Ryan Hennessy

Ryan Hennessy 5917 N Magnolia, Chicago, IL 60660​ ​ |​ ​ ​-​ ​ ​|​ ​ ​- Visionary Leader ​who drives growth by leading cross-functional teams to build products that serve the customer and meet business needs. Expert at defining and embracing product vision, and aligning the team around it through evangelism. SKILLS ● ● ● ● ● Building vision, alignment, and momentum Building and leading cross-functional teams Strategic planning Market research Lean methodology ● ● ● ● ● Agile Scrum Conversion optimization Data-driven decision making Identifying and fixing communication problems Continually improving process PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE COO May 2017 - Present Thinkship ● Lead, manage and hold accountable all aspects of tech services business ● Build vision, alignment, momentum, and maintain focus ● Establish company KPIs and lead to them ● Lead establishment and governance of internal processes from sales cycle to project delivery ● Created and constantly evolved rhythm of business from quarterly presentations to daily scrum ● Act as a product manager and internal evangelist for client projects, ensuring our solutions exceed customer expectations ● Grew revenue 284% YOY between 2017 and 2018 Head of Product May 2013 – June 2016 ForSaleByOwner ● Managed and grew the portfolio of ForSaleByOwner.com products with revenues of over $16M annually and 5M unique monthly users ● Increased site generated revenue by 61% and grew organic traffic by 313% through the introduction of new products and revenue streams, UX and SEO enhancements, and pricing and sales funnel optimization ● Extensive sales funnel, product, and pricing optimization Increased revenue 25% in 2015, exceeding plan by 8% ● In 2016 increased unique visitors by 12%, pageviews by 24%, decreased bounce rate by 9% ● Improved site performance by 70% in Q1 2016 ● Launched new buyer lead revenue stream in Q1 2016 which has exceeded revenue projections Director of Product Management ● ● ● ● ● May 2013 – June 2016 Tribune Publishing Lead the Product group for Digital Classified Marketplaces at Tribune in addition to heading up product for ForSaleByOwner Collaborated with executive leadership on defining strategic initiatives and budgets, worked with cross-functional teams to define plans, and lead execution Proven ability to identify and recruit talent and continuously work with them to build upon their strengths and address their weaknesses Experience utilizing internal teams, building teams of contractors, and outsourcing to domestic and offshore development shops Led research, branding, design, implementation and launch of CarQuick.com, a "buy here, pay here" focused auto website Senior Product Manager June 2012 – May 2013 Tribune ● Responsible for implementation, enhancement and operation of digital classified properties in automotive, jobs, real estate, obituaries, and general notices verticals ● Led discovery sessions for 2013 ForSaleByOwner.com strategic roadmap with a focus on extracting ideas ● ● ● from the team as well as analyzing current trends, consumer insight and research, and competitors Responsible for selecting vendors, from the creation of RFIs and RFPs to conducting vendor interviews and leading negotiations Heavily optimized ForSaleByOwner.com through A/B and multivariate testing Completed a number of different successful enhancement initiatives related to ForSaleByOwner.com from building a data warehouse to identifying and fixing SEO issues to creating a complex and dynamic content system for marketing initiatives Project Manager August 2011 - June 2012 Tribune ● Managed all projects under the Classified Marketplaces business unit of Tribune Digital ● Ensured on-time, under budget delivery of projects ● Transitioned development team to Agile development methodology from SDLC ● Facilitated cooperation and communication between a wide variety of different groups in a large corporate environment ● Implemented process to document and organize decisions and artifacts related to new initiatives from conception through requirements gathering ● Responsible for managing product roadmaps which included reporting on progress, working across teams to make necessary adjustments and enforcing adherence to roadmap ● Responsible for all aspects of project planning including the creation of RACI and Gantt charts, identifying dependencies, acquiring resources, scheduling meetings, facilitating the on-time completion of deliverables by a wide variety of different teams ● Utilized technical background in communication between business and technology ● Managed a variety project management tools including JIRA, Trac wiki, Sharepoint, Basecamp Technical Roles 10 years experience in various web development related technical & leadership roles: ● Application Developer Level III Tribune 2010 - 2011 ● Solutions Architect Channel Clarity 2009 - 2010 ● Senior Web Developer ConnectEDU 2008 - 2009 ● Director of Technology myFootpath 2006 - 2008 ● Solutions Architect IBCTV 2004 - 2006 ● Web Developer Brownfield Association 2003 - 2004 ● Web Developer / IT Manager Jackson Software 2001 - 2003 Technical Experience Summary ● Performed a wide variety of roles related to the implementation of database driven web applications ● Managed technical teams of various sizes including the daily management of offshore teams ● Established and managed various vendor and partner relationships ● Managed and implemented technology roadmaps ● Conducted rough order of magnitude and detailed estimates on a regular basis ● Performed extensive MySQL server and query optimization to increase the performance of a large legacy application ● Designed OLAP and OLTP databases ● Experience analyzing the impact of technical debt and managing it ● Created and worked with a wide variety of different APIs ● Developed FERPA and HIPAA compliant applications ● Designed and implemented web applications in an MVC structured PHP development environment ● Experience with a wide variety of technologies and applications: PHP, MySQL, Linux, Apache, JavaScript, HTML, CSS, XML, AJAX, Jira, XSL/XSLT, ASP, MSSQL, Crystal Reports, Webfocus, Active Directories, Flash, C++, C#, Visual Basic, VBScript, TFS, Subversion, Git EDUCATION B.S., Computer Information Systems, June 2001 Winona State University, Winona, MN REFERENCES Available upon request