Hi, I'm
Talha
& I build
stuff that
ships.

Product manager, prototyper, occasional code-pusher in Toronto. Six years between systems thinking and a keyboard. I like problems that have real users and broken tools.

6 yrs PM
⚡ ships fast
AI tools
0 → 1
solo & w/ teams
☆ Toronto
Open for full-time Product · AI · Tools Canada / India Drag everything Open for full-time Product · AI · Tools Canada / India Drag everything

Projects, but throwable.

↓ chuck them around

Every card below is a real project. Grab one, throw it at a wall, then click to read. The reset button puts them back.

The resume bit.

↓ where, when, what shipped

6 years of work · 3 degrees · drag the playhead to scrub

2015 to 2027 · career timeline
WORK EDUCATION
work →
Startups · India
iG2 · intern
Tech Program Mgr · Ministry
edu →
B.Com (Hons) · Jamia
Analytics · Humber
PM · ISB
2015201720192021202320252027
2026
● TALHA USMANI · DOSSIER · v2026 CURRENTLY SHIPPING

I'm a TPM moving into product.

Six years operating across analytics, growth, and large-scale public-sector implementations. Now sharpening the formal PM skill set at ISB, freshly CSPO-certified through Scrum Alliance, and working toward the PMP. I get my energy from the seam between business needs and shipped systems: translating ambiguous problems into roadmaps, getting cross-functional teams aligned, and turning strategy into something users actually touch.

Currently coordinating cyber-resilience programs across Ontario's K-12 system as part of the Cyber Security Division at MPBSDP. Led the rollout of Slack as the centralized collaboration platform across 30+ school boards, and contributed to the productization of CRISPER, a white-labeled SIEM built on Wazuh.

Before this: account management, growth, and analytics across early-stage Indian startups. Tableau forecasts, Zapier automations, retention campaigns for Taco Bell and Nando's. The kind of operating foundation that makes the product transition feel less like a leap and more like a name change.

Toronto-based. Looking for product roles that combine structure with mission, and where I can keep building things that actually move.

2023 → now
currently
Technical Program Manager
iG2 Group · Ontario Ministry (MPBSDP) · Toronto
57 boards −40% licensing provincial
+

Currently part of the Cyber Resilience Strategy & Oversight Services team within the Cyber Security Division at the Ontario Ministry of Public & Business Service Delivery and Procurement (MPBSDP). Supporting Ontario's K-12 sector in strengthening cyber resilience, posture, and risk mitigation. Previously embedded in the Community Services I&IT Cluster at the Ontario Ministry of Education, aligning governance and security across the province's K-12 ecosystem.

  • Liaison between IT leads, cybersecurity stakeholders, and Ministry leadership for communication and progress tracking
  • Led rollout of a centralized collaboration tool across 30+ orgs, streamlined comms and cut tool licensing costs by ~40%
  • Authored strategic documentation, process outlines, and executive summaries supporting SOC workflows and stakeholder onboarding
  • Operated inside a modern stack: Microsoft Sentinel, Defender, Power BI, SOCPrime, Automox, Meraki, plus IAM/MFA/PAM
  • Consolidated security metrics into custom dashboards, applying data-driven thinking to executive reporting
  • Defined the metrics framework for a provincial-level cyber posture dashboard used by government executives
  • Facilitated cyber workshops for 50–100 person rooms, translating technical material for non-technical stakeholders
stack MS SentinelDefender Power BISOCPrime AutomoxMeraki IAM/MFA/PAMSlack Jira
2023
Analytics Intern → Cybersec Consultant
iG2 Group · Toronto
intern → FT CRISPER co-lead
+

Joined as an Analytics Intern, transitioned into a full-time role focused on internal tool development, strategic product coordination, and cybersecurity project support. The performance here earned me the Ministry of Education account.

  • Co-led roadmap and coordination of CRISPER, a customized SIEM built on open-source Wazuh, owning feature prioritization, product readiness, and client deployment
  • Bridge between technical members and leadership: aligned expectations, structured documentation, iterative improvements
  • Cross-functional planning across MS Sentinel, Automox (patch mgmt), and GPT-powered alert triage
  • Built repeatable processes for tool evaluation, PoC tracking, and outcome reporting
  • Created early-stage Power BI dashboards giving real-time access to security and performance metrics
  • Integrated Jira with Azure Sentinel, cutting manual incident-management overhead
  • Monitored multi-network environments with PRTG, catching issues before they hit end-users
  • Documented tools, protocols, and findings, reducing onboarding time across the team
  • Delivered biweekly client reports for transparent progress communication
stack WazuhAzure Sentinel Power BIJira PRTGAutomox GPTClaude
2018 → 2021
Account Manager & Growth Operator
Early-stage startups · India
+40% sales +120% retention 20+ clients
+

Cut my teeth across three high-growth Indian environments. Learned to operate at startup speed with minimal resources across sales, analytics, automation, and retention. The foundation for everything that came after.

