🏡 Keith Vertrees Email & Phone Number

Amsterdam, Nh, Nl

Helping leaders level up their organization through analysis, planning, hands-on coaching, and execution.I specialize in elevating organizations with a tailored blend of analysis, strategic planning, hands-on coaching, and execution. My diverse expertise spans analytics, data science, retail, e-commerce, and more, equipping us to boost both B2C and B2B ventures. My foundation in transformative leadership allows me to drive innovation, streamline operations, and catalyze growth. Whether refining your product strategy, enriching roadmapping, or optimizing execution, I'm here to support your business in the digital era, under the banner of helping leaders like you level up their organization.

San Francisco, California, Us

As the CPTO, I led the company through a pivotal digital transformation, focusing on a direct-to-consumer online car-buying experience. This transition not only streamlined operations but also significantly reduced technology expenses by 80%, thanks to a strategic shift from bespoke in-house tools to more efficient off-the-shelf solutions, boosting upper funnel conversion by 30%.Under my leadership, the Product Management function was entirely restructured, evolving from a reactive approach to a more dynamic, proactive, and collaborative roadmap planning process. This period also saw the successful integration of two major acquisitions, Fair and CarLotz. Emphasizing operational efficiency, I introduced Agile practices and Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) using the Atlassian tool chain, which substantially enhanced the productivity of our tech teams.Recognizing the need for a more aligned Design function, I undertook a rapid restaffing, aligning roles and skills with business objectives while also managing labor costs effectively.Cost optimization was a significant focus area, where we achieved a remarkable ~70% reduction in AWS hosting expenses without compromising on performance, even as site traffic increased. This was accomplished through optimizing database transactions and system builds. To further reduce costs, I streamlined the data science team, transitioning to off-the-shelf providers for optimization and incorporating proven price optimization methodologies drawn from retail and CPG industries. Cybersecurity was another key area of my focus, where I developed and implemented Shift’s cybersecurity strategy, establishing modern SIEM practices and addressing compliance and security concerns highlighted by external auditors.My tenure at Shift was marked by a series of strategic decisions and implementations that not only reduced costs and improved efficiency but also positioned the company strongly in the digital marketplace.

Boston, Massachusetts, Us

At DraftKings, serving as the Associate Director of Product for the Consumer Data Platform from May 2020 to September 2021, I played a pivotal role in establishing and leading a new Product Management organization within the existing Data Engineering team. My key achievements included restructuring agile practices to increase development velocity by 25% in six months, which significantly enhanced stakeholder confidence in the product roadmap.I spearheaded a critical modernization project, breaking it down into manageable milestones, thereby reprioritizing deliverables based on user acceptance and business value. This approach increased visibility and organizational buy-in. Additionally, I led the transition of over 100 analysts and two data science teams from SQL Server to Snowflake, managing more than 2000 unique use cases within a challenging timeline.My focus on behavioral analytics led to an increase in investment in this area, as I demonstrated the opportunity cost of limited data and delivered a successful proof-of-concept. This achievement secured additional engineering resources to build product instrumentation features. Furthermore, I launched a data democratization project, providing quantitative evidence of underserved users and securing funding to build better, user-friendly analytics tools for non-technical internal users. Another notable accomplishment was the launch of a new Client Success Associate tool, supporting user growth from 200 to 800 associates, with a streamlined onboarding experience and improved functionality.My tenure at DraftKings was marked by strategic initiatives that not only improved product development and data management processes but also contributed significantly to the company's data-driven decision-making capabilities.

