Sample Projects
Craftsman Smart Garage Door Opener
Craftsman is a leading player in the $375M retail Garage Door Opener market. As Product Manager for this category, it's my role to develop and maintain a product lineup for Craftsman that can be sold in a variety of retailers and can compete with products from brands such as Genie, Chamberlain, and Ryobi. With the rise of the Smart Home and the Internet of Things, my role as Product Manager has been to ensure that Craftsman provides customers with solutions that enable them to conveniently access their homes while providing security and peace of mind that their biggest asset is protected. In my time as Product Manager, we launched the Craftsman Smart Garage Door Opener, further extending the Craftsman brand and providing customers with a seamless way to add connectivity to their lives.
Craftsman Smart Garage Door Opener Apps (iOS/Android)
The Craftsman Smart Garage Door Opener apps give customers the ability to open, close, and monitor the status of their garage door remotely. Providing a positive user experience has been a key focus during my time as the Product Manager for Garage Door Openers. Key improvements I have guided for these apps:
- Updates to previously confusing user journeys
- More easily identifiable touch targets
- More consistent branding across the app
- Removal of app review pop-up that was frustrating users
- Ability to schedule closing of garage door
- iOS Touch ID implementation and user experience
- Apple Watch integration
- Introduction of periodic special offer coupons
Craftsman Portable Power Tools
Craftsman's portfolio spans thousands of products across major tool categories as well as many lawn and garden categories. As the Product Manager for the Portable Power Tools portfolio, it's my role to:
- Guide development of brand and category strategy
- Build and maintain multi-year product roadmaps
- Lead new product development projects
- Develop and/or license new innovative technology
- Coordinate go-to-market strategy
- Understand market/user needs and preferences
- Develop quality product while maintaining cost efficiency and profit margins
Craftsman Wet/Dry Vacuums
Craftsman's portfolio spans thousands of products across major tool categories as well as many lawn and garden categories. As the Product Manager for the Wet/Dry Vacuum portfolio, it's my role to:
- Guide development of brand and category strategy
- Build and maintain multi-year product roadmaps
- Lead new product development projects
- Develop and/or license new innovative technology
- Coordinate go-to-market strategy
- Understand market/user needs and preferences
- Develop quality product while maintaining cost efficiency and profit margins
Kenmore Market Research
While part of the market research and consumer insights team, I helped the Kenmore team as I:
- Performed analysis to determine top countries for international expansion of Kenmore, Craftsman, and DieHard brands
- Analyzed domestic market for expansion of Kenmore, Craftsman, DieHard brands beyond Sears
- Researched connected appliances landscape to guide Kenmore product development roadmap
- Moderated ideation and user experience focus groups
- Conducted ethnographic research via Shop-Along research
- Guided development of max-diff analysis for Kenmore Major Appliance categories
KCD Ideation Funnel (Idea X-Change)
When asked to create an idea submission portal for our brands, I analyzed the competitive landscape of ideation/product submission portals across multiple verticals to determine best practices. Once determined, I aligned with the web development team and guided them in development of websites for the Craftsman and Kenmore brands; everything from functionality, to user experience, to branding. This project required coordination with KCD Senior Leadership, Legal , Web Development, Finance, and Marketing.
The Idea X-Change platform has increased customer engagement with the brands and in its first year lead to the development and launch of the Craftsman Sidewinder Tape Measure, a 2017 Edison Award Winner.
These platforms can be found here:
Brainstorming Sessions
In an effort to create a better KCD ideation process, I was asked to put together brainstorming sessions targeting key product categories. I explored the competencies of multiple design firms and negotiated project scope and cost with each to determine the best partner for our sessions. The result was three sessions comprising 30+ team members from various departments. These sessions successfully resulted in over 1500+ ideas, which were then put through a framework I created to determine project prioritization, ultimately leading to key insights for the product teams involved.
DieHard Brand Strategy
The DieHard brand is well-known and trusted in the automotive battery space, and has been for 50 years. However, the brand had experienced several years of difficulty, and I was part of a team to help create a strategy to change that. We developed a three-year strategy and plan for the brand to recover in its core vertical of automotive batteries. In addition, we researched and targeted key adjacencies for the brand, like Tires, Consumer Electronics, and Automotive Services. The results were the opportunity to put together a licensing deal for the consumer electronics category, the launch of DieHard Tires in Sears Auto Centers, the development of DieHard Edge Maintenance Plans in Sears Auto Centers, and a pilot DieHard Auto Center store.
