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Résumé

John
Palmer

For over twenty years I have devised human-centered product strategies for every size of company, from startups to a Fortune 100 at $60B+. Organization leader, trusted mentor, cross-team sherpa, design driver, and creator of code. Ultimately a builder — I help build access to confidence as much as the products themselves.

A fit for

  1. AI transformation and AI-first operations

    Human-informed but not human-gated: AI as supplement, scaling force, or replacement, chosen per job. Production agents and agentic automation across dozens of workplace scenarios — feedback loops, market research, prototyping, engineering, and sales and marketing playbooks.

  2. AI-native and agentic products

    Hands-on model work, production data science, and products where automation and human-pair-prompting have to absorb ambiguity that rule-based workflows would carry far more overhead to handle. Three years of voice agents, generative insight dashboards, and agentic automation.

  3. Building product organizations

    Twenty years running product management practices — starting them from scratch, and onboarding into divisions of fifteen-plus product managers, business analysts, UX designers and growth teams.

Experience

  1. Sep 2023 — Apr 2026

    Director of Product

    ODAIA — AI SaaS for commercial pharma teams. Customers include GSK, Pfizer, Novo Nordisk.

    • Led product managers, designers and analysts building an AI workflow platform used by thousands of sales reps, leaders, ops, analysts and marketers.
    • Increased customer sales impact by 7–14% annually; adherence to recommendations above 70%, weekly utilization above 85%.
    • Launched a 0→1 marketing product line: 3× customer ROI in ten days, and 20% of company ARR within eight months.

  2. Aug 2022 — Sep 2023

    VP, Product & Marketing

    Testimonial Tree — review collection, analysis and syndication for residential real estate.

    • Built the product management organization and skillset, giving the company org-wide focus and prioritization.
    • Grew users from 200k to 300k+; 93% dollar retention; profitability targets met in five months.

  3. Dec 2018 — Jan 2022

    VP, Product & Marketing

    High Alpha / Relay — venture studio; then Relay full-time, improving the systems behind public safety.

    • Conceived products for four studio startups before focusing on Relay.
    • Grew Relay from scratch to a nationwide presence in two years; hundreds of thousands of safety concerns tracked across 45+ states.
    • Exceeded average monthly MQL targets by 12% over six months.

  4. Dec 2016 — Nov 2018

    Group Product Manager

    automotiveMastermind — consumer buying-behaviour insight for automotive; revenue positive in year one.

    • Managed the PM team on a new eCommerce initiative aimed at the most frictionless car-buying experience possible, plus org-wide AI initiatives using machine learning and neural networks.
    • 32% conversion on automated customer marketing; triple-digit year-over-year growth in owned products.
    • Key contributor to a $500M acquisition in late 2017.

  5. Mar 2016 — Nov 2016

    Senior Product Manager

    Pandora — music for more than 80 million monthly listeners.

    • Directly responsible for “what plays on Pandora”: the music catalog, the music genome, and the internal tools governing playability and recommendability.
    • Served the 2,200+ consumer electronics and consumer clients on Pandora’s music API through the company’s transition from radio-like to a full-control interface.

  6. Feb 2014 — Feb 2016

    Group Product Manager

    Angie’s List — a $315M local service marketplace, 3M+ paying members, 300k+ providers.

    • Owned eCommerce, member acquisition and retention, marketing and automation — product lines generating $120M+ in annual revenue.
    • Grew paid memberships from 2M to 3M in six months.

  7. Nov 2011 — Feb 2014

    Director, Product Management

    Simon Brand Ventures — the marketing arm of Simon Property Group, the world’s largest retail real estate owner.

    • Led engineering, design, QA, product and business analysis across wireless kiosks, loyalty programs, commerce, digital menus, apps, and a top-500 website.
    • Vetted companies for partnership, investment and acquisition.

  8. 2003 — 2011

    Agency years

    Young & Laramore · Mediasauce · Hirons & Company · IU Jacobs School of Music

    • Young & Laramore, Sr. Digital Strategist — guided the agency’s transition from traditional to digital and managed a team of digital creatives. Steak ’n Shake, New Balance, Scotts Miracle-Gro, Stanley Steemer.
    • Mediasauce, Director of Product R&D → Director of Interactive Services → Sr. Digital Strategist → Solutions Consultant. Clients including the NBA, NHL, Ticketmaster and M&M/Mars.
    • Hirons & Company, Interactive Team Lead → Sr. Interactive Developer.
    • Jacobs School of Music, Designer & Application Developer.

Founder

  1. EQ Industries · 2022 — present

    Technology platforms for the equestrian space, plus the import and sale of horses from Europe to the United States.

  2. Everymeal · 2015 — 2016

    A virtual personal chef service. Users set dietary preferences; we cooked and delivered daily meals to their home or office.

  3. Indy Social Media · 2009 — 2015

    A nonprofit offering free or low-cost education for communicators on modern social marketing and communication tools.

Selected proprietary work

Full list of proprietary works available on request.

Education

B.S. Informatics, Business. Indiana University School of Informatics & Kelley School of Business.

Capstone: Overtone, a waveform and frequency analysis engine for music and voice recognition tools.

Certifications & awards

Off the clock

Invincibility · Baking · Lighting design · Viola · Drums · Bass guitar · Bicycle racing