Project Manager / Product Manager / Development Manager

Summary of Qualifications

• Ten years of technology leadership experience in Silicon Valley in product management / software development / Internet marketing / project management. Directed 35 software engineers, analysts, QA test engineers in last job.
• Pre-MBA, worked on multifarious customer facing roles in the past as IT Consultant / Contract Programmer for fortune 500 clients like Goodyear (Akron, OH), Deloitte (Madison, WI), Nissan (Smyrna, TN).
• Have worked in software development since mainframe / client-server computing days built using waterfall methodologies until now (n-tier cloud solutions for Internet / mobile apps built using agile / scrum methodologies).
• Adjunct Faculty (additional part-time job) in Sawyer Business School teaching Technology Strategy.
• US Citizen. Open to consulting / contract opportunities.

Recent Product and Technology Related Accomplishments

• When Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) services in Northern Virginia went down for days, Sikkasoft's customers had to wait helplessly for Amazon to bring the services back up. Distributed the eggs into two baskets: isolated production data into a separate MySQL database in the Northern Virginia region and stored its mirror duplicate on an Amazon EC2 Linux server in the Northern California region. Also created a process to take snapshots of the binaries and store them in both regions. As a result, Sikkasoft is currently able to offer its customers a "guaranteed" five nine (99.999%) availability of its flag-ship Practice Optimizer (PO) SaaS solution. Leadership in this firm also included converting the data underneath the PO into a platform / API for multiple systems integration projects with partners like a collection agency (TSI) and an insurance claims processor (Mercury Data Exchange) and with startups like Recall Systems and Brighter.com (run by the founder of Business.com).
• Joined as Director of Product Development to find multiple problems at Sikkasoft: product releases were always behind schedule, and the company had lost 800 plus customers in six years. Identified two major problems: apparent (not real) lack of engineering resources, and a buggy product. Initiated a ZERO BUG mission on one hand, and moved the source-code to the Amazon EC2 cloud on the other for monthly Agile sprints in a SCRUM environment. The later helped globally dispersed engineering teams from multiple locations to compile and release features daily for Acceptance testing, helping the company reach product release milestones faster. The ZERO BUG initiative empowered the company's QA director, reduced product defect density, stemmed customer churn.
• Beganto had acquired a firm with an electronic / semiconductor sample fulfillment SaaS (Software as a Service) solution catering to the US market. The CEO had a vision to expand the product from one tab to four tabs, but had no prior experience writing code or producing software offshore. Also, Beganto's development team in India was complaining that if they couldn't see it, they couldn't build it. Joined as product manager, directed graphic designers to mockup entire UI using Dreamweaver. Personally authored 30 fully developed UML Use Cases. As a result, the engineering team in India got busy and the web based product got built out in less than six months. Doubled up as account manager and up-sold the multi-tab product to existing customers.