San Francisco, California, Us

Armonk, New York, Ny, Us

Built, scaled, and led two UX Research teams within IBM, spanning multiple divisions and lines of product. Starting with Watson Customer Engagement (now IBM Sterling), and then IBM's Public Cloud.• Drove roadmap investments by implementing generative methodologies and building stakeholder trust, resulting in deep integration with Product Managers which impacted product decisions several quarters out.• Shifted to mixed-methods Research by implementing new analytical tools and techniques; augmented my team of UX Researchers with previously underutilized Data Scientists, leading to new visualizations and reports that enabled researchers with limited analytics experience to blend quantitative and qualitative research methodologies.• Led product instrumentation strategy by defining requirements, data quality standards, terminology, and key metrics across multiple products and portfolios of business using multiple web analytics technologies.• Used data to accelerate feature prioritization and value measurement by developing new behavioral analytics and linking quantitative design measures to business outcomes.• Recruited to Research talent to grow and scale the team to effectively cover IBM’s Public Cloud.• Built a sustainable Research Operations program to increase UX Research accountability through transparent reporting and tracking, which enabled easy sharing of priorities, results, findings, and analytics with our stakeholders.Led UX Writing and Content Strategy for Watson Customer Engagement• Led a team of UX Writers, Visual Designers, Animators, Content Strategists, and Front End Developers• Transformed documentation content to follow modern practices• Integrated with Design teams to ensure UI copy was consistent and understandable• Began comprehension testing to ensure quality• Implemented and managed guided tours and new user on-boarding using the WalkMe digital adoption platform• Created and owned premium training content

Armonk, New York, Ny, Us

Led focused engagements with customers to deploy industry-first, tailor-made solutions for complex business problems using Artificial Intelligence powered Natural Language Processing (NLP) and early explorations into LLMs.• Built the first iteration of the Watson Marketing Assistant, a conversational AI, powered by NLP, providing analytics support to Marketing professionals.• Developed IBM Watson Customer Engagement’s AI strategy by running client engagements across the portfolio to identifyopportunities for leveraging existing data to deliver net-new AI functionality.• Led cross-portfolio project to ensure these AI features were built and shipped throughout 2016 and 2017 by working directly for the division’s General Manager.

Alpharetta, Georgia, Us

Built and led the team responsible for implementing Revionics’ Base Price Optimization and Markdown Optimization products, as well as developing new billable analytical services and internal science enhancements.• Ensured products were implemented successfully by leading a team of Data Scientists employing analytical tools and techniques to ensure fast and effective implementation of Revionics’ pricing solutions.• Turned my team into a profit-center by leveraging extensive data availability within Revionics to identify, develop, and create revenue- generating analytics solutions to allow clients to extract more value from our product.

Co-founded APS Solutions Group with another retail pricing and consumer credit expert to provide services to retailers in North America. Secured a major retail client and completed an exhaustive evaluation of their private label credit program, culminating in recommendations and a proposal for their upcoming renewal with their credit provider.

New York, Ny, Us

Built the master data management and data quality process to reduce risk and improve outcomes during a global transition to SAP from legacy systems. Developed reporting tools to monitor data health and guide data quality remediation efforts.

Bronx, New York, Us

Recruited into newly formed team to transform Merchandising through fundamental process and cultural change. Served as organization’s first pricing functional area and quickly expanded and developed category management program. Initiated massive fundamental changes that laid the foundation for reinvented and highly effective business processes.Implemented DemandTec's Regular Price Optimization solution in a pure-eCommerce grocer, including optimization of fresh products; an industry first. Covering this new ground led to FreshDirect being selected by a panel of independent judges from the retail community for the DemandTec Business Enablement Award in 2011.Executed price optimization efforts leading to over $2 million in first-year gross profit gains.

Us

Drive pricing strategy and $79.2 million in gross margin improvement initiatives including markdown, open box, pricing operations, pricing governance, tagging reductions, and inventory reserve initiatives. Serve as pricing voice and champion cross-functional projects at executive level.

Us

Responsible for up to $15MM in annual revenue, direct supervision of up to 3 managers, indirect supervision of over 50 sales associates. Owned location level P&L as well as all staffing decisions.

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Technical And Scientific Communication

Associate Of Science - As, Business Administration And Management, General