William R. Watt, II

335 Bella Ridge Terrace, San Jose, CA 95125 | 408.476.9174 (cell) | bill@billwatt.org

Professional Experience

Sept 2003 to    eBay Inc. San Jose, CA

Present            Group Product Manager

Lead product manager on the FairMarket platform that was acquired by eBay in 2003 and also adopted the “Rest of World” (ROW) platform that had been developed in-house for use in international expansion.

·         Determined roadmap and set priorities in support of 8 different eBay business units across many countries.

·         Gathered requirements and wrote Product Requirement Documents (PRD’s) for features developed on two platforms.

·         Supported the sales and account management teams which contributed to year over year increases in all platform metrics including registrations, gross merchandise volume (GMV), and revenue.

·         Provided 7x24 support to customers across our platforms and frequently responded to end user inquiries on behalf of our customers.

·         Leveraged the ROW platform for prototyping and experimentation projects and developed a monetization model that encouraged greater use.

·         Hired and managed a team of product managers as warranted by demand for our services.

·         Evangelized the platforms under my direct control and found creative uses that maximized existing features.

·         Worked with legal department to develop contracts that accurately reflect the technology and services provided.

·         Reported directly to the Vice President of New Business.

 

May 1998 to    FairMarket, Inc.         Woburn, MA (Acquired by eBay Inc. in Sept 2003)

Sept 2003        FairMarket powered e-commerce and online loyalty programs for businesses such as Dell Computer Corp., Sam’s Club, CompUSA, MSN, Lycos, eBay, Miller Brewing Company and Burger King.

 

                        Senior Product Manager for API’s and Integration

·         Managed the development, release, and ongoing maintenance of FairMarket’s suite of Application Programming Interfaces (API's) including several XML-based API's used to manage inventory, orders and content.

·         Led the product effort to connect FairMarket to eBay via the eBay API's.

·         Wrote and compiled initial product specifications, monitored development, communicated with customers and design partners upon completion and coordinated with the Marketing department on Product Press Releases.

·         Built and delivered training covering new features and functions.

·         Supported sales team of 3-15 with a deep product knowledge and commitment to supporting the customer's needs both pre- and post-sale.

·         Continually assisted Sales, Finance, Engineering and Legal by preparing language for contracts and Service Level Agreements.

·         Supported a 24/7 service model by sharing an on-call rotation.

·         Reported directly to the Vice President of Product Development.

 


Senior Sales Engineer

·         Addressed existing and prospective customer inquiries in areas covering technical specifications, features and functions, security requirements, up time and reliability.

·         Trained the sales team in groups and one on one to provide a “total solution sale” according to the customer's specific needs.

·         Demonstrated ability to learn complex subjects and relate them to customers in an easy to understand manner.

·         Worked directly with client’s technical staff to achieve shared goals and implementation deliverables.

·         On call 24/7 to assist with service escalation.

·         Assisted development team and QA with product releases.

·         Hired, trained and mentored a team of two sales engineers. 

·         Utilized domain knowledge to assist in expediting the company’s plan to go public.

·         Reported directly to the Vice President of Sales.

 

June 1997 to    CompUSA Woburn, MA

May 1998        CompUSA is a leading retailer of computers and electronics.

 

                        Corporate Account Manager

·         Acted as the primary point of contact for corporate customers.

·         Responsible for meeting and exceeding monthly sales figures and ensuring customer satisfaction.

·         Designed and sold PC’s and networks according to client need and specifications.

 

Jan 1996 to     NECX Peabody, MA

June 1997        NECX was a pioneer in the ecommerce market that later sold the Business to Consumer (B2C) division to Gateway and the Business-to-Business (B2B) division to VerticalNet.

 

                        Inventory Control Coordinator

·         Managed purchasing and returns for an early computer product website.

·         Oversaw physical warehouse inventory and coordinated with 13 virtual warehouses via EDI links to Ingram, Merisel and Tech Data.

 

Sept 1994 to    Athena Design            Boston, MA

Dec 1995         Athena developed spreadsheet software and objects for NeXTSTEP, OS2, and OpenDoc.

 

                        Assistant to the President / Release Coordinator

·         Acted as the right hand to the President and COO of a fast paced start-up.

·         Attended all high level meetings and participated in executive level presentations.

·         Managed general details of new product releases including the building of physical product packets, and electronic software distribution,

·         Responded to technical service inquiries.

·         Presented at multiple Comdex events and IBM’s Technical Interchange

 

Company closed December 1995


Patents

Pending,          “Declining interest rate auctions”

(Filed 2004)     William Watt, William Cornell, and Matthew Ackley

 

Pending,          “Advertisement electronic marketplace”

(Filed 2007)     William Watt and Howard Rosenberg

 

Education

May 1992        Gordon College          Wenham, MA

Bachelor of Arts, History