Professional Experience

• Director - Confidential, Milpitas, CA, 2010 - 2011
• As Product Development Director, managed multiple SaaS Solutions including Practice Optimizer (the flagship product retailing at $399 per month per dentist), Practice Monitor, Optimizer for Consultants. The overall product mix consisted of health-care practice management, CRM, BI (Business Intelligence), credit card processing, mobile apps, electronic health records (EHRs), customized reports like the daily huddle report.
• Also managed multiple system Integration projects with Transworld, Dentsply, Recall Systems, Brighter.com. Ran SCRUM meetings with engineers off-shore (in India) early mornings / late evenings. Kick-started every 5 week sprint cycle via a PRD. Wrote 12 PRDs. Slowly shortened the build-release cycles from 6 to 5 to 4 weeks.
• Directed engineers to build mobile footprints of the products (iPhone and iPad apps) by using technologies like jQuery instead of Silverlight for iOS production (on iPads and iPhones).
• Chief Consultant,Confidential, Palo Alto, CA, 2006 - 2010
• Incorporated the firm in Delaware as a Web 2.0 firm. Initial revenue was advertising based, and some material from the websites was published as Strategic Case Analysis, available on Amazon.com by looking for Sam Mishra as author.
• Advised start-ups trying to build software / Internet SaaS solutions, mostly by first selling a PRD template. Also sold an industrial strength PRD template to businesses looking for best practices in hardware product design and manufacturing.
• Advised customers on Internet marketing techniques like RSS / XML via hands-on XML / HTML coding. Also advised customers on how to use Google AdSense and avoid click frauds, etc. Gained insights on the Internet advertising space.
• Product / Project / Program Management Consultant, Confidential, Bay Area, 2002 - 2006
• AbsolutelyNew / Science + Technology: As Director of Technology Assessment, reported to VP - Science + Technology. evaluated and marketed patents in automotive, science+technology, life sciences (protein kinase), IT. Mentored product managers on cosumer and technolgy products. Reported simultaneously to President and to VP-Science+Technology. Assisted company CEO in biz-dev / e-mail campaigns to solicit leads from patent attorneys. Managed LAMP / PHP programmers to build in-house IT solutions, as the company grew from 20 to 100 people.
• Beganto: Replaced the VP of Product Management to manage SaaS Product called Design Winner. Associated products included a PSE (Private Search Engine) and an OSE (Open Search Engine) to look for semiconductor (SEMI) samples. Built a one-tab product into four tabs, using customer feedback in agile / iterative builds. Upsold beefed up product to strategic accounts. Design Winner competed with other CRM solutions like salesforce.com. Ran meetings nightly with VPEngineering in India, VP-Marketing and Chief Software Architect in Seattle, and CEO in Bay Area. Reported to CEO.
• Appresso USA: Reported to VP-Product Development. Worked on beta-deployments of Quality Optimizer, a closed-loop analytic solution to reduce product defects and improve product quality. The parent company in Japan had built a work-flow engine called Data Spider. Quality Optimizer was built of top of the engine.
• Allegiance Telecom (Now XO Communications): Led B2B product marketing of integrated Voice + Data solution called TC (total communications) Package to SMBs. The product competed against SBC communications in local markets.
• Competitive Analyst - Confidential, Sun Microsystems, Menlo Park, CA, 2000 - 2001
• Analyzed dot-net vis-a-vis Java / J2EE. Attended Microsoft PDC 2000 as member of of Java Strategic Software Marketing Team to understand Microsoft's competitive response to J2EE and J2ME (Now Java ME).
• Analyzed HA Linux clustering vis-a-vis Solaris. Analyzed IBM, HP, Turbo Linux, Mission Critical Linux. Created hotsheets / beat-sheets for Solaris. Operating systems analyzed included HP-UX, IBM-AIX, Windows, and Linux.
• Group Leader / Senior Consultant, Confidential, Nashville, TN, 1993 - 1999
• As group leader, managed a project team of six DB2 consultants as part of enhancing an Integrated Tax System project (software integrated 48 different taxes such as Franchise & Excise, Liquor by th Drink, Sales & Use). System was strategized by Booz Allen, and designed by Anderson Consulting (now Accenture). Used tools like Anderson Analysis/1 and Design/1.
• As IT consultant, developed online and batch subroutines for Nissan's Time and Attendance System. These subroutines helped automate Nissan's pay policies like OT / DT (overtime / double time) calculations. Used case tool called ADW analysis / design / construction workstations.
• Senior Consultant,Confidential, Madison, WI / Akron, OH, 1991 - 1993
• Designed and developed a DB2 / Telon based Advertising Budget Control System for Goodyear Tire and Rubber. Interfaced with users (marketing managers), centralized IT staff.
• Did systems analysis and design for a $40MM Welfare Management System for the State of Wisconsin on behalf of Deloitte. Worked on the Benefit Recovery module. Used ADW for documenting system requirements.
• (Part-time Job) Adjunct Faculty, Confidential, Boston, MA, 2011 - current
• Currently teaching a 3-credit grad-level course called TECHNOLOGY STRATEGY to MBA students every Fall Semester in Intense Format (over two weekends). Concepts covered include S-Curves, Technology Cycles, Dominant Designs, TALC and the Chasm, Architectural Innovation Framework, Technology Push vs. Market Pull, Basic vs. Applied Research, monetizing R&D, Teece: Tight Appropriability, Complementary Assets, Speed, Intellectual Property: Patents vs. Trade Secrets, Product / Process Innovations, Conventional Products vs. Products with Network Effects, Products, Services, PLATFORMS, Technology Diffusion, Lead Users, Sticky Information, Learning by Doing, Absorptive Capacity, Technology Diffusion, Real (Technology) Options, Product Development Funnels, Aggregate Project Plans.

Education MBA, BSME with Honors