LARONE GARDNER
Apopka,FL
Summary
Innovative, customer-obsessed Director of Product Management bringing expansive knowledge in leading and/or managing different network technologies. Gifted at leading new product development, executing projects and overseeing launches. I excel at driving strategic alignment with various business units to gather technical requirements, but also to provide feedback from customers on roadmap items. I am a results driven leader with a proven track record of delivery. I bring a diversity of thought that aims to challenge the status quo and disrupt the norm.
Overview
21
21
years of professional experience
Work History
Director of Product Management
Cisco
San Jose, CA
10.2023 - Current
- Collaborated with customers, partners and internal teams to drive product vision and project prioritization.
- Leveraged deep knowledge of user experiences and drove continual improvements to boost key metrics through user testing and other feedback.
- Studied customer needs and desires to incorporate into product requirements.
- Created and implemented strategies for increasing customer retention and loyalty.
- Actively monitored performance metrics of existing products and features in order to identify areas of improvement.
- Led team in designing experiments to test hypotheses on potential features or changes.
- Worked closely with UI and UX designers in creating intuitive user interfaces that are aligned with business goals.
- Collected and analyzed market research data for use in forecasting.
Sr. Product Manager
CISCO
San Jose, CA
01.2020 - Current
- Manage and grow $4 billion-dollar portfolio for Campus Network
- Lead a team of 9 thought leaders in creating best in class services in campus networking
- Enable and support growth of Customer Experience (CX) initiatives through network automation
- Drive Delivery of Customer Proof of Concepts and Beach head deliveries
- Increase customer adoption of Cisco products and services
- Provide technical expertise In Campus Networking globally to all Cisco CX teams in regions (AMERICAS, APJC, EMEAR) for Campus Networking
- Enable Scalable solutions through automation
- Provide customer relationship management and customer support for multiple projects and technical architectures
- Incubate services and enable delivery teams by providing technical boot camps
- Collaborate with team members and other organizations on technical solutions within CX.
Solutions Architect
CISCO
01.2016 - 01.2020
- Enable and support growth of Cloud Initiatives through development of new CX Offerings
- Deliver Customer Proof of Concepts and Beach head deliveries
- Constantly innovate and learn
- Provide technical expertise globally to all Cisco CX teams in regions (AMERICAS, APJC, EMEAR)
- Enable Scalable Delivery of Solutions
- Provide customer relationship management and customer support for multiple projects and technical architecture
- Incubate services and enable delivery teams by providing technical expertise
- Collaborate with team members on technical solutions within CX.
Engineer IV Network Consultant
CISCO
01.2013 - 01.2016
- Provide customer relationship management and customer support for Digital Life technical solutions and technical architecture
- Provide knowledge transfer and transfer of information on the remote management system in support of Digital Life
- Perform analysis and diagnosis of highly complex networking problems
- Provide technical over site for engineering resources participating in the Digital Life project
- Advise service operations customers on how to provision and manage their CPE devices on the network
- Act as a technical expert of the Remote Management System (RMS) system
- Collaborate with team members on technical solutions within the Digital Life team, as well as with other Cisco teams worldwide.
Sr. Test Engineer Lead
CISCO via TekSystems
01.2012 - 01.2013
- Lead Test Engineer on the Cisco PEST Team for the Digital Life Project
- Responsible for installing the Remote Management System (RMS) application for the Digital Life in Cisco internal labs, AT&T Labs and in the production environment
- Train and develop internal Cisco resources on the Digital Life RMS application as well as several AT&T resources
- Responsible for troubleshooting technical issues on the Digital Life servers and defects within the internal Cisco labs as well as AT&T labs
- Coordinated working sessions with AT&T resources to provide ongoing support and lasting relationships
- Triage and review all defects reported by internal Cisco Labs and AT&T labs
- Provide onsite knowledge transfer and technical support for AT&T Digital Life labs.
Sr. Test Manager
ACS via Alliance Telecom Solutions
01.2011 - 01.2012
PRT UAT Test Team Lead
PRT via Comsys
01.2009 - 01.2010
NSG Provisioning Test Team Lead
GCI via Reachview Technologies
01.2008 - 01.2009
Business Alignment Team Lead
Sprint/Nextel via Business Edge Solutions
01.2007 - 01.2008
Software Test Manager
Rogers Communications via Business Edge Solutions
01.2006 - 01.2007
Software Test Manager
BellSouth via Business Edge Solutions
01.2005 - 01.2006
Verification and Test Manager
Cingular via BearingPoint
01.2003 - 01.2005
Sr. Test Manager
CISCO via Adecco
01.2010
Education
Associate of Science - Electrical Engineering
Florida Agricultural And Mechanical University
Tallahassee, FL04-1996
Skills
- Product Lifecycle Management
- Stakeholder Management
- Product Launches
- Creating solution attached, lifecycle aligned and scrum services
- Google Cloud
- Unix
- Campus Network
- Wireless Device Testing
- AWS
- SOA
- XML
- Web Testing
- Azure
- IBM Tivoli
- Software Defined Access
- User Acceptance Testing
- Application Testing
- Netcool/OMNIbus
- Digital Network Architecture
- Functional Testing
- Regression Testing
- Embedded Software Testing
- SQL
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Affiliations
Varsity Girls Basketball Assistant Head Coach
AAU Boys and Girls Basketball Head Coach 16,17u & 7,8u respectively
References
References available upon request.
Timeline
Director of Product Management
Cisco
10.2023 - Current
Sr. Product Manager
CISCO
01.2020 - Current
Solutions Architect
CISCO
01.2016 - 01.2020
Engineer IV Network Consultant
CISCO
01.2013 - 01.2016
Sr. Test Engineer Lead
CISCO via TekSystems
01.2012 - 01.2013
Sr. Test Manager
ACS via Alliance Telecom Solutions
01.2011 - 01.2012
Sr. Test Manager
CISCO via Adecco
01.2010
PRT UAT Test Team Lead
PRT via Comsys
01.2009 - 01.2010
NSG Provisioning Test Team Lead
GCI via Reachview Technologies
01.2008 - 01.2009
Business Alignment Team Lead
Sprint/Nextel via Business Edge Solutions
01.2007 - 01.2008
Software Test Manager
Rogers Communications via Business Edge Solutions
01.2006 - 01.2007
Software Test Manager
BellSouth via Business Edge Solutions
01.2005 - 01.2006
Verification and Test Manager
Cingular via BearingPoint
01.2003 - 01.2005
Associate of Science - Electrical Engineering
Florida Agricultural And Mechanical University