research, Presales, Monetization, Revenue Strategy, Campaign Management, Marketing Campaigns, Advisory, Business Partnerships, Meeting Briefings, Marketing Communications (MarCom), Analysis, Trends, Content Marketing, Innovation, Launch Strategy, Email Marketing, Content Strategy, Brand Marketing, Customer Acquisition, Customer Experience, Growth Strategy, Digital Transformation, A/B Testing, Social Media Marketing (SMM), Startups, Brand Strategy, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Fintech, Product Positioning, Market Research Analyst, Sales Strategy, Sales & Channel Enablement, Monetization Models, Marketing Research & Analysis, Visual Design, Copywriting, Marketing Plans, Writing & Editing, Marketing Materials, Digital Media, Sales Support, Marketing Mix, Competitor Analysis & Profiling, Messaging, Marketing Leadership, Content Marketing Strategy, Roadmaps, Healthcare, Personas, Customer Journey, Growth, Strategic Planning, Digital Marketing Product Manager, Customer Segmentation, Website Redesign, Team Development, Go-to-market Plans, Customer Research, Account-based Marketing (ABM), Product Growth, Pitch Decks, Content Writing, Storytelling, Sales Pitches, Competition Research, Desk Research, Presentation Design, Business Transformation Program Management, Value Proposition, Market Positioning, Marketing Collateral Development, B2B Marketing, Growth Hacking, Buyer Personas, Content, Investor Relations, Growth Strategy Consultants, Rebranding, Design, Digital Brand Identity, Naming, Brand Management, Workshops, Design Thinking, Market Segmentation, Pricing Models, Web Design, Product-market Fit, Coaching, Training, Account Management, Business Strategy, Scaling, Startup Marketing, Strategy, Agile Product Management, Web Marketing, Pitch Deck Consultant, Direct to Consumer (D2C), Outreach, BCG Matrix, Balance Scorecards, Magic Quadrant, Radar Chart, Raw Data Analysis, Personal Branding, Technology, Market Sizing, Stakeholder Management, User Personas, Mentorship & Coaching, Go-to-market Optimization, Market Assessment, Business Proposals, Solution Design, Brand Guidelines, Brand Identity, Healthcare Software, Ideation, Process Development, Process Optimization, Product Ideation, Strategic Marketing, Presentations, Reports, Surveys, Web Content, Messaging Development, Lifecycle Marketing, Financial Modeling, Competitive Strategy, Sales Promotion, Startup Consulting, B2B Sales Management, Focus Groups, Journey Mapping, User Journeys, Digital Project Management, Strategy Development, Campaigns, Campaign Design, Business Modeling, Client Presentations, Content Management, Banking & Finance, Audience Targeting, Target Market Strategy, Competitive Intelligence, Business Planning, Content Optimization, Battle Cards, Education Technology (Edtech), Profiling, Nonprofits, Omnichannel Marketing, Offline Marketing, Education, Demand Generation, Creative Strategy, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Management, Consumer Behavior, Consumer Branding, Performance Improvement, Team Management, Content Design, Team Leadership, Tone of Voice, Landing Pages, Go-to-market Execution, Product Demonstrations, Digital Branding, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Product Launch, SaaS Product Marketing, Business to Consumer (B2C), B2C Marketing, Human-centered Design (HCD), B2B2C, Pitch Preparation, User Research, Funnel Marketing, Funnel Optimization, Communication Strategy, Product Design, SEO Tools, Social Media Strategy, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media, Content Creation, Market Entry, Sales Operations, Corporate, Fundraising, Pharmaceuticals, LinkedIn Ads, LinkedIn Marketing, Business to Business to Consumer (B2B2C), Analytics, Brand Development, Brand Design, Software as a Service (SaaS), Product Branding, Edtech Design, Website Migration, Channel Management, Sales Funnel, Research, Research Methods, Channel Strategy, Inbound Marketing, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), Agile Project Management, Data, Brand Awareness, Venture Capital, Reputation Management, D2C Branding Strategy, Customer Lifetime Value (CLV), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Customer Retention, Social Media Content, Consumer Insights, Newsletters, WordPress, SaaS, Distribution Operations, Cold Emailing, Press Releases, Marketing Analytics, Quantitative Research, Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO), Social Media Management, Brand Books, CRM Systems, Data Analysis, Market Intelligence, Sales Pipeline Management, SaaS Sales, Sales Effectiveness, Survey Development & Analysis, APIs, Machine Learning, Logo Design, Niche Email Marketing, B2B Partnerships, Sales Training, Pitch Books, Graphic Design, Churn Management, Brand Awareness Campaigns, Organic Content Marketing, Organic Social Media, Outbound Marketing, Channel Sales, Marketing Operations, Jira, Engineering, Business Transformation, Digital Strategy, Agile, Community Development, Implementation, Project Planning, Quality Assurance (QA), Technology Solutions, Lean, Google Analytics, Marketplaces, Backlinks, Inside Sales, Search Engine Marketing (SEM), Competitive Pricing, Organizational Behavior (OB), Marketing Program Management, Presales Consulting, Enterprise Sales, Taglines, Sales Consulting, Elevator Pitches, Consumer to Consumer (C2C), Post Sales Consulting, Tech Sales, Business to Government (B2G), Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Advertising, Ad Campaigns, Public Relations (PR), Renewable Energy
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