Luciano Castro
Product Manager
Location
Florence, Italy
Toptal Member Since
October 24, 2018
Luciano is a business-driven manager with over 15 years of experience as a CTO and CEO in multinational companies and startups. He has a strong technical background in IT and excellent management skills and is in love with Agile and Lean methodologies. Luciano's worked on more than 2,000 projects with both small and big teams (+400) and always remotely. He also possesses multiple certifications in PMP, Agile, Scrum, ITSQB, ITIL, and Microsoft.
Luciano is available for hire
Hire LucianoProject Highlights
Cloud.it
Led the creation and delivery of Cloud.it—one of the most important cloud SaaS providers.
Telco | VAS Services
Led the PMO team to plan and execute the delivery of our product for the biggest telco in Europe.
Unified Communications System
Led the creation of a new product for Unified Communications, from the design phase to the delivery with Agile methodology.
Expertise
Agile Product ManagementDesign ThinkingKanbanProduct GrowthProduct LaunchProduct ManagementProduct MarketingProduct StrategyEducation
Bachelor's Degree
UniFI: Università degli Studi di Firenze
Select Certifications
PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
PMI | Project Management Institute
Project Management Professional (PMP)
PMI | Project Management Institute
Work Experience
2016 - PRESENT
Owner
Anomadic.com (Agile Software Factory and Lean Development Consultancy)
- Managed a consultancy for Agile product development; consulting with companies among the top ten in hosting and cloud storage in Europe.
- Helped companies create successful Agile teams coaching and establishing clear delegation processes.
- Assisted startups in creating products using a design-thinking process.
- Aided luxury and fashion companies in entering new online markets.
- Consulted for industries in different fields—from entertainment to fashion—with a focus on innovation and opening new channels for online sales.
- Managed outsourced workforce for telcos and hosting providers using Agile methodologies.
- Acted as a business consultant during acquisitions and team replacements.
- Served as a consultant for C-level managers and entrepreneurs to plan and execute Lean/Agile team transitions.
- Managed a team of over 60 people between designers, marketers, software developers, product owners, and QA.
2016 - PRESENT
Owner
WeTechnology (Software House and Mobile Application Software Factory)
- Managed the design and implementation of carrier-grade solutions for telcos and bank institutions.
- Led the five development teams with 45 people in five different countries to create outstanding products.
- Managed a UX team and developers to create mobile applications for SaaS Companies (IT, CZ, UK, USA).
- Collaborated with startups to improve their quality assurance process.
- Helped companies to transform from Waterfall to Agile methodologies.
2016 - 2017
Senior Product Manager
KEYSOLUTIONS
- Applied Design Thinking methodology during the discovery phase of their new solution.
- Defined the MVP and roadmap implementation for the solution.
- Led a team of 50 developers, five QA, three product owners, five marketing specialists, two designers (all remote, in three different countries) to deliver the product.
- Improved the process and managed the transition to a fully Agile methodology.
2016 - 2017
Senior Technical Project Manager
MediaHeroes
- Organized and staffed remote teams.
- Managed and was in charge of the architectural design and implementation of the product.
- Planned and implemented the software lifecycle process in the company.
- Managed the transition from in-house to remote teams.
- Implemented Agile methodologies as Scrum Master.
- Trained junior project managers.
2011 - 2016
Chief Product Owner
Cloud.it
- Defined the product discovery and design for Cloud.it's solution; from the initial prototype until the architecture definition and delivery process.
- Oversaw and coordinated the UX team for the definition of all the products involved.
- Created the quality assurance process and DevOps to reach a daily delivery in production.
- Defined the product as a product owner chief (seven product owners) and managed the product program and portfolio.
- Oversaw the negotiation and vendor selection.
2005 - 2016
CTO
Aruba
- Organized the development process accordingly to Agile methodologies for all of the departments (involving more than 300 people) in four countries.
- Applied Lean and Kanban methodologies on production and quality.
- Created a continuous delivery system that is still used by the company.
- Created and organized the IT support according to ITIL standards.
- Managed the entire outsourcing process including the vendor selection, qualification, and negotiation.
- Managed the staffing processes (including sourcing, recruiting, and hiring) and the interview procedures.
- Implemented test and quality assurance procedures to achieve daily production deliveries.
Project History
Cloud.it
http://www.cloud.itLed the creation and delivery of Cloud.it—one of the most important cloud SaaS providers.
Cloud.it is a cloud provider solution that's available in five different countries and has a goal of mass targeting. The product was designed and created to reach the masses and keep an overall low cost (in terms of hardware and software maintenance) to guarantee outstanding growth.
As the chief product owner of Cloud.it, I led all the teams involved in this spinoff to create a market-ready product in less than six months. It eventually became the leading market product.
As the chief product owner of Cloud.it, I led all the teams involved in this spinoff to create a market-ready product in less than six months. It eventually became the leading market product.
Technical Author
Published 11 various books—from Development to Management—two of those books were adopted by IT schools to teach development
I have published eleven books on various subjects ranging from ASP.NET to Lean development strategies. I have also worked as an author for a variety of technical magazines and blogs.
Telco | VAS Services
Led the PMO team to plan and execute the delivery of our product for the biggest telco in Europe.
The project had a short timeline (five months) and a budget of 2 million to complete the complicated integrations and a go-no-go canvas in which the client had to decide if they would keep going with the product or drop it.
After seven years, the product is still actively used by millions of users.
After seven years, the product is still actively used by millions of users.
Unified Communications System
Led the creation of a new product for Unified Communications, from the design phase to the delivery with Agile methodology.
The project led to the creation of a unique solution for Unified Communications in Europe. The platform, used by SMBs and large enterprises, was designed and created with the collaboration between the client's team and a remote team of 20 people, working from all over the world.
By applying Agile methodologies, we managed to deliver the first MVP of the product in only two months (four sprints) and tested with beta participants
By applying Agile methodologies, we managed to deliver the first MVP of the product in only two months (four sprints) and tested with beta participants
ValidCandidate | HR Solution
Led the creation, implementation, and marketing of the product in four different countries.
ValidCandidate is an HR solution dedicated to startups and IT companies.
I led the design, implementation, and distribution of the application with different teams while working remotely.
I led the design, implementation, and distribution of the application with different teams while working remotely.
AskMaria
Implemented a solution for remotes support in two different countries, leading a distributed Agile team with mixed skills.
This product is an innovative solution for remote support. With a low budget, we managed to deliver the solution successfully. We did this by implementing a Lean and Agile methodology within a team, consisting of system administrators to marketing managers who had never worked with Agile methodologies before.
Education
1999 - 2004
Bachelor's Degree in Psychology
UniFI: Università degli Studi di Firenze - Florence, Italy
Certifications
APRIL 2015 - PRESENT
PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
PMI | Project Management Institute
MARCH 2014 - PRESENT
Project Management Professional (PMP)
PMI | Project Management Institute
MARCH 2013 - PRESENT
ITIL v3 Intermediate Level Certification
ITIL
MARCH 2012 - PRESENT
Certified Scrum Product Owner
Scrum Alliance
JANUARY 2012 - PRESENT
Quality Assurance Manager
ITSQB
JUNE 2009 - PRESENT
Microsoft Certified Professional
Microsoft
FEBRUARY 2008 - PRESENT
Microsoft SQL Server Certification
Microsoft
AUGUST 2007 - PRESENT
Hosting Professional Certification
Microsoft