Summary
High-caliber maverick leading multi-discipline teams in all aspects of the product development & marketing process, including market and competitive analysis, brand positioning, product marketing, partner programs, sales and customer relationship building. Track record of success in both start-up paced environments and Fortune 500 organizations.
- Talented in identifying market requirements and defining product positioning that wins
- Leader in digital marketing strategy and execution with expertise across ecosystem of tools
- Extensive technology background in digital marketing and eCommerce – 20+ years in the software business (8+ from management consulting – Accenture)
- Diverse exposure to cross-cultural practices and global business protocols
- Proven experience launching large complex products driving multidisciplinary teams to the same goal
Specialty: Identifying market trends and determining solutions to best capture the opportunity.
Experience
Director of Product Management, Gap Inc.
June 2020 – Present
Wrangling martech to accomplish “personalization at scale“.
Chief Marketing Officer, Elastic Path Software
April 2018 – May 2020
Grow! The future of commerce.
Director, Product Management, IBM Commerce
July 2016 – March 2018
Responsible for helping to transform IBM’s commerce portfolio to become a SaaS leader in digital marketing and commerce. Directly responsible for IBM Digital Commerce (formally WebSphere Commerce), Merchandising (formally Demandtec) and Customer Experience Analytics (formally Coremetrics, Tealeaf)
Director, Internet of Things Industry Solutions for Retail, CPG
September 2014 – June 2016
Responsible for defining and driving adoption of Intel’s ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) solutions for Retail and Consumer Products companies. Darin joined Intel tasked with identifying opportunities for retailers and consumer goods manufacturers to take advantage of the quickly evolving capabilities known as the Internet of Things (IoT). As the physical and digital worlds further collide with what is becoming a responsive store, marketers will gain new channels and ways to engage their customer with relevance based on physical world context.
Head of product strategy and marketing, Commerce
October 2012 – September 2014
Responsible for Adobe Marketing Cloud product strategy and go-to-market plan for “experience-driven commerce” initiative, which includes investment plans, product roadmap, market positioning and go-to-market plan, field enablement, and pricing.
• Redesigned e-commerce product strategy for content management, testing, personalization and analytics for Adobe Experience Manager, an industry leading content management system (CMS) resulting in a near 200% lift in sales over previous year.
• Responsible for partner strategy and product integration with leading e-commerce platforms such as hybris Software, Intershop, Elastic Path, and Digital River.
• Disrupted the e-commerce industry to move away from the “e-shop” and recognize the value of content + commerce
Digital Marketing & eCommerce Transformation
July 2010 – September 2012
Drove transformation of Adobe.com eCommerce ($500M+ from 62 countries) to showcase the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite (Omniture & Day CQ) and increase direct sales. Responsible for identifying new capabilities, product solutions and customer experience optimization.
• Delivered new “site becomes the store” experience instrumenting adobe.com with the Adobe Web Experience Management (WEM) platform including Test&Target, and Recommendations resulting in an 18% lift in conversion.
• Responsible for emerging markets strategy overseeing 25+ stores in Asia and the Middle East & North Africa (MENA).
• Created optimization program for emerging market’s online stores to drive ongoing improvements to store conversion and revenue growth leveraging Adobe tools such as SiteCatalyst and Test&Target.
• Inspired and led adoption of agile methods including agile engineering principles and Scrum project management across both the business and IT teams.
• Responsible for telesales agents order management system and integration to Adobe.com.
• Led web analytics overhaul to improve eCommerce reporting capabilities globally and across product lines.
Vice President, Professional Services Organization
Oct 2008 – July 2010
Responsible for new customer implementations of quote-to-cash operations software for P&C insurance companies, customer support, datacenter operations and application hosting. Developed new business process and playbook for improving system implementation model including enablement of SI partners. Improved client value and delivery through improved processes, services support tools and motivated team members.
• Nearly doubled services revenue first year while turning around failing customer projects and relationships.
• Launched new vision and methods implementing agile engineering principles and Scrum project management across R&D, Professional Services and IT.
• Program Manager over an average of 5 major projects and 10+ small projects ongoing
• Designed and enlisted System Integrator (SI) partner engagement model to transform operations and radically increase ability to scale system introduction.
