About New England Product Group

The New England Product Group can help you from strategy and ideation through best practices and execution to create great products that provide exceptional value for customers and stakeholders. NEPG works with CEOs, Founders, and Executive Teams of technology-based companies to create a path for achieving their product vision and organizational objectives.

Support includes the commercialization and growth of B2B software or hardware products with oversight for the entire product lifecycle from conceptualization through to exit. NEPG provides support and guidance during key phases such as product development/research, strategy development, roadmaps, business modeling, MVP definition, product launch, mentoring on best practices, and aggressive scaling to achieve organizational objectives. Services include fractional product executive, interim product executive, product management consulting, and advisory board roles.

Building products is hard. Despite advancements in technology, it is more difficult to build products that achieve breakthrough success. There are many moving parts in the ecosystem of technology, people and processes. Customer journeys are more complex than ever and customers expect more. NEPG will work with your teams to increase the odds of your product success through an iterative, collaborative and outcome-driven approach. Leverage 25 years of product management & strategy expertise gained from working with B2B tech companies across a wide range of industries and technologies to build products, grow revenue, and catalyze your business. 


Robert Otto

Managing Director &

Chief Product Officer

I began my career in engineering and transitioned to product management, which I have been practicing for over 25 years. My product experience spans a breadth of technologies and markets and in companies, from startups with tens of people to established companies with tens of thousands of employees. For the past 12 years, I have provided product management and strategy consulting services. I am effective under pressure and an excellent partner to  C-suite executives.

I have also been an advisor to numerous startups and growth-stage companies, including being an early advisor to DraftKings which currently has a valuation of more than $20 billion. As an advisor, I strive to be an excellent partner, providing opinions, guidance, counsel, and practical advice, as well as serving as a sounding board.

My products have included hardware, software, and service-based offerings with technologies ranging from networking, semiconductor, wireless, mobile, security, and consumer electronics. I have worked with B2B, B2C, B2B2C, and OEM products selling to various markets and industries globally from enterprise customers to direct to consumer, government, and defense to SMBs, financial institutions, critical infrastructure, manufacturing, retail, healthcare, industrial automation, and IoT. Several of my products have won industry awards and recognition for design and innovation. A number of them have been disruptive and introduced new product categories. I have managed product portfolios in the hundreds of millions of dollars.


I focus on providing value to my customers through solving their challenges or enabling them with new capabilities and the customer experience throughout their journey from discovery to purchase, installation, and use. I employ a data-driven, iterative approach to creating, launching, and enhancing exceptional product portfolios that drive business growth. I am passionate about building skillful and effective product management and design teams that can deliver great products, and accelerate time to market and revenue. 


I have experience in waterfall, agile and hybrid environments and have taken products through their entire life cycle from market research and ideation, through business case, development, business model definition, launch, go to market, sustaining, and end of life. That has included building out the longer-term strategy and roadmap in addition to managing more tactical-driven near-term priorities. I've also taken existing product portfolios, repositioned them, and built out capabilities. I have also done several successful turnarounds of product portfolios.

 

I've been the sole product person in a startup, established and built up the product management function at several companies, and worked with cross-functional teams across companies and continents.


I believe that the right frameworks, processes, tools, and mindset lay the foundation to enable teams to innovate and create great products in a reproducible manner. With that in mind, a big part of my focus is the team itself - making sure that the tools, processes, and procedures are aligned to enable the team to perform at a high level and to establish a culture of continuous improvement.  My goal is to create an environment that fosters the delivery of great products. That extends beyond the product management team, to include the other cross-functional teams with which the product group interacts, both internally and externally.


I have had the privilege of working with some truly exceptional individuals, teams, and partners, to envision, plan, and bring to market innovative new products that created significant value for customers and shareholders.