Senior Consultant at Tacit Knowledge
San Francisco Bay Area
- Current
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- Senior Consultant at Tacit Knowledge
- Past
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- Senior Project Portfolio Manager, Senior Project Manager, Release Manager at Gap Inc. Direct
- Senior Project Manager, Producer at Fulcrum Legal Graphics
- Online Product Manager at Sony Electronics, eMarker
- Director of Product Manager at Bigstep.com
- Product Manager, Project Manager at N2K
- Product Manager at N2K/Music Boulevard
- Product Manager, Project Manager, Account Manager at CDNOW.com, N2K
- GM at Undici Restaurant
- Education
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- Columbia University in the City of New York
- City College of San Francisco
- McGill University
- Connections
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372
connections
- Industry
- Internet
- Websites
josh polsky’s Summary
IT professional with over 13 years of experience in product management, project management, release management and relationship management. Experience in waterfall and agile software delivery methodology, new development and re-platforming.
Professional experience with early stage start-ups, electronics companies, small agencies and large corporations.
Comfortable working with highly technical staff and managing up to "C" level internal and external customers.
josh polsky’s Specialties:
eCommers, Consumer facing websites, Business facing websites, Internal tools to promote Work-flow, Wiki's Online story management tools, Content management systems, Web Publishing systems, Large Tiered Internet Architectures; WAS, ATG, Microsoft, Red Hat, Oracle,
josh polsky’s Experience
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Senior Consultant
Tacit Knowledge
(Privately Held; Information Technology and Services industry)
2009 — Present (less than a year)
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Senior Project Portfolio Manager, Senior Project Manager, Release Manager
Gap Inc. Direct
(Public Company; GPS; Retail industry)
May 2004 — October 2009 (5 years 6 months)
Senior Project Portfolio Manager
• Annual Portfolio Planning
• Ongoing management a portfolio of $40MM+ annual budget of IT business, architectural, infrastructure and maintenance projects.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to understand the impacts of re-prioritization, project extensions and budget variances.
• Oversee the management of resource allocation and contingent labor sourcing.
• Prepare annual capital projects portfolio to secure funding.
• Create and maintain a portfolio dashboard and review process to aid executives in critical portfolio management decisions.
Senior Project Manager
• For Agile Projects, lead teams through Inception and Development as Iteration Manager.
• Lead Iteration Close/Open meetings and track metrics to identify efficiencies in releasing quality software.
• Managed all Project Management aspects of both business facing and technical architectural projects. Defined and scoped projects, and manage LOE, budgets and schedules.
• Acted as liaison between Project Sponsors, Business Owners, Design, Development, Quality Assurance, Operations, Corporate Entities and 3rd party vendors.
• Led project to re-factor build and deployment methodology creating consistent code branching, deployment and release methodologies leading to a consistent, predictable release cycle.
Release Manager
• Worked with business owners and shared resources to plan and schedule releases.
• Maintained Release Calendar planning IT releases and Marketing driven events for all online Gap brands.
• Liaison for 3rd party ISP management overseeing change control methodolgy.
• Led effort to build out new production facility as final effort to cutover to new platform working closely with 3rd party MSP.
• Created repeatable processes -
Senior Project Manager, Producer
Fulcrum Legal Graphics
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Legal Services industry)
2002 — 2004 (2 years )
Fulcrum Legal Graphics is a boutique graphics firm specializing in helping attorneys explain complex legal and technical concepts to judges and juries nationwide.
* Collaborated with trial attorney and legal teams to develop convincing courtroom graphics, animations and video presentations.
* Wrote scripts, developed storyboards, templates and imagery for stills and animations.
* Managed graphic artists, animators and video editors.
* Responsible for client management throughout project life cycle.
* Created proposals and budgets for clients. -
Online Product Manager
Sony Electronics, eMarker
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; SNE:US; Consumer Electronics industry)
2001 — 2001 (less than a year)
eMarker was a mobile device used to electronically mark songs heard on the radio. It was the top selling Sony electronics product under $30 on amazon.com and winner of Sony's President's Award.
* Defined and prioritized new business opportunities, product requirements and site enhancements.
* Performed strategic business analysis to demonstrate ROI and P&L impact of service.
* Created and managed consumer research and feedback regarding usage, behavior of functionality and content.
* Developed product roadmap and partnered with technical staff to make strategic tradeoffs to ensure speed to market.
* Led cross-functional teams through development process for new online products.
* Successfully launched 2.0 version of website based on customer research, user testing and business requirements. -
Director of Product Manager
Bigstep.com
(Public Company; 201-500 employees; Internet industry)
1998 — 2001 (3 years )
Bigstep provided browser-based tools and services for small businesses to create a website, and to grow and manage their businesses online. Bigstep was acquired by Affinity Internet. Promoted from Product Manager to Director.
* Responsible for top revenue generating service providing merchant accounts to retailers, resulting in over $1MM of transactions in the first year.
* Analyzed customer feedback, competitive analysis, and independent, subscription and contracted research.
* Defined product strategy, roadmap and features. Managed the design, implementation and launch of new products and revisions.
* Led cross-functional teams through development process for new products and product revisions.
* Evaluated, negotiated and managed vendor relationships.
* Hired and trained Product Managers. -
Product Manager, Project Manager
N2K
(Internet industry)
1996 — 1999 (3 years )
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Product Manager
N2K/Music Boulevard
(Internet industry)
1996 — 1999 (3 years )
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Product Manager, Project Manager, Account Manager
CDNOW.com, N2K
(Public Company; 201-500 employees; N2K; Information Technology and Services industry)
December 1996 — December 1998 (2 years 1 month)
Now an amazon.com Alliance Member, CDNOW is a leading online music retailer, selling over 500,000 items including CDs, DVDs, videos and digital downloads.
* Led cross-functional teams through development process for new products resulting in increased sales and ease of use.
* Managed products including affiliate programs, collaborative filtering engines and new merchandising lines.
* Conducted Focus Groups & User Testing to improve usability and increase sales.
* Prepared Flow Charts, Interactive Models & Information Architecture.
* Managed operations of commerce and community focused web sites. Responsible for strategy, implementation and analysis of new store features.
* Hired, trained and mentored producers. -
GM
Undici Restaurant
(Internet industry)
1990 — 1993 (3 years )
josh polsky’s Education
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Columbia University in the City of New York
Business, Economics, English, 1995 — 1996
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City College of San Francisco
Multi Media, Liberal Arts 1993 — 1995
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McGill University
Industrial Relations 1983 — 1985
Additional Information
josh polsky’s Websites:
josh polsky’s Interests:
Agile Software Development Project Management, Web Development, Organizational Development, Product Manageent, Mountain Biking, Road Biking, Snowboarding, Cooking, Food, Wine,
josh polsky’s Groups:
ScrummMaster
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Gap Inc. Networking -
The Cambridge School of Weston - Alumni and Friends -
BayAPLN -
Bigstep Alumni -
Music Boulevard
josh polsky’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- consulting offers
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
