Karthik R.
5.0
LinkedIn Director of Product | Kellogg MBA | Expert in PM Strategy
Studied at Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern)
Works at LinkedIn
Hiring Manager
Available Tuesday at 5:30 PM UTC
Usually responds within 48 hours
Questions? Start chatting with this coach before you get started.
Karthik’s Product Management Qualifications
Experience level: Director of Product
10+ people coached for Product Management
Karthik has helped clients get into these companies:
I’ve been in technology for 20+ years and specifically in product management for almost 15 years. I’ve been a Director of Product at 3 Silicon Valley companies including LinkedIn, and have a wealth of experience in building industry-defining products ground up, defining vision and strategy, leading large cross-functional teams, hiring and building high-performing teams, driving large organizational changes etc. In addition, I have interviewed/mentored/coached 100s of PMs and also lead Recruiting and Onboarding for the highly desired Associate PM program at LinkedIn. If you're looking to transition into product management, move to the next level or build specific skills, let's connect and create a tailored plan for your success!
Karthik can help with:
Skill Building
LinkedIn Review
Execution
Promotion Strategy
Resume Review
Networking Strategy
Strategy & Vision
Salary Negotiation
Influence & Collaboration
Product Case Interview Prep
Behavioral Interview Prep
About Karthik
I'm a product leader with 15 years of product management and leadership experience across top Silicon valley companies, include currently at LinkedIn. I have built several products from concept to launch, grew and led high-performing teams, and interviewed/coached/mentored hundreds of PMs in my career. I also co-lead the highly rated Associate Product Manager program at LinkedIn, and sit on the Board of Directors of a fantastic non-profit here in the Bay area. I am taking a limited number of clients, with focus on one of these 4 areas 1) Highly motivated individuals looking to break into or pivot into a PM role 2) Early career PMs looking to strengthen their basic PM skill set and muscles to accelerate growth/impact 2) Individual Contributors on product craft, career development, and management/leadership skills 3) Product leaders and managers on how to build and run high performance teams and amplify impact
Why do I coach?
One of the most satisfying parts of my job is mentoring/coaching other product managers and leaders, and seeing them be successful in career and life. There is no one size fit all solution, and I spend time understanding their journey, values, career goals, context and challenges, to offer structure and ideas they can put into practice. Just like building a successful product, we need to test and iterate. I also believe in working smart and finding ways to balance life and career. If you are looking for one help in one of these areas, let's connect and discuss how I can support you in reaching your full potential as a product manager and leader.
Work Experience
Director of Product Management
September 2023 - Present
Hiring Manager
Board Member
New Markets Venture Partners
March 2022 - Present
New Door Ventures prepares disconnected youth for work and life. Through paid job internships, job-readiness training and supportive community, New Door helps youth with histories of homelessness, substance abuse, and extreme poverty move towards economic self-sufficiency.
Group Product Manager
June 2021 - September 2023
Hiring Manager
As part of the LinkedIn Business Platform (LBP) team, I lead a portfolio of products focused on Ease of Doing Business for all LinkedIn customers (across channels and business lines). My team is transforming the business through products such as the LinkedIn Admin Center, Enterprise Platform, Streamlined buying (for Ads customers) and AI-powered chat experiences.
Principal Product Manager
October 2017 - June 2021
Successfully led the build and launch of our Enterprise Commerce platform to transform our Quote-to-Cash process. This new selling and ordering experience will enable LinkedIn to serve our customers - from small businesses to large enterprises - at scale, bring massive improvements in rep productivity and efficiency, and provide a seamless experience for our customers.
