Kunaal Verma
I'm specialized in SaaS Product Development
About
Accomplished Product Management Leader with ~20 years of experience shaping SaaS innovations, driving technology excellence and orchestrating business transformations across IT, BFSI, ESG & Industry 4.0 domains. Renowned for combining technical expertise, strategic foresight and a user-centric mindset to craft groundbreaking solutions, unlock growth opportunities and deliver measurable business impact.
Head of Product
A results-driven and adaptable professional with expertise in Product Management for B2B SaaS solutions. Skilled in Product Development, Delivery Management, Product Lifecycle Management, Change & Release Management and fostering seamless Cross-Functional Collaboration. Strategic Techno-Functional Leader, adept in SDLC, Agile, DevOps, STLC & automation frameworks, excelling in delivering quality solutions while managing geographically distributed teams & optimizing processes.
Spearheaded the creation of a 'Centre of Excellence' in Pune, building a high-performing team & fostering a culture of innovation that significantly enhanced productivity.
Contributed to $1Mrevenue growth by aligning product vision with customer needs & driving strategic product development initiatives.
Developed and delivered an additional module enabling companies to automate reporting of their carbon emissions and Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) performance, covering Scope 1, Scope 2 & Scope 3 emissions driving progress in climate technology.
Worked with the CEO, CFO & CTO to raise a US $10MSeries A investment from Boston-based Wave Equity Partners.
Managed product partnerships with leading technology and consulting companies and research institutions including BT, TechM etc.
Owned and led the product management function at QiO, managing a team consisting of product managers, developers and data scientists building and maintaining artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) software products for industrial companies.
Happy Clients over the years
Projects executed successfully
Years Of Support successfully delivered
Member Team managed over years
Core Competencies
Highlighting key areas of expertise & skills.
- Customer-Centric Obsession with Empathy
- Crafting Near term & Long-term Strategy
- Stakeholder Management & Engagement
- Financial & Vendor Management
- Business Analysis & RFP Development
- Project & Delivery Management
- Scaling startups from 0-1-10
- Project/Program Management
- GTM & Market Opportunity Analysis
- Agile & Lean Product Development
- Change & Delivery Management
- Mentoring, leading & managing teams
Soft Skills
Soft skills, whether innate personality traits are developed through life experiences, are crucial for professional success.
Technical Skills
Extensive technical expertise developed through years of experience with a diverse array of tools, languages, & frameworks.
- Languages: Java, Python, Shell script, Groovy
- Databases: MySQL, Postgres, MongoDB, SQL Server, Cassandra
- Test Frameworks: JUnit, TestNG, Cucumber, Mocha, ROBOT Framework
- Project Management Methodologies: Waterfall, Agile, Scrum & Kanban
- Container Orchestration: Kubernetes
- Containerization: Docker
- Cloud Platforms: AWS, Azure, GCP
- Monitoring Tools: Grafana, Splunk
- Frameworks: Spring Boot
- API Testing: Postman, Swagger, SoapUI, RestAssured
- Version Control: GIT, SVN
- Streaming Apps: Kafka
- Cluster Computing: Spark
- Automation Tools: Selenium, Protractor, JMeter, Cypress, Locust
- Project Management: Confluence, Wiki, SharePoint, Monday, Rally
- Test Management Tool: JIRA, Bugzilla, APTest, Rally
- Flow Charting: Canva, MS Visio
- Data Pipeline: Apache NiFi, Streamsets
- DevOps: Jenkins, Sonar, Nexus, Maven, Gradle
- Compliance: ISO27001, GDPR
Work Experience
It represents a journey of skill refinement, problem-solving & collaboration, where each role and project serves as a stepping stone towards greater achievements. It's a testament to resilience, adaptability, & dedication, reflecting a commitment to excellence & continuous improvement. My Work experience is a source to shaping me into seasoned professional equipped with valuable insights & expertise to navigate diverse challenges & drive success.
As Julius Caesar wisely said, "Experience is the teacher of all things."
Summary
Kunaal Verma
- A techno savvy & results-driven professional with ~20 years of experience in product management for SaaS-based products. Skilled in product development, technology & innovation management, delivery management, product lifecycle management, change & release management, client engagement, cross-functional coordination, & team leadership.
- have a distinctive blend of Product management skills with hands on technical expertise, resulting in more realistic execution of Product strategy at ground turf.
- Expertise in engaging with stakeholders/Delivery/Development/AI Teams and enabling them to understand the product vision and the requirements of the product to facilitate identical understanding of the outcome.
- Led the due diligence process for our engineering systems and applications, ensuring all requirements were met and successfully cleared to support the company's funding efforts.
- Directed technology planning & direction, strategy development, leadership & implementation, business & operational transformation execution, business solution delivery, & business development.
- Led C-Level & executive reporting, business case development, business unit management, senior stakeholder management & engagement.
- Rich experience in mapping client's requirements & providing them best solutions involving evaluation & definition of the scope of the project & finalization of the project requirements.
- Provided end-to-end management of multiple projects from conceptualization & visualization to technology mapping & final execution of projects.
- Gained exposure in developing, maintaining, testing & releasing solutions, possess capabilities in delivery management focusing on maximising customer satisfaction, process compliance & software quality.
- Contributed actively throughout the development phase by tracking technical issues & solving problems; experienced in managerial activities entailing rendering leadership & guidance to the team; ensured project progress by monitoring the delivery as per quality, time & budgetary norms.
- A forward-thinking person with strong communication, analytical & organizational skills; well organized with a track record that demonstrates self-motivation & creativity to achieve corporate goals.
- Lead the Customer Discovery process and Requirement Engineering process for the Solution Design of multiple products from conceptualization to technology mapping. Adept in Conflict Resolution.
- Working as a Lean-Agile Program Delivery Head facilitated more than 25 projects utilizing agile frameworks with distributed teams & complex diverse ecosystems
- Responsible for ensuring the organization is ISO & GDPR Compliant
- Processed customer feedback and escalations to refine offerings while leveraging data metrics to evaluate trade-offs and make informed decisions.
- Handled end-to-end delivery of programs and projects of complex industrial projects worth $1 million.
- Manage Scrum of Scrums and Scrum Team Project Schedule, facilitate Agile Ceremonies (Standup, Grooming, Sprint Planning, Demo’s Retrospective)
- Lead the Customer Discovery process and Requirement Engineering process for the Solution Design of multiple products from conceptualization to technology mapping.
- As Head of Products, I established and nurtured multi-site agile teams across India and the UK, successfully leading the delivery of complex integrations for the Foresight Sustainability Suite, managing account sizes ranging from $1 million to $5 million.
Education
Pursuing E-MBA in Product Leadership
2024 - 2026
Institute of Product Leadership, Bengaluru, KA
Institute of Product Leadership is India’s first B-School for technology managers, focusing exclusively on Product Leadership with the aim of transforming technology executives into future product managers & industry leaders.
Bachelor of Technology (E&I)
2001 - 2005
UP Technical University, Lucknow, UP
A globally acclaimed integrated academic & research institution that creates a vibrant community of intellectuals & entrepreneurs endowed with Character,Creativity,Competence & Commitment, who can inspire meaningful transformations to ensure holistic growth & development of the society.
Certifications
- Scrum Alliance Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
- ISTǪB Certified: Advanced level (Test Manager)
- Diploma in Software Testing from Seed Infotech Ltd., Pune, MH
- Certified PLC Programmer from Prolific Systems & Technologies Ltd., Noida, UP
Awards & Accolades
- Awarded MVP award for my significant contributions to the ǪiO’s Foresight Sustainability Suite.
- Awarded Star Performer for my contributions to Trellis Application.
- Conferred with Manager’s Choice Award in 2009 for automating most test cases in a sprint.
Typical Day
Overview of my daily routine, highlighting key tasks & responsibilities. It represents how I prioritize & manage my time, balancing various work-related duties/commitments.
