Zach Friedman Email and Phone Number
Energetic product leader with deep strategy, product discovery & 0-to-1 product management experience in complex, multi-stakeholder industries.Background:- 12+ yrs of innovation, strategy & product development experience- 6+ yrs of product management experience at a Fortune 100 digital & innovation team- 2.5 yrs as Senior Product Manager, responsible for 1-2 jr PMs & up to 6 other cross-functional team members- 6+ yrs delivering client-facing innovation projects as a management consultant, ad agency strategist, & entrepreneurDriven by consumer & human-centered insights to identify new opportunities and deliver results across different innovation types (new features, expanded revenue streams, new product/services, business models, organization transformation). Creative brand strategist able to translate technical science & digital capabilities into compelling consumer benefits in partnership with engineering teams (granted a software utility patent, developed multiple novel generative AI use cases, financial wellness recommendation engine, among others).Design thinker who pushes the boundaries of innovation, paints a vision of what's possible, then drives product team focus, prioritization & organizational alignment to deliver on the roadmap.Cross-functional product leader with strong presentation skills, sales enablement & organizational change management experience. Able to collaborate across departments and deliver complex projects in agile environments. Love coaching & mentoring others (jr. employees, peers, clients & leaders... a lot of my career has been spent "managing up"). Passionate speaker who often gives talks to university classes, conferences, or student orgs. Co-creation & workshop methodology nerd.Unfortunate affection for puns. Improv comedy performer.Curious traveler & adventurer.CORE COMPETENCIES: Front End of Innovation; Design Thinking; Product Management; 0-to-1 Product Launches; Strategy; Systems Thinking; Service Design; Business Model Innovation; Innovation Management; Branding; Product Positioning; Organizational Design; Change Management; Behavioral Design; Technology Commercialization; Customer Discovery; Sales Enablement; Product Roadmapping; Learning Plan DevelopmentINDUSTRIES: Employer Benefits; Financial Services; Enterprise Productivity, Insurance Telematics, Financial Wellness; Pharmaceutical Advertising, University Technology Commercialization; Management Consulting; Nutraceuticals; Consumer Packaged Goods
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Director Of Product Strategy, CoreJellyvisionLafayette, Co, Us
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TravelCareer Break Apr 2024 - PresentZach got married and took a 6-month adventure with his wife.
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Innovation CoachYouestyou Dec 2017 - PresentZach started a one-man agency that helps extraordinary companies tell their extraordinary stories by integrating strategy, branding and innovation. -
Senior Product Manager, InnovationNationwide Dec 2021 - Apr 2024UsBuilt and Launched GrowForth, a guided financial wellness experience that helps retirement plan participants build better financial habits. Worked to build innovation case on population-based financial wellness, including capabilities for behavioral design & measurement of employee-based financial wellbeing.Led use case scanning and strategy for Generative AI portfolio in our NF financial services business. -
Senior Product Strategist, Nf Innovation & Digital AdvisoryNationwide Mar 2021 - Jan 2022UsZach worked on a small but mighty team of innovation strategists, business designers, digital road-mappers & systems-thinkers who help shape the future direction of innovation & digital initiatives for Nationwide Financial (NF) in the Enterprise Innovation & Digital Organization (EIDO).Sitting within Nationwide's Office of Strategy & Corporate Development, the EIDO organization has brought together NW's digital product management, user experience, test & learn, corporate innovation, and support teams into one larger "team-of-teams" to drive both digital transformation & growth.Zach was an early member of NW's corporate innovation team, where he spent 3 years empathizing with customers in their homes, rapidly testing prototypes & designing solutions to meet their needs. Through 18+ design thinking iterations with 200+ customers across 6 initiatives, Zach has been able to lead product development work across all aspects of the innovation process – spanning diverse consumer segments such as transitioning retirees, aging adults, independent truckers, commercial fleet managers and personal telematics insurance users (and yes... he still remembers their stories).Zach brought this experience – as well as his background in innovation management, organizational design, change management, insight generation & experience strategy – to the NF Advisory team in EIDO.The NF Advisory team acted as a catalyst & dot connector for digital, innovation, & human-centered design work happening across Nationwide Financial. Whether it was driving targeted thought leadership, facilitating co-creation sessions, writing change stories, managing the front-end opportunity identification process, supporting planning + prioritization of innovation initiatives, informing long term digital roadmaps, generating ideas or sometimes just diving in head first to lend a hand; Zach leveraged his passion for innovation & his general enthusiasm to help NF deliver on the promise of innovation.
