Amanda Berkowitz

Overview

Product Manager innovating intuitive and compelling products and emerging technologies, that push the boundaries of what can be done and where, passionate about OIT and OTT apps. I lead cross-functional teams that develop continuously improving products that empathize with user needs and improve the user experience.

Experience

LOREM IPSUM CONSULTING

New York, NY

Founder / Product Manager / Quality and Usability Consultant

1/2017-Present

INTERSECTION / HUDSON YARDS
Product Development Manager / Quality Manager (2018)
- Backed by Google's Sidewalk Labs, leading the smart cities revolution, replacing phone booths with interactive kiosks across the US and UK, connecting digital and physical worlds through connected experiences, offering the fastest free WiFi and hyper-local messaging through the internet of things (IOT).
- Managed the application for wayfinding, ticket purchasing, and restaurant reservations for the custom digital displays at New York's new Hudson Yards neighborhood and 7-story luxury shopping complex.
- Worked on our custom out of home (OOH) advertising platform and kiosk hardware/software integration.
R/GA / COLE HAAN
Senior Product Manager (2018)
- First Senior Product Manager on the team, helped expand its product and services processes and offerings.
- Cole Haan proposal for website redesign/re-platform, preparing for omnichannel business transformations.
SUITABLEYOU
Product Manager / Quality Manager (2017-2018)
- SuitableYou is a monthly subscription e-commerce start-up. Women led company providing career women a customized stylist-curated work wardrobe. First year over 400 members and shipped over 1000 boxes.
- Managed multiple features including CMS for updating customer website, stylist analytics, and the first redesign of their customer website and portal, stylist portal, administration CMS, and trigger emails.

EPIX

New York, NY

Product Manager / Scrum Master / Agile Coach (2016-2017)
Technical Project Manager / Quality Assurance (2015-2016)

5/2015-1/2017

Epix is a premium cable television network owned by MGM, Lionsgate, Paramount, and Viacom.
Managed the release of our first API and its migration to our over-the-top (OTT) streaming video media product on web (desktop and mobile), iOS (iPhone and iPad), Android (mobile), Apple TV, Roku, Tivo, Samsung TV, Android TV, xBox One, xBox360, and PS4.
Managed features on API, CMS, and all apps including tv series support, downloaded content, and redesign.
Led the team by defining and prioritizing product requirements based on business objectives and customer need, to be completed using agile frameworks and tools, while refining our agile process and documentation.
Trained team on agile, sprint ceremonies, Jira tickets and kanban boards, writing user stories, the API specs.

CONDÉ NAST MARKETING SOLUTIONS

New York, NY

Senior Manager of Technology and Quality / Product Development Manager (2013-2015)
Tech Lead / Senior Product Developer / Quality Assurance Manager (2010-2013)
Senior Developer (2008-2010)

1/2008-5/2015

Condé Nast Marketing Solutions was the digital marketing and advertising agency creating innovative multimedia and interactive projects and products, servicing Condé Nast magazine brands (such as Vogue, Allure, Vanity Fair, Bon Appetite, Wired) and world-class luxury, fashion, beauty, and entertainment clients.
In my first Product Manager role, I solved difficult problems with innovative solutions using my background as a developer and collaborated across disciplines using clear documentation and a servant-leader approach.
Delivered products: content management systems (CMS), sweepstakes, contests with UGC, ratings/comments, moderation, iPad digital editions, AR campaigns, retargeting for ad tech, custom reporting data analytics.
Set and enforced the standard for QA, UX, SEO, ad integration, and analytics to ship a pixel perfect design that appears and functions the way every discipline had intended cross platform, cross browser, and cross device.

Netomat Inc.

New York, NY

Mobile and Desktop Product Developer / Information Architect

8/2005 - 12/2007

Launched Blastmob: the first of its kind pre-smartphone mobile web, highly interactive social network.
Became a User Experience expert for cross-device pre-smartphone mobile web and issues of mobile usability.

