Product Management Professional
San Francisco Bay Area
- Current
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- Product Management Consultant at SF Tech Works
- Past
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- Director of Product Management at ScanCafe
- Contractor - Product Management at Sling Media, Inc
- President at Face It
- President at Dovetail
- Producer at How To Behave
- VP, Technology Development at Migo Software
- President at First Person Software
- Product Marketing Manager at Netcentives
- Merchant Relationship Manager at e-Commerce Solutions
- Director of Marketing at Spinergy
- Education
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- Bucknell University
- Recommended
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5 people have recommended Chris - Connections
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348
connections
- Industry
- Computer Software
- Websites
Chris Neumann’s Summary
• Founded, funded and ran OEM software company – sold for $5MM.
• Founded and launched web-based VOD platform.
• 8+ years developing web- and desktop-based OEM and consumer software applications
• Strong knowledge of social media and marketing – worked on several top 10 Facebook apps.
• Created innovative market strategies that garnered mainstream media attention and widespread brand visibility.
• Deep experience and success in recruiting and managing outsourced and overseas development teams.
Chris Neumann’s Specialties:
Consumer software product development and marketing; bringing innovative products to market; creating new product categories; outsourced and offshore software development; product management; specifications writing
Chris Neumann’s Experience
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Product Management Consultant
SF Tech Works
(Computer Software industry)
January 2008 — Present (1 year 11 months)
This is my product management consulting practice. I help companies take their product vision from idea to implementation. I do this by creating a clear, complete specification and then work with the engineering team to implement it, or hire a team if the customer does not have sufficient in-house resources. I generally focus on web applications, but have worked on several desktop apps.
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Director of Product Management
ScanCafe
(Consumer Services industry)
2008 — 2009 (1 year )
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Contractor - Product Management
Sling Media, Inc
(Computer Software industry)
January 2008 — October 2008 (10 months)
Redesigned Setup Assistant for Slingbox. Conducted follow-me-home interviews to improve customer setup experience. Managed existing offshore development team for desktop software to deliver next release.
Proposed and executed web-based Setup Assistant which will reduce time to complete by at least 15 minutes and returns by at least 50% due to higher completion rate. For execution of the project, identified, hired and managed offshore engineering resources so that current internal team was not burdened with additional work. -
President
Face It
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)
August 2007 — January 2008 (6 months)
• Secured development contracts with diverse companies, from early-stage startup companies to major consumer brands.
• Created specifications and managed implementation of all software, both proprietary and contract.
• Expanded and managed Ukrainian development team from 3 engineers to 5+.
• Created spec and oversaw implementation of new proprietary viral Facebook application, “Christmas Tree,” which gained 20,000+ new users in its first week of release – in early November – without a marketing budget. -
President
Dovetail
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Online Media industry)
March 2005 — October 2007 (2 years 8 months)
I was a co-founder of Dovetail, which is focused on delivering high resolution, DRM-protected films to consumers over the internet.
• Recruited and hired an engineering team in Ukraine. Developed systems to effectively manage the team, including writing very detailed specifications, bug tracking, and workflow management tools.
• Oversaw successful implementation of a new software concept that merged desktop software with a web experience. Dovetail implemented its front-end user experience first in Flash, later in Flex. The Flex GUI communicates both with a server-based remote content database and with local desktop software managing the peer-to-peer download of the video, DRM, and film playback.
• Worked with filmmakers to secure rights, encode and promote their films both within the Dovetail site and externally. -
Producer
How To Behave
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Broadcast Media industry)
January 2002 — May 2007 (5 years 5 months)
Produced 8 original half hour shows which were later repurposed as 50+ webisodes of the How To Behave TV Show. The show concept and focus was learning about how to deal with people in a variety of situations, often with a humorous twist. The target audience was recreational internet users, especially young adult males. Examples of episodes include how to send a girl a drink, how to light a cigar, how to visit Vegas, and how to drive a forklift. See all the webisodes at www.howtobehave.tv
How To Behave's 7-minute webisode, "Rollin' in a Rolls Royce," was an Official Honoree in the Reality TV category at the 2007 Webby awards.
http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current_honorees.php?media_id=97&category_id=102
View the webisode: http://www.dovetail.tv/app.html?contentId=466 -
VP, Technology Development
Migo Software
(Public Company; 11-50 employees; MIGO; Computer Software industry)
June 2004 — February 2005 (9 months)
After the acquisition of First Person Software, I stayed on to work with the acquiring company and continue to diversify the product line. During my time there, we moved the platform off USB drives, enabling use with an iPod with the vision of enabling use on any type of external storage.
