Résumé

 I’m a technology-, design-, and business-savvy generalist of a product manager. In short, I love my work as an entrepreneur within startups… even if they’re not “mine.” As a product manager, I help companies research, design, develop, launch, and manage compelling products. Here’s what I bring to the table:

• Sophisticated user-centered design skills. I combine personas, design and reality mappings, user testing, the KJ method, ethnographic field research, persona-weighted feature evaluation and more to identify and prioritize the features that users need most. Naturally, this translates into a better product, happier users, and more revenue.

 

• Excellent research, analysis, writing, and communication skills. The user-centered design approach helps teams identify great opportunities for new products and enhancements. My research and analysis skills help verify and bolster these opportunities, and my writing and communication skills document and support their development.

 

• A solid technical background. While you probably wouldn’t want to hire me as a junior developer, I’ve done my fair share of coding. I write SQL statements like a poet. I’ve spent many an hour in the deafening roar of a data center, swapping CPUs and installing IP-KVM switches. In short, I “get” technology and earn the respect of the technical team, making designing, developing, and actually shipping product all that much easier.

 

• Experience in a startup environment. In addition to launching my own successful startup, I’ve contributed to the success of several startups over the course of my career as both an employee and consultant. I’ve developed business plans, one-sheets, decks, and elevator pitches both as an entrepreneur and as an employee.

 

• Connections to the community. I am an active participant in the Los Angeles technology community, and often present at local events on a variety of technology topics.

 

• I use Scrum. This iterative development methodology breaks down large projects into smaller “chunks.” This increases productivity, shows results sooner, and allows the product to adapt faster to new learnings and changing market conditions.

Many of my current and former managers, co-workers, partners, and clients have endorsed my work. I hope you’ll review my profile with these recommendations on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisgagne.

I’ve reproduced my résumé below in HTML format. You may also download a Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF version of my résumé.

For privacy purposes, this online version does not contain my home address or phone number. However, I will be glad to provide a copy of my résumé that contains this information upon request.

CHRISTOPHER GAGNÉ

http://www.chrisgagne.com
http://www.cerbumi.org

EDUCATION

• Master of Business Administration, expected June 2011
• Fully-Employed MBA Program

• Bachelor of Arts, Economics and Business Management; History Minor, 3.77 overall GPA

WORK EXPERIENCE

Technology company offering industry-leading domain monetization and lead generation products

• Research and develop new products for Low.com, a leading mortgage lead generator
• Research, develop, and launch a competitive business model and product offering for an
  new auto insurance vertical
• Manage the product roadmap and backlog
• Manage an agile development cycle using Scrum
• Evangelize and apply best practice user-centered design, including personas, process and
  design mapping, KJ-method collaboration, ethnographic field research, and user testing
• Create and sustain business partnerships

SaaS-based sales-lead management tool for the mortgage, insurance, and education industries

• Directed the company’s account management and technical support departments through 45x revenue growth in less than 2 years
• Manages top 4% of clients, accounting for approximately 20% of total company revenue
• Researched and developed best practices recommendations for mortgage industry clients
• Designed and evangelized core product functionality based on customer feedback ethnographic field research, user testing, and quantitative usage analysis
• Conceived, designed, and personally developed LeadGuardian™, the only anti-theft tool on the market that protects expensive mortgage leads and trains new loan officers

Nationwide industrial supply distributor

• Supervised local customer-side operations, including competitive strategy, marketing, material handling, and purchasing

Proprietary (Homepage.com Engine) and non-proprietary (Broadvision) SaaS provider

• Managed customer relationships, change requirements, and documentation
• Supervised graphic designers and provided technical oversight for a design group in a fast-paced development environment, substantially improving usability

ADDITIONAL EXPERIENCE

ASP/ISP providing services to medical research, business, and entertainment clients

• Manage development of applications utilizing Perl, MySQL, VOIP, and streaming video
• Provide secure managed hosting services

Online question and answer marketplace for students

• Design and development of features, promotions, and marketing collateral
• Provide general bookkeeping and operations services
• Developed business plan, elevator pitches, and related collateral to support fundraising

VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE

• Leading participant in a local chapter of an international service organization

• Developing an web 2.0 application to facilitate an open-source network-based approach real-world problem solving
• Conducting research into how individuals can collaborate effective online

• Patrolled the Trinity Alps Wilderness and managed a remote historical cabin

SELECTED TECHNICAL SKILLS

• Productivity and Analysis: Microsoft Office (Excel, PowerPoint, Word, Outlook, Entourage, Project), Windows XP, Mac OS X, Keynote, AppleScript, Mathematica
• Graphics: Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Visio, Flash, OMNIGraffle
• Internet Development: Perl, MySQL, MS SQL, Selenium IDE/RC, CSS, HTML
• Product Management and User Experience Methodologies: PRDs, use cases, Agile/Scrum Development, KJ Method / Affinity Diagrams, Personas, Reality & Design Mapping, User Testing, Ethnographic Field Research, Persona-Based Competitive Analysis & Feature Prioritization