AMP Agency

New York, NY

Integrated digital and experiential marketing agency of parent company Alloy Media + Marketing

Information Architect / User Interface Developer / Project Manager

2004 - 2005

Created marketing and promotional websites and products for the tween and young adult market.
Managed a broad spectrum of Information Architecture and Development projects.
Created interactive HTML wireframes for websites and back-end infrastructure maintenance tools.
Involved in all stages of project life cycle, from early brainstorming to design, implementation and deployment.

ACLS History E-Book Project, NYU Press

New York, NY

Senior Developer

2/2002 - 11/2003

Created electronic publishing tools for archiving rare and visually detailed scholarly texts in a virtual library.
Wrote scripts to process and reformat XML e-books, delivered a product to visually present e-books to reader.

Authentidate, Inc.

New York, NY

User Experience Developer / Designer

2002 - 2003

Collaborated with a project manager and team of developers on MS Office plug-in for verifying authenticity of electronic documents using USPS Electronic Postmark (EPM).
Oversaw project look-and-feel, including desktop software GUI, web-based promotional content, and investor promotional presentations.
Undertook numerous projects utilizing optimized graphics.

Thaumaturgix, Inc.

New York, NY

Web Developer / Information Architect

2000 - 2001

Executed a wide range of consulting projects, in a team of 25 developers, designers, and project managers.
Developed the front end and CMS of HealthScout, a subscription-based publisher of health-related content.
Created wireframes and user flows for the designers and developers to create the product.
Managed tight deadlines and prioritized change requests during development.
Wrote documentation and conducted demos and trainings for the client at product handoff.

Hearst Interactive Studios

New York, NY

Web Developer

1999 - 1999

Launched and maintained magazine, music, and television web sites with teams of producers and designers.
Created CMS and auto-publishing tool that enabled users to demo and test customized material.
Helped create the product plan for a large music review product.

Student R&D Project Director / Product Developer

Information Institute of Syracuse

1/1996-5/1999

Developed early interactive distance education tools for AskERIC, an education resource virtual library.
Product Development Manager for next generation search-first web browser initiative for Sun Microsystems.
• Designed a smart home, telemedicine prototypes, and digital interfaces for quadriplegics for Pulsar and Northeast Parallel Architectures Center (NPAC).

Skills

Product: I solve issues of user experience with targeted digital solutions, aligning product vision and strategy with customer insight and stakeholder requirements, as well as aligning the product roadmap and backlog with technical level of effort and business objective. I am a problem solver who makes products I am proud of.
Agile: I use a mix of agile frameworks such as scrum, lean, and kanban, as well as waterfall, always improving the definition of the best possible process for this entire team. I manage productivity, blockers, and waste to improve team process to facilitate collaboration and empower the team for faster decision making and problem solving, to better meet changing customer needs, business objectives, and industry standards.
Sprint Ceremonies: I manage the entire SDLC as well as all sprint ceremonies. Daily scrums allow continuous top-level team coordination and identifies blockers resolved through collaboration. Backlog grooming assures all feature requests are documented in an organized prioritized backlog, upcoming sprint tasks have full user stories and at most would take a day. Sprint planning is when developers commit to tasks and time estimates. Once a sprint begins, I manage scope creep with stakeholders without disrupting the sprint or the team’s focus.
Documentation: I define, identify risk, communicate, and prioritize strategy, features, and requirements with complete visibility. Adept at communicating technology to non-technical stakeholders, I use documentation such as product vision, scope, product roadmap, project plan, and regular status reports. Feature requirements for developers have more specific technical details, using documentation such as user stories, wireframes, workflows, test plans, acceptance criteria, and a prioritized backlog in an issue tracker like Jira.
Development: With a development background, I am able to collaborate directly with engineers on requirements, execution, and quality, helping to resolve blockers with unique solutions to complex problems, ensuring optimal product functionality is delivered on time, to spec, to QA standards, and at maximum value.
The Whole Team: Continuous collaborative brainstorming and building consensus across all disciplines to establish a shared vision, continuous planning of short rapid sprint cycles, reviewing and testing and integrating for continuous customer feedback, iterating and allowing flexibility and agility for continuous improvement, to develop digital transformation that satisfies customer needs and business objectives.