Technical Product Management
Index
Introduction
A software developer for over 20 years, since June 2017, I have been employed as a Technical Product Manager for 2 companies and have accumulated multiple certifications from respected certification authorities. I have led the business strategy, defined the roadmap, and managed the launch of several high-profile digital products.
A Technical Product Manager has several advantages:
- Technical Product Managers are better able to gain the trust and communicate with developers
- Technical Product Managers interact well with technically literate customers
- Technical Product Managers ensure that the team stays on top of new technology trends
- Technical Product Managers make space for addressing technical debt on the product roadmap
- Technical Product Managers push for greater innovation
In addition to technical Product Management, I offer Agile coaching at the individual, team and company levels.
Certifications
| Issuer | Certification | Organization | Year | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)®® | Project Management Institute | 2020 | This one is an interesting one, because it is a strange mix of Waterfall, Kanban, Lean, Scrum and XP methodologies, and the PMI's holistic take on Agile. Apparently I scored very well on the test, which makes sense, I've been exposed to just about every project management methodology over the past 30 years of my career, for better or for worse. |
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Certified Scrum Professional® - Product Owner | Scrum Alliance | 2020 | Although there are 7548 Certified Scrum Product Owners in Canada as of 2020, I count myself among only 3 people in the country who have successfully advanced to the highest levels of product owner certification. These higher-level certifications cover advanced topics in depth, such as scaling scrum to large organizations, advanced customer research and market driven strategy, and creating training plans for agile coaching. |
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Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner | Scrum Alliance | 2020 | |
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Certified Scrum Product Owner | Scrum Alliance | 2020 | |
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PSPO Professional Product Owner™ | Scrum.org | 2018 | This was my first course in product management, which I took during my first product management job at Bell. |
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Certificate in Leadership Essentials | University of Toronto | 2015 | This series of courses taught me how to manage teams of developers, including:
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Work Experience
Technical Product Manager & Solutions Architect
Imposium
Remote: October 2018 – October 2019
I was hired by Imposium in 2019 to provide leadership and architecture guidance to their development team and help this startup expand their personalized video business. After the departure of the previous product manager, I assumed his role and revamped the company’s product roadmap in addition to my work as a software architect.
In my time there, I was able to unify a jumble of internal tools behind a secure and documented public REST API and introduce a unified HTML5 UX as a turnkey SaaS product. My product roadmap extended the company into new lines of business. I then architected an ad server that allowed the company to compete in the ad serving space, and attracted the interest of potential investors. I left the company with a firm product offering and a clear product vision.
Technical Product Owner, Video Platforms
Bell Media
Toronto: June 2017 – October 2018
As Technical Product Manager, Video Platforms at Bell Media, it was my responsibility to oversee video delivery on all of Bell Media’s websites and apps.
My primary success was the development and deployment of a new HTML 5 video player to replace Flash across all of Bell Media’s sites. Under my watch, the project overcame initial difficulties and was completed on time and on budget resulting in a quantifiable increase in video views, reducing video load times from over 10 seconds to under 2 seconds, and bumping advertising revenue significantly.
To see my video player in action, click any video in the following websites:
In addition to this player project, I managed the development of new player code for native iOS and Android apps for most of the above sites, drove the Agile transformation of the dev team, managed a politically charged analytics refactoring, introduced new ad serving features, built solid relationships with all internal and external stakeholders, and left the company with a solid video platform roadmap.
Links
For a full list of my work experience, see my:
Technical Account Manager
Comcast Technical Solutions
Remote: December 2012 – February 2017
As Technical Account Manager, I was the primary technical point of contact for new and existing Comcast customers, including:
- NBC Universal
- CBS Interactive
- Miramax
- CBC
- Corus
It was my job to plan and PM the integration of a diverse and complex suite of products, including our video CMS, transcoding services, video players, advertising and analytics integrations, e-commerce offerings and DRM solutions for many of our customers. As the advocate for my customers within Comcast, I was an active participant in all product steering and governance meetings for each product.
Samples of my work
Tai Chi App (demo only)
The pitch
The plan
