Irina Zaks
Specialty: Product Management / Web Production and Development / Online Accessibility
Contact info: 650-947-9896 / 650-387-0727 mobile / e-mail
Summary of qualifications:
- Expert in planning and implementation of a complete product development lifecycle within budget and on schedule, including:
- Market research and customer requirement analysis
- Financial analysis and ROI
- Consolidation of market requirements and financial restrictions into MRD/PRD
- Features prioritization, review of engineering specs and technical implementation methods
- Management of timely product delivery inside the company (engineering/sales/beta programs) and externally (partners/vendors/customers)
- Product launches (data sheets, sales collateral, advertising campaign, participation in industry events)
- Development of training materials, white papers, technical publications
- Thorough knowledge of enterprise system design: reliability, scalability, cost-of-ownership
- Thorough knowledge of web technologies, languages and tools, including content management systems, group communication tools, video streaming, etc.
- Ability to meet deadlines, work under pressure, and to learn new products and concepts quickly
- Excellent communication and organizational skills, comfortable working with technical and non-technical individuals at all levels, work well independently or in a team
- Good understanding of Russian culture
Work Experience:
Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA 2003 - present
Web Accessibility Technical Specialist - 2005 - present
- Developed coding standards/templates compliant with Section 508 requirements
- Designed training materials to teach best practices in development of accessible websites
- Evaluated existing websites for 508 compliance
- Provided recommendations for websites' accessibilty improvement based on W3 standards
Web Editor for Stanford Report - 2003 - 2004
- Managed web production for online version of Stanford Report (Dreamweaver, content management system)
- Developed new workflow for processing Word articles into InDesign documents for print processing and into xml documents for web using AppleScript for process automation
- Defined InDesign templates for Style-to-Tag xml mapping
- Coded XML/XSLT stylesheets to pre-process xml files for import into content management system
I-Ring Consulting, Mountain View, CA (ongoing)
Web development and project/product management consulting. Major projects include:
- Complete newspaper publishing solution with improved workflow based on Word/InDesign/XML-XSLT processed for Los Altos Town Crier
- Videoconferencing Translation/interpretation network for remote medical services – development of technical proposal for VC funding
- Software Product Marketing eGroup - Strategy Team member
Symphony Systems, Campbell, CA 2000 - 2002
Product Marketing Manager
Developed and executed a strategy for delivering a web-based data collection/storage/analysis server for semiconductor manufacturing. The product improved tools productivity by ~15% which resulted in $75K - $200K saving per year per tool.
- Completed MRD based on market research and customer requirement analysis
- Analyzed pricing and ROI jointly with sales force
- Wrote PRD, reviewed product engineering documentation, prioritized product features
- Developed requirements for Network Monitoring system and Data backup and recovery system
- Planned and executed product launches (sales collateral, advertising campaign, SemiCon show)
- Coordinated timely delivery of the product with hardware vendors, engineering, sales, and customers
- Inspired project team to meet deadlines
SAT Corporation, Sunnyvale, CA 1998 -2000
Product Marketing Manager, RF monitoring systems for wireless communication systems
Developed a wireless carrier management application suite. New product increased company sales by ~40% and led to the company acquisition.
- Completed MRD and PRD for next generation of the product
- Included Network Management system into the suite of applications
- Reviewed engineering specs for consistency with customer requirements
- Led the team and hardware vendors in timely delivery of the product
- Managed Hewlett Packard Channel partner relationship
- Developed technical marketing materials (data sheets, brochures, web site, etc.)
- Responded to RFPs and prepared unsolicited proposals with the accent on price/performance
Space Systems Loral, Palo Alto, CA 1995 -1998
Business Ventures/Eastern European Program, Program Coordinator
- Developed rural telephony/networking project for Russia and East Europe, including market demand research, analysis of potential system vendors, technical and organizational issues of system integration and implementation
- Coordinated team effort in developing proposals for joint manufacturing of communication satellites with Gascom/Energia (Russia), including preparation of engineering specs, schedules, legal and financial documents.
- Worked with Sales, Systems Engineering, Operations and Legal departments to ensure timely completion of the program.
Grant School District, Skills Center, Sacramento, CA 1991 - 1995
Program coordinator
- Planned program activities, interacted with the customers, analyzed market requirements, formed and lead the team to perform successful and timely completion of projects
- Developed training curriculum and conducted training classes
- Prepared grant proposals, including schedules and budgets.
University of Latvia, Riga, Latvia, USSR 1988 - 1990
Research Associate
- Developed and managed network accessible database for retrieval of scientific and conference related information
- Developed software for the calculation of electronic structures in semiconductors
Two publications in scientific magazines.
Education:
- 1997 - 1999 Telecommunication Engineering, UC Berkeley
- 1996 Satellite Systems Design and Engineering, Launch Space, Washington, DC
- 1982 - 1988 MS Physics, Latvian University, Riga, Latvia, USSR
- 1981 - 1982 Art School, Riga, Latvia, USSR
Toolbox:
- Office tools: MS Project, MS Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook), Visio.
- Web: HTML 4.0, CSS 2, JavaScript, DHTML, CGI, PHP, PERL, XML/XSLT, 508 section, WAI
- Adobe: Photoshop, ImageReady, Acrobat, Illustrator, InDesign
- Macromedia: Dreamweaver, Flash MX with ActionScript, Fireworks
Languages:
- Russian, Latvian
Hobbies: mountaineering, web design