Cameo Doran

Founded a modern innovation and development firm to help mid-market SaaS and digital product companies accelerate growth through strategy, prototyping, and execution.

• Scaled to $2.5M annual revenue in under 12 months through strategic engagements and productized services.

• Created and led the "Big Idea Workshop" - a structured program helping executives leverage AI and innovation processes to rapidly turn ideas into prototypes.

• Delivered innovation and modernization strategies to mid-market leaders in edtech, fintech, and B2B software.

• Led development of platform technology that enabled a client to achieve a $30M acquisition.

• Designed and facilitated a process that helped a client reduce product delivery time by 40%.

• Oversaw all business operations, hiring, financial planning, and brand development.

Launched a real estate development company focused on high-return investments through creative renovations and strategic acquisitions.

• Transformed distressed residential properties into beautiful, marketable homes.

• Directed design and creative direction for property flips, increasing average home values by 25%.

• Completed most renovations in under four months, generating strong ROI.

• Built a portfolio of single-family and multi-family real estate investments.

Recruited to lead the product and operations team at a large scale startup incubator, overseeing all venture launches and internal systems for speed and scale.

• Led product and operations for a startup incubator, launching 10 companies within 12 months.

• Advised portfolio companies in Lean Startup and Business Model innovation.

• Oversaw roadmaps, talent acquisition, and delivery strategy across multiple ventures.

• Designed processes for rapid prototyping and customer feedback loops.

Brought in to lead enterprise agile and product focused transformation for Fortune 500 clients, focusing on improving speed, alignment, and delivery outcomes.

• Led agile transformation and process redesign for Fortune 500 clients including Ford and Lockheed Martin.

• Advised senior leaders on digital strategy, delivery frameworks, and organizational change.

• Implemented OKR systems and product discovery practices across enterprise teams.

Oversaw consulting delivery and operations for a custom dev agency, working with clients in edtech, e-commerce, and fintech to modernize digital experiences.

• Oversaw product consulting and delivery for clients with budgets up to $5M.

• Worked with WGU and Avon to modernize product strategy and launch new digital experiences.

• Delivered customer platform enhancements that contributed to 15% YoY revenue growth for multiple clients.

• Improved agency margins by 12% through process innovation and operational oversight.

VP of Product Recruited by the CTO to develop strategic product direction with focus on innovative new products and revitalizing existing products. Assumed responsibility for process mentorship and enhancing the effectiveness of agile developmental processes. 

• Managed portfolio of 5 complex products including directing all product design and management initiatives for this $400 million global Unified Communications SaaS software company.
• Introduced the usage of lean thinking and Design studio methodology to ensure product design focused on usability and user experience while balancing functionality and feasibility.
• Revamped product requirements process resulting in elimination of wasted development hours and increasing overall department development velocity by 30%
• Developed an agile coaching team to train and mentor agile processes across all development teams to improve efficiency and product delivery.

• Manage and mentor a team of 5 product managers, 3 UX designers, and 2 Agile coaches, helping them grow their skills, increase productivity and create remarkable products.
• Guide and direct the product and UX team through a lean revamp of 3 product lines.  Transformed old applications into competitive strength by setting focus on usability and user experience.
• Develop and assume full P&L responsibility for multi-million-dollar technology budgets and project plans

Progressed from Product Manager to Director of Service delivery in just over a year. Reporting directly to the Managing Partner owned all responsibility for product delivery and operations management for Project and Program Management, UX and Product Design for this leader in custom software development.

• Oversee UX design, product and project management, client, and technical teams to develop comprehensive products and technical solutions for various B2C clients with contracts totaling $8 million.
• Revamped procedures in key areas including development and design. Restructured department and implemented agile processes to make projects more successful. Initiated improved testing and quality assurance strategies with best practices that transformed department to high-functioning status within 1 year.
• Manage a highly skilled professional team of 8 directing product specification, documentation, release management, sales support, QA and stress testing, training and sales support, support and critical situation management.
• Trained and mentored Scrum Teams and Product Owners on Agile practices including story point estimation, writing effective user stories, running productive standup,s and successfully prioritizing the backlog to match their product roadmap goals.
• Respond to proposal requests; Generate competitive bids, estimate level of effort and technical requirements, and develop project scope to create comprehensive statements of work for clients.

Founding member of this early stage Saas start-up providing backoffice management software for the MLM industry. Instrumental in company's ability to successfully build a fully homegrown software system and all supporting web applications from idea stage to profitability. Directed and orchestrated the management of all web application software development products from inception to completion including product UX/design, project scope management, financial tracking, scheduling and resource management.

• Identify unique technology products for specific markets.  Develop project strategy, design features and test & validate the UX/UI, roadmap and manage development team to delivery.
• Created more effective communication protocols with clients that helped increase billable custom projects by 40% within one year.

• Facilitated a conversion to  scrum and XP development methodologies which optimized multiple development team’s skill sets and accomplished tighter schedules and more efficient budgets.
• Ensured timely and effective communication to all project stakeholders including remote clients and project sponsors, project team members and executive management.
• Insured that the engineer teams were adhering to software development best practices (TDD, Refactoring, continuous integration, and collective code ownership) correctly.
• Accelerated time-to-market for software by 25 percent through use of appropriate software testing tools, improved debugging methods, and timely personnel training

Responsible for management of 30 member staff and all project coordination. Directly supervised customer interactions, employee training and overall project scheduling. 

• Scheduled and monitored projects to ensure compliance with all project specifications while meeting strict timeline and budget requirements.
• Clarified and confirmed Project specifications of customers and offered additional suggestions or alternatives to reduce costs and heighten customer satisfaction.
• Promoted after only 10 months – as a result of top performance.