UCLA Anderson School of Management

University of Virginia

Innovation and Customer Insights Strategist  -  Jobs-to-be-Done (JTBD) Expert

San Diego, California, United States

We are experts in the areas of innovation and growth.  As practitioners and as former product managers, we understand what inputs are needed to help companies grow.  We are able to assist the companies we serve frame up their innovation challenge in the customers’ terms.  Through a repeatable and sustainable approach focused on identifying and prioritizing the needs customers have based on the jobs they are trying to get done, we guarantee we are able to identify opportunities for innovation.

Agile Innovation Advisors, LLC

Managing Partner & Founder

- Advised Fortune 500 clients on how to grow their business by helping them position and message their current products and develop new breakthrough concepts that address unmet customer needs.  Recommendations have helped dozens of clients in financial services, software, hardware, and medical device industries achieve millions of dollars in new revenue and profits.
-  Responsible for leading client engagements including project timelines and budgets, conducting primary and secondary market research, analyzing data, segmenting markets, developing and presenting findings to clients, and facilitating client ideation sessions.
-  Developed new business worth over $1 million and created methodology to help clients evaluate and select markets, formulate growth strategies, and position offerings.

Strategyn

Senior Strategy Advisor

- Ran product development effort for new TurboTax growth market.  Responsible for planning and driving project, conducting in-depth customer research, performing competitor analysis, and creating a business case and prototype.  Acquired 10,000 customers in first year through new web site targeting the market and had ideas adopted by the core TurboTax product team for roll-out to ten million customers.
-  Led ten-person cross-functional team of engineers, tax experts, designers, and researchers to develop customer requirements and concept prototypes.  Resulted in new tax preparation product patent for Intuit.
-  Presented key findings and results to executive leadership of company to acquire project resources.
-  Targeted, negotiated with, and managed over ninety companies for TurboTax instant data entry program.  Streamlined on-boarding process to increase partner participation by twenty companies in one year.
-  Designed and built data analysis tools to assist the partnership management group quickly track in-tax-season results.  Eliminated ten hours per week of effort, allowing partnership managers to focus on the partners and grow sales by 25%.

Intuit

Senior Business Development and Product Manager

- Ran $1M cross-sell business at largest on-line auto loan company.  Doubled profits in two years by cutting unprofitable programs, adding new partnerships, and renegotiating existing relationships.
-  Managed five cross-sell partners and effectively executed contract extensions with each.
-  Led thirty-person project team and launched extended warranty cross-sell program under tight deadlines.
-  Created marketing and testing plans, built financial and statistical models, and utilized email, Internet, and direct mail to promote extended warranties.  Doubled response rates to campaign in six months.
-  Designed data infrastructure and developed performance metrics to improve campaign tracking and optimizing.
-  Developed financial forecasts and managed marketing budget of $200K.
-  Supervised data analyst and marketing communication specialist to implement strategic marketing plan.

Capital One Auto Finance

Customer Relationship Marketing Manager

- Invented data collection and analysis tools to significantly improve turnaround time and accuracy of 360 degree leadership development surveys.
-  Implemented solution at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Hewlett Packard, and Mitsubishi to build leadership development programs for senior management.
-  Negotiated contract with PricewaterhouseCoopers to provide consulting services for over three years.

Lyons Consulting

Owner/Consultant

- Prepared successful proposal and sold $12M strategic change project to large retailer.
- Facilitated implementation of customer information system at large natural gas company and advised senior management to form action plans to address organizational barriers to change.
-  Conceived and piloted team development initiatives which increased project team effectiveness in $20M PeopleSoft HR implementation at large financial services organization.
-  Conducted stakeholder analysis, developed communication plan, and designed employee selection process to integrate finance organizations of two merging Big Six professional services firms.
-  Researched, wrote, and presented paper on organizational structure of global holding companies for Japanese business leaders from Mitsubishi Materials, Sony, and Toyota.  Led to large international project.

Organizational Change & Strategy Consultant

- Created customer profitability model and retention strategy to enhance profits for commercial banking unit.
-  Developed financial model to aid in multi-million dollar equipment purchase decision.
-  Administered culture assessment, led development of mission statement, and implemented new performance appraisal to increase effectiveness of newly formed analyst group.
-  Managed activity-based costing study of back-office bank operations to improve processes and lower costs.
-  Built management decision tool and electronic survey system to expedite data collection and analysis.

Signet Bank

Business Analyst

- Performed analysis to allow large telecommunications company to reorganize its sales force around specific industries and achieve new revenue growth.
-  Conducted activity-based costing analysis of leatherwear manufacturer to improve business processes.
-  Optimized supply chain of a $4B paper products company by consolidating plants, reducing inventory, and increasing production efficiency.

Zachary Lyons