Daniel Chen

Professional Experience

Group Product Manager - Juniper Square (2020 - 2023)

Juniper Square is a unicorn fintech startup. I was responsible for the investor relations reporting product during a period of rapid scaling (5x revenue and 5x headcount). Major initiatives I led include its enterprise product strategy, 0 -> 1 product and market expansion into new verticals which included data model changes and new product experiences, definition of Juniper Square’s first externally available API and approach to integrations, and new feature development such as Outlook Integration and customized reporting.

Principal - frog design (2014 - 2019)

frog is global design, technology and strategy consultancy. I collaborated on multi-disciplinary teams on digital and physical design projects for Fortune 500s such as Ikea, Google, AT&T, Freescale and Toyota. I worked on both consumer and business problems across a variety of industries. I honed skills in user research, design thinking, storytelling, product/brand marketing, customer journey mapping, quantitative research methods such as PCA, clustering, conjoint analysis and applied a variety of other product and business frameworks across the product design lifecycle. A selection of projects is shown on this website’s projects page.

Associate - ADIA (2010 - 2012)

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is one of the largest soverign wealth funds in the world. I was part of the first cohort of expatriate associates to be based out of Abu Dhabi and make direct investments in the Americas. I was involved in executing $5 bil worth of JVs, acquisitions, dispositions in partnership with Blackstone, Hines, PCCP, and Tishman Speyer.

Analyst - MSREF (2008 - 2010)

Morgan Stanley Real Estate Fund is Morgan Stanley’s flagship real estate private equity fund. I was an M&A analyst based in New York. Notable projects included CalPERS advisory and several equity offerings and recapitalizations during the Global Financial Crisis.

Other experiences - Bjarke Ingels Group | Herman Miller

Education

MBA - Stanford GSB

Coursework at d.school. Design & Manufacturing Club.

BA Economics, History of Art & Architecture - Harvard College

Magna cum laude (Thesis with Ed Glaeser); phi beta kappa

My Story

My unconventional career path has taken me from private equity investing to design consulting to tech product management. These diverse experiences have equipped me with a wide range of skills, which prove valuable in cross-functional positions such as product management:

  • Diverse industry and problem exposure - My exposure to design problems across a variety of industries and consumer types enables me to generate innovative ideas and draw connections more quickly.
  • High Learning Capacity - My ability to learn and adapt has enabled me to build trust and gain expertise repeatedly across multiple industries and roles.
  • User Empathy and Design - I have significant experience running user research and design procesess honed repeatedly over multiple consulting engagements.
  • Storytelling - Through my business development responsibilities at frog, I developed a skill for crafting compelling narratives and presentations that I leverage in my role as product manager to help communicate ideas and features - internally and externally.
  • Technical Curiosity - At Juniper Square, I collaborated closely with engineers on many technical aspects of our core data model. I have a passion for understanding complex systems and getting my hands dirty as exemplified by some of my recent AI prototypes.