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President
First Person Software
(Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)
October 2001 — June 2004 (2 years 9 months)
First Person Software created productivity software called PocketLogin which, in conjunction with an external memory device, allows a user to use any Windows computer as if it were his or her own. PocketLogin was launched by PowerHouse technology as the Migo in September, 2003. Reviewed favorably by Walt Mossberg (Wall Street Journal), Steve Wildstrom (Business Week) and numerous other critics. It was also on the cover of numerous technology magazines. First Person Software was later acquired by PowerHouse Technologies, now Migo Software (NASDAQ:MIGO)
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Product Marketing Manager
Netcentives
(Public Company; 201-500 employees; NCNT; Computer Software industry)
August 2000 — August 2001 (1 year 1 month)
• Responsible for core product platform. Created Product Requirements Document (PRD), oversaw three different development teams responsible for the upgrade of various platform components to SQL 2000 and J2EE compliance as well as documentation of each platform component.
• Led cross-functional team in redemption catalog efficiency project. Project reduced man-hours to produce catalogs by 50% and reduced change cycle time from 6 weeks to 3 days. Created set of requirements for new catalog. Reviewed third-party technology providers versus in-house solution. Created comprehensive financial model.
• Brought new ActivityRewards product to market. Worked with third-party technology suppliers to develop and execute product to specifications. Participated in negotiation of long-term contracts. Developed internal cost model. Created first company-wide pricing models. Conducted beta tests to ensure functionality of product. Evangelized product internally. -
Merchant Relationship Manager
e-Commerce Solutions
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)
June 1999 — June 2000 (1 year 1 month)
• Managed key accounts responsible for 50% of corporate revenue.
• Identified, recruited and sold new merchants on benefits of ECS network including negotiation of revenue share and installation of software on merchants’ servers.
• Worked with customers, clients and tech team to create requirements document for system upgrade. -
Director of Marketing
Spinergy
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Sports industry)
June 1995 — June 1999 (4 years 1 month)
Being a bike racer since 6th grade, this was a great first job after college. We made prefabricated carbon fiber bike wheels, which was very innovative at the time since consumer-level composite manufacturing techniques were new, and most consumers were used to having bike shops build wheels by hand. By having top professionals win key races, we drove adoption of the wheels by local racers. Once the racing market was penetrated, we successfully moved down-market to the high performance recreational market by getting Bicycling Magazine to review competitive wheelsets (we were best, of course) and focusing on the maintenance-free aspect of the wheelset.
Chris Neumann’s Education
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Bucknell University
BSME , Mechanical Engineering , 1991 — 1995
- Activities and Societies:
- President, Bucknell Cycling team - participated in 2 national championships
Editor in Chief - Bucknell Engineer
Kappa Sigma Fraternity
Additional Information
Chris Neumann’s Websites:
Chris Neumann’s Interests:
Flying: Licensed Pilot, Instrument Rating, 250 flight hours, own a Cessna 172SP Cycling: Racer since age 12, top 10 in junior and collegiate national championships Skiing, independent films, new gadgets and toys, international travel
Chris Neumann’s Groups:
AOPA http://www.aopa.org
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Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) -
Bucknell Alumni -
Enthiosys P-CAMP 2009 @ Yahoo! -
Kappa Sigma San Francisco Bay Area Alumni Chapter -
Innovator's Nest -
TheFunded Founder Institute
Chris Neumann’s Honors:
US Patent # 7,299,422
Honoree, Reality TV Category, 2007 Webby Awards
for "Rollin' in a Rolls Royce"
http://www.dovetail.tv/app.html?contentId=466
Migo got a stellar product review from Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB106927733974896200.html
720 GMAT score (96th percentile)
Chris Neumann’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- business deals
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
