Erich Stauffer

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  • Go-to-Market Product Manager at Blue Acorn iCi

    Go-to-Market Product Manager at Blue Acorn iCi

    As a #productmanager, my ability to navigate complex problems, propose innovative solutions, and guide cross-functional teams has allowed me to consistently deliver results over time.

    I have been a Go-to-Market Product Manager at Blue Acorn iCi, a leading digital customer experience company, for over two years. In this role, I collaborated with delivery, strategy, marketing, and sales teams to bring new products and services to market with the goal of adding an additional $500M in revenue over seven years. I have a strong background in product development and user-centric thinking, allowing me to create innovative products that are market-centric and meet customer needs.

    As the senior product manager, I collaborated with diverse teams to bring new products and services to market. I am proud to have played a pivotal role in adding significant revenue and improving the performance of e-commerce sites. My ability to navigate complex problems, propose innovative solutions, and guide cross-functional teams has allowed me to consistently deliver results.

    Software or new features I have helped build as a product manager and how many customers it serves

    At Blue Acorn iCi (BAiCi), one of our large, dog treat clients wanted a new, direct-to-consumer site (Greenies) built with a product recommendation quiz that would allow people to enter information about their dog and it would recommend a treat. Working with the development team, the client, and the client’s vendors, I worked to create and build a solution that met the client’s specifications. It involved custom code and metafields within Shopify; the Bold Subscription app; and integrations with Salsify. Because of the name brand of the site, it gets thousands of visitors to it a month.

    Another BAiCi example is a flash sale site (NBC’s TODAY Steals & Deals) that needed to be both “open” and “closed” at the same time depending on how someone accessed the site. Working with the developer, we came up with a method that uses a landing page to store a cookie that when present, chooses a different theme experience for the user. Absent that cookie the site appears to be closed, but with the cookie the site appears open. This served tens of thousands of visitors a month.

    New functionality release schedule to customers (and which development methodology I follow (agile, scrum, kanban, etc.)

    At Blue Acorn iCi, we followed 2 week sprints with releases about every 2 sprints. These releases were accompanied by detailed documentation. Blue Acorn iCi used a customer demo approach to explaining the changes to the client, which I also employ.

    We used Agile methodologies in a scrum style with the goal of delivering value in each sprint, however at Blue Acorn iCi, waterfall was also used at the beginning of a project.

    My most recent major product release, the new functionality that was delivered, and my role in the launch 

    My most recent major product release was the creation of the new, Go-to-Market Team at Blue Acorn, which involved creating a business case, forming job descriptions, creating a RACI diagram, and creating processes. One of the features of the new department was an online form that allowed new ideas to be submitted from inside the company and the corresponding review process and reward system that went along with it. I helped create slides for the launch at our company meeting, but my peer is the one who ultimately gave the presentation.

    My experience working directly with customers and my reasons for considering a consultative and customer-facing role

    At Blue Acorn iCi, I regularly worked directly with clients and I loved it. While it can be challenging at times, the filter-free access adds both added responsibility and clarity. I also worked directly with clients at GoServicePro.

    Experience

    • Collaborated with Delivery, Strategy, Marketing, & Sales to bring new products & services to market
    • Responsible for adding an additional $500M in revenue over 7 years to meet $1B revenue goal
    • Managed a $65M/yr e-commerce site with a 10% average increase in performance YoY
    • Created a custom, product recommendation quiz app that integrated with the PIM, Salsify
    • Co-developed a solution for a “closed” flash sale site to be “open” via a ‘key’ URL being visited
    • Continuously improved the product development process in partnership with key stakeholders
    • Communicated and maintained the vision, strategy, and roadmap for current and future products
    • Created diagrams, visualizations, and presentations for key stakeholders and executives
    • Played a pivotal leadership role managing new initiatives across cross-functional teams
    • Guided and supported teams while taking direct responsibility for initiative components
    • Navigated ambiguous problems, proposed innovative solutions, and executed them
    • Managed a cross-functional team including Analytics, Marketing, Development, IT, and Finance
    • Operated both strategically and tactically between big-picture thinking and attention to detail
    • Effectively communicated, bridging the gap between technical and non-technical stakeholders
    • Had a track record of building positive relationships, mentoring others, and influencing others
    • Managed Jira projects and feature planning, roadmapping, and backlog management
    • Showed strong quantitative, analytical, and problem solving skills

    Skills

    • Agile Methodologies
    • Business Development
    • Product Management
    • Project Management
    • Analytical Skills
    • Product Lifecycle Management
    • Sales Pipeline Development
    • Business Analysis
    • Marketing Strategy
    • Business Strategy

    About Erich Stauffer, Product Manager

    With over 15 years of professional experience, including executive-level expertise, I am well-equipped to tackle complex and ambiguous challenges. I leverage my credentials as a Shopify+ certified professional to manage and optimize e-commerce platforms, integrate software solutions, and implement data-driven decision-making practices. I am passionate about driving innovation and growth, fostering collaboration, and promoting continuous improvement. I am seeking meaningful challenges that will offer personal and professional growth opportunities, enabling me to make a significant impact on your business.

    I am excited about innovation, efficiency, data-driven decision-making, and delivering exceptional user experiences. With over 15 years of professional experience in product management, project leadership, and fostering innovation, I am eager to bring my strategic thinking, leadership abilities, and passion for innovation to your team. Throughout my career, I have been privileged to lead cross-functional teams, develop customer-centric products, and drive business growth.

    Contact me on LinkedIn to hire me.

  • How I Helped FedEx Launch their First Fulfillment Service

    How I Helped FedEx Launch their First Fulfillment Service

    As a product manager at Skinny & Co. I added several new features to the order management system that led to the elimination of a FTE, but one of the other things I’m proud of was how I worked with Fedex to develop a new 3PL order management interface that allowed us to send them our orders for fulfillment.

    When FedEx was first getting into the 3PL space, they bought GENCO in Greenwood, Indiana and we were their first customer. FedEx asked me to work with the UX designer at FedEx and the people working in the warehouse to optimize the order management web interface and the system (Manhattan).

    Similar to the middleware I developed for Fishbowl Inventory, the FedEx Fulfillment order management portal used CSV file exports from Fishbowl to import into Manhattan. At first it had basic, limited capabilities but over time, more features were added in subsequent sprints and releases.

    As the key stakeholder at the client level, I was in a unique position to give feedback and have influence over the design and process decisions made. Normally I’m the product manager so this was a different type of experience, one I’ve also done for a Celigo by participating in feedback sessions with them.

    This system is now in use with all of their other FedEx Fulfillment customers.

  • Time-Saving (and Money-Making) Product Improvements as a Product Manager

    Time-Saving (and Money-Making) Product Improvements as a Product Manager

    When I worked at Marine Credit Union as a business analyst, I was also a product manager for checking accounts, which included online banking, their mobile app, ACH, and debit cards. I was also responsible for the company’s CRM system (before I helped to migrate the company to Salesforce’s CRM system).

    During my time at the credit union I made several key product improvements to checking products:

    • Synergy Check Image Sync
    • New, Online Loan Payments
    • ACH Rule Automation
    • New Overdraft Protection Software
    • Automated Error Reporting
    • Loan Payments in Mobile App

    Synergy Check Image Sync

    I created a system that linked check images from the item processing system into the core software, making it easy for employees to look up check images (rather than doing manual searches), which saved time and helped customers.

    New, Online Loan Payments

    I added the ability for loan borrowers to make one-time loan payments online and by phone. Prior to this, they could only pay via mail or in person at a branch.

    ACH Rule Automation

    I helped get a module built for our core processing software that automated business rules for ACH transactions, eliminating all but the outliers, which saved the ACH department in Deposit Operations 10s of hours a week.

    New Overdraft Protection Software

    I launched a new overdraft protection software to increase revenue and decrease risk. Instead of giving everyone a flat amount, it was calculated.

    Automated Error Reporting

    And in addition to working with data analysts to create many different, new reports, I also created a system to automatically email branch, regional, and district managers in escalation when exceptions with new accounts were not resolved in a timely manner. This automation saved hours of manual intervention.

