Senior Program Manager Lead at Microsoft
San Francisco Bay Area
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Mark Johnson’s Summary
I'm a product manager who was trained at SAP and then plunged into 3 successful search startups: SideStep (acquired by Kayak for $180M in December 2007), Kosmix, and Powerset (acquired by Microsoft in July 2008) . Through the Microsoft acquisition of Powerset, I now work for Bing.
I have a history of managing projects from conception to completion, with a final product that delights customers. Sometimes, I work on the user experience and lead teams to create innovative, useful interfaces. Other times I channel my inner geek work with engineers on deeply technical problems.
I've always straddled the line between product management and marketing, and I play both roles with equal dexterity. I've led product launches, managed PR firms, and worked at all levels of tactical and strategic marketing.
I'm on the lookout for the right opportunity to start my own company. In the meantime, I'm focused on my career at Microsoft and advising interesting startups.
Mark Johnson’s Specialties:
search, program management, product management, product marketing, user-centric design, usability, product launch, marketing, pr, social media, semantic web, advising
Mark Johnson’s Experience
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Senior Program Manager Lead
Microsoft
(Public Company; MSFT; Computer Software industry)
July 2009 — Present (5 months)
Manages program management for captions/snippet generation and hover preview in Bing. Areas include: captions quality, next-generation features, and measurement. Responsible for the success of features from conception to roll-out.
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Advisor
Worio
(Privately Held; Internet industry)
May 2009 — Present (7 months)
Helping Worio to secure funding and working on product and marketing issues.
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Senior Program Manager
Microsoft
(Public Company; MSFT; Computer Software industry)
September 2008 — July 2009 (11 months)
After acquisition, responsibilities originally included integrating Powerset with Bing and marketing / PR activities in the Bay Area.
In Bing, I launched the reference vertical within Bing and several answers based on Powerset technology. After the Bing launch, Powerset was transferred captions/snippet generation from Redmond, and I became a product manager on that team. -
Senior Product Manager
Powerset
(Privately Held; Internet industry)
June 2008 — August 2008 (3 months)
Promoted to Senior Product Manager. Powerset acquired by Microsoft in July '08. Served on the acquisition communications team and subsequently was a key member of the integration team.
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Product Manager
Powerset
(Privately Held; Internet industry)
March 2007 — June 2008 (1 year 4 months)
Managed marketing activities, including traditional public relations and the blogosphere. Presided over two successful product launches: Powerlabs @ TechCrunch40 in September 2007 and the first Powerset Product launch in May 2008.
When not marketing Powerset to the outside world, was internally focused with product planning, strategy, and definition, organizing user studies, and other product-focused activities.
Other work includes business development and competitive research. Basically, most non-technical activities flowed through my inbox at some point. -
Product Manager
Kosmix
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)
October 2005 — November 2006 (1 year 2 months)
Launched Kosmix.com at DEMO '06. Created and managed the Video Games, Politics, and Travel verticals. Responsible for the overall user experience at Kosmix.com and owned the relationship with Kosmix's public relations firm.
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Product Manager
SideStep
(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)
September 2004 — October 2005 (1 year 2 months)
SideStep was acquired by Kayak.com for $180M in December '07
Launched the Web version of SideStep's Web search in January 2005. Product manager for Flights, Hotels, Cars, and Packages. Created and led usability initiatives at SideStep, which included award-winning features, such as multi-select filtering and comparison pages. Job also included a heavy quantitative component of analyzing user data to make smart, profitable product decisions. -
Product Manager
TeleMinder
(Hospital & Health Care industry)
August 2003 — September 2004 (1 year 2 months)
Grew Teleminder from 3 to 6 employees and doubled revenue. Played roles in sales, business development, product management, and engineering management.
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Product Manager
SAP
(Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; SAP; Computer Software industry)
July 2000 — August 2003 (3 years 2 months)
Product manager for mySAP HR. Focused on Employee Self Service (ESS) and Manager Self Service (MSS), which were two of the first SAP applications distributed on the mySAP Portal. Involved in requirements development, usability testing, sales support and training, marketing, evangelism, and coaching a list of blue chip beta customers.
Additional Information
Mark Johnson’s Websites:
Mark Johnson’s Interests:
Usability, User Experience, Product Design, Product Management, Goal Directed Design, User Centric Design
