Hristo Zahariev
Product Leader
Sofia
Summary
I am a seasoned product leader with a sound experience in introducing, managing, and successfully establishing B2B/B2B2C software solutions across various industries globally.
Some of my key strengths are the leading,overseeing and enabling of people, programs, and products to align with the overall company strategy to meet revenue (or other) targets as part of the wider/longer vision.
My passion as a people and product leader is to recognize that investing in my team, and my counterparts and their teams, is part of the mandatory effort to drive product success. Intellectual capital. shared context between all roles and levels, and aligning on the right objectives is the number one competitive advantage of any successful endeavor that I've led so far.
Overview
13
13
years of professional experience
4
4
years of post-secondary education
2
2
Certifications
Work History
Head of Product
Software Group
Sofia
11.2020 - Current
- Developing and executing a comprehensive product strategy aligned with Software Group's overall direction of increasing its as-a-service presence, establishing a one platform approach that powers multiple solutions covering the needs of Telco, Gov, Fintech, Banks, and Gaming.
- Flagship solutions include Digital Wallet, Digital Banking Platform, Agency Banking as-a-service.
- Strengthened the product culture of the company by introducing regular (quarterly) all-hands sessions with the entire company to "show and tell" on the latest and greatest on the product side.
- Completely restructured, reorganised, and nurtured a team of a dozen product managers into becoming top-class professionals. Splitting responsibilities from Regular into jr, regular, senior, and lead. Defined Objectives and Key Results, individual personal development plans for hands-on mentoring and course training, and responsibility matrices.
- Created, prepared, and delivered regular trainings, mentorship, and individual coaching to Product Managers, Business Analysts, Product Designers, Pre-sales consultants, and Business Development team. Covering topics ranging from best practices, consultative selling, product positioning, competitive battle cards, product coaching, and more.
- Ensured my product portfolio was succeeding individual and portfolio revenue product targets on YOY basis. Continuously kept C-level and investors (board) up-to-date with the as-is status, and to-be forecast utilising various industry proven product metrics and analytics. On average 15-20% YoY growth for 2021 and 2022. Followed up on Budget utilisation and burn-rate forecast based on Jira data and product dev teams velocity.
- Introduced (together with the Head of Design) a Design Services professional service to allow validating UX Designs in various ways with new customers to ensure what we build in the end meets the customer user journey needs to eliminate friction.
- Utilized A/B testing and Usability testing (again in colab with Design teams, and Sales) to improve product performance considering regional demographic specifics and cultural or tech proficiency differences of end-users.
- Defined new roles - Product Consultants - to aid the Product effort in supporting BD and Marketing teams with 24/7 product expertise and domain know-how when working on positioning, messaging, opportunity assessment, research, strategic RFPs, regulatory reqs, and more.
Global Product Manager - Commercial Growth Solutions
Experian
Sofia (Remote working for the Global Product Team based in London)
01.2020 - 11.2020
- Product, Programme, and GTM Lead for strategic products and propositions, driving the vision and strategy definition for multiple solutions including customer-oriented self-service web channels, mobile apps, and a customer communication solution
- My key responsibility was to define ways to further the commercial growth of the entire portfolio of products via new product development opportunities, major modifications or recycling of existing offerings, or bundling/integration of multiple solutions (incl partner ones) into a new single solution based on market, business, and client needs.
- Ensure two-way collaboration with world-wide Sales teams via "What's New" sessions, on-hands training, product metrics and data insights communication, requests for customer questionnaires, competitive insights and research, and hypotheses validation for roadmap and backlog prioritization.
Global Product Manager - Business Intelligence Platform & AI
Experian
Remote/Hybrid (Sofia/London)
03.2018 - 01.2020
- Driving the vision and strategy definition for a Business Intelligence platform powering the insights for the entire set of products in the PowerCurve family, and for AI virtual assistants
- Managed a roadmap for multiple solutions as part of a company-wide Program for introducing a SaaS BI Platform to power the data insights across the entire PowerCurve suite of products.
- Managed a lean and prioritized backlog of features on program level for four scrum teams - two based in Sofia, one based in the UK, and a partner (contractor) one for the AI tech.
Global Product Manager - PowerCurve Collections
Experian
Sofia
01.2014 - 03.2018
- Responsible for the vision, strategy, and the day-to-day product management for one of Experian's flagship solutions, resulting into revenue growth from $20m/y to $35m+/y over 4 years.
- Defined Story Maps, Epics, User stories, Prototypes and Wireframes to facilitate the on going product dev efforts for two scrum teams.
- Applied reporting techniques including SQL, Pivot Tables, and tool utilization (e.g. MicroStrategy, Tableau) to elicit insights and define areas for improvement or new opportunities.
- Acted as the link between sales, pre-sales, marketing, product, engineering, support, and Senior Management teams to eliminate ambiguity, ensure overall alignment of the Product with market and stakeholder needs.
Group Business Analyst & Technical Project Lead
A1 Bulgaria and A1 Group
08.2010 - 01.2014
- Direct Product Ownership for multiple products and services, including the e-commerce telco website, Customer Engagement, Marketing Campaigns, and mobile applications.
- Project Management/Lead for Small/Medium projects with ~$20k-$150k
investment and team size of 8-16 people. - Group Business Analyst for the entire A1 Group for a Top Priority Strategic Programme related to one of the heaviest EU Telco Regulations of all time. (namely - EU Roaming Regulations Part 3)
Education
Master of Arts - Marketing, Advertising & Public Relations
09.2009 - 09.2010
Bachelor of Arts - Business Administration (Management)
09.2006 - 06.2009
Skills
People & Program Leadership
Business Communications
Product Team CreationStrategic Program RolloutStorytelling & Presentations
B2B2C B2B Products
C-level Relationship ManagementProduct Analytics & MetricsProcess Creation & Optimisation
References
- Matthew Stewart, CPO / CMO, mstewart2028@gmail.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewstewart2028/
- Andrea Ramoino, CPO / GM, andrea.ramoino@gmail.com, https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrearamoino/
Certification
IREB® Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering
Timeline
Head of Product - Software Group
11.2020 - Current
Global Product Manager - Commercial Growth Solutions - Experian
01.2020 - 11.2020
Global Product Manager - Business Intelligence Platform & AI - Experian
03.2018 - 01.2020
Pragmatic Certified Product Manager
06-2016
Global Product Manager - PowerCurve Collections - Experian
01.2014 - 03.2018
IREB® Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering
09-2013
Group Business Analyst & Technical Project Lead - A1 Bulgaria and A1 Group
08.2010 - 01.2014
The University of Sheffield - Master of Arts, Marketing, Advertising & Public Relations
09.2009 - 09.2010
The University of Sheffield - Bachelor of Arts, Business Administration (Management)
09.2006 - 06.2009