    Loan Payments in Mobile App

    And finally, I added the ability for customers to make loan payments from within their mobile app using a web page managed from the corporate website.

  • Using Middleware to Eliminate a FTE as a Product Manager

    Using Middleware to Eliminate a FTE as a Product Manager

    Sometimes a simple product improvement can lead to dramatic changes in business processes and personnel changes. This is a story about how custom middleware eliminated a FTE.

    At Skinny & Co., as a product manager, one of the products I managed was Fishbowl Inventory (along with the processes and technologies that were involved and integrated with it).

    Fishbowl Inventory was not web-based at the time, it was on-premise software running on a local server. It had file import and export capabilities, but no web-based API.

    Many of our wholesale orders came in through a web portal called Brandwise, which had a file export system where orders could be exported via PDF or as CSV files.

    It was one person’s full-time job to download orders from Brandwise and import them into Fishbowl. They typically did this via the PDF by manually typing the information into Fishbowl.

    When Processes Don’t Work

    One of the first things I did to improve this process was to train the person how to use the CSV imports from Brandwise to import the order information into Fishbowl.

    Fishbowl had a slightly different format so the order manager had to learn how to reformat the CSV file into a format that Fishbowl could accept, and then clean up any errors.

    One type of error was in the name of the customer. If the name was different in any way, Fishbowl would create a new customer record for it, creating duplicates and forking their order history.

    The other issue was that sometimes customers still used old SKUs which wouldn’t translate or import into the system. And a downfall of Fishbowl is that if any information was wrong, none of it imported.

    The order manager reasoned that the amount of time it took to do that was not worth the effort and thus they went back to manually inputting the orders from the PDFs.

    Custom Middleware

    At that point I then set about to fix the file conversion problem to make it easy for someone to be able to input a file from Brandwise to Fishbowl in the correct format without creating duplicate customer records or stopping due to a bad SKU.

    I worked with a development team to write up the use case and then test the results. We developed a system which included:

    • software on the Fishbowl server that synced the customer and product data up to the middleware web server and allowed information to be written back
    • a web interface which allowed the user to import the order file from Brandwise, search and map customer records (if exact match not found), and to search and map SKUs (if exact match not found)

    This process prevented the imports from creating duplicate customer records or failing to import due to a bad SKU.

    And while it had upfront development costs and added a new, monthly hosting fee, it allowed us to eliminate a FTE.

    Later this system was replaced with a more robust, but less custom system from Synqware. Formerly with Bizperanto, Synqware is now part of Celerant.

  • X Marks the Spot

    X Marks the Spot

    After I got laid off from my last job, I started working full time on my consulting business while applying for jobs as a product manager. I also started posting more on LinkedIn and Twitter (X) as a way to engage with the product management community.

    I’ve been following Dan Koe and Sean McCabe (formerly SeanWes), both of whom have encouraged me (through their writing) to start with writing – so I wanted to share a few thoughts on what I’ve been doing and how it’s going so far.

    A follower or connection doesn’t usually count for much of anything on its own. However, those followers only allow me the opportunity to say something interesting and possibly attract new consulting business or product manager jobs.

    Trust Beats Consistency, and Consistency Beats Message

    Ultimately, if people don’t trust what you have to say, the rest doesn’t matter. What you say needs to communicate trust. If you are consistent, you will learn what to do. Practice leads to improvement, which leads to success.

    But the main reason I want to post every day is because I believe my income depends on it. But it’s also a form of journaling, which helps me think, create new ideas and synthesize thoughts; and it helps my brain work better.

    Finding Your Voice

    Most people don’t find their voice on social media because of consistency. It takes practice and time to find your voice. It is scary to post something where your friends at the companies you are posting about might find offensive.

    Before posting, ask yourself these questions:

    • “Can my audience learn something from this?”
    • “Would I have liked to learn this earlier in my career?”
    • “Do I have something unique or different to say about this issue?”
    • “What are people in this industry thinking about but are afraid to say?”
    • “Do I have a bias here, and is it apparent to both me and the audience?”
    • “Is the intention of my feedback to tear down – or to guide improvement?”

