Rob Walikis - Resume:
Product Management | Product Marketing

Product Manager, Program Manager, Project Manager, Product Marketing Manager, Customer Relationship Manager, Account Manager

Friday, January 09, 2004

Summary & Skills

Product management professional of 15 years, accomplished in creating product lifecycle plans and executing product market strategies for leading edge consumer brands.

Software expertise in content management, collaboration / knowledge management and social networking tools, as well as their application and use within organizations.

Market-centered business development and competitive analysis. Process-minded product requirements development and delivery. Technical account and vendor relationship management.

Significant Accomplishments

Negotiated successful sale of $5 million rich media software start-up to venture investors during technology downturn of 2000.

Drove fourfold improvement in time-to-web-site-launch for $100 million e-commerce service provider, from six-to-twelve to two-to-three months.

Achieved 90% first pass quality within first year of building world class product data systems for 50K unit design and manufacturing start-up.

Established ISO 9001 certification path and 10%+ worldwide quality improvements for $450m consumer products company.

Education

Cornell University - BS Applied & Engineering Physics, Ithaca, NY

Technical Profile

Site Tools / Standards | RSS, RDF, MovableType, Blogger, Flash, Adobe GoLive
Databases | SQL, MySQL, PostGres, database design / normalization
Development | software QA, software test plans / cases, web site integration testing
Programming | HTML, CSS, DHTML, JavaScript, XHTML, PHP, XML, XSL
Servers | Windows NT, Linux, IIS, Apache, iPlanet, HP-Unix
Office | MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint), MS Project, MS Access, Visio
Other | SAP R/3 - SD / MM / FI modules, 3.1h - 4.5B, AutoCAD

Professional Experience

Principal and Founder
FairSource, Aptos, CA
Product management / marketing consulting
2001 - present
Providing business development and marketing strategy; product / service / process management; and software development for small to mid-sized clients. Domain focus on the application of content / collaboration / knowledge management and social software tools.

Driving product requirements and technologies for mid-beta version of a professional guild and business network, to increase member visibility for employment and opportunities.
Improved time-to-response 200% for account reps by re-designing back-office software and reporting application for creditor debt recovery law firm.
Pre-screened and rated several hundred software deployment / technical service applicants for fast-growing multimedia content software company.

SVP Product Management, Director of Technology
GlobalStreams, St. Louis, MO
Broadband media application service provider
2000-2001
Led product strategy and operations component of management team for 15 person startup ($5 million valuation) delivering an out-sourced broadband content management service for cable system operators, DSL and digital satellite service providers.

Accomplished successful sale to venture capital investors through due diligence of four year $15 million broadband service provider business plan and intellectual property assets
Retained and motivated key technical staff between loss of A round funding and completion of sale, while advancing product features and demo capabilities
Maintained hardware / software vendor relationships and DSL / cable partnership deal progress through funding valley
Initiated strategic broadband content partners plan through a placement / slotting offering, highlighting interactive content on a rich media interface in text-ad-like positioning
Crafted trademark goods and services descriptions and managed core technology patent applications within a start-up legal budget

Product Deployment Manager
Pandesic LLC, Sunnyvale, CA
E-cpmmerce application service provider
1999-2000
Managed product rollout and customer deployment for leading edge start-up implementing end-to-end e-commerce applications services, funded ($100 million, est.) and founded in 1998 by Intel and SAP.

Ensured time-to-launch improvement of 200-400% over typical 6-12 month timeline for e-commerce web site deployment using project plan optimization and critical path analysis

Reduced account management inquiry load by writing, editing and implementing customer upgrade / update self-service guide, for web site and reference collateral

Increased quality, reduced web site time-to-completion by creating third party web developer approval program, including continuous feedback, site review and code check components

Supported multiple successful customer knowledge base transfers through post-launch as liaison between client, design / hosting partners with 24 x 7 support center

Materials Resource Planning Contract Consultant
Modus Media International
Out-sourced software production company
1998-1999
Assigned to drive portion of planning operations team for Microsoft-exclusive facility.

Achieved 25%+ reduction in work-in-process inventory, 50% improvement in on-time delivery in 3 months

Supply Chain & Quality Manufacturing Manager
DNR usa (Marker International), Salt Lake City, UT
Action sports product design / manufacturing company
1996-1998
Led product and materials operations component of management team for this 40 person, $6 million (50K unit) manufacturing startup providing OEM and in-house product design and manufacturing services to customers such as Santa Cruz Snowboards and NIKE.

Managed $2.5 million global supply chain including vendor management and material procurement with start-up staff resources

Established and grew graphics development, production and quality approval program to accommodate over 30+ sku's annually

Secured 90% first pass quality, 2% scrap goal levels in first year by training unseasoned lead production staff in basic total quality management principles

Increased in first pass quality 2.5% in second year by developing semi-real-time quality / productivity reporting and tracking system for factory work cells
Ensured benchmark production quality and throughput while winding-down manufacturing operations toward eventual sale of facility assets

Research & Quality Development Manager
Burton Snowboards, Burlington, VT
1992-1996
Built and managed manufacturing testing and standards lab for this premier action sports / lifestyle brand ($450 million annual sales, est.); managed successful ISO 9000 certification and supply chain / vendor quality programs in the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan.

Improved percentage of conforming products 10% over 4 years by establishing standard worldwide quality specs for four OEM facilities in Canada and Austria
Ensured product time-to-market targets by establishing standard product qualification and testing requirements for worldwide product outsourcing development
Motivated on-going completion of assignments by 10 member volunteer audit team, key to quality feedback process and eventual ISO certification
Maintained continuous transfer of basic manufacturing processes by on-the-floor facilitation and training of over 150 hourly production plant staff, half that number seasonal hires

Professional Affiliations

Lighthouse Venture Forum - management team
Software Product Marketing / ProfGuilds - management team
Santa Cruz Chamber Technology Association
Cornell Silicon Valley
Cornell Entrepreneur Network

Interests

Running - 10-15 miles/week, 10K runs
Swimming - former Cornell record holder, Masters swimming
Music - song writing and recording; guitar and bass
Poetry - OpenTank