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Product Manager, InnovationNationwide Apr 2018 - Mar 2021UsZach was a product manager on the Enterprise & P&C Innovation team at Nationwide. He was responsible for being a core member of the team's innovation pods, driving forward project progress, conducting design thinking research with users and facilitating innovation exercises for the team.He was also an extended team member for broader Enterprise Innovation initiatives, giving input into evolving projects including strengthening innovation culture, innovation portfolio management and design thinking methodology.
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Associate Director, InnovationInventiv Health Communications Sep 2016 - Nov 2017New York City, Ny, UsZach was part of the Innovation Team at inVentiv Health Communications, which is charged with the shared accountability to increase the number of innovative and celebrated new ideas coming from the agencies. The Innovation Team fuels inspiration for clients and internal teams across inVentiv Comms that helps them discover new ways for healthcare brands to engage their customers and challenge the status quo. This is done through researching and writing about emerging trends, conducting innovation workshops and publishing thought leadership. -
Director Of Strategy & InnovationLaunch Labs May 2015 - Sep 2016Columbus, Oh, UsLaunch Labs is a passionate team of entrepreneurs dedicated to developing and launching great ideas. We are founded on an open, portfolio approach to entrepreneurship and innovation. By forming strategic partnerships, collaborating with clients and launching internal companies we significantly improve the odds of commercial success for ourselves and our partners.At Launch Labs Zach worked with startups, corporate clients and universities to uncover great ideas, iterate & prototype solutions with end users and launch them to deliver success in market. His focus is in consumer research, branding, service design, design workshops, strategy and organizational design. -
ConsultantKalypso Sep 2012 - Apr 2015Milwaukee, Wisconsin, UsZach worked at Kalypso as a "Leader Behind the Leader" for clients, helping them think differently about innovation strategy, organizational design, branding, learning and change management. He worked primarily in the CPG and healthcare industries.• Designed and facilitated Front End of Innovation workshops sessions for clients in the nutraceuticals and packaged food industries to synthesize unmet needs, technology and market trends to identify new innovation opportunities. Filled client's innovation pipelines by generating over 50 concepts per session. Workshops were featured by client's CEO in corporate newsletter as examples of the new innovation culture unfolding in the company.• Conducted innovation results transformation initiative that developed a compelling business narrative, change management, and value capture approach for a client's product data management initiative. Tied the system's technical requirements to the company's innovation transformation goals. Established cross-functional innovation management processes and teams at the C-level and director level to set the new innovation strategy, manage the innovation portfolio and accelerate projects currently in development. Developed an internal innovation initiative brand and OCM plan to build a culture of innovation throughout the organization.• Developed a service and business model innovation strategy, branding and marketing campaign for the independent optometry profession that aimed at capturing a $2B opportunity in missed materials sales. Conducted primary and secondary market research, facilitated strategy and org design innovation workshops, wrote creative copy, and managed budget & contractors in creative development of marketing materials.• Developed facilitation strategies and workshop design for Kalypso's 2014 Chief Innovation Officer Retreat around Breakthrough Innovation Execution & Breakthrough Innovation Strategy. -
Analyst Summer InternKalypso Jun 2012 - Aug 2012Milwaukee, Wisconsin, UsConsulting internship working to help a major CPG client deliver on the promise of innovation by building training capabilities which leverage disruptive education methods and innovation results analysis.• Created a training and work acceleration framework based on 'flipping the classroom' principles which lead to a $85,000 client engagement and new service offering for the firm• Worked with multidisciplinary team to develop methodology for creating animated video modules for client