    But generally speaking, a good rule of thumb is to stick to what you know. When you find yourself overreaching your expertise, you risk your credibility.

    My goal is to post every day at least once. Eventually, I settled into every business day posting something that I saw interesting in the industry.

    I enjoy writing, and I have for most of my life. I’ve written many blog posts here and even some books, and although there were long periods of time when I didn’t write anything, I never lost my love for writing.

    Consistency Pays Off

    So far I’m in the early stages of developing the habits of daily writing, journaling, and posting, but I’m already seeing some effects from it in the form of increased interactions and direct messages. I’m going to keep doing it.

    I don’t know exactly where I’m going to end up, but having a plan and working towards a goal with intention will put me in a better position than randomly doing things and reacting to the world around me. X marks the spot.

  • Field Notes

    Field Notes

    I spilled coffee on my Field Notes.

    It went everywhere.

    Something so simple as setting down a cup of coffee caused an inordinate amount of chaos and care to clean up.

    But it was worth it.

    Sometimes things don’t go as planned despite making a plan.

    I’m okay with that.

    The body craves novelty just as much as it craves stability.

    A week ago my job was eliminated.

    My stability was taken away, replaced by novelty.

    I had mixed emotions of fear, anxiety, joy, and excitement.

    One door had closed and another door had not yet opened. I was in the hallway. I was on my own.

    But I wasn’t alone.

    I have God, friends, network connections, my skills, time, and sheer determinism.

    I’ve been praying, reaching out to people, and applying for jobs.

    I’ve been publishing content to and interacting on social media.

    And after a week, I only have one lead from one recruiter.

    But that’s ok.

    Now I can learn from what I’ve done, analyze it, and improve it.

    I know that writing or journaling is an important part of healing, brain development, and general success in life so I’m attempting to start a daily routine of writing.

    Right now it hurts a bit because I haven’t associated dopamine with it, but I’m hoping to rewire my brain to crave it – just like it craves novelty and stability.

  • Senior Product Manager

    As part of your Shared Services Product Management team, the Senior Product Manager sits at the intersection of business revenue and expense generation operations; and delivers everything from large-scale technology solutions to small optimizations. The team is responsible for developing long-range product roadmaps and engaging in backlog grooming for the upcoming 2-week sprint. We work in lock-step with development, strategy, and engineers to deliver a portfolio of technology solutions that include a wide range of 3rd party SaaS products and custom developed applications.

    About Erich Stauffer

    As your Senior Product Manager, I will drive the end-to-end product execution and work alongside shared services and business leaders to identify and implement technology solutions that support your scaling business.  I will develop a deep understanding of your customer’s process and needs, while keeping a pulse on the broader company strategy and objectives. 

    Collaboration is a key ingredient for success, which is why I’m able to recognize key dependencies across different teams in order to coordinate a successful product launch.  I will provide product consultancy and recommendations to your business partners, helping them to better understand trade-offs, interoperability, and maintenance costs, enabling them to select the right solution that will help them meet their business objectives. I will support audit, compliance, legal, and risk business partners in developing and delivering a product roadmap to support increasingly complex and regulated lines of business.

    I Will:

    • Collaborate with key business partners and subject matter experts to translate functional challenges and gaps into strategic product requirements. 
    • Collect and analyze quantitative and qualitative data to define opportunity size, understand root cause of issues that help guide product planning and prioritization.
    • Working across the software development lifecycle (SDLC) – able to define the problem in discovery, draft detailed requirements (user stories), plan development sprints, develop UAT plans, and support continuous releases.
    • Implement large-scale 3rd party SaaS products, participate in RFPs, evaluate vendor demos/scorecard, create statement of work (SOW), broker detailed requirements, and develop a cutover plan.
    • Manage stakeholders by communicating progress and findings to program leaders and other key partners, via product briefs, status updates, and demos.
    • Utilize tools such as Jira and Confluence.

