Kaarli H. Tasso

White Plains, NY 917-***-**** ac9gle@r.postjobfree.com

Product Manager / Business Innovation Lead

Build businesses by delivering first-to-market, disruptive, award winning digital products. Passion for solving customer needs, often before they are explicitly articulated. Deep experience in technology, design methodology, and client services. Expert at using Agile (Scrum, Kanban) methodology. Motivate collaborative, high-performing teams. Equally at ease in the Board Room and with the development team. Thrive in an entrepreneurial environment where complex problem solving is the norm. Deliver results despite high levels of ambiguity and risk. Harvard cum laude in Physics; IBM Fellow, Applied Physics, Yale

Professional Experience

Business Adviser and Global Team Leader, Better Life Vietnam Nov 2016 – present

United Nations Volunteers

Develop and implement business strategy to transform a Vietnamese startup creating educational opportunities for disadvantaged youth into a thriving online enterprise. Establish and lead a team of 60 deployed globally across Asia, Africa, the Pacific Rim, Europe, and the Americas.

Collaborator and Prototyping Specialist, Columbia Digital Storytelling Lab April 2016 – present

Exploring the impact of code, data, and algorithms on AI, narrative, and interactivity in immersive worlds.

Director, Product Management and Client Services March 2015 – May 2017

Language Testing International, Inc. (a Samsung SaaS eLearning company)

Recruited to transform the business by introducing cutting-edge digital products. Led the product development process from ideation to release. Defined product KPI's and success metrics. and implement systemic tracking to quantity opportunities and validate improvements.

Conducted and maintain an industry assessments and user qualitative and quantitative research to provides detailed insights into the competitive landscape and best practices

Led cross-functional SWOT workshops with business leads and the Executive team to provide unified support for strategic direction. Championed vision and roadmap with the Samsung Global Task Force. Received full budget approval and mandate to develop new products.

Made the strategic vision a reality by establishing the pace for rapid, iterative product development cycle using Lean Best Practices. Led agile teams through development, experimentation and implementation cycles

Redesigned product offerings based on customer goals rather than traditional language building blocks. Led product design, product development, and functional design. Managed technical implementation team using Agile methodology and artifacts.

Designed new products which allowed LTI to enter the Commercial B2B market for the first time. Clients included booking.com and Uber. Commercial revenues grew from $0 to $500K in 6 months.

Spearheaded the launch of an eCommerce site, creating the first online opportunity for B2C users to order LTI products. LTI became the largest for-profit provider of English eLearning products in China, outstripping established competitors after one year.

oLed the UX engagement, encompassing all aspects of creative development and end-user interaction design, to develop an elegant, intuitive and scalable user-centered interface.

Established and led a consortium of researchers and technologists to explore the use ofemergent eLearning technologies, including AI, AR and VR, to develop personalized learning solutions.

Designed, coordinated, and evaluated pilot programs in Israel, Korea, and the US.

Direct management responsibiity for a team of 20.

Associate Consultant, Landsman Communications Group May 2014- March 2015

Advised start-ups on digital marketing strategy, including how to leverage the reach of social media.

Enterprise Project Manager - Digital Strategy and Innovation, March 2009-April 2014

TD Ameritrade

Designed products that captured the most profitable industry segment, the active trader demographic by defining and implementing a product roadmap for customizable, cross-platform trading and research tools. Provide business and product leadership for new startups that have been approved for launch

Partnered with business unit leads to perform a gap analysis and prioritize requirements to attract the active trader demographic. Defined and championed business cases, value propositions and product requirements in support of product launches.

Designed a comprehensive product strategy which was ultimately adopted by senior management. Provided business and product leadership for new startups that have been approved for launch.

Direct management responsibility for a core team of 15. Led cross-functional teams, including user experience, product, marketing and technology. Key projects included:

Web Channel and Mobile Redesign: Comprehensive re-designs of all customer-facing offerings to meet the needs of self-directed traders.

