Lloyd Keays
Product Portfolio
Examples of defining product strategy, shipping production features, and measuring impact. Each demonstrates the complete product lifecycle: opportunity identification, cross-functional collaboration, launch, and adoption measurement.
Case Study: AI Product from Prototype to Production
Gen AI Hackathon → Production Standard (2023)
Problem Discovery: SAP needed on-brand design assets but lacked scalable creation tools. Manual design was slow and inconsistent. Identified opportunity to use generative AI for asset creation while maintaining brand standards.
Product Definition: Designed system combining custom-trained Stable Diffusion model (500 SAP icons as training data) with ChatGPT integration for prompt enrichment. Defined success as: production-ready quality, SAP brand compliance, user adoption without training.
Cross-Functional Execution: Led team of 3 competing against 113 projects from 1,000+ employees. Partnered with engineering on model training. Collaborated on UX design for prompt interface. Won both Jury Prize and Public Prize.
Measured Impact:
- Adoption: 13,000 on-brand assets created in 2 weeks post-launch
- Quality: Tool became production standard (not just hackathon demo)
- Organic growth: User adoption without mandated rollout
- Scalability: Employees organically adopted as go-to design resource
Product Management Lessons: Rapid prototyping validated market need. Focus on one problem well rather than many features poorly. Success metrics defined upfront (brand compliance + user adoption). Engineering partnership critical for production readiness.
Technical Approach:
We trained a Stable Diffusion model using 500 official SAP icons from their design library. When employees requested a new icon, ChatGPT would enrich their prompt, then our AI would generate 4 versions in SAP's distinctive style.
Training Example: One of 500 original SAP icons used to train our model. Our AI learned SAP's distinctive visual style, color palette, and design patterns from these official library assets.
AI-Generated Results (Production Quality):
Click any icon to view full-size. These demonstrate production-ready quality and brand consistency.
Thought Leadership & Stakeholder Engagement
Product management requires the ability to articulate product vision to diverse stakeholders—from engineering teams to C-suite executives. My global speaking engagements demonstrate this capability at scale.
Executive Stakeholder Engagement
Validation of Product Vision:
- Capgemini Rencontres CPO (2025, Chantilly, France): AI panel to 50 European Chief Procurement Officers—product strategy resonated so strongly that CPOs from two companies personally requested same presentation for their entire teams
- Museum of the Future CPO Event (2024, Dubai): AI in Procurement keynote—demonstrates ability to position product vision for executive decision-makers
- World Expo Dubai (2022): International CPO delegation—product positioning at highest level
PM Relevance: CPO repeat requests validate product vision and messaging. Ability to engage executive stakeholders critical for product strategy buy-in.
Flagship Product Launches & Announcements
- Impulse 25 - UX Summit SAP (2025, Mannheim): Main keynote on AI's impact on user experience—product UX vision to 1,000+ attendees
- Ariba Live (2018, Amsterdam): Sustainability keynote to 3,000+ attendees—product positioning at major customer event
- SAP Ariba Live Middle East (2019, Dubai): Presented OpenAI concepts 3 years before ChatGPT release—early technology identification
Global Product Evangelism
Geographic Reach: 20+ countries across 5 continents
- Multi-City Tours: Canada (Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary), SAP Customer Success Days (London, Prague, Dubai, Stockholm, Paris)
- Recurring Series: SAP Spend Connect (Prague, Vienna, Dallas, Austin, Las Vegas), Connecting SAP South Africa (Johannesburg, consecutive years)
PM Skills: Consistent product messaging across markets, stakeholder management across cultures, ability to adapt product narrative for different audiences while maintaining core value proposition.
Measurable Engagement Impact
Audience Profile: C-Suite executives, procurement leaders, technology decision-makers—exactly the stakeholders product managers must influence
Key Topics: AI & Autonomous Agents in B2B, Future of Procurement, Digital Transformation—product vision and roadmap communication
Repeat Requests: CPOs from two companies personally requested same presentation for their teams—validates product vision resonates with target audience
Platform Strategy & Cross-Application Integration
SAP Crypto North Star: Blockchain Advisory Framework (2022)
Strategic Challenge: SAP needed board-level guidance on blockchain technology adoption across procurement and supply chain product lines. Required coordination across multiple business units, technical platforms, and market positions.