    Who I am

    • 3+ years’ product management experience working with corporate applications.
    • 5+ years as a Product Manager with direct product ownership, operating in an Agile development environment – experience working directly with internal and external engineering and development teams.
    • Proven track record leading cross-functional initiatives, delivering iterative value over time, experience guiding prioritization of work; ability to make trade-off decisions to meet customer needs, given technology and capacity constraints.
    • Experience supporting financial reporting processes for publicly traded companies.  Conversant in control and oversight functions such as audit, risk, and SOX compliance.  
    • Experience working in regulated lines of business like banking and financial services.

    Contact me on LinkedIn to hire me.

  • Product Manager

    A Product Manager must be passionate about defining, developing, marketing, selling, and supporting solutions in a highly competitive environment. The role includes strategic planning activities such as establishing and executing a product line vision throughout its lifecycle. It also includes hands on tactical support for customers, sales, and marketing.

    Responsibilities:

    • Analyze market research, industry data, sales results and individual product sales performance to determine product line direction and supporting product development, sales and marketing strategies.
    • Create annual revenue, product development, and supporting resource plans for assigned product line(s).
    • Perform market research, conduct customer interviews, analyze sales data, and extract sales, applications, and engineering input to identify market-driven product/service development opportunities and generate supporting business cases.
    • Partner with Engineering to create product definitions (including feature/functionality requirements, performance specifications, and COGS goals) and establish product development project plans (including determination of overall timeline and identification of key milestones).
    • Collaborate with Sales, Applications Engineering, and Communications to establish and execute new product introduction and go-to-market strategies.
    • Establish pricing strategies, tactics, and programs to drive revenue and achieve profitability goals.
    • Create sales enablement tools including customer presentations, competitor analyses, demonstration guides, etc. and provide support for customer demonstrations, customer training, tradeshows, and overall business development.
    • Collaborate with Communications and Sales on defining and implementing marketing programs and campaigns as well as sales promotions.
    • Partner with Communications to generate customer value-based marketing messaging and supporting collateral including technical articles, application notes, white papers, webinars, videos, website content, etc.
    • Manage product line roadmaps introducing and discontinuing products as they move through the product lifecycle.

    Education and/or Experience:

    Bachelor’s degree in Science and Math.

    • Greater than 3 years of Product Management or Product Marketing experience
    • Passion to continuously learn and gain industry and product knowledge
    • Experience performing B2B sales planning, sales forecasting, and competitive pricing analysis
    • Experience conducting market research and analysis of data to form strategies on existing product line extensions and/or new product development
    • Experience generating strategic product roadmaps and detailed plans
    • Outstanding written and verbal communication skills
    • Proven effective organizational skills
  • What does a product manager do?

    What does a product manager do?

    A #productmanager is responsible for guiding the success of a product and leading the cross-functional team that’s responsible for improving it. Their primary role includes setting the strategy, roadmap, and feature definition for a product or product line. They work closely with various teams, including strategy, development, marketing, and sales to deliver a final product that aligns with the company’s goals – which is exactly what I’ve been doing and want to continue doing more for another company.

    Key responsibilities of #productmanagers include:

    • Understanding market needs and user requirements
    • Defining and communicating product vision and strategy
    • Prioritizing features and tasks, and creating a roadmap
    • Working with cross-functional teams to ensure product development aligns with the strategic direction
    • Overseeing product launches and working with the marketing team on messaging and positioning

    If you know of a company needing #productmanagement, please contact me. Otherwise, check out how I can help your company as a director of product product management.

    I have been a Go-to-Market Product Manager at Blue Acorn iCi, a leading digital customer experience company, for over two years. In this role, I collaborated with delivery, strategy, marketing, and sales teams to bring new products and services to market with the goal of adding an additional $500M in revenue over seven years. I have a strong background in product development and user-centric thinking, allowing me to create innovative products that are market-centric and meet customer needs.

    With over 15 years of professional experience, including executive-level expertise, I am well-equipped to tackle complex and ambiguous challenges. I leverage my credentials as a Shopify+ certified professional to manage and optimize e-commerce platforms, integrate software solutions, and implement data-driven decision-making practices. I am passionate about driving innovation and growth, fostering collaboration, and promoting continuous improvement. I am seeking meaningful challenges that will offer personal and professional growth opportunities, enabling me to make a significant impact on your business.

    Contact me on LinkedIn to hire me.