Product Innovation, Creation, and Management

The client, a leader of an automated marketing analytics and insights product, was interested in expanding market reach from enterprise clients to mid-market clients. The organization wanted to understand what features would resonate most with this new market segment, and receive a roadmap with subsequent messaging guide to position the new product with the new user base.

We based the research on confirming or refuting the internal team's assumptions of various user groups via the Riskiest Assumption Test approach. At the client's request, I interviewed a group of current users to understand the key features of the current product that they felt were indispensable. I then recruited and interviewed global mid market and agency potential users.

The results of the research clearly identified those assumptions which did not hold up for mid-market users. The existing product was unlikely to succeed in introduced as-is in the mid-market.

Furthermore, the interview protocol helped me to identify the mental model that the mid-market users did have, and allowed me to identify product features which would resonate with them. I crafted a roadmap of how the organization might migrate the product to meet the mid-market audience needs, accompanied by a messaging guide that introduced and onboarded the users to this future product.

Finally, I crafted a marketing and content strategy that would allow my client to eventually educate and upskill these users into core users of his primary tool feature set.

Served as lead designer and product advisor on SAAS-based B2B search engine that allowed organizations to identify and contact potential vendors. Conducted user research, developed reusable design patterns and created user feedback process that accelerated feature enhancement iterations.

Served as the onshore product manager during the 0-1 and early 1-x phases for a cruise line startup focused on impact travel in the Dominican Republic. Unlike most cruise ships, this cruise line traveled to a single location and docked for 5 days so guests could participate in impact activities at port. I was responsible for organizing and ensuring that the 6-10 impact travel activity programs were planned and executed; maintaining appropriate customer satisfaction ratings and meeting financial goals.

Scope of product manager responsibility included impact guide training and staffing, onshore transportation, meal planning and dining experience during impact activities, onshore partner and beneficiary coordination, and human health and safety. I remained active during the 1-x stage for the first three months of the sailings.

Once the product manager role transitioned to an employee in the Dominican Republic, I served as a project manager to assist the ship's travel to and from Cuba, as the first American passenger ship to travel to Cuba in over 50 years.

Introduced innovation methodology to midsize consulting firm; used this methodology to identify market opportunity including buyer persona details, necessary steps in go-to-market strategy, expected outcomes and deliverables for customers, training and hiring needs for delivery, and projected revenues.

Launched and marketed these solutions internally and externally; developed and trained consultants on delivery methodology and tools. First year revenues for the 6 solutions launched topped $10m in the first year with development costs of <$500,000.

Served as full-lifecycle owner for 2+ years, including incorporation of user feedback, feature/capability changes, and decision to sunset.

As part of Innovation Leader role, I owned the research, planing (including roadmapping), development and launch of the enterprise system for capturing and disseminating real-time customer feedback information to account owners and consultant talent managers. Successful rollout of this system required appropriate communication/marketing communications to clients and internal change management communications for internal staff including account owners, talent managers, and the internal operations support team.

As the data owner of this system, successful creation and management of this system required thorough knowledge of GDPR requirements given business presence in Europe. As the product owner of this system, I saw it through multiple version updates and re-releases including integration with European versions of similar systems and the introduction of automation.

As lead of the Innovation Program, I co-developed the enterprise Product Development Methodology. This methodology, based on agile product best practices, focused on delivering value quickly to the enterprise, while doing everything possible to minimize bottom line costs.

This Product Development Methodology featured full product lifecycle definition and design guidance and was intended to be implemented by the innovation team alone or in partnership with business owners across the business.

This methodology successfully developed and launched 4 products in 2 years.

Researched, designed, developed and launched the improved enterprise KM experience. Version 1 leveraged the existing enterprise taxonomy and was released within 9 months; version 2, a full replatform due to changing IT requirements, was released 6 months after that. Total development cost for a team of 5 was $400,000.

Nearly immediately, content owners reported a reduction in effort of managing their content and a time savings of greater than 50%. This factor, considered at scale, provided over 15,000 redeployable hours per year, or over 7 full time positions worth of work, and reaching a cost break-even point projected to be roughly 1.5 years from launch.

Furthermore, as the product owner, I instructed content owners in how to take a user-centered approach. For the first time, content owners discussed content needs with their users, resulting in a more streamlined and effective content strategy. Time and effort to acquire knowledge dropped and employee satisfaction increased.

I was the data owner of customer feedback data for the enterprise. An employee, working on an entrepreneurship degree, requested and was granted our customer feedback data for use in his dissertation. As part of his work, he ran statistical analysis of the data.

The predictive nature of this analysis showed clear trends and allowed me to work alongside sales and delivery leaders to strategically recommend meaningful and targeted changes to improve likelihood of repeat sales, improved client project outcomes and future delivery feedback.

Served as UX product researcher for product to support project managers. Provided user research inputs and conducted product user testing to inform product decisions prior to launch. Served as product advocate for users as part of VOC efforts. Product was successfully launched to market with sales steadily increasing year over year https://rgp.com/launchpm/