Professional Experience
Head of Product (Industrial Engineering)
Nov'15 - Present
QiO Technologies, Pune, MH
As Head of Product, I lead the full product lifecycle for B2B enterprise SaaS solutions, managing progression from concept to delivery & post-launch support. I oversee the P&L of our product portfolio, align technology development with strategic goals, & guide cross-functional teams to foster innovation & operational efficiency. My expertise spans product vision, roadmap execution, & stakeholder engagement, ensuring we deliver market-ready products that drive business growth.
- Team Management: Owned and led the product management function at QiO, managing a team of product managers, developers and data scientists building and maintaining artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) software products for industrial companies.
- SaaS Revenue Growth: Generated over $1M in SaaS revenue for 2023-24 by developing & launching innovative products, including the Foresight Service solution for Rolls-Royce.
- GCC Leadership: Established a Centre of Excellence in Pune, expanding to 50+ members, delivering multiple PoCs, & fostering a culture of innovation.
- Productivity Boost: Led development of a low-code/no-code solution, reducing PoC/PoV delivery from 2 months to 2 weeks, accelerating time-to-market.
- Zero Attrition: Achieved zero FTE attrition in 2018-19 & 2020-21 by fostering a collaborative team environment & high job satisfaction.
- Automation & Uptime: Spearheaded advanced automation, cutting testing time by 40% & ensuring 99.9% uptime for microservices with fault tolerance & disaster recovery.
- Compliance Excellence: Directed ISO 27001 compliance audits, surpassing industry standards & securing certifications.
- Client Growth: Drove business development & 12% revenue growth in Q1 2019 through strong client relationships & retention.
- AI Expertise: Partnered with data scientists & engineers to develop AI models (RUL, NSGA-II, LLM etc.), overseeing the entire model lifecycle & aligning outcomes with product goals & performance standards.
- B2B SaaS: Oversaw end-to-end deployment of SaaS solutions for RR, ensuring seamless integration & onboarding. Successfully scaled deployments, leading to a 20% rise in client satisfaction & 15% boost in product adoption.
- Owned both 0-1-10 product launches and products at scale.
- Managed P&L for flagship SaaS products, ensuring revenue growth, cost control, and alignment with organizational financial objectives.
- Cross-Functional Interaction:Worked with the Head of AI to integrate cutting-edge R&D projects into the product, including real-time AI optimisation running on the edge, real-time production scheduling, and closed-loop control of industrial equipment, including HVAC, Pumps, Furnaces and IT servers.
My focus is on aligning technology-driven initiatives with long-term business objectives, maximizing business value through innovation & operational excellence.
Team Lead
Jul’11 - Oct’15
Emerson Innovation Center, Pune, MH
As a Lead at Emerson Innovation Center, I played a critical role in enhancing product quality & driving innovation within the Trellis Application project. My unique position as the only QA team member selected to join the design team allowed me to directly influence product development & ensure high-quality standards.
I was involved in gathering client requirements, supporting design processes, & developing robust automation frameworks that streamlined testing & reduced defects, contributing to overall product excellence.
- Design Impact: Handpicked to join the design team from the entire QA organization, where I helped reduce design defects by 15%, ensuring higher product quality early in the lifecycle.
- New Feature Development: Collaborated with the client requirement gathering team to develop a new feature from scratch for the Trellis Application, driving greater functionality & customer satisfaction.
- Customer Support Excellence: Played an instrumental role in resolving critical customer defects, earning the Star Performer Award for my exceptional contributions to the Trellis project.
- Advanced Automation Frameworks: Enhanced automation capabilities by implementing tools like Selenium WebDriver & Sikuli, enabling over 80% automation of end-to-end test scenarios, which significantly reduced manual testing efforts.
- Innovative Testing Solutions: Delivered features like single test case execution & customizable reporting, improving testing efficiency & transparency for stakeholders.
- Release Management: Establishing, implementing, & improving QA infrastructure, test procedures, process, & quality standards in accordance with overall development & product releases.
- Team Growth: Analyzing training needs of the team members & delivering the required trainings within the team on different business functions & technologies, thereby enhancing the productivity.
Through a strong blend of technical expertise & collaboration, I contributed significantly to reducing defects, automating processes, & improving the overall product development cycle.
Senior QA Engineer
Sept’08 - Jun’11
2Wire IDC Pvt. Ltd., Pune, MH
As a Senior QA Engineer at 2Wire IDC, I played a pivotal role in improving the quality & efficiency of software testing by automating critical test cases & streamlining processes. My deep understanding of the application & proactive engagement with stakeholders enabled me to contribute both technically & strategically, ensuring successful project outcomes.
- Automation Excellence: Spearheaded the automation of customer-specific API testing, which significantly reduced manual testing efforts & accelerated the overall test cycle. This achievement earned me the Manager’s Choice Award for automating the majority of test cases within a sprint.
- International Client Engagement: Due to my comprehensive understanding of the application & ability to communicate effectively with stakeholders, I was selected for an on-site assignment in the US, where I gathered requirements & engaged with customers to ensure seamless collaboration & alignment with project goals.
- Enhanced Testing Efficiency: Leveraged advanced testing frameworks to ensure high test coverage, which contributed to the delivery of robust, reliable software solutions that exceeded customer expectations.
- Defect Management: Log & track defects using a defect tracking system.
- Test Management: Generate & communicate test reports, including progress, test coverage, & defect status.
- Sprint Planning: Participated in sprint planning & review meetings, representing the QA perspective & mentor junior QA engineers, providing guidance on testing best practices.
My contributions in automation, client engagement, & process improvement helped drive key initiatives, ensuring high-quality deliverables & increased customer satisfaction.
Technical Support Engineer
Aug’07-Sept’08
Cybage Software Pvt. Ltd., Pune, MH
- Manual testing of the functionalities as per test cases based on PRD.
- Reported defects through Netsuite.
- Verifying the logs & producing Test Reports.
- Log & track defects using a defect tracking system.
- General connectivity between the servers & checking up the satellite communication, VoD. Content Management.
- Client Communication & individual escalation management.
- User acceptance testing.
- Actively contributed to the development of automated test scripts.
Technical Support Executive
Jul’06 - Aug’07
IBM Global Process Services, Pune, MH
- Process First Line Support (Logging, Triaging, prioritization, tracking, & routing incidents reported by users)
- Technical trouble-shooting with the customers over phone.
- Provide support for both hardware & software-related issues.
- Utilize remote desktop tools to assist users in real-time.
- Maintained 95% quality scores throughout the year.
- Logging customer interactions & creating support tickets for tracking purposes.
- Escalating unresolved issues to higher-level support.
Junior System Administrator
Jun’05 - Jul’06
M/s Computer Perishoppe Ltd., Tanda, UP
- Installing & configuring Windows XP, Assembling, maintaining, & troubleshooting PC hardware components.
- Technical trouble-shooting with the customers.
- Provide support for both hardware & software-related issues.
- Installation, maintenance, testing & troubleshooting of desktop & laptops.
Portfolio
Explore a selection of projects that reflect innovation, strategy and impactful solutions across SaaS, Industrial Engineering and Digital Transformation.
- All
- App
- Product
- Branding
- Books
Services
As a seasoned Head of Product with a proven track record in scaled startups & product-driven companies, I excel at boosting team productivity & ensuring seamless product delivery across the organization.Some of the services offered by me are:
Product Owner
Adept at driving product vision, conducting market research, & delivering innovative solutions that enhance customer satisfaction & business impact.Collaborate closely with & report to the CTO & CEO on defining product strategies, tactics, roadmap, & prioritization based on customer feedback & market insights.
Delivery Manager
Pioneered the product development & transformation into a highly competitive Cloud & Managed Services provider. Oversee customer accounts from presales through to implementation, involving presentation, security audit/reviews, & architecture that provided real business solutions for customers.