Director, Product Management
Glassdoor
July 2014 - March 2015
Managed Glassdoor's employer branding product (biggest in terms of revenue), free employer accounts, self-service portal (insights/analytics/reports), emails and numerous other b2b programs. Led the concept, development, pilot and launch of the Company Updates feature. This was Glassdoor's first foray into social, and was hailed as our best product feature in 2014 by some of our leading clients. Started building the support ecosystem around it through Bd partnerships, such as the Glassdoor app on Hootsuite. You can read my product blog here: http://employers.glassdoor.com/blog/glassdoor-product-update-company-updates/
Director, Product Marketing and Strategy
YP
December 2012 - June 2014
Hiring Manager
Developed strategy to build out a more efficient 2-sided marketplace (consumers, service providers) on top of the YP platform. This included market opportunity assessment, competitor analysis, geography/vertical selection, traffic models, revenue forecasting, etc. Worked closely with product, engineering, marketing and Sales to build the product and validate through Alpha trials in a few test markets to evaluate marketplace interest and dynamics. Provided learnings and recommendations back to executive sponsors. Led the Sales Experience team in building YP’s brand new platform, designed to overhaul legacy systems and simplify product lines. Targeted improvements to sales rep efficiency and productivity through better sales tools, fast fulfillment, simplified contracts/payments/checkout, etc. Conducted Market Opportunity Assessment of the CRM market, and provided recommendations on relevance to YP
Director, Product Management
YP
May 2012 - November 2012
Managed overall advertiser experience and value communication for YP's ~600K SMB advertisers. This included providing consistent and engaging experiences across our self-service portal, email touch points and eventually our mobile apps. Implemented innovative marketing and email strategy resulting in 10X growth in number of registered users on our self-service portal. Achieved improvements on CSAT and NPS scores on our self-service portal through engaging content and improved user experience (redesigned home page, tutorial videos, etc.) Drove 5X increase in monthly unique visitors on our online performance reporting tool by reducing friction points, such as introduction of new 'Guest View' . Thought leader on our 'Mobile First' strategy for our advertisers; launched our very first mobile web experience (performance reporting) for our advertisers. Envisioned and led the development of our first enterprise mobile app for our advertisers, and launched a highly successful beta. 'YP for Business' app is now available in the App store.
Product Manager, Advertiser Platform
YP
November 2009 - April 2012
Launched our new one-stop performance reporting tool and platform, with emphasis on seamless data integration and superior user experience, resulting in about $8M incremental revenue per year in churn reduction. Managed the launch of our first pure mobile ad product to better monetize our highly popular mobile app and properties. It went on to become our most successful product launch in 2010, with annual revenues exceeding $20M, and also won the 'Industry Excellence Award' (Mobile Platform Gold Award) from the Yellow Pages Association in 2011. Led product strategy and built infrastructure to drive penetration of call tracking numbers among our advertisers.
Summer Associate
Oliver Wyman
June 2008 - August 2008
Proposed innovative financing and insurance strategies to build-up and maintain a vaccine stockpile in the event of a global pandemic outbreak. Validated hypotheses through interviews with industry experts. Built an Interactive Strategic Model to analyze relationship between pandemic risk/timing and financing costs. Presented findings to clients, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Gates Foundation.
Education
University of Illinois at Chicago
Master’s Degree, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science
Majors in Wireless and Digital Communication with thesis on long-term integration of GSM and CDMA networks. Full scholarship (teaching) throughout duration of study Set up an internet-based course, increasing off-campus student enrollment by 100%
Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern)
Master of Business Administration (M.B.A.), Strategy, Finance, Marketing, Produxt mgmt & Design
2007 - 2009
Admissions Committee Experience
Activities and societies: Beta Gamma Sigma honors society, Interviewer for the Kellogg Admissions Committee, Co-chair for MMM Prospective Students Day, Publications Chair for India Business Conference Graduated with distinction (top 10%) and inducted into the Beta Gamma Sigma honors society. Multiple quarters on the Dean's List Considered for the Siebel Scholarship, awarded to a select few in the first year MBA class Selected Interviewer for the Kellogg Admissions Committee, Co-chair for MMM Prospective Students Day, and Publications Chair for India Business Conference Winning team, Fuld & Co. 2008 National Strategy War Game Championship (that year's topic was the mobile industry) contested by top Business schools Conducted market research and forecast post-game revenue streams for the Chicago 2016 Olympic Bid. Validated venue sustainability beyond the games and presented recommendations to the committee. Completed extensive market research and presented recommendations to a local business to help them understand their customer base and tailor their product offering Participated in a week-long trip to rebuild houses for Katrina victims
Birla Institute of Technology and Science
Bachelor of Engineering, Electrical & Electronics Engineering
1995 - 1999
8 Reviews
Overall Rating
5.0
Knowledge
5.0
Value
5.0
Responsiveness
5.0
Supportiveness
5.0
Karthik has helped clients get into these companies: