Stephen Messenger, Ph.D. Email & Phone Number

St. Louis, Mo, Us

Bedford, Massachusetts, Us

Led cross-functional agile teams in end-to-end product development including mobile app, robot, and cloud software within a global consumer products company.• Digital product management lead for over 20 floorcare products and 16M connected customers.• Developed mid-tier 2-in-1 robot for Europe and Asia-Pacific to meet customer needs, increase customer conversion, and address gap in market.• Transitioned team’s mentality to be customer-centric: launched experience-based features used by 88% of customer base within 1 month of launch.• Launched skip room feature used by over 20% of customer base within 2 months of launch.• Championed continuous improvement: introduced messaging that helped customers fix error 23% faster.• Improved productivity: built scalable architecture that decreased development time by 97%.• Enhanced App accessibility: drove multi-team effort that solved 60% of pain points within 4 months.• Saved $90k on vendor contract by optimizing coverage and showcasing value for vendor.• Eliminated delivery risk by using refinement and metrics to facilitate trade-off discussions.• Maintained team focus: created sprint injection process that alleviated sprint disruptions.• Balanced foundational improvements: created processes to address tech and design debt.

Executed product manager tasks such as driving product vision and strategy, conducting market research, evaluating trade-offs, and directing product development within an IoT baby product company.• Innovated novel product: used data-driven and customer-focused approach to define product roadmap and manage product development lifecycle.• Built and maintained iOS / Android mobile apps eliminating the need for additional hardware component and decreasing COGS by 30%.• Integrated hardware into iOS / Android mobile apps to create the first IoT turn-taking baby monitor.• Established sales channel in international market: introduced distributor to product, secured contract.• Produced deployment-ready software: applied Agile methodology throughout development.

• Identified consumer pain points and refined / expanded product strategy: conducted market research.• Achieved market validation: identified user needs, built prototype, conducted user testing, integrated feedback.• Collaborated with multidisciplinary team of contractors.• Decreased required capital for launch: de-risked off-the-shelf hardware.• Wrote and received U.S. Patent (US 9,538,959 B2) and U.S. Trademark (Reg. No. 6,234,120).

Cambridge, Ma, Us

Distinguishing Categories of Super Earth Exoplanets:• Created technique separating categories of super Earth exoplanets to target the discovery and characterization of terrestrial exoplanets.• Identified and eliminated obstacle in the search for Earth-like exoplanets: Led project vision and created tool that detects desired targets out of thousands of candidates.• Created three pathways to expand exploration of exoplanets transitioning field from single-planet focus to multi-planet focus.Characterization of Exoplanet Atmospheres:• Conducted MCMC atmospheric retrieval analysis to characterize the atmosphere of planet GJ 1214b.• Eliminated gap in planet characterization: Introduced novel hypothesis and leveraged data and analysis to test and confirm hypothesis.• Wrote MCMC, transmission spectrum, and molecular cross section code from scratch.Detection of Indicators of Life on Exoplanets:• Investigated 26 biosignature gases to determine molecular features, atmospheric abundances, and observational requirements for remote detection.• Designed and executed 2-year project from end-to-end: Identified parameters, derived equations, wrote code, analyzed data, and published work.• Wrote code from scratch using Interactive Data Language (IDL): Built libraries and modules.Gaseous Fission Product Management:• Investigated Krypton and Xenon isotopes created by a thorium molten salt nuclear reactor to eliminate risk of damage or harm from radioactive material.• Collaborated with nuclear engineering researchers: Determined quantities and decay heat of gases, developed theoretical system to extract noble gases, introduced storage systems to safely contain radioactive isotopes.Supplemental Work:• Identified and eliminated barrier for researchers: Wrote physics derivations manual.• Advised colleagues and junior scholars: wrote / provided feedback on research presentations, qualification examinations, and thesis defenses.

Columbia, Mo, Us

Investigated species of dust responsible for the 30 micron dust emission feature around extreme carbon stars

Tucson, Az, Us

Enhanced technique used to determine photometric redshifts to distant galaxies

Nantucket, Massachusetts, Us

Discovered astrophysical lasers around the star Eta Carinae through writing code and analyzing model results

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Planetary Science

Master Of Science, Earth And Planetary Science

Bachelor Of Science, Physics