PRODUCT Strategy and MANAGEment
About ME
I’m a software product manager at Mars, Inc. with a passion for building growth-focused software products that delight users and benefit the bottom-line.
With over 11 combined years of experience in sales, product marketing, and product management, my mission is to launch great products that balance feasibility, business impact, and user success.
My approach
User success
Source: Freepik.com, via Flaticon.com
User-Centered Products
Every product decision should start with the user. Understanding user needs, pain points, and jobs-to-be-done makes sure the product design and function drives user value.
Continuous Improvement
Analyzing user feedback, monitoring product usage metrics, and staying current with industry and user behavioral trends to constantly make the product better ensures long-term growth and relevance to the user.
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Nurturing relationships across functional stakeholders such as design, engineering, research, sales, and marketing helps align the team on the product vision and ensure we build something that is not only technically feasible, but meets user needs and benefits the organization.
Product Strategy
Source: Noomtah, Flaticon.com
Strategic Thinking
Strong product strategy is fed by understanding your user, identifying market opportunities, researching the competitive landscape, and developing a roadmap that aligns with organizational goals.
Data-Driven Decisions
If it’s measurable, it’s manageable! Using data from research, product usage metrics, and internal tools is necessary to inform product decisions, define and track against KPI, learn what is and isn’t working, and make great products.
Prioritization
Knowing where to start and how to balance product decisions begins with understanding the overall product vision. Aligning the team on organizational goals makes navigating a seemingly endless backlog of product requirements a LOT more manageable. Ultimately you must answer three questions:
Will this bring our user value?
Will this benefit our strategic goals?
Can we build this with the time and resources we have?
impact
Source: Freepik.com, via Flaticon.com
User Satisfaction
Users are the ones keeping the lights on at HQ. Building products that consider specific user needs will not only amplify success with your audience, it will make sure your team doesn’t waste precious time and effort building something meaningless.
Clear Goals
It can be easy to forget the overall mission, sprint-to-sprint. Every product and feature needs to tie back to a specific business case, and meet acceptance criteria. This keeps the team on-track to make something that will actually drive toward business goals like revenue growth, reduced churn, user acquisition, and more.
Getting it Done
People. Process. Product.
It’s important to understand not only the intended user, but the needs and pain-points of the team. We’re here to build something together, and the better you know and empathize with each other, the better the business outcomes from collaboration. Set clear targets, measure performance, and communicate regularly.
Foster an environment of mutual respect, consistent communication, and user-focus, and you’ll build excellent products together.
What people say about me
“Reliable, Enthusiastic, and Curious. These are just a few words that immediately come to mind when working with Sean. There are of course many more attributes he brings and that I observed while working together on both Product Requirements and a Data Analytics implementation together. Over the course of working together at SAP, Sean quickly adapted to understand a very niche SAP landscape (Trade Promotion Management) to help create actionable Product Requirements (Epics) and Capabilities (User Stories), work with design and refine with engineering in an agile manner... He is very keen on being proactive with little direction... Overall, he was a blast to work with and I hope to work with him again. I highly recommend Sean.”
“Sean and his company Contourlines NW worked closely with us to understand our products and target customers. His marketing strategies and knowledge of our customer needs grew our sales and gave us an edge against our competitors.”
“...a fantastic person and easy to work with... He worked across multiple Special-T teams to reach various audiences and helped build a strong brand for Special-T in the area. Sean is results driven while remaining focused on providing high level customer service. With great confidence I can highly recommend Sean.”
“Intuitive, inquisitive and resourceful. Sean is certainly all three of those and more. If you’re looking for a sharp minded consultant, combined with the customer care you deserve, Sean’s your man. Highly recommended.”
Brands i’ve Done product marketing for
Case Competitions
Winner: SAP + Mars University Challenge
In 2021, I was awarded first place in the SAP + Mars University product management challenge. I led a team of first year MBA students at the UC Irvine Merage School of Business, beating 70+ internationally competing teams.
Published work
☝ Click the image above to read my work! 👆
A Positive Buying Experience is Crucial for Customer Happiness
G2 is the world’s largest tech marketplace where businesses can discover, review, and manage technology.
The G2 Learning Hub is a place where anyone can go to learn about marketing, sales, and other business and technology concepts from industry experts around the world.
Click the image to read a piece I wrote for G2 about why the buying experience is crucial for customer happiness, and what strategies will ensure the best results.
A little brand fun! McDonald’s used my copy (a fast food-themed haiku) for their twitter bio in January, 2021.
Leadership
University of Washington Program on the Environment Alumni Council
Council Co-Chair, Marketing Lead
2012 - 2019
What’s on my bookshelf
GET IN TOUCH
Copyright Sean Wood, 2022