Product Manager

Joel Hickson

*** ***** **. ** – Marietta, GA ****7 - 512-***-**** – ***********@*****.***

PRODUCT MANAGER

Very experienced in communicating with external and internal customers to define software requirements and interacting with an engineering team.

Highly skilled at understanding market driven timing and using that to prioritize features and manage timelines for Agile software development.

Demonstrated capability to work with a small, highly technical team to bring a prototype system to market.

Adept at supporting both tactical and strategic operations.

Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)

Experience

QCEPT TECHNOLGIES (Innovative semiconductor start-up with HW/SW B2B product) – Atlanta, GA

Sr. Product Manager, (9/2013 to 6/2015)

Created a Marketing Requirements Document and used the MRD to create technical product specifications and a product roadmap that was used to guide the development for a second generation product.

Worked with business development and engineering to create a vision for the new product user experience (UX) for both hardware system software and offline stand-alone software products.

At Intel’s request, became the account manager which involved leading weekly customer meetings to provide a rapid response to software and service requirements. This successful account management led to $3.5 million in sales.

Collaborated with customers including Samsung, Intel, IBM, TI, Toshiba, and Infineon to determine product requirements and feedback to the software and hardware engineering teams.

Spearheaded a project with the systems engineering team to improve functionality through a refactoring effort that improved the spec by 25%.

Participated in sales meetings and conferences as a technical product expert which helped grow customer base by 20%.

Continued performing all the PM responsibilities below.

Product Manager, (2/2011 to 9/2013)

Planned and executed Agile software customer releases by guiding a cross-functional development team through participating in daily Scrums as Product Owner and setting release priorities.

Created User Stories and maintained the Product Requirement Backlogs using a work ticketing system (TRAC).

Documented software release notes and trained applications engineers on new features which allowed for rapid customer deployment.

Created technical presentations as collateral for Sales and Marketing.

Assisted SQA with testing and writing testing requirements.

Sr. Applications Engineer, (3/2005 to 2/2011)

Technical expert on both hardware and software leading customer Beta evaluations.

Managed a successful evaluation with Samsung Electronics in Suwon, Korea, which led to over $6 million in sales.

Traveled to customer sites to provide training on system theory and develop applications to justify system purchases.

Provided user experience feedback as a voice of the customer to the software development team.

Authored theory and operation manuals which were used by team members for internal and customer training.

Learned SEMI standards protocols for host factory automation to support integration at customer sites which improved troubleshooting times by 50%.

Joel Hickson

321 Kings Ct. NE – Marietta, GA 30067 - 512-***-**** – ***********@*****.***

NLINE CORPORATION (Semiconductor start-up with HW/SW B2B product) - Austin, TX

Sr. Applications Engineer, (12/2000 to 3/2005)

Responsible for characterizing and developing a laser-based defect inspection system from prototype through first generation.

Developed the system software user interface by communicating with customers and providing requirements to the software team.

Trained customers in both technical theory and operation.

Collected data and worked closely with image processing engineers to refine software algorithms which led to a 10% improvement in signal to noise.

MOTOROLA SEMICONDUCTOR PRODUCTS SECTOR, Austin, TX

Yield Enhancement Engineer: MOS 13 Wafer Fab, (10/1999 to 12/2000)

Responsible for investigation into and problem solving of low yielding products.

Received a Technical Excellence Award for the qualification and implementation of an AMAT inspection system which improved yields 5% and reduced testing time.

Analytical Lab Manager: MOS 3 Wafer Fab, (1/1999 to 10/1999)

Directed three lab technicians and maintained SEM and TXRF analytical systems.

Assisted engineers in determining analytical techniques required and interpreting results.

Yield Enhancement Engineer: MOS 3 Wafer Fab, (1/1997 to 10/1999)

Received a Technical Excellence Award for implementing an improved poly clean process that increased yields 7%.

Photolithography and Etch Process Engineer: MOS 3 Wafer Fab, (10/1995 - 1/1997)

Sustained all aspects of Photolithography, Plasma and Wet Etch in a high volume wafer fab.

Developed an intranet reticle and pellicle replacement ordering system with Dupont Photomasks.

NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORPORATION, Rolling Meadows, IL

Process Engineer: Components Advanced Manufacturing, (9/1994 - 10/1995)

Responsible for process improvement and production implementation of auto epoxy dispensing for pick and place of semiconductor components.

Education and Certifications

Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Scrum Alliance (V. Lee Henson), Atlanta, GA 8/2015

BlackBlot Product Management and Product Marketing Training Course, 280 Group, Austin, TX 5/2010

B.S. with Honors in Chemical Engineering, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 5/1994

Skills

Agile, TRAC, JIRA, WIKI, Microsoft Office: PowerPoint, Excel, Word, and Visio

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