Matthew Ruhland

(805) 603-9569 | matthewruhland@gmail.com | www.linkedin.com/in/matt-ruhland/

CAREER PROFILE

Product manager with 4 years of experience building powerful B2B(2C) SaaS applications within an Agile environment. At Affirm, I spearheaded major eCommerce developments in shopper credit, shipping logistics, user dashboards, and API integrations that drove millions in revenue contribution. At Sysco, my work on the CAKE Payments network and POS API integrations fundamentally expanded the product TAM for CAKE POS and meaningfully grew the userbase. I am excited to bring these experiences to propel product-focused, data-driven growth with a new product and team.

EXPERIENCE

Affirm

Product Manager

May 2021 – Feb 2023

Led the Returnly US Product Development team, owning core eCommerce functionality such as Returnly Credit, return management automation, shipping carrier partnerships, and platform integrations.

• Devised, experimented, refined, and delivered a novel process to automate the recovery of delinquent shopper credit, reducing manual OpEx by ~$200k annually while improving the overall delinquent credit recovery rate by 14% (~$400k in additionally recovered funds, annualized).

• Designed and implemented comprehensive shipping label rate-shopping functionality into the core Returnly product, saving our client merchants an estimated $800k in shipping label costs annually while increasing Affirm shipping label revenue 43% (~$1mm annualized contribution margin).

• Led discovery sessions based on Customer Success and GTM feedback, identifying and delivering on key API integrations to 3rd party partners such as Kustomer and Klaviyo, contributing directly to >$3mm captured revenue from new merchants and churn prevention of existing customers.

• Collaborated with Data Analytics stakeholders to design and execute A/B and multivariate experiments with the goal of optimizing shopper repurchase conversion in the checkout flow. The graduated experimental variants exhibited combined +4.6% credit conversion over control variants.

Returnly - Acquired by Affirm

Associate Product Manager

March 2021 – May 2021

Worked to develop both merchant and shopper experiences, define robust APIs, and lead custom integrations with industry-leading eCommerce platforms. Led product development processes in an extremely collaborative setting between engineering, design, and customer-facing teams with the end goal of creating industry-changing technologies.

Sysco LABS

Associate Product Manager

November 2018 – May 2020

CAKE Point-of-Sale and CAKE Payments network - Collaborated cross-functionally with agile teams including UI/UX design, engineering, implementation, and sales to find market opportunities, deliver impactful product offerings, and iterate product designs to reach strategic goals and continuously improve products based on customer feedback.

• Managed deployment of 3rd-Party Developer Portal including implementation of open-source API gateway and publishing of API documentation, controlling access to development resources and integrating myriad 3rd-party developers into the CAKE POS ecosystem.

• Improved the resiliency and security of CAKE Payments network, documenting improvements and working closely with third-party auditors to ensure full PCI-DSS certification. 

• Analyzed customer feedback, identifying key shortcomings in user-based access control systems. Wireframed, documented, and guided development of a complete overhaul to permissions systems, increasing system security and auditability, closing over 300 documented feature request cases. 

• Worked directly with company’s largest enterprise client, leading the design, development, and testing of a critical 3rd party API integration, achieving full deployment 2 weeks ahead of schedule. 

Kickin Chicken

Founding General Manager

April 2016 – November 2018

Scaled restaurant business from popup/delivery-only concept to an efficiently running, profitable QSR. 

• Opened the first brick-and-mortar Kickin’ Chicken location including all necessary logistics and planning. Hired line staff, implemented POS and online ordering technology, upgraded employee payroll, and improved inventory control practices, achieving an overall 8.7% profit margin in FY18.

EDUCATION

University of California, Santa Cruz

Bachelor of Economics

• • Studies focused in the areas of econometrics, statistics, and data analytics. 

CERTIFICATIONS

Certified Scrum Master Product Owner

Scrum Alliance Credential #1068862

• • Certification demonstrates a fundamental understanding of the Scrum framework, and how to apply it to maximize the value delivered with a product.