Robert McEwen

Digital Strategist and Product Management Leader

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Track Record

A seasoned expert, with a proven track record of identifying/creating market opportunities by taking advantage of existing and emerging technologies through teams focused on KPI's.

10+ years of Channel Growth/ International Product Management experience with companies such as: CBS Corporation, Live Nation, Ticketmaster, Warner Bros, eBay, PayPal etc.

Delivering products with teams using skills around Execution, Creativity, Strategy and Growth .

Driving products to market with a rapid iteration methodology around continuous measured formal/informal customer feedback to validate market/product fit.

Vision and Leadership

Vision and goal setting with strong relationship building and stakeholder management, negotiation and influencing skills to drive decisions. Motivate product teams to hit goals via clear measured KPI's

Product Teams

Harnessing key relationships within Engineering, Design and Analytics working together during the very early stages to deliver on KPI's and promote a culture of validated learning and testing

Discovery, User Experience & Roadmapping

User modeling, segmentation and personas for user awareness to capture and measure feedback as rapidly as possible, to pivot features users need

Data, Business Models and Financials

Evolving business strategies and KPI goals developed through data, financial forecasting and business case creation

Experience  

MGM Resorts International -     2022 to 2024 (2 years)

Product Management Lead

Defined and executing on a product vision, strategy and roadmap to increase traffic to booking, contributing to a +2% conversion lift generating $MM growth for top of funnel e-commerce, through personalization & curation initiatives.

Genius Gyms - 2020

Co-Founder

Driving business & product strategy launching from the UCSD Qualcomm Incubator. The mission is to help improve the lives of people with Alzheimer's/Dementia & those suffering with Cognitive Decline through exercise & neuroscience.

CBS - 2016 to 2020 (4 yrs)

Director, Product Management

Driving product strategy delivering on KPI’s for verticals such as audio listening, event ticketing & content integration across the CBS digital network responsible for 243 properties.

Live Nation / Ticketmaster 2011 - 2016 (5 yrs)  

Director, Product Management

Led the incubation Sponsorship Product team & supported the $35M revenue-generating unit to launch mobile & social initiatives supplementing commerce.

Warner Bros. - 2010 (1 yr)

Senior Product Manager

Product owner for the most high profile & visible project in Warner Bros Advanced Digital Services; "Media Everywhere", Flixster acquisition & Ultraviolet cloud based locker integration.

eBay - 2007 - 2010 (3 yrs)

Product Management Lead

Led the Product strategy and delivery of 7 new sites for a startup in the fastest growing area of eBay. Managed the development of a classifieds platform for eBay classifieds. Country Product manager for eBay Ireland/UK.

Education

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2006 - Masters Degree in Business (specializing in eBusiness)

UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School

 Studied programs which included Business, Finance, Coaching, Strategy, Negotiation, Leadership development, Product Management, Corporate governance and Business development


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1999 - 2003 BA Business Studios


Dublin Business School

Acquired both general and specialized knowledge and skills in a number of key business and management areas, including: Business Administration, Marketing, Business Management, Human Resources, Legal and Information Systems.

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My Work - Case Studies  

Examples of products I have launched and optimized both as an individual contributor, a product lead & as a consultant driving user value through my teams.

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Patent (Inventor, Robert McEwen):

  • Enhanced task scheduling for data access control using queue protocols
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  • Abuse tolerant ticketing system
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  • AUDIO-BASED INTERACTIVE SIMULTANEOUS EXERCISE AND COGNITIVE CONTROL TRAINING FOR IMPROVING COGNITIVE NETWORKS SUBSERVING MENTAL HEALTH AND NEURO-COGNITIVE CONDITIONS (PATENT FILED PENDING)
    • https://patents.google.com/patent/US20140278610A1/en?inventor=Robert+McEwen
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    Product Strategy Generation Example

    How I generated a real living Product Strategy and the thought process behind it. Rejuvenating a business vertical back into a growth stage via a customer centric approach

    Customer Centric Methodology

    One example of how I keep teams focused on the customer, from product discovery all the way through to execution.

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    1. 1

      Vision

      In order to ______________________________________

    2. 2

      Target Audience

      our product will solve ___________________________

    3. 3

      User Problem

      problem of _______________________________________

    4. 4

      Strategy

      by giving them ___________________________________

    5. 5

      Goal/Measurement

      we know the product works when we see ___________________________________________________

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    Managing Teams

    Product Teams

    Product Management is not for everybody and while the role can be rewarding over time, there are many challenges and setbacks a Product manager must face on a daily basis. For this reason, it is critical for teams to have clear visions and goals around driving business value and solving customer problems. To do this its necessary to recognize:

    Individuals Strengths

    I typically spend time watching each person’s intrinsic reactions to events, listening, and taking mental notes about what each individual is drawn to and what each person struggles with. This helps me understand where they can excel for themselves, the product, the customer and for the business.

    Data Driven Culture

    Its up to a Product lead to ensure their team is making decisions based on quantitative and qualitative data. It is important to celebrate when they achieve a significant impact to the business KPI’s.

    Customer Facing

    I encourage and facilitate my teams getting quality time with relevant customers. Product teams need to engage directly with users and customers every week, to better understand who their customers are.

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    Scrum Teams

    It is critical that product members work well within a scrum team. It is crucial that a PM does not try to drive authority over the team but more so drive collaboration within the team and ensure the team does not "fall in love" with ideas. Product managers need to understand that many of their favorite ideas will not work for customers, and will require several iterations before they will drive value. The team needs to understand that a continuous stream of small releases provides better time to market (TTM) solutions for their customers.

    Agile Evangelist

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    I have incorporated Agile transformation into the below organizations. In my experience I have found that its less about process, but more about where value is found through rapid iteration based on user needs and KPI's.

    The goal of Agile is to understand and reduce risks as early as possible, have teams work closely together frequently to solve problems and ultimately deliver on KPI's and performance as opposed to features.

    Agile comes in many forms but once the above is reinforced, customer value will prevail.

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    Product for hire

    While developing cutting edge products, I have always been focused around key goals specific to a given business vertical. Some example services I have previously offered as an external consultant:

    Revenue Growth, Online Strategy generation, eCommerce optimization, Commercialization, Business cases, Agile Process Implementation, Creating/optimizing online/mobile products based on user/market needs. Product management, Building/HIring Teams, Product marketing (GTM), Product strategy, Road mapping, Online marketing & SEO, Content Syndication, Content Strategy, A/B Testing etc.

    Personal 

    A snippet from my recent personal life: