I turn AI from a demo into product that moves the business.
Head of Product with 15+ years in healthcare, fintech, and SaaS. I set product, UX, and engineering strategy and ship production code. Most recently, the Voice AI and agent platform at Symplast. Now taking on fractional product leadership and AI advisory.
Product leadership across
15+
years in product
13M+
users reached
$10M+
ARR & revenue driven
1,000+
Product Leader Academy members
About Me
A Head of Product who sets strategy and ships production code, with a bias toward AI that earns its place in the product.
Fifteen-plus years building AI, mobile, and platform products across healthcare, fintech, and SaaS, at Optum, Truckstop, PwC, ADP, and Symplast, where I led product, UX, and engineering. I own strategy, but I also sit in the codebase: at Symplast I built Kate, an in-house Voice AI receptionist, and a set of focused agents on a unified analytics platform. Production systems, not slideware.
I care about the parts of the job AI can't do: finding the problem worth solving and the judgment to ship the right thing. I founded Product Leader Academy, a 1,000+ member community and jobs platform, and I'm now taking on fractional product leadership and AI advisory.
Led product at Optum, Truckstop, PwC, ADP, Mastercard, and Open English, from $3.2B benefits platforms to 13M-member healthcare apps.
Built an in-house Voice AI receptionist and production agents, plus GenAI workflows and AI load-matching. Real systems in users' hands, not demos.
Owns strategy end to end (APIs and marketplaces, payments, SSO, and accessibility) and reports the tradeoffs to the board in revenue, retention, and cost.
A sample of what I've shipped this year.
Product leadership isn't only strategy decks. These are products I designed and built myself in 2026.
Product Leader Academy
Execution-first training and community for product leaders. 1,000+ members, real projects, mentorship, a jobs board.
Stay in Lakeland
A production AI concierge that answers guests across voice, SMS, and web from one brain, grounded in live local data. A business I founded and run.
Viewlitmusly
AI product testing that runs journey audits on every pull request; grounded personas surface UX friction in two minutes.
Viewimperfit
Chat-first AI nutrition coach for people who won't log meals. Three-second voice or photo logging on edge AI.
swiftrecap
Autonomous AI newsletter for engineers and PMs; aggregates RSS, Reddit, GitHub and HN into a weekly digest.
Viewkeelio
Agent-native operating system for cash-pay clinics, starting with TRT and metabolic practices.
halopt
HIPAA-compliant platform connecting post-surgical PT patients, therapists and surgeons.
HearthFi
Personal finance dashboard that reads your bank CSVs and receipts and answers questions in plain English.
knowledge-graph
Local-first, MCP-native knowledge graph that turns your saves and reads into a tool your AI agent can query.
Viewcopyaudit
AI copy auditor for B2B SaaS landing pages; scores five dimensions with line-by-line rewrites.
ViewProfessional Experience
Fifteen years across healthcare, fintech, and SaaS, from $3.2B platforms to my own venture.
Product Leader Academy
Founder & CEO
Dec 2024 - Present
Founded and grew a product-management education, community, and jobs platform to 1,000+ members: a free tier, a premium AI coach, an AI model arena, a jobs board, and a Certified Product Leader 360 credential. Sponsoring a U.S. Department of Labor registered apprenticeship to create an AI Product Manager occupation, filed with the DOL and the Florida Department of Education.
Symplast
Head of Product
Nov 2025 - 2026
Led product, UX, and engineering for Symplast, the leading mobile EHR, practice management, and CRM for plastic surgery and medspas, serving 3,500+ practices. Built Kate, an in-house Voice AI receptionist that added $1.2M in ARR, plus two production agents on a unified Postgres analytics platform. Migrated the native iOS and Android apps to a single React Native platform, closing feature-parity gaps and raising engineering capacity 50%. Drove a growth push that doubled the CRM client base and added another $3M in ARR, bringing new ARR to roughly $4.2M. Owned the patient journey end to end and drove single sign-on, an open API and partner marketplace, payments and CareCredit, and accessibility, reporting tradeoffs to the board in P&L terms.
Optum
Lead Product Manager
Feb 2025 - Oct 2025
Merged three mobile apps (Rx, Patient, and Guide) into one React Native platform for 13M members, cutting roughly $5M a year and speeding feature delivery 40%. Built GenAI workflows, a personalized home screen, and a chat interface on Epic APIs and LLMs to raise engagement and take load off the call center. Advised the mobile center of excellence and trained teams on experimentation, accessibility, and AI adoption.
Truckstop
Director of Product, Mobile Platform
Oct 2023 - Feb 2025
Built an AI load-matching system with ML and LLMs that raised match accuracy 35%, cut churn 15%, and reduced empty miles 18%. Ran the Spanish-market launch, a $12M TAM opportunity covering localization, go-to-market, outbound, and support, that brought $3.5M in first-year revenue. Automated retention and payments with Salesforce and REST APIs, adding $500K in ARR and opening a $2.5M opportunity.
PwC
Senior Product Manager, Healthcare & Financial Services
Apr 2021 - Oct 2023
Launched HIPAA-compliant in-app messaging for Kaiser Permanente that cut response times 40% and raised engagement. Built AI triage in mobile apps that improved care coordination and cut unnecessary visits 20%. Rebuilt a consumer healthcare app used by 3M people a month with accessible patterns and journey mapping, raising engagement 15%.
ADP
Senior Product Manager, Platform
May 2018 - Apr 2021
Built the AWS SaaS platform for ADP's $3.2B benefits business, connