Customer Service Manager

Joshua Kell S anta Monica, CA

j *****@*****.*** * 12 - 451 - 8137 (mobile)

P r o duc t I n n o v a tio n & O p e ra tio n s L e a de r

Overview

Accomplished product development executive and creative thought leader with 15+ years of experience building and

growing a wide range of interactive businesses from the ground up, with a focus on innovation. Strong strategy,

operations, and business acumen combined with an eye for stunning design and usability, resulting in product

offerings with high monetization potential and user adoption. I like to take what I’ve learned about building products

and how users interact with them and launch stuff that people love to use.

Core Competencies

Leading interactive, multi-channel product strategy and product lifecycle design process for online and mobile media,

P&L accountability, requirements gathering and product/functional documenta tion, user experience and usability,

team building and management, agile and lean methodologies

Professional Experience

Senior Product Consultant, Entertainment & Lifestyles : Yahoo!, Santa Monica CA

Sep 2011 – Apr 2013 (freelance contract)

Primary focus and accomplishments:

Global Product Lead for Yahoo! Movies – overall management of global site and all product initiatives

Launched smartphone multi-device site for Yahoo! Movies

Led strategy and product definition efforts for new mobile advertising opportunities across Entertainment sites

Concepted and built overall Entertainment Awards suite of social applications tightly integrated with Facebook

Vice President, Product Development : Talk3, Inc., Chicago IL

Nov 2010 – Aug 2011

Leading product development efforts for an innovative startup focused on putting consumers in control of their online profile and

data, offering them unprecedented ways to organize, interact with, and filter all aspects of their digital life. Executive leadership

team member, reporting to the CEO.

Key accomplishments:

Product platform and framework strategy, planning, and development

Mobile and web product development and product management

User Experience Design optimized for semantic discovery

Led the product definition and development for company’s first 2 mobile apps built on platform

Involved in securing venture funding and VC and customer presentations

Team building and management

Product Development and Lead Consultant : Hyatt Hotels, Chicago IL

Jan 2010 – May 2010

Defined strategy, business and use cases, and led vendor selection for Hyatt Hotel iOS app

Key accomplishments:

http://www.hyatthotels.hyatt.com/mobile

Vice President, Online : Mobil Travel Guide (now Forbes Travel Guide), Chicago IL

April 2008 – June 2009

Responsible for all online and interactive strategy, product development, and site operations for established luxury travel content

provider. Collaborated with fellow executive team members on overall content monetization strategies and worked closely with

CEO on all business development opportunities and negotiations with vendors, clients, and investors. Managed and mentored a

team of analysts, developers, and designers.

Key accomplishments:

Led internal development of multi-channel digital content strategy to transform current web offerings into an

experiential, interactive platform and destination site for travel (scheduled for launch in 2010), and transform business

from print-based to web-based

Created and launched strategic partnership and revenue stream opportunities with leading travel sites and brands

Implemented highly effective SEO and content architecture best practices, leading to increased organic traffic and page

views to key site areas

Led cross-functional team involved in creating and testing concepts for “what’s next” in online advertising within travel

space, resulting in test pilot projects with strategic partners, clients, and advertisers

Contributed to negotiations and acquisition process for merging brand into Forbes media family

Product Manager – FastWeb/MonsterEducation : Monster Worldwide, Chicago IL

March 2006 – April 2008

Responsible for leading all Product Development efforts from strategic planning through implementation, including maintaining

existing web sites and concepting, defining, and prioritizing new products or enhancements to meet overall business needs.

Provided strategic vision for a suite of student-oriented offerings in terms of business model and objectives, site and product

performance, and user experience design. Managed product division budget and strategy for 50M/yr business within Monster

Worldwide Network, and mentored and managed a five person product team.

Key accomplishments:

Created strategy, design, and functional requirements for redesign of FastWeb.com, including dramatically simplifying

the user signup process and improving lead generation ad serving UI and algorithms, resulting in improvements in new

user numbers and traffic overall

Led initiatives to develop and launch innovative social features and upgrades to existing sites to drive adoption,

engagement and return user visits

Concepted and facilitated strategic brainstorming workshops and sessions for a new business market to pursue, analyzed

results and created detailed concept document and initial business plan

Senior Information Architect : Agency.com, Chicago IL

April 2004 – April 2006

Consulted for a full service interactive agency as a senior consultant in the User Experience group, working mostly on large-scale

strategic projects with the Strategy team for major clients including Hewlett Packard, Motorola, United Airlines and Grainger. Led

and contributed to strategy development for complex, interactive solutions (future vision strategy, user experience strategy, multi-

channel and mobile interactive strategy). Organized and facilitated in-depth requirements gathering workshops across unique

stakeholder and user groups, and created initial information design concepts and specifications that mapped to both business and

user goals. Led and mentored contractor teams and junior staff members.