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Co-FounderNet Impact Sustainability Certificate Program Mar 2012 - Sep 2012Lead the creation of a new student organization certification program using existing university software to educate and give students holistic education in theoretical, leadership, and industry aspects of sustainability.• Lead the fundraising effort which secured $12,500 in funding and recruited 50+ participants for the first year of program • Recruited and personally interviewed 20 applicants for 8 leadership positions
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Undergraduate Honors ResearchThe Ohio State University Sep 2011 - Jun 2012Columbus, Ohio, UsWorked in Consumer Behavior to determine consumers' attitude formation in the collaborative design process. Some research interests include: psychological ownership, in-groups vs. out-groups, and participation allocation.Project Title:A Community of Me: The Role of Participation Allocation in Determining the Effectiveness of Consumer Empowerment Strategies• Designed, conducted, and analyzed 3 experiments with 800+ subjects using Qualtrics and SPSS in Fisher’s Behavioral Lab• Selected to Present at Product Development and Management Association Annual Research Forum -
Marketing AssociateNexus Practice I.T. Services Mar 2011 - Dec 2011• Worked with sales and management to develop a marketing plan based on the Business Mastery principles taught by Chet Holmes and created a 25 page 'Core-Story' research paper to be used as narrative Nexus for marketing materials• Drafted, story boarded, sketched, and managed the animation for two videos communicating Core-Story• Developed a framework for a non-linear sales prezi which will communicate the core-story in sales presentations• Recruited and interviewed an intern to replace me. Worked with sales and management to transition projects to new intern
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Sustainability Intern- Project ManagerDow Chemical Mar 2011 - Jun 2011Midland, Michigan, UsStructural Insulated Panels (SIP) Market Study:This was a capstone internship for the Fisher College of Business Industry Cluster in Energy/Sustainability. Worked with Thermoset Systems at Dow Chemical to research barriers for SIPs in the residential housing market and determine the market potential for polyurethane foam as a substitute for expanded polystyrene and extruded polystyrene foam in SIPs.• Worked with a team to deliver a 25 page report and capstone meeting to showcase market diffusion research, stakeholder map, stakeholder survey, and various potential marketing initiatives to overcome these obstacles• Managed a team of 3 other interns, served as project contact, set and lead all meetings and conference calls -
Account Management InternEngauge (Us) Jan 2011 - Mar 2011• Created over 10 competitive advertising reports for Perkins analyzing over 500 advertisements• Compiled news, reports, and restaurant industry information for two 100 page economic reports for Perkins• Assisted AEP with marketing Grid Smart Happy Home sponsorship at the Ohio Home & Garden Show
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Market Research AnalystRdi Marketing Services Jan 2009 - Apr 2009Cincinnati, Oh, UsTelephone marketing research role where I was responsible for calling respondents, conducting cold call market research, and recording results in company software. • Conducted and documented over 1,000 interviews on behalf of clients such as EyeMed and Macy's• Recruited over 50 subjects to participate in qualitative survey for a religious organization
Zach Friedman Education Details
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The Ohio State University Fisher College Of BusinessAnd Consumer Insights -
Hava & Adam Multidisciplinary Center For Sustainable LivingEcological Construction
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The Ohio State University Fisher College Of BusinessSustainability Studies
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AudenciaInternational Business
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Indian Hill High SchoolHs Diploma
Frequently Asked Questions about Zach Friedman
What company does Zach Friedman work for?
Zach Friedman works for Jellyvision
What is Zach Friedman's role at the current company?
Zach Friedman's current role is Director of Product Strategy, Core.
What schools did Zach Friedman attend?
Zach Friedman attended The Ohio State University Fisher College Of Business, Hava & Adam Multidisciplinary Center For Sustainable Living, The Ohio State University Fisher College Of Business, Audencia, Indian Hill High School.
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