mike's cv

/about/team/mike/cv

EXPERIENCE

Product Manager | Founder | Product Management Consultant
motorfocus / sijjio
2007 to 2019 / 2019 - Present
Products | Professional Services | Content

Founder and principal of the consultancy specializing in (digital) product development and management for both early stage and established organizations.

Recently (2021 / 2022):

  • for sijjio
    pursuing a combo B2C / B2B product that brings mutual trust to capturing sales leads.

  • for a client based in the EU
    consulting Product Manager for an early stage business in the luxury goods industry that disintermediates the relationship between artisans and the marketplace. (No, it’s not an Etsy competitor.)

Product Manager / Product Management Consultant
Australasia-based Startup in Talent Management and Professional Development
2016 to 2018
Talent Management | B2B | SaaS

  • Created product vision and preliminary value proposition for a novel B2B SaaS product based on acquired IP (for psychometric and culture-fit assessments)
  • Formulated the overall functionality of the initial product (targeting recruiters and hiring managers) including envisioning a product suite that included a related B2C product (targeting candidates)
  • Collaborated both remotely and onsite (in Australasia) with engineers, product designers, and equity stakeholders to iteratively discover, define, and develop every aspect of the product and its marketing
  • Leveraged various analytics and customer management tools (like Heap, Hotjar, Intercom, and others) to augment direct customer and other feedback
  • Developed a series of product development methodologies to help disparate, fully independent teams work together

Senior Product Manager
Cars.com
2015 to 2016
Consumer Products and Services

Chief portfolio owner for what Cars.com referred to as “Shop Research”: Content and resources that help consumers understand which vehicles are best for them as part of their shopping journey. These pages were among the highest trafficked pages on Cars.com and represented a key market differentiator for Cars.com given their depth and breadth.

  • Established a renewed product vision that centered on the basic tenet of “fewer, better results” while emphasizing the KPI of visits-per-visitor to demonstrate value to consumers and advertisers
  • Led an extensive effort to re-create key pages - which included ongoing prioritization across numerous concurrent work-streams - into responsive, mobile-first designs with smart SEO performance
  • Forged a strong, multidisciplinary, and distributed team that overcame organizational boundaries and geographical distance to focus on the shared goal of realizing the product vision

Product Manager, AutoRaptor CRM (mobile app)
AutoRaptor
2014 to 2015
Automotive | CRM | SaaS | mobile | Professional Services

Transitioned from leading management and development of all AutoRaptor services to focusing on those tuned for mobile devices.

  • Reimagined a mature web app as a native mobile app that leveraged a unique, mobile-centric user experience and feature set to provide a seamless companion to the sales process
  • Led another distributed, independent team (intentionally kept separate from the core server/web app team) for enhanced focus and to accelerate the maturation and coverage of a developer API

Product Manager; Product Development Manager, AutoRaptor CRM
AutoRaptor
2005 to 2014
Automotive | CRM | SaaS | mobile | Professional Services

Led product management and product development for the AutoRaptor web-based CRM.

  • Developed the product vision and core conceptual design, ultimately launching and relentlessly iterating over a competitive offering that focused on user success while providing an exceptional user experience
  • Founded the team’s guiding philosophy - MIES (after Ludwig Mies van der Rohe): Make It Easy to Sell/Select/Support/Succeed - from which every feature and supporting process was built
  • Collaborated with development partners to greatly extend the market and value of the app for its customers
  • Challenged conventions in this app’s market and successfully advocated for a productized developer API to extend the reach and value of the SaaS app

Director of Product Development
Distance Learning, Inc. (DLI)
2005 to 2007
EdTech | SaaS | Professional Services

DLI was a provider of web-based (SaaS) eLearning tools (ScribeStudio.com LCMS) and language-learning.
DLI later augmented those tools with professional services.

  • Led a design and development team to adapt a mature eLearning platform to serve a wider variety of users to match subject matter experts with their audience
  • Dramatically simplified IT services - from hosting to help desk operations - to allow greater focus on core competencies
  • Early adopter of Ruby on Rails (2005) which helped to facilitate rapid change in response to customer needs and market demands

Educational Technology Consultant
University of Illinois
2001 to 2004
EdTech

  • Performed in a wide variety of roles with responsibilities ranging from application development to systems administration to strategic planning and leadership
  • Spearheaded reorganization and resource integration efforts to better leverage technology staff, systems, and application infrastructure
  • Initiated and implemented the school’s help desk system, adding accountability, visibility, and traceability to both user support requests and service providers

Senior Software Developer
Cysive, Inc.
2000 to 2001
Professional Services

  • Brought client communication and business analysis experience to an elite team of software engineers, adding a critical dimension to the professional services team
  • Developed a web-based demo to showcase wireless technologies for the logistics industry, enabling the sales staff to attract new business and to reposition the firm in the market

Senior Software Developer
Lante Corporation
1999 to 2000
Professional Services

  • Leveraged technical leadership to introduce much-needed controls — including sensible methodology, build and test management — to the often chaotic world of dotcom consulting
  • Increased team performance and morale by encouraging cross training, mentoring team members, supporting professional development, and by recognizing key contributions

Senior Software Developer
Andersen Worldwide Société Coopérative
1994 to 1999
EdTech, eLearning

Key member of a fantastic, multidisciplinary team that leveraged practically every form of digital media - much of it bleeding edge - coupled with sophisticated learning technologies to help educate and even entertain Firm consultants and their clients. Andersen Worldwide was the organization connecting Accenture and (the former) Arthur Andersen. My team was part of Andersen Worldwide’s acclaimed Professional Education Division.

  • Created and led the development of reusable, object-oriented software architectures for complex learning, training and corporate communications
  • Designed the architecture for and led the development of Accenture’s (then) most successful, high-volume multimedia application
  • Developed the foundation of one of Arthur Andersen’s first eLearning products which featured activities and content updatable by non-technical staff
  • Innovated in approach to design, development, and educating teammates, fostering an atmosphere of excitement and experimentation

Software Developer, Business Analyst
Motorola
1992 to 1994
ERP

Manufacturing Systems - supporting the factories for the Land Mobile Products and Cellular Infrastructure Group(s)

  • Succeeded in winning the long-sought confidence of key stakeholders, providing access to critical business requirements and strengthening organizational ties
  • Delivered ahead of schedule a critical client-server replacement for a mainframe-based system while piloting the division’s then new SEI/CMM methodology
  • Authored a widely-distributed white paper analyzing systems to support a global ERP initiative, allowing division leadership to make better strategic decisions

EDUCATION

B.S. in Computer Science
DePaul University

Communication Arts - Radio/TV/Film
University of Wisconsin-Madison

Business Administration and Management
University of Delaware