• Published “Enterprise Software Companies Should Partner with System Integrators”, PSVillage.com.
Quote to Order Application Program Director
Mar 2007 – Apr 2008
Directed application development effort (12,000 days) of a web-based quote to order system that will provide real-time quotes on almost 2 million parts to thousands of manufacturing customers. Brought in as transition expert to replace current vendor and rescue project in progress. Managed a team of onshore and offshore development resources responsible for completing development of the application. Responsibilities also included supervising Business Analysts responsible for improving the original requirements documentation and use case model to verify completeness.
Sales & Marketing
Nov. 2005 – Mar. 2007
Darin drove business development (55 clients) on outsourcing sales of over $36M (direct sales of $8M), streamlined the sales process, and built a pipeline management tool. Overall pipeline: $85M+ (18 deals). Advised on how and when to use an offshore workforce, what tools are required and what changes to existing processes will be needed. Decision maker on location selection for each project (Within Accenture’s 40+ delivery centers in countries such as India, China, Philippines, Brazil and
Eastern Europe). Specific areas of focus are:
• Outsourcing and Offshore Suitability and Readiness Assessments
• Offshore mobilization plans
• Organization design and onshore/offshore mix
• IT Governance for a global sourcing strategy with one or more vendors
• Ongoing Vendor Performance Management
Large Global Product Launch
Jan. 2005 – Nov. 2005
Behind on software release schedules and a pending contract milestone where a large number of enterprise license customers service contracts would expire, the business wanted to encourage customers to stay with their software maintenance program. To do this, they wanted to increase the value to the customer at a minimal cost to the company. At the same time, there were market pressures to provide a more market relevant program that included services such as 24×7 support. The idea was to create and enhance existing program benefits. This would affect a program revenue base of approximately $6B and over 90,000 customers.
Having spent over three months with little traction on defining the new product offerings, Accenture was contracted to program manage and ultimately co-deliver all IT system enhancements. This ultimate included a project scope consisting of over 1000 pages of product specifications to five new products that would be rolled out globally to all customers.
Darin’s responsibilities included directing new product definition and implementation across marketing, sales, operations and IT, which consisted of over 1000 pages of product requirements specifications to five new products that would be rolled out globally. Additional responsibilities included designing the online marketing experience and reviewing advertising agency and PR material. All products launched on schedule in all markets and within approved budgets. Darin’s hands on approach drove product definition in 3 months across 5 major business units, 20 teams and over 100 stakeholders defining much of the product offering.
Design & Build Offshore Test Organization – India
Feb. 2004 – Jan. 2005
Responsible for testing over 40 applications supporting the sales, supply chain and enterprise support operations for all Original Equipment Manufactures (OEM) to purchase Certificates of Authenticity (software licenses), the OEM IT testing organization wanted to improve the quality and efficiency of their System and User Acceptance testing. This business unit, from a large software company, approached Accenture to conduct an assessment of their current testing practices and propose a strategy, organization and implementation plan to outsource the testing function to Accenture.
Darin joined a small Accenture team to assess the existing organization, design a strategy for a new outsourced model including resources in the US and India, implement this strategy offshore and manage the startup of the organization in India (Worked in India for over 7 months). In his role in India, he was also heavily involved in final interviews of new recruits for a new office, acting as career counselor and mentor to folks as well as building a professional community with a vision of connecting test professionals to the global community and best practices.
Benefits Realized for OEM IT:
• Decreased total test budget by 30%
• 18% Resource reduction with improved processes and management
• 36% Decrease in Production Bugs
• 100% Requirements traceability to test cases
• Test team met all scheduled milestones during and after team launch
• Improved management visibility into code quality and resource utilization
eCommerce Small Business
March 2003 – 2013
Goomzee Web Services (goomzee.com) provides affordable online business solutions with its flagship product offering eCommerce capabilities to small and medium size companies. Its executive team includes respected leaders in Internet software development and management consulting. It is a growing company based out of Nevada offering customers a level of personal service more common to a “mom and pop” shop.
