Nikhil Karanam

Products/Domain : Fleet Management Platform , Trackers , Telematics , Route Optimization, Fuel Utilization , Maintenence

Region : US, Mexico , EU

Responsible for building and executing our Motive roadmap to enable our Fleet Management platform growth across the Telematics and fleet saftey product line. Launched 2 New Hardware accessory products in 12 months unlocking the TAM opportunity of $2M.

• Driving product definition for a range of advanced IoT devices, sensors and accessories
• Working with Applications Product Management leaders to understand the broader business and customer needs, and enable optimized solutions spanning the cloud and edge devices
• Establishing a roadmap and long-term strategy across the Telematics and hardware product line
• Lead field validation and product launch activities in collaboration with Marketing, Engineering and Operations
• Hiring, developing and leading an inclusive, engaged, and high performing team

Products/Domain : Automotive, Retail, Dealer Management Systems Region : US, Canada, Europe

Responsible for overseeing the overall IoT product vision and strategy in alignment with organizational growth objectives. Achieved MRR of $100k by enhancing the exiting hardware IOT product feature and changing the GTM strategy

• Spearheaded the introduction of three new products to the IoT portfolio, including Digital Signage, OBD Telematics, and Indoor Asset and Vehicle Tracking.
• Collaborated with Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success teams to refine the Go-To-Market (GTM) strategy and enhance sales enablement, resulting in the achievement of $100k Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) within 32 months for Tekion IoT products.
• Secured three global partnerships in the United States, Canada, and France to drive revenue growth, increase product penetration, and facilitate scaled manufacturing.
• Implemented product management processes and standards, leading a team of four product managers.

Domain : Aerospace

Region : India

Responsible building the Aviation specific IOT/AI-ML platform for Improving the Turnaround operations of Airports and Airliners

• Delivered 4+ NPI products (Firmware & Hardware and Platforms) successfully with 98% success rate. ( 4G GPS tracker, Lora edge Node, Ble Beacon sensors etc). Handled completed CE and FCC certification process of IOT 4G gateway.
• Successfully delivered the IOT-Saas product for digitization and tracking of Field Equipment's at Jindal Steel Plant. Designed and built complete Automation of Stacker and Reclaimer, Excavator equipment's used in Mining for material handling including Job planning, Inventory management, Machine Hours, Geo location and collision avoidance system.
• Successfully delivered the patient realtime health monitoring SaaS platform using wearable to hospital during COVID pandemic.
• Collaborated with sales, marketing and support teams to launch products on time and within budget.
• Prioritized road-map along with CEO, Business Team in order to achieve product goals and metrics based on maximum revenue opportunities.
• Involved developing PRD's, Project management Plan,

Products/Domain : HVAC, Thermostats, Fleet management, Smart Home solutions

Region : US, CA

Enhanced 3 existing Thermostats with IOT capabilities and launched in US and CA markets and sold 10k+ units in 12 months.

• Led smart Touch Thermostat Product design , development and Testing including firmware , UI, Mechanical and QA with features like cloud connectivity and control, pre-sets, condition monitoring for residential purpose.
• Directed the product development cycle from prototype development to manufacturing by migrating the legacy climate control HVAC products like Out door units and Furnaces to cloud producing sales revenue of $1.2 million annually and capturing 23% of the international market. Scaled Our thermostat product offerings by Integrating with Google Home and Amazon Alexa platform with condition monitoring and smart home controls. Enabled Predictive maintenance of Furnaces, Chillers by building a data analytics platform with the help of machine insights. . Managed the 3 IOT-Saas CarrierCorporation products for 2 years. Improved quality by 32%, cut lead times 21%, cut costs 48%.
• Increased customer satisfaction by 70 % by solving problems, concerns and simplifying the UI flow effectively on the Thermostat control Mobile app on Android and IOS( Cor Smart Home, MyInfinity Touch )
• Negotiated 12% overall cost reduction by tight management of 21 vendor contracts, including RFPs and SLA compliance.

Products/Domain : Avionics, Safety Critical systems, Sensors, Industrial Automation . Involved in product positioning , messaging and Got to market strategy.

• Worked with Product management in prioritising the features and defining the product Roadmap for Edge devices, sensors and machine critical Embedded products in Avionics.
• Worked with product Marketing team in building and running 3 end to end Product marketing Campaigns Worked on market research , understanding the Competitor landscape and Identifying Customer pain points and gap analysis.
• Worked closely with cross functional teams including Marketing, sales , Partner Success and Business finance for branding , product collaterals, Training materials, Customer engagement

Products/Domain : GE Consumer Electronics ( Washers, Dryers, Refrigerators).

• Delivered embedded software components for multiple consumer appliances (Washers/Dryers/Refrigerators) product ensuring quality of code and design in adherence to product specification, coding standards and schedule.
• Involved in Boot Loader design & Development of 5 different microcontroller platform projects. Supported QA team with white box and Black box testing of 4 parallel projects.
• Drove complex customer issues from escalation to resolution with a 100% reduction in backlog.

Products/Domain : Home Automation, Industrial Automation

• Schematic, PCB Design and Low level driver development in assembly and Embedded C for RFID, Zigbee, UART, I2C, SPI, RS-485, PWM, ADC, DAC and LCD. Worked on PLC's , 8,16, 32 bit Microcontrollers Design, Development & Testing of Home Automation & Security Products including Motion sensors, Cameras, Touch screens, Light controlling devices and Building management systems.
• Wire framing of smart home applications based on customer requirements