Freelancer
Vancouver, Canada Area
- Current
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- Freelancer at Self - Employed
- Past
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- Contractor at eBay
- Sr. Product Manager / Group Product Manager at TheFind, Inc.
- Sr. Product Manager at eBay, Inc.
- Manager Categories & Infrastructure, Product Marketing at eBay Inc.
- Associate Manager Categories & Infrastructure, Product Marketing at eBay Inc.
- Product Marketing Manager at SolutionCentral Media Corporation
- National Editor at Networker.com
- Library Research Associate at Sulzer Orthopedics
- Periodicals Specialist at Grand Valley State University
- Education
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- University of Texas @ Austin
- Grand Valley State University
- Fulton High School
- Recommended
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12 people have recommended Allen - Connections
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254
connections
- Industry
- Internet
- Websites
Allen Williams’s Summary
Energetic internet professional with 10 years experience in both start-up and large company settings. Skilled in leading cross-functional teams to define and achieve buisness goals.
Uniquely skilled in working with unstructured and structured data to create compelling search and browse experiences. I hold a Master's Degree in Library & Information Science.
Allen Williams’s Specialties:
categorization, information retrieval, taxonomies, ontologies, data management, product catalogs, information architecture, data analysis, product management, data production, product marketing, product management
Allen Williams’s Experience
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Freelancer
Self - Employed
(Privately Held; Online Media industry)
June 2009 — Present (7 months)
Freelancer interested in writing and data management opportunities.
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Contractor
eBay
(Public Company; eBay; Internet industry)
January 2008 — June 2009 (1 year 6 months)
Analyze category and classification structures to improve selling and finding items on the eBay site. Review and analyze financial performance, taxonomy quality, and community needs to recommend data structure improvements.
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Sr. Product Manager / Group Product Manager
TheFind, Inc.
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)
September 2006 — December 2007 (1 year 4 months)
• Manage projects to improve data comprehensiveness, data freshness, and search relevancy; increased stores crawled by 30% and raised products indexed to more than 200 million
• Translated business requirements into PRDs and managed entire product lifecycle; participate in QA cycles.
• Developed proprietary tool suite used to analyze data accuracy and to identify data for use in machine learning classification system.
• Managed 1 employee and offshore data processing team of 6 -
Sr. Product Manager
eBay, Inc.
(Public Company; Internet industry)
December 2005 — September 2006 (10 months)
• Managed global structured data program for eBay Motors, providing product guidance from concept through launch.
• Expanded data management operations internationally by establishing teams in China and United Kingdom; determined resource needs, trained employees, and maintained oversight of daily operations.
• Established project roadmap and managed data production build and release lifecycle.
• Managed 2 full-time employees and 2 contractors; established team objectives, provided career path planning, and evaluated performance quarterly. -
Manager Categories & Infrastructure, Product Marketing
eBay Inc.
(Public Company; Internet industry)
March 2004 — December 2005 (1 year 10 months)
• Managed the site categorization structure of 30k terms, as well as the development of product classification systems and integration of third-party vendor product catalog data.
• Analyzed and provided business recommendations on infrastructure projects, such as Half.com and Shopping.com integrations, Want It Now categorization, and Internet Marketing initiatives.
• Defined business requirements for internal applications, site feature enhancements; worked closely with product management through product lifecycle.
• Advocated seller and buyer community needs/impact related to infrastructure changes; participated in community conference calls, discussion board postings, tradeshows and eBay Live conferences. -
Associate Manager Categories & Infrastructure, Product Marketing
eBay Inc.
(Public Company; Internet industry)
December 2002 — February 2004 (1 year 3 months)
• Reviewed, recommended, and implemented monthly changes (~1500) to category taxonomy.
• Defined data models to aid in buyer finding and expand merchandising within key business areas.
• Developed scalable data production process, including best practices and team project tracking.
• Advocated seller and buyer community needs/impact related to infrastructure changes. -
Product Marketing Manager
SolutionCentral Media Corporation
(Public Company; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)
January 2000 — June 2002 (2 years 6 months)
• Defined and wrote requirements documents to develop core functionality and UI for proprietary content management system.
• Managed advertising production services; worked with cross-functional teams to achieve high-quality and timely advertising campaign releases.
• Managed corporate web site; created content and integrated third-party content services. -
National Editor
Networker.com
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)
1999 — 1999 (less than a year)
• Researched, wrote and managed a nationwide directory of networking organizations and events.
• Provided information architecture guidance on web site design.
• Developed content including feature articles, user surveys, and house style guidelines. -
Library Research Associate
Sulzer Orthopedics
(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; Medical Devices industry)
1998 — 1999 (1 year )
Provided competitive intelligence and patent research to scientists studying hip and knee replacements. Maintained library intranet and physical collection.
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Periodicals Specialist
Grand Valley State University
(Educational Institution; 501-1000 employees; Higher Education industry)
1991 — 1998 (7 years )
Managed the university library periodicals collection and led projects to automate periodicals check-in, migrate 3k+ subscriptions to new vendor, and develop collection each quarter.
Allen Williams’s Education
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University of Texas @ Austin
MLIS , Information & Library Science , September 1998 — December 1999
- Activities and Societies:
- American Library Association (ALA), Special Libraries Association (SLA), North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG)
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Grand Valley State University
BA , Creative Writing, Theatre , September 1990 — December 1995
- Activities and Societies:
- American Library Association (ALA), North American Serials Interest Group (NASIG), Lanthorn Newspaper, ESL Tutoring, APISO (Asian-Pacific Islanders Org.), GLBT Student Union
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Fulton High School
Additional Information
Allen Williams’s Websites:
Allen Williams’s Interests:
information classification and retrieval, social networks, user-generated content, business strategy, online retail industry, shopping search engines, new internet ventures, performing arts, cooking, travel, camping
Allen Williams’s Groups:
Silicon Valley WebGuild, Silicon Valley Product Management Association
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KIVA -
eBay Employees and Alumni Group -
LGBT Professional Network - Global -
Grand Valley State University Alumni Association
Allen Williams’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- career opportunities
- new ventures
- job inquiries
- expertise requests
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
