Harsh Talajia

A quick intro about my experience

• A seasoned Product leader with 12 years in product management, & over 15 years of experience in Technology
• A product leader capable of leading a cross-functional team of Product managers, Process managers, Analysts & Engineers (Tech) to drive a product toward sustainable growth and rapid acceptance in the marketplace
• Expertise in building products on the cloud (AWS/GCP) with over 6-7 yrs of experience building B2C and B2B products with millions of active users per month
• Wide variety of industry experiences including Banking, Consulting, Automotive, and Public Sector with 10+ years of experience in Retail banking (Credit cards acquisitions & management)
• A results-oriented leader well versed in all facets of product management from Ideation, Customer Research, to Planning, Roadmapping, & Thin slicing to finally Development, Release and Monitoring
• Known as a collaborative leader who develops and engages high-performing teams; listens and encourages diversity of thought and builds an inclusive and safe work environment

Product Engagement Lead

Nuvalence Inc./Toronto-Remote, ON | Jun 2021 – Present

Currently working as the Product Engagement lead managing a team of 20 people (PMs, Dev, QAs) responsible for building a product that serves as an accelerator for Government sector organizations in their modernization journey

• Accelerated time to value for new public sector clients by 20% - delivering the initial project in 5 months instead of 6
• Led to winning the GCP Partner of the year nomination for Nuvalence in Jan 2023
• Resulting in the last initiative meeting 20% of functional requirements on Day 1 and the remaining 45% within the first 2 months

Director of Product (Fulfillment & Onboarding)

Capital One Canada/Toronto, ON | Jul 2019 – May 2021

Led a cross-functional team of 35-40 associates responsible for managing Fulfillment (i.e. Card delivery, Statements & Letters) and Onboarding products within Canada operations. Managing the largest cost center within operations responsible for $45M (or 25%) of the overall operating budget. Reduced the operating expenses by roughly 14% (~$7M reduction)

• Increased throughput of the space by 230% (from 30 to 68 average story points delivered per sprint) over the period of a year
• Through multiple initiatives was able to drive down the Paper and Call center costs, build digital & self-serve habits for our customers and thereby reducing the overall operational cost by ~14%
• Reduced the production breakdowns in the space by 60% by doubling down on permanent fixes and creating a clear process for issues management, escalation & resolution
• Doubled the NPS score (customer experiences indicator) for the space by building & offering digital solutions & increasing transparency through each step of the onboarding process

Senior Product Manager, Acquisitions

Capital One Canada/Toronto | Aug 2016- Jul 2019

Led the acquisitions products through complete Tech transformation moving them away from On-Prem, Rigid batch systems to a flexible, real-time cloud-based infrastructure. These products are the primary revenue drivers responsible for driving $250 Million in revenue (per year) for the company

• As part of the modernization, built enhanced adjudication / decisioning capabilities accounting for ~$4.5 M in additional profits
• Streamlined the application process resulting in a 15% increase in conversion accounting for $2.5-3 M in increased bookings per year
• Made the entire application & decisioning process real-time allowing customers to seamlessly flow from application to decisioning to spend
• As part of the modernization, build real-time data infrastructure allowing for detection and correction of any credit decision in a matter of seconds in comparison to days in the past

Product Owner, Acquisitions

Capital One Canada/Toronto, ON | Jan 2013- Aug 2016

Worked as a Product owner within the MIRETBAC pod to make it ridiculously easy for applicants to become a customer. Participated in a design learning exercise to identify the end-to-end customer experience from the Need for a credit card to application to decisioning to activation and finally to spend.

• Identified the need for building a credit shopping tool for the customers which resulted in the launch of Quick Check for Canada. This initiative has become the single largest marketing engine for the company resulting in $23 M in additional revenue
• Delivered a ton of initiatives smaller initiatives to streamline the application process with a collective impact of a 5-7% increase in bookings resulting in $1M in additional profits

Snr. Business Systems Analyst

Capital One Canada/Toronto, ON | Jul 2008- Jan 2013

• Performed requirement analysis for migrating a large-scale retail partnership migration. As the proxy customer for the project made sure the partner onboarded on time & with high quality

Senior Software Developer

Infosys Technologies Ltd., Pune, India | Aug 2004- Apr 2007

Education

MBA, Finance & IT

Smith School of Business, Queen’s University, Canada 2007-2008

Bachelor of Technology,

Information Technology, JSS Academy of Tech Education, 2002-2006

Certification

AWS Practitioner Certification

Amazon Web Services Training & Certification, 2021

Scrum Certified Product Owner

Scrum Alliance, 2016

CBAP, Certification

International Institute of Business Analysis, 2010