Karthick Natarajan
Chennai
Summary
Self-driven and results-oriented SaaS product management and team leader with a proven track record of success spanning 13 years. Recognized for driving transformative initiatives, fostering team development, and implementing data-driven process improvements across global operations. Adept at managing stakeholders in diverse international environments.
Overview
14
14
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Director, Product Management - International
FourKites
05.2022 - Current
- Spearheaded the transformation of the Ocean Visibility product, enhancing user-friendliness, scalability, and self-service capabilities to align with global industry shifts
- Achieved an increase of 35% in data coverage and 75% in timeliness
- Successfully relaunched Air Visibility product with expanded capabilities for a broader and more strategic customer base
- Leading the 0-1 development and launch of a new Barge tracking mode with a projected revenue upside of >$1M
- Partnered with Sales, Implementation, Customer Success and Product Support teams to empower them and position the products better for success
- Helped land upsells through effective customer relationship management and user adoption
- Collaborated with Marketing and Sales to repackage the product offerings and to devise effective go-to-market strategies, enabling FourKites to continue its leadership position in Gartner's Magic Quadrant and G2
- Customer base and ARR impact YoY: 52% growth in customer base and 127% growth in revenue across products.
Group Product Manager - International
FourKites
04.2021 - 04.2022
- Led the strategic transition out of a core data partner post-acquisition by competition, ensuring uninterrupted tracking for customers and preventing churn
- Completed the due diligence ahead of 2 major potential acquisitions, one of which materialized and the other was prevented on time due to insufficient ROI
- Supported the integration of the acquired platform with the core platform
- Pioneered a strategic move to a new asset data provider, achieving 20x capabilities and strong differentiation at almost the same cost, setting the product up for scaling
- Customer base and ARR impact YoY: 139% growth in customer base and 195% growth in revenue (Ocean), 313% growth in customer base and 443% growth in revenue (Air).
Senior Product Manager - Ocean/Air
FourKites
02.2020 - 03.2021
- Launched a new mode of tracking (Air) 0-1 with all core features and integrations in a span of 5 months optimally utilizing a team of 4 engineers, converting the first 2 signed customers into referenceable ones
- Proactively prioritized features related to scaling of the Ocean product to enable customer-base expansion and spearheaded the team remotely to deliver on commitments for customers while managing 18+ pilots concurrently
- Assembled and led a team to focus on the success of the pilots across modes and ensured no pilots were lost due to product gaps
- Win probability for prospects increased 20% due to the team's efforts
- Customer base and ARR impact YoY: 95% growth in customer base and 68% growth in revenue (Ocean), 700% growth in customer base and 433% growth in revenue (Air).
Product Manager - Ocean
FourKites
04.2019 - 01.2020
- Led the complete integration of a critical data partner closing a major competitive gap
- Tracking quality improved from 40% to >80% within 4 weeks, cutting down onboarding time from weeks to hours, and enabling faster pilot initiation
- Enabled product differentiation by delivering key customer-facing and architectural features ensuring zero pilot losses in the second half of 2019
- Established the process for product and engineering to collaborate with Sales enabling them get the support they needed to win more deals starting from the RFI stage
- Customer base and ARR impact YoY: 250% growth in customer base and 190% growth in revenue.
Global Product Owner, Digital Applications
Caterpillar
07.2017 - 03.2018
- Drove the expansion of digital product portfolio spanning site connectivity, fleet management and productivity improvement applications to enable Caterpillar's IoT strategy of connecting 2 Million assets by 2020
- Owned the end to end product lifecycle for 3 digital applications, executing projects through design thinking and Agile and enabling collaboration among global customers, analysts, SMEs and technology suppliers.
Product Team Lead
Caterpillar
05.2015 - 06.2017
- Led the 5-member India Sensors team; was accountable for recruitment, budgeting and delivery of all product development (NPI), process improvement (CPI), cost reduction, compliance and customer support projects
- Analyzed the feasibility of using combined sensor platform with potential value of $2.8M and smart sensors to enable IoT in earthmoving machines, by coordinating teams in multiple global locations
- Enabled better engineering services supplier management by developing a Department-wide repositioning strategy, assessing and mapping their core competencies to each domain's requirements
- Fostered team engagement and development by mentoring 4 engineers and creating visibility worldwide.