TDA Community: Designed and developed an online community offering by introducing Peer to Peer user collaboration using the Facebook/Twitter model.

oActive traders were able to share stories and trading strategies with legacy customers. Legacy customers shared and executed active trader strategies with a single click.

oCreated data analytics that allowed clients to explore new trading strategies using anonymized data from the entire customer population.

This introduction of gamification rewarded active traders with prestige based on number of followers and increased active trader retention by 50%. Increased managed assets by 68%. Attracted upmarket portfolios for the first. time

Named top trading platform for tools, education, and research by Barron’s (2012 -2014)

Product Evangelist, May 2007 – January 2009

Adobe (New York)

Grew the previously failing New York office into the company’s lead producer, generating an annual $27 million by year-end 2007- 45% of North America revenue. Managed geographically distributed team of 40.

Managed the entire product development lifecycle for custom client products from conception to delivery and release across all disciplines.

For the National Football League (NFL), developed the Sunday Night Football application. the first immersive, interactive mobile companion product to a sports television broadcast.

This provided new recurring revenue streams for the League, each team, and the broadcasters, and continues to be the benchmark model for sporting event companion applications.

Winner: Communication Arts Interactive 15 Award for Entertainment:

https://www.commarts.com/project/22708/nfl-nbc-sunday-night-football-extra.

Senior Manager, Product Incubator, May 2005 – May 2007

Merrill Lynch

Identified and incubated disruptive solutions using emerging technologies. Defined technical specifications, including peak performance requirements, for engineering teams.

Increased revenue by 300%. Implemented use of offshore development team to accelerate results.

Senior Manager, Emerging Technologies/Interactive Jan 2002 –April 2005

Mizuho (a major Japanese bank, and the world’s largest bank by assets)

Revolutionized the customer relationship by creating an online portfolio management product that allowed teams to interact effectively across multiple time zones.

Originally targeted for the New York office, this product is now mandated for use throughout the firm as the Mizuho flagship product.

Performed a comprehensive competitive analysis to identify opportunities to take the market lead in customer-facing financial products.

Designed a cross-cultural interface to accommodate Japanese preferences for task completion, security, and navigation. Managed all vendor relationships during design and development.

Senior Group Director, Strategy and Client Services May 1999 – June 2001

Organic (an internet consulting company)

Pitched, closed, and managed a $45 million portfolio of business with project teams of up to 40. Responsible for P&L, strategic vision and client satisfaction across all engagements.

Increased fundraising by 300% for The Nature Conservancy by creating a user interface that opened access to a 20,000-web page library of world-renowned scientific research.

Launched the “Tossed and Found” marketing campaign to drive traffic to the GE Financial Network (GEFN). Tossed and Found videos went viral and were picked up by 48 mainstream media markets. Named as one of “7 Best Initiatives in 2000” by Jack Welch.

Project Manager, 3D Virtual Trading Floor, May 1997 –May 1999

New York Stock Exchange (NYSE)

Pioneered the first design and operation of Virtual Reality. Led a 20-member team based in 6 countries to develop the 3D Virtual Trading Floor (3DTF), a virtual world that is a milestone in virtual reality yet to be surpassed.

The 3DTF is displayed on a 7-foot video wall on the floor of the Exchange. Used daily by NYSE Chairman and senior staff to ensure orderly operation of the market.

Designed “trading floor at a glance” visualization paradigm for instantaneous correlation of data patterns and immediate response to unusual business or system activity. Key features include:

40 variables for each of 3000 stocks, updated every second, are tracked and mapped onto virtual representation of the physical trading floor using icons, color and animation.

Developed partnerships with external vendors to create a living laboratory that was at the time unprecedented in graphics processing power. Managed system design and deployment.

Education

A.B. cum laude in Physics, Harvard

IBM Fellow, Department of Engineering and Applied Physics, Yale

Certifications

From Brockhaus Thinking: With Design Thinking to a Networked Culture

Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering (2019)

Human Centered Design IDEO (2019)

Practitioner, Enterprise Design Thinking IBM (2019)

Product Management for Newsroom Leaders

Knight School of Journalism in the Americas (2019)

Game-Based Learning Touro College Graduate School of Technology (2018)

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