Customer Success
Developed a comprehensive module for managing customer complaints & service requests, providing critical insights into customer behavior. Developing & optimizing the entire user post-sales experience platform, resulting in a 42% reduction in complaint resolution time & a 20% increase in overall customer satisfaction.
Program Manager
I specialize in enhancing team productivity & product shipability across organizations.I excel in employing multifunctional collaboration despite limited resources. Renowned for my ability to lead complex programs & report directly to CXOs, I bring extensive experience in process implementation, optimization, planning, & tracking.
Automation API/UI
Extensive experience in Software Quality Engineering, Automation Framework Development(GUI/API/CLI) & Test Automation, CI/CD Pipelines, Automation Tools, Building end-to-end Test beds/Test Infrastructures with in-depth knowledge of industries latest best test practices.
CI/CD Engineer
Improved CI/CD tools integration/operations, & full automation of CI/testing. Develop, scale, & control strategies, standards, guidelines, governance of Continuous Integration systems. Collaborate with internal teams to help ensure end-to-end quality.
Testimonials
Testimonials are the echoes of satisfaction that validate our efforts & build trust through the voices of those we've served.
Kunaal is a dynamic & results-oriented leader with a deep passion for industrial engineering. His ability to rapidly grasp complex strategies & translate them into actionable plans is truly exceptional. He possesses a keen eye for detail while maintaining a strategic perspective, inspiring his teams to achieve outstanding results. Kunaal's creative problem-solving skills & unwavering commitment to excellence make him a valuable asset to any organization. I've had the pleasure of working with him, & I wholeheartedly recommend him for his leadership, technical expertise, & dedication to driving positive outcomes.
Arunkumar Gopalakrishnan
Solution Architect
I have known & worked with Kunaal. He is accountable, sincere & creative professional. He guided his team with accountability & had built strong team with diverse skillset. His led by example & got the team to rally around seemingly difficult objectives. He is firm & assertive in dealing with difficult situations. He is good at conceptualizing new ideas & following them through methodical execution. He makes valuable contributions in management discussions & often bring entirely different perspectives to any situation. He is certainly an asset to any organization.
Vimal Issarani
Senior Director (Technology)
Kunaal, has always been passionate about his work. Dedication & ownership has been his valuable quality. Have seen him work on both Home Gateway front as well as CMS domain, in both deliverables Kunaal excelled & he's indeed a great resource to join any program or organisation.
Rateesh Nair
Customer Engagement Manager
Kunaal is a strong quality champion, he sets the bar for others on his team with innovative thinking, improved processes, & the constant drive for delivering quality products. He has been tremendously committed in the excellent quality level achieved with the products which he worked. Kunaal has been an indispensable part of our project. Not only were his skills invaluable to the team his approachability & pleasant demeanour were a boost to team morale, he is a tremendous asset to any team.
Nagender Rao
Sr. Test Manager
Kunaal has excellent QA expertise, a great analytical mind & works exceedingly well with clients & staff alike. He always gets the job done & well.
Daniel Stover
Operations & Infrastructure Director
Kunaal is a good manager, hardworker, technically sound, lot of potential, can be counted on as a team member, & fun to be around.
Matt Brandon
CEO
I highly recommend Kunaal for his exceptional skills in product management & leadership. He has demonstrated expertise in managing SaaS-based products, product development, & technology management. He excels at fostering collaboration within cross-functional teams & driving successful product launches. His strong background in Agile & DevOps, combined with his ability to manage geographically distributed teams, makes him a versatile & results-oriented leader. Kunaal's strategic insights & focus on continuous improvement have consistently led to increased revenue & market competitiveness for the products he manages.
John Larson
Sr. Solutions Architect
Contact
As they say, "Every new job is a chance to start fresh, build on the past, & carve a new path for the future."
Address
C1-1103, Kumar Princeville, Moshi, Pune, MH 412105
Call Me
+91 982 303 0388
Email Me
verma.kunaal@rediffmail.com