Darin has been an acting marketing advisor to Goomzee since it’s inception in 2003. His focus has been on creating and reviewing online site design, print and multi-media ad copy and collaborating with others on the advisory team to create the overall 360 degree brand approach to differentiate Goomzee in the crowded marketplace competing against Yahoo!, MSN, eBay and more.
Wireless Local Number Portability
June 2003 – Jan. 2004
The FCC mandated that communications providers support Wireless Local Number Portability (LNP) by November 24, 2003. In order for the large wireless company to be compliant with this mandate, they needed to enhance over 30 application suites within the IT Customer Systems department, as well as additional application suites within other IT departments, to provide the required LNP functionality of allowing a customer to “port” their existing wireless phone number from one carrier to another.
The testing effort was divided between inter-carrier and internal testing. Darin’s role on the LNP engagement focused on validating the companies systems could port a number between other carriers and meet the wireless industry specification for the Inter-Carrier Communication Process (ICP). As Inter-Carrier Test Manager, Darin led a large team of consultants, sub-contractors and employees responsible for planning out each inter-carrier test, designing the industry test cases and ultimately coordinating and executing the tests between all major wireless carriers in the US. Additionally, in this role, Darin represented the client at the Wireless Testing Sub-committee (WTSC) meetings, a group focused on planning the strategy for all inter-carrier testing efforts. The WTSC was a small work group that ultimately reported to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) through the LNP Administration Working Group, which makes the decisions and recommendations that form the basis of the regulatory orders issued by the FCC pertaining to LNP.
In addition to his role as Inter-Carrier Test Manager, Darin took on post ‘go live’ responsibilities where his team acted as a subject mater expert group focused on activities such as answering system and training questions posed by call center representatives, troubleshooting issues identified post launch, and helping to manage Inter-Carrier Relations. Within these roles, Darin continued to build his skills in project management and testing best practices. Additionally, the post launch efforts gave him an opportunity to work with the business executives on marketing strategy for supporting a challenging launch. Darin proactively leveraged his knowledge of the industry and competing carriers to quickly help redesign policies and procedures to support customer escalations, industry system issues previously unknown as well as provided strong inter-carrier relations in a competitive crisis situation.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) System Test Manager
March 2003 – June 2003
Based on previous testing work, Accenture was asked to extend the team that made a previous release of an order management application (e.g., Siebel CRM, Billing, eBusiness) successful.
Darin was extended in his role as test design lead and requested to take on more responsibility managing the whole Siebel test team, designers and executers, focused on a new release. This release was expected to be tested with fewer resources and less support from external project management teams. In addition, Darin was asked to help develop some employees to take on lead roles for current and future work. Darin successfully managed the testing efforts delivering a tested system on time and within budget. He was also successful in coaching an employee who ultimately was able to take on the role of test execution lead under Darin’s supervision.
In this role, Darin was also able to build skills in program management. He supported both the Accenture senior management team and the client management team in resource planning and scheduling as well as beginning the process of adopting better work planning methods.
Pre-Paid Mobile Phone Product Launch
Oct. 2002 – March 2003
A large wireless company was planning the launch of a new product line in March of 2003 called GoPhone, a 2.5G offer that combines the benefits of both postpaid and prepaid services. Accenture was brought on board to ensure that the enhancements required of the order management applications (e.g., Siebel CRM, Billing, eBusiness) were delivered on time and with high quality.
Darin was brought on board based on his previous experience testing a similar system for a sister company, and his knowledge of software development methodology and processes. His primary role was to lead the Siebel test design efforts for system and integration tests. In less than a week of arriving at the project, Darin was already heavily involved in requirements review and script creation. Darin was able to organize the requirements in a way that reduced the number of required test scripts from 40 to 16 scripts without reducing the amount of functionality tested (a huge resource time saver during testing).
Darin was the key player in ensuring that all business and functional requirements were being adequately tested in system and integration test. Identifying a need to institute better requirements based testing, Darin created a requirements traceability approach and organized alignment meetings cross organizations to get the effort underway. He took on responsibly of an additional QA team in an effort to coordinate requirements traceability across the whole development organization. Ultimately, the initiative led to the testing team, for the first time, being able to confidently tell the business the delivered system had been tested against all of their requirements and enter production with higher quality then ever achieved in previous releases.
