Senior Product Manager

With over 10 years of team leadership experience directing product development across local and globally distributed teams, I thrive at the intersection of business, technology, and customer experience across multiple industries including automotive, financial services, retail, data management, and industrial manufacturing. I excel at transforming complex problems into clear strategies, with focus on results, data-driven decision-making, transparency, and alignment to organizational goals. With a proven track record of taking products from 0 to 1, I’m well-seasoned in stakeholder management and influential communication, fostering consensus between scrum teams, business users, and the C-suite. I bring deep understanding of business processes and software development via the Agile methodology. Fully versed in SDLC principles, Agile, scrum, roadmap creation, PI planning, QA and testing methodologies, innovation, and OKR setting, and have led development teams through release planning, dependency management, and risk assessment. Skills & Interests: ● Technical Expertise: Product Strategy, Product Management (Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) certified PO/PM), User Stories, User Interviews, Data Analysis, Process Optimization, Consulting, Taxonomy, Metadata, Syndication, Proposal Development ● Tools: Jira, Confluence, Trello, Asana, Google Suite, Sharepoint, MS Office, Excel, Figma, Google Analytics, Tableau, Visio, PIM, DAM ● Soft Skills: high emotional intelligence, excellent written and verbal communication skills (Toastmasters International Advanced Communicator Bronze), user interviews, facilitating workshops, indirect influence, influential communication, cross-functional leadership ● Interests: science fiction, traveling (12 countries and counting), NFL (Bear Down) Contact: john.m.upton@gmail.com