Who is Theo Denanyoh?

I'm a Product Manager based in the Columbus, Ohio Metro area. I'm a dad and husband, and I am passionate about beautiful products that solve meaningful problems.

My story

My story

I was born in Accra, Ghana, but moved to the US in my early teens. I've always been drawn to tech. My early experiences with products started when I wanted to build an alumni site for my junior high school class in Ghana, St. Martin de Porres. This led me to my first no-code tool, Yahoo Geocities. I was able to craft what was an excellent static page at the time, and it helped keep some of my former mates connected.


I then went to college with the initial desire to study aerospace engineering, but I kept being drawn to computer science. I worked on a few projects during college, like managing the student government's website and my blog.


After two years, I dropped out to pursue my startup business, TagUs Web, where my friend and I developed a website for businesses around town. Though not hugely profitable, the lessons from that experience still apply to my projects today.


I've carried my entrepreneurial mindset through everything I do, even in my full-time role as a Product Manager. It is essential to always think like an owner to ensure success.

My past experience

Paycor

A leading technology company providing cutting-edge financial technology solutions to banks and financial institutions.

Senior Technical Product Manager

January 2018 - Present

A player-coach helping lead internal system product strategy, defining product vision and prioritizing features on product roadmap to bring efficiency to our embedded resellers and internal associates.

Morgan Stanley Wealth Management

Columbus, Ohio

Sr. Business Analyst

December 2011 - February 2017

I collaborated with product managers and engineers to translate customer problems into solutions.

JP Morgan Chase

Columbus, Ohio

Sr. Risk Operations Analyst

August 2009 - April 2011

As a Risk Operations Analyst, my role was to reduce the bank's financial risk by identifying and resolving instances of retail fraud. I also worked towards identifying ways to improve internal tooling to add efficiency. One of the internal tools I built was a Mircosoft access front end for capturing form data to post to an excel spreadsheet.

My skills

Empathy & Communication

The key to solving any problem is to understand the problem. I usually start by embedding myself with the customer to better understand the problems from their view.

Build a team

I often will spend time bring in resources with UX and design experience as well engineering experience and lastly a product marketer to help go to market with the new idea.

Build and Test

I'm not an engineer but I know how to think like one and that helps ensure my engineering partners build the right solution.

Validate and Repeat

Building products is iterative. I make sure to spend time to gather metrics to validate assumptions, tweak, pivot if necessary and repeat.

Empathy & Communication

The key to solving any problem is to understand the problem. I usually start by embedding myself with the customer to better understand the problems from their view.

Build a team

I often will spend time bring in resources with UX and design experience as well engineering experience and lastly a product marketer to help go to market with the new idea.

Build and Test

I'm not an engineer but I know how to think like one and that helps ensure my engineering partners build the right solution.

Validate and Repeat

Building products is iterative. I make sure to spend time to gather metrics to validate assumptions, tweak, pivot if necessary and repeat.

Empathy & Communication

The key to solving any problem is to understand the problem. I usually start by embedding myself with the customer to better understand the problems from their view.

Build a team

I often will spend time bring in resources with UX and design experience as well engineering experience and lastly a product marketer to help go to market with the new idea.

Build and Test

I'm not an engineer but I know how to think like one and that helps ensure my engineering partners build the right solution.

Validate and Repeat

Building products is iterative. I make sure to spend time to gather metrics to validate assumptions, tweak, pivot if necessary and repeat.

Theo Denanyoh © 2024

With 🖤 from Columbus Ohio

Theo Denanyoh © 2024

With 🖤 from Columbus Ohio

Theo Denanyoh © 2024

With 🖤 from Columbus Ohio