During the course of the project, Darin continued to build knowledge of the Rational Unified Process and industry best practices in requirements management and testing. Understanding the value of Darin’s knowledge the client leveraged him to train all of their testing employees (60+) on testing best practices such as verification/validation and requirements traceability. Additionally, Darin was invited to join Accenture’s Rational Subject Matter Expert (SME) group.
Developing a System Test Methodology
July 2002 – Oct. 2002
The client services organization spans 12 states and is divided into three companies. Each of these companies executes system test utilizing its own set of processes, methodologies and tools.
The Billing Services Organization (BSO) had recently deployed a common software development life cycle for the delivery of bi-monthly releases across all companies. This project’s charter was to align the system test function across all three companies even further through the definition and implementation of the Future Method of Operation (FMO) of System Test with the ultimate goal of improving efficiencies, quality, and resource optimization. This effort addressed System Test policies, processes, terminology, roles, organization, quality, test data and cases, defects, and metrics.
As the lead process design consultant, Darin was responsible for defining and developing the process and methodology enhancements to provide BSO with the industry best practices for system test based on Accenture client experience as well as leveraging industry knowledge capital such as the Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model (CMM). Darin built extensive knowledge on testing best practices and effectively delivered a system test methodology for the client.
DSL (Broadband) Internet Ordering Tool
Nov. 2001 – June 2002
The ebusiness organization of a large RBOC needed to enhance the DSL ordering web site so that it would supports all five operating companies, improve ordering accuracy and the customer’s ordering experience. The delivery of enhancements was targeted across monthly releases during 2002. To meet these aggressive implementation dates, Accenture was retained to provide skilled resources that supplemented the ebusiness team and helped it complete the required work. Darin was responsible for managing projects from qualifying an idea with marketing teams through definition (i.e., development of software requirements specifications). Building on his relationships and experience from a previous engagement, Darin led a team of requirements analysts that worked with client stakeholders from multiple operating companies and business domains with different priorities. He was responsible for resolving issues, defining and creating business and system requirements, and identifying enhancements that would be made to the online ordering tool. Over the course of eight months, Darin built deep skills in managing software requirements following the Unified Approach (predecessor to the Rational Unified Approach), the process used by the ebusiness organization.
Requirements Analysis and Project Management
Sept. 2001 – Nov. 2001
Accenture was asked to support an eBusiness division of a Regional Bell Operating Company (RBOC), which is responsible for managing the web channel (e.g., online sales of services, electronic billing), in an effort to drive 15 projects through requirements analysis.
Darin was responsible for learning and understanding the DSL Ordering Process and the technical infrastructure that supports this process. Having quickly come up to speed, Darin supported the various DSL project teams by reviewing business requirements, solution alternatives and software requirements specifications. In his role as Architecture Lead, Darin was responsible for ensuring that each project was feasible and drove value for the business. On more then one occasion, Darin’s analysis of the project portfolio allowed the business to consolidate projects and eliminate unnecessary or overlapping projects saving the company money.
In addition, Darin led a team responsible for a project focused on enhancing the current web architecture allowing the development team to deliver marketing requests faster and more efficiently. Darin’s efforts included: interviewing the client architects and marketing teams, clarifying the vision, documenting business requirements, and identifying solution alternatives. Darin and his team assisted the client in the decision making process by providing relevant industry knowledge and Accenture recommendations from other client engagements, which ultimately led to the purchase of a solution Accenture would later be involved in implementing. Darin’s efforts on this team inspired the client to extend the team and request Accenture to be more involved in the delivery of these projects.
Improve Sales Effectiveness
July 2001 – Aug. 2001
Darin worked on a team to explore how a possible software candidate could benefit the sales organization of a large hosting provider by allowing more collaborative and efficient communication between all touch points of the organization and its customers.
Darin’s primary responsibilities were to determine the technical feasibility of integrating the candidate software with an existing CRM system and documenting the findings in a high-level functional design. In addition to the expectations of the client, he helped to identify and explore ‘pain points’ within the sales organization. This effort identified quick ways of improving business processes and technology deployed with existing software allowing the company to save money and increase sales revenue.