  • Drove a 40% sales increase during the onset of COVID-19 via stronger supplier relationships and cross-selling tactics
  • Owned end-to-end deals in the Noida region up to C$100,000
  • Built Tableau forecasts and dashboards that fed stakeholder strategy
  • Lifted customer retention by 120% through data-driven campaign strategies and predictive forecasting
  • Automated reporting with Zapier, standardized presentation packs, saving AMs ~8 hrs/week
  • Handled 20+ client marketing initiatives end-to-end (incl. retention campaigns for Taco Bell and Nando's)
  • Built Excel dashboards with macros for transparent performance monitoring and rapid iteration
stack TableauZapier Excel/MacrosCRM ops HubSpotRetention mktg
2021 → 2023
Business Insights & Analytics
Humber College · Toronto · Graduate Cert
The reason I can read a SQL plan, fight with Tableau, and prototype with Python.
PythonSQLML TableauPower BISPSS
2015 → 2018
B.Com (Hons)
Jamia Millia Islamia · New Delhi
Business foundation. Finance, accounting, economics. Learned to read a P&L before learning to ship a product.
FinanceAccountingEconomics
always
Self-directed
Internet, books, side projects, peers
Most of what I actually use day-to-day was learned outside a classroom. The classroom just helped me trust it.
Product & PM
Stakeholder mgmt8
Cross-functional coord.9
Implementation8
Roadmapping7
Product strategy7
Discovery / research8
Tech & Data
SQL7
Python5
Power BI / Tableau8
MS Sentinel / Defender7
SIEM / SOC ops6
IAM / MFA / PAM6
Tools & Systems
Slack8
Jira / Confluence8
Zapier / automation7
Notion / Asana8
Figma (PM-fluent)7
GPT / Claude / AI tooling9
How I show up
Translating tech ↔ biz8
Workshop facilitation9
Exec communication8
Writing & documentation8
Process design8
Mentoring / handoff8
Certified Scrum Product Owner
Scrum Alliance · CSPO
● completed
PMP
Project Management Institute · in progress
● pursuing
Certified in Cybersecurity
ISC2 · 2024
● completed
Generative AI: Future of Work
University of Michigan · AI & Labor
● completed

// languages

Englishnative / professional
Hindinative
Urdunative

// outside of work

Long walks around Toronto. Helping friends get sharper with prompt engineering, then helping them turn rough ideas into actual side projects. I'm usually the one doing the brainstorm + early product-shaping pass before they write a single line.

Always reading something on AI products, public sector tech, and how teams ship.

// philosophy

Structure, with mission. Process, with humor. Ship the thing, then make it better.

SUBTOTAL
6 yrs · 3 degrees · 0 regrets

Receipts, in numbers.

↑ click for sparks
cost cut
−75%
Slack license renegotiated. Tripled organizations. Kept every workflow.
school boards
17 → 57
A provincial cyber program scaled to every K-12 board in Ontario.
unique cases
30k+
Combinations Case Atlas can generate from a 4-axis configurator.
workshops
12+
Cyber + AI workshops led for 50–100 person rooms of execs & trustees.
AI eval axes
6 axes
A radar chart that scores user answers on 6 strategy-skill dimensions. Live in v2.
years in product
6
Plus a B.Com that taught me how to read a room.

Operating rules.

↻ click to flip
// rule 01

Ship the spike, not the spec

click →

A working prototype settles ten meetings. If I can build it in a weekend, I'd rather have the artifact than the deck.

← click
// rule 02

Tooling is a product decision

click →

The platform you pick is the operating surface for the work. Slack at scale was a product call, not a procurement call.

← click
// rule 03

AI is a pipeline, not a feature

click →

One-shot prompts drift. Architect agents, evaluators, and humans-in-the-loop are how you ship reliable AI.

← click
// rule 04

Cut before you add

click →

Most product problems are subtraction problems wearing addition's clothes. Find what to remove first.

← click

Let's   build
something.

✉ talha.usmani1996@gmail.com in/talha-usmani
Toronto · UTC−5 · open to remote-first teams