Shardul Mehta is an entrepreneurial digital product management leader with 17 years of experience developing and launching digital products. He is passionate about delivering world-class customer experiences through lean product development processes. Mehta champions innovation through new product development, startup formation and acceleration, and nurturing intrapreneurship within organizations.
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Shardul Mehta: Entrepreneurial digital product management leader
1. Shardul Mehta
Entrepreneurial Digital Product Management Leader
• 17 years developing and launching digital products and services
• Repeated start-up success, built teams from the ground up
• Champion of lean product development processes
• Passionate advocate for delivering world class customer experiences
• “Change agent” leadership, forward thinking concepts and strategies
2. Value to Organization Product Management Leader
SHARDUL MEHTA
Product Management & Product Marketing Innovation Leadership
• Energetic evangelist, thought leader and team builder
• Strategic thinker adept at executing tactically
• Proven ability to lead, innovate and launch software products that
delight customers and drive business results
• Customer-driven development focus to maximize product/market fit
• Have launched numerous game changing products
• Results-oriented with an entrepreneurial
“get it done” attitude Leadership
Product
Management
Innovation
& Product
Marketing
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4. Customer Research Product Management
SHARDUL MEHTA
Target Segments Customer Discovery Buyer Personas
• Identify target customer segments and early adopters
• Garner customer feedback and define new feature sets
• Customer interviews, surveys and focus groups
• Usability studies
• Profile buyer personas and the buying process
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5. Market & Competitive Research Product Management
SHARDUL MEHTA
Market trends Competitive Positioning Identify Opportunities
• Industry research and analysis, market size and growth trends
• Qualitative and quantitative analysis
• SWOT analysis
• Channel research and analysis
• Define positioning across various vertical markets
• Market definition
• Identify competitive feature gaps
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6. Product Development Product Management
SHARDUL MEHTA
Product Definition UX Design Agile
• New product development processes (NPD)
• Product requirements and market requirements (PRDs/MRDs)
• Use cases, user scenarios and user profiles
• User experience design and
usability
• Iterative and rapid design
and development
• SDLC and agile (SCRUM)
• User stories
• Features prioritization and
product backlog
• Release management
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7. Product Marketing Product Management
SHARDUL MEHTA
Market Launch Sales Readiness & Enablement Commercialization
• Buyer personas and unique value propositions
• Go-to-market planning
• Market positioning
• Unified messaging that highlights unique selling propositions
• Product fact sheets
• Product demonstrations
• Competitive briefs
• Program effectiveness
• Event planning and readiness
• Win/Loss analysis
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8. Product Portfolio Management Product Management
SHARDUL MEHTA
Alignment Portfolio Balance Value Maximization
• Product investment alignment against strategic business priorities
• Product investment mix: new vs. existing products
• Portfolio balance via risk vs. reward, short-term vs. long-term, across
markets, business arenas, technologies, etc.
• Resource allocation optimization against key business objectives
• Pipeline resource balance against resource availability
• Organizational structure and governance models
• Stage-Gate and product go/kill
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9. Leadership Product Management Leader
SHARDUL MEHTA
Planning Execution People Communication
• Vision Creation and Articulation
• Results Focused Strategic Planning
• Goal Oriented Execution
• Customer Advocacy
• Thought Leadership
• Change Agent
Leadership
• Lead-By-Example
• Communication At All Levels
Product
• Focus on Always Learning Management
Innovation
& Product
Marketing
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10. Strategic Planning Leadership
SHARDUL MEHTA
Business Planning Product Strategy Resource Allocation Performance Optimization
• Oriented toward developing a vision of the future
• Business case analysis
• Business plan creation
• Establish product strategy, key objectives and
R&D roadmap
• Build-buy-partner
• Go-to-market strategy, launch goals, and development milestones
• Organize resources – people, financial, partners
• Measure progress and results
• Internalize lessons learned for improved
performance
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11. Tactical Execution Leadership
SHARDUL MEHTA
Action Plans Project Management Communication
• Goal-oriented execution of strategic plans
• Identify critical milestones in achievement of goals
• Measurement of weekly and milestone progress
• Manage risk and establish mitigations and contingencies
• Ensure tactical activities aligned to long-term objectives
• Team leadership and executive level
communication
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12. People Management Leadership
SHARDUL MEHTA
Team Building Empowerment People Development Drive Results
• Recruit and train direct reports
• Guide, mentor, coach team members to maximize their own potential
• Empower with responsibility and accountability
• Clearly articulate performance goals and expectations
• Active feedback and engagement
• Recognize and reward great work
• Say thank you. A lot. Then say it again
• Lead teams to maximize performance and
achieve results
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13. Presentation & Communication Leadership
SHARDUL MEHTA
Executive & Cross-Organizational Relationship Building Passionate & Rational
• Communication based on:
- Knowledge – research, analysis, experience
- Passion – energetic, persuasive
- “We are one team” – consensus building, buy-in, team approach
- Desire to win – “get it done” attitude, goal-oriented, results-focused
• Executive level presentations and communications
• Stakeholder and team communications
• Relationship building and cross-organizational buy-in
• Thought leadership via in-person, email,
presentations, blogs and social media channels
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14. Innovation Product Management Leader
SHARDUL MEHTA
New Product Innovation Startup Formation & Acceleration Intrapreneurship
• Entrepreneur and intrapreneur
• Self-starter
• Creative, innovative, futuristic
• Passionate
• Dissatisfied with the status quo
• Persistent
Leadership
• Open-minded, flexible, adaptable
• Extreme focus and big energy
Product
• Focus on learning Management
Innovation
& Product
Marketing
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15. Startup Formation Innovation
SHARDUL MEHTA
Startup Vision Lean Startup Customer Validation
• Ideation, conceptualization
• Vision formation
• Customer discovery and validation
• Concept development and testing
• Identify early adopters
• Minimal Viable Product (MVP) and problem/solution fit
• Prototyping and pilot market
• Validated learning
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16. Startup Acceleration Innovation
SHARDUL MEHTA
Business Modeling Product/Market Fit Scale & Optimization
• Business Model Canvas, Lean Canvas
• Financial modeling: pricing and revenue, cost drivers and levers
• Early adopter retention and beach-head establishment
• Agile development and continuous deployment
• Features pipeline management
• Planning for scale and optimization
• Continued focus on validated learning
• Get paid!
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17. Intrapreneurship Innovation
SHARDUL MEHTA
Strategic Alignment of Idea Incubation Organizational Navigation
• Idea fit with triangle of needs: customer’s, company’s and
intrapreneur’s
• Organizational navigation to attract supporters and build consensus
• Recruit and maintain sponsors
• Attract, recruit and build a high-performing team
• Milestone and stage-based based business
planning
• “Pre-selling”
• Scaling to structured development process
• Organizational operationalization
• Tolerance for risks, mistakes and failures
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18. Summary Product Management Leader
SHARDUL MEHTA
Product Management & Product Marketing Innovation Leadership
• Personal Leadership Philosophies and Principles:
- Build solutions that solve real problems for customers. Deliver an unforgettable
experience, and the profits will follow.
- Lead by example, with vision, purpose, passion and perseverance. Before you can
command others, you must be in command of yourself.
- Integrity inspires trust – honesty, sincerity, candor in all actions.
- Invest in people: hire the best, trust them as experts in their domains, empower
them to do their best, identify their strengths, help them maximize their
potential, and thank them relentlessly.
- Do things right, plan ahead, be flexible.
Contact me:
shardulmehta@hotmail.com Twitter: @shardulmehta
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