JB Woodruff
Senior Product Manager - Kroger
Cincinnati, Ohio
Invests in
Skills
Education
Work Experience
2022
Senior Product Manager
2022
Last Mile Fulfillment
2019 - 2022
Director - Strategic Partnerships
2019 - 2022
Led partnership strategy, negotiations and contract development for select 84.51° and The Kroger Company new business initiatives. •Led partnership vision for consumer insights, consumer research and cloud platform initiatives to expand insights business. Partnerships focused on consumer data diversification, zero party data, quant/ qual research capabilities and unique cloud platform offerings related to data lockers and clean rooms. • Drove Kroger Package Services (KPS) program strategy and partnerships. Partnerships with FedEx, USPS, & Doddle while exploring partnerships with Amazon, Parcel Pending, UPS, and Narvar. • Led strategy and partner development for a portfolio of Kroger Services in the areas of Travel, Auto Sales, Auto Financing, Car Maintenance, Solar and Deregulated Energy - led negotiations and contracting for the Kroger Travel (Priceline) and Kroger Auto (TrueCar) programs. - 2019 - 2020.
2009 - 2022
Founder / Director
2009 - 2022
Delivered solutions for over 50 clients since 2009 including branding, website development, magazines, advertisements, posters, brochures, catalogs, program development, photography, and video. • Managed all aspects of LLC that includes proposal development, customer relations, sales, accounting, service offering development, marketing and billing.
2015 - 2019
Managing Director
2015 - 2019
• Managing Director for nationally ranked (top 30) 501(c)(3) non-profit startup accelerator dedicated to economic development through investment in early-stage technology startup companies. • Oversee all operations of an annual program that invests up to $500k and guides cohorts of up to 10 technology-based startup companies. Currently managing a portfolio of 47 alumni companies. • Manage 1 full-time staff member and 1-4 interns. • Develop and manage program’s startup recruitment, selection, mentor network, partnerships, investment guidance, milestone funding, education curriculum • Provide weekly one-on-one business advising for all startup founders that covers all startup business areas including, but not limited to product development, customer development, marketing, finance, pitching, and investment.
2015 - 2019
Commercialization Director
2015 - 2019
• Advise entrepreneurs through one-on-one business coaching across the northern 11 counties of the state of Kentucky. • Create and conduct group education sessions focused on an introduction to entrepreneurship • Foster entrepreneurship at the high school and collegiate levels through speaking engagements, individual advising and group education sessions which culminates in an annual business model competitions with the Lieutenant Governor’s Entrepreneurship Competition (LGEC) (high school) and Idea State U (college). • Create and conduct annual ‘train-the-teacher’ event to educate regional high school educators in basic entrepreneurship principles to enable them to support the annual LGEC. • Create and manage programs in northern Kentucky dedicated to fostering and strengthening entrepreneurship including: UpTech, KY Angel Tax Credit, UpStart, Global Entrepreneurship Week, Idea State U. • Activate and nurture a network of regional mentors, service providers and investors to support entrepreneurs.
2014 - 2015
Entrepreneur in Residence
2014 - 2015
• Conducted one-hour, weekly progress and goal setting meetings with 7 startups to review progress, provide product development advisement, provide education when needed and report the progress of the startups to program management. • Developed and manage key funding milestones for the startups.
Lean Startup Instructor
2014 - 2014
• Instructe the UpTech Startup Class 3 over a 4 week period for a total of 16 hours of instruction. • Educated 7 startups focusing on the following topics: Business Model Canvas, Customer Development, Lean Startup, Agile Methodology, Business Model Validation - hypothesis development and testing, MVP
2012 - 2013
Entrepreneur in Residence
2013 - 2013
Responsibilities included: - Supported and advised 10 startups in the areas of marketing, sales, product development, financial modeling and business management for the 2013 Cape Town 3-month Accelerator Program. Included: Adrenaline Hunter (travel aggregator), ShopDeploy (e-commerce), Easy2Map (mapping), Homebug (home automation), ApexPeak (invoice brokerage), NearABuilder (tradesmen aggregator), Peach Payments (online payment), The Massive (property management), Wabona (video streaming) and Zapacab (Taxi app). - Devised new product ideas for startups to pursue/research based on their current solution / mission. - Coached 10 startups on how to create compelling pitch decks and present effectively to investors in 30 sec, 1 min, 5 min, and 30 min time periods. - Produced short video series about 88mph for use as marketing and PR material. Posted on YouTube @88mphaccelerator.
Entrepreneur in Residence
2012 - 2012
Responsibilities include: - Supported and consulted for our 6+ startups in the areas of marketing, sales and business management - Supported Manyatta Rent (rent payment), Mpepea (Micro loans), Closet49 (ecommerce), Gamsole (mobile games), Mdundo (mobile music), Hivi Sasa (news), and Drugs.co.ke (online pharamacy/logistics). - Branding and Custom Wordpress Web Development for startups - Pitch Development and Coaching - Supporting 88mph’s weekly operations while implementing new ideas and improvements
2009 - 2012
Project Manager
2012 - 2012
Refresh of the Centric Consulting external website. - Developed new Centric website information architecture with a customer-focused approach. - Managed two, 3rd-party service providers responsible for the design and development of the new website; both on and off shore development. - Coordinated over 100 Centric employees to develop roughly 300 pages of new website content, including copy-editing and custom graphic creation. - Photographer for all employee portraits, company events, interior photography to be featured on the new company website.
Senior Consultant
2009 - 2012
Cincinnati Business Unit Marketing Lead - Electronic Newsletter marketing (MailChimp) - Marketing Postcard development and design - Advertising Analysis and Implementation - Lead team of 6 to drive marketing projects National Social Media Strategy Project - Developed strategic approach to social media for Centric Centric Photographer - Portrait and business photographer for Centric Volunteer Opportunities - Adopt A Class - Fall Feast - Paint the Town
2009 - 2012
Centric Consultant - System Solution Manager
2011 - 2012
System solution manager for Membership functional area. • Managed custom membership program requirements definition and development • Owned the creation of 9 functional specifications encompassing +700 requirements (member demographics, member IDs, language assistance program, member inactivation and member ID cards) • Authored program-wide functional specification template • Defined program-wide requirements naming convention • Acted as a functional development methodology SME role to ensure consistent deliverable quality for the custom development workstream.
Centric Consultant - System Tester
2010 - 2011
Developed and executed test cases for eyecare claims entry system while using agile methodology to develop the system.
Centric Consultant - System Solution Manager
2009 - 2010
- Interface development from existing systems to SAP backend system - Solicited and managed requirements for legacy client-facing claims management system - Provider Solution Architect - managed team of 4 resources to develop a consistent solution and ensure quality.
2004 - 2009
Consultant
2004 - 2009
SAP CRM consultant in Systems and Integration. Experiences have been with Exxon Mobil Chemical, Microsoft, Dow Chemical and Internal project work. Roles included SAP CRM 7.0 functional development, Testing Lead, and SAP SD functional development.