Senior Associate Engineer - Project Leadership
Caterpillar
08.2012 - 04.2015
- Formulated and implemented the product and supplier strategy for sensor products with $12M global spend
- Managed obsolescence by co-developing 32 new products with suppliers after thorough benchmarking, cost modeling and market analysis, meeting cost, quality and time targets set by product groups
- Solved 12 major component issues on machines/engines adopting Six Sigma, resulting in benefits of around $8M
- Identified and executed cost reduction projects worth $730,000 to the enterprise.
Associate Engineer – Product Development
Caterpillar
07.2010 - 07.2012
- As the Sensing Components Team's founding member, networked with engineers, product managers, leadership teams and product groups to build the team of 5 members in India
- Streamlined the process for internal hardware development within a year of joining by leading a Rapid Improvement Workshop consisting of a diverse team of Black Belts, Green Belts, engineers and technicians
- Through hands-on solutions, resolved all electrical/electronic component issues on-site during production of next generation Off-Highway Trucks in manufactory, ensuring 100% timely delivery of trucks.
Education
MBA - General Management
Indian Institute of Management
Ahmedabad, India03.2019
B.E. - Electronics and Communication
College of Engineering, Anna University
Chennai, India05.2010
Skills
- Strategic Planning
- Team Management
- Product Management
- Verbal and Written Communication
- Negotiation
- Data-driven Decision Making
- Organizational Structuring
Certification
- Data Science, Cloud Computing – IBM, edX
- Six Sigma Green Belt, Caterpillar Inc.
- Leadership and Technical Development Program – Product Development, Caterpillar Inc.
Extra-curricular Interests
Activities related to interests outside of work
- Active member of the India Leadership Team and the Diversity & Inclusion Committee, and was a member of the PoSH (Prevention of Sexual Harassment) Committee at FourKites.
- Drove initiatives as part of the core committee and the leadership team, enabling FourKites to be recognized as a Great Place To Work for 4 consecutive years since my joining.
- Was a member of the Placement Committee and the Newsletter Committee of PGPX 2018-19, IIM Ahmedabad.
- At Caterpillar, was the founding member of Music Club as well as FLL-FTC Robotics Club that promoted STEM among school and college students.
- Helped drive employee engagement and CSR by organizing Division-wide events and owned the employee development stream, arranging career talks and leadership coaching sessions at Caterpillar.
- Authored a novel to be published; published 2 motivational quote books
- Consistent content creator, recognized as a Top Product Management Voice on LinkedIn.
Additional Information
- Proven track record of spearheading product-led initiatives, managing Product Managers, and achieving significant business growth (2020 – now)
- Was part of the Dean's Merit List (top 5%) when graduating from IIM, Ahmedabad (2019)
- Graduated with a CGPA of 9.39/10 and was among the top 5% in the Department at College of Engineering (2010)
- Ranked 34th among 150,000 candidates (99.98 percentile) in Tamil Nadu state engineering entrance examination (2006)
- Recognized at Division level at Caterpillar for obtaining DGMS-mandated license for object detection system by working effectively with the Department of Telecommunication's Wireless Planning & Coordination wings (2015)
- Secured 3rd place at the National Level article writing competition by Operations Club of SIBM, Pune (2018)
Timeline
Director, Product Management - International
FourKites
05.2022 - Current
Group Product Manager - International
FourKites
04.2021 - 04.2022
Senior Product Manager - Ocean/Air
FourKites
02.2020 - 03.2021
Product Manager - Ocean
FourKites
04.2019 - 01.2020
Global Product Owner, Digital Applications
Caterpillar
07.2017 - 03.2018
Product Team Lead
Caterpillar
05.2015 - 06.2017
Senior Associate Engineer - Project Leadership
Caterpillar
08.2012 - 04.2015
Associate Engineer – Product Development
Caterpillar
07.2010 - 07.2012
MBA - General Management
Indian Institute of Management
B.E. - Electronics and Communication
College of Engineering, Anna University
- Data Science, Cloud Computing – IBM, edX
- Six Sigma Green Belt, Caterpillar Inc.
- Leadership and Technical Development Program – Product Development, Caterpillar Inc.
Similar Profiles
Navin PalanikumarNavin Palanikumar
Software Development Intern at FourkitesSoftware Development Intern at Fourkites
Erik HartrichErik Hartrich
Customer Operations Manager at FourkitesCustomer Operations Manager at Fourkites
Grant LillardGrant Lillard
Sales Development Representative at FourKitesSales Development Representative at FourKites