Product Strategy Role: Coordinated and developed advisory framework providing strategic recommendations on blockchain integration across product portfolio. Worked with product leaders across sourcing, buying, logistics, and asset maintenance to define cohesive approach.
Cross-Functional Coordination:
- Aligned multiple product teams on shared technology vision
- Collaborated with platform architects on integration approach
- Provided board-level recommendations on technology investment
- Created educational materials to build internal capability
Market Validation: Built SAP's #2 highest-rated course on blockchain (13,000+ completions) demonstrating ability to translate complex technology into accessible product narratives. Worked with UNICEF and European Commission on blockchain use cases—validating enterprise applications.
PM Skills Demonstrated: Platform thinking, cross-product coordination, executive stakeholder management, technical strategy without hands-on coding, building consensus across distributed teams.
Course teaser demonstrating ability to translate complex platform concepts into accessible product narratives
Go-to-Market Materials & Product Positioning
As Global Head of Pre-Sales working with 200+ solution advisors across 40 countries, I created product positioning materials and demonstrations that became global standards. These aren't just "demos"—they're product marketing artifacts that validate market fit and drive adoption.
Product Positioning: "How to Explain SAP"
Product Challenge: Nobody could explain how SAP's enterprise suite connected. Sales teams struggled with product positioning. Customers couldn't understand product relationships.
Solution: Created metro map analogy framework—first time SAP's product architecture became intuitively understandable. Now used in global onboarding for every new hire.
Market Validation: 4,092 views, became internal standard. Demonstrates ability to create frameworks where none existed—critical for product messaging.
2025 AI-generated music video version demonstrating framework evolution
Product Demo: PLAN, BUY, PAY with SAP Ariba
GTM Challenge: Sales teams needed end-to-end product demonstration showing complete procurement workflow. Required clear value proposition and technical accuracy.
Product Marketing Impact:
- 291,734 views—massive reach for B2B enterprise demo
- Still getting 6,000 views/year 9 years later (sustained relevance)
- Became global sales standard used by solution advisors worldwide
- Demonstrates product longevity and market fit
PM Lesson: Clear product positioning with measurable business value creates materials sales teams actually use. Sustained engagement proves product-market fit.
YouTube Channel as Product Validation:
880K+ views | 48K hours watch time
Ran main informal channel for SAP Ariba—not marketing fluff, but authentic product demonstrations showing what solutions actually do. High engagement proves product-market fit and clear value proposition. Sustained viewership over 9 years demonstrates lasting product relevance.
View ChannelProduct Management Philosophy in Action
Opportunity Discovery: Created SAP's first ChatGPT training 9 days after release (December 2022). Tracked Perplexity AI (2023), Manus AI (2024), Comet browser (early access). Pattern: identify emerging tech, validate enterprise application, build adoption strategy.
Rapid Prototyping: Hackathon to production in 2 weeks. Focus on solving one problem well (on-brand asset creation). Measured adoption (13K assets), not just features shipped. Validated product-market fit through organic user adoption.
Cross-Functional Execution: Blockchain strategy coordinated across multiple product lines. Platform integration expertise across $14B/day trading networks. Built frameworks adopted globally ("Lloyd's bag of tricks" still 1,000 hits/month).
Customer Validation: 880K+ video views prove market resonance. CPOs requesting repeat presentations validate product vision. 9-year sustained engagement demonstrates lasting product value.
Metrics-Driven: Track completion rates (#2 highest-rated course), adoption metrics (20K trained), engagement (6K annual views over 9 years). Define success criteria upfront, measure outcomes, iterate based on data.
Let's Discuss Your Product Roadmap
These examples demonstrate the complete product lifecycle: opportunity identification, strategic definition, cross-functional execution, launch, and measurable adoption. Ready to apply this approach to your procurement AI challenges.
lkeays@gmail.com
linkedin.com/in/keays