Siebel eCommunications Installation
May 2001 – July 2001
Darin worked on a team supporting the application testing efforts for the customizations of Siebel. He was primarily responsible for creating and executing test scripts. The project was based in an Accenture “solution center.” These solution centers are designed to be highly effective and efficient software development operations following industry best practices in software engineering. This project provided Darin the opportunity to learn methodologies of a software team operating near the Capability Maturity Level (CMM) 3.
Enterprise Application Integration
April 2001 – April 2001
An Accenture consulting partner, was the prime contractor to an enterprise web-hosting provider. The partner was tasked with implementing Vitria BusinessWare to connect Clarify eFrontOffice to Portal Infranet. This company was new to EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) and approached Accenture for basic technical assistance.
Darin’s responsibilities were to set up Clarify’s Flexible Deployment, as he had become a recognized resource with these skills based on previous client work. He was expected to setup a development environment and train resources in two weeks. Darin amazed the client when he had a complete environment setup in just days allowing more time to be spent consulting them on how to plan out their development and testing efforts based on his experience. Additional responsibilities included helping them flush out technical design specifications and understand the scope of work to be performed.
Enterprise Portal Strategy
March 2001 – April 2001
The project focused on leveraging web technologies to optimize the exchange of information and increase project visibility. An important component of the initiative was the use of a web portal architecture to aggregate data relevant to the end user and select an online collaborative project management application.
The project initially struggled to gain buy-in on a design. Darin was brought in for his strong web design skills and background. His initial responsibilities were to design an intuitive, easy-to-use front-end to the portal for the company’s engineers. Within one day he designed the graphical user interface that the client supported. The team later received recognition from the CEO with an award for the website.
At the end of the portal design effort, Darin took on additional responsibilities to identify a software vendor to provide the project management application that would integrate with the custom portal. Darin filled the role of technical evaluator assisting in advising and interviewing the vendors for client demonstrations, documenting the findings, and scoring each vendor on how they fulfilled the projects technical requirements. With this role he gained valuable insight into a software selection process focused on identifying software that meets the businesses requirements.
CRM, Billing, and Provisioning Systems Integration
Sept. 2000 – March 2001
Darin was involved in the Quality Assurance (QA) of the second phase of the Infranet ICP project. In this phase, Customer Care (Clarify eFrontOffice8 Call Center) ∓ Order Management System (OMS) features were being added to Portal Software’s Infranet. Darin filled the role of technical architect supporting multiple development and testing environments on multiple platforms (e.g. UNIX-Sun, HPUX, Windows) and multiple databases (e.g. Oracle, MS SQL Server).
Darin’s efforts on this project allowed the team to meet their deadline of delivering the product. These efforts influenced the decision of being reviewed and awarded an early promotion to Consultant at Accenture.
Web Design & Internet Marketing Consulting
April 1998 – June 2000
In the early spring of 1998, Darin started Street Light Creations, an Internet consulting and web design company focused on creating effective online marketing strategies that supported the integrated marketing communications plans of small businesses. Darin consulted clients on existing marketing strategies and educating them on effectively communicating online to their customers. He also designed and implemented the websites leveraging other graphic designers and web application developers.
Sales & Marketing for Wireless Company
Sept. 1998 – Aug. 1999
Darin served in a sales and marketing role supporting a new pre-paid mobile phone program being launched by a wireless digital PCS company. His responsibilities included print and radio campaigns along with point of sale contest promotions. Additionally, he worked with phone distribution partners to coordinate external brand campaigns targeting the PCS market in Montana. As he learned more of the wireless business he took on additional responsibilities that included managing a retail store. While selling wireless services, Darin studied Nortel Networks switches and built significant knowledge around provisioning, network elements, CDMA technology, call centers.
When this same company decided to launch a new Internet Service Provider subsidiary, Darin was hired as the Webmaster for the entire company and the subsidiary based on his portfolio from his web design company. Responsibilities included assisting development of an online marketing strategy to support existing business and the launch of the new ISP.
Education
University of Montana
Bachelor of Science, Business Administration, with a minor in Communications
Graduated 2000