Key accomplishments:

Led successful multi-disciplinary Visioning strategy consulting project the defined and depicted the future interactive and

mobile vision of “Seamless Mobility” for Motorola

Co-led successful strategy project to create high-level solution for consolidating dozens of diverse HP support portals and

sites into one global portal solution

Created new interactive solutions for Grainger that brought Ajax technology to the online shopping experience, resulting

in a much improved user experience and higher revenues across the Grainger e-commerce platform

Senior Associate, User Experience : Sapient, Chicago IL

June 2003 – April 2004

Consulted on a diverse set of projects for a global business and technology service firm as a senior consultant in the User

Experience group, in multiple capacities and roles, for major clients including Wells Fargo, Kaiser Permanente, and National City.

Developed and executed large-scale user research strategies for financial services sector clients. Planned and facilitated in-depth

requirements gathering workshops with diverse business stakeholders. Performed in-depth content audit/analysis and competitive

and market research to develop content strategies that would better promote the brand and serve banking and mortgage

customers online. Deliverables included interview protocols, task models, concept models, wireframes, workflow diagrams,

competitive analyses, content audits, and presentations.

Key accomplishments:

Co-led 4-6 month on-site cross-department projects to concept, test, create and launch online self-serve solutions and

tools to shift a large percentage of the customer support and servicing away from call centers for certain divisions,

resulting in annual savings in customer service costs in the millions for both Wells Fargo and Kaiser Permanente

Turned customer feedback from a wide range of departments and roles into task models and ultimately full requirements

for new self-service mortgage site offerings for National City, resulting in documentation for internal business analyst and

engineering teams to utilize to begin developing product

Information Architect : Fry, Inc., Ann Arbor MI

July 2001 – June 2003

Consulted in an information design and user experience capacity for an established leader in the e-commerce field. Defined site

architecture and user experience flow for high-traffic e-commerce sites for major retailers, on projects ranging from building new

sites from scratch to making continuous usability enhancements to improve key performance indicators. Contributed to creation of

e-commerce strategy for global retail brands such as Brookstone, AAA, HGTV, and Food Network. Consistently increased ROI for e-

commerce clients, and met or exceeded key business and site performance metrics.

Key accomplishments:

Co-led 4-6 month on-site cross-department projects to concept, test, create and launch online self-serve solutions and

tools to shift a large percentage of the customer support and servicing away from call centers for certain divisions,

resulting in annual savings in customer service costs in the millions for both Wells Fargo and Kaiser Permanente

Turned customer feedback from a wide range of departments and roles into task models and ultimately full requirements

for new self-service mortgage site offerings for National City, resulting in documentation for internal business analyst and

engineering teams to utilize to begin developing product

Information Architect : marchFIRST, Chicago IL

October 2000 – April 2001

Consulted for interactive agency on projects focused on portal development for Fortune 500 clients. Responsible for

interaction design and information architecture for complex web -based portal solutions encompassing hundreds of screens.

Performed usability testing on new design prototypes with disparate audiences and user types.

Content Engineer, BrandGuard : Frankel, Inc. (now Publicis), Chicago IL

September 1998 – October 2000

Developed database-driven web sites providing on-demand, customized marketing materials for major corporations such as

McDonalds, Jim Beam, and United S tates Postal Service. Designed custom navigation schemas and co-branded templates for use

with dynamic, production-ready assets from content repositories. Programmed custom content repositories for each client,

ensuring central brand management of on-demand promotional materials for all marketing staff and partners across the globe.

Acted as a dedicated account manager to clients and a liaison between client and engineering teams. Recognized with a “Frankel

Professional Power Award” for outstanding professionalism and consistently exceeding expectations

Education

Miami University, Oxford, OH -- Bachelor of Arts, English 1995

h ttp ://www.lin ked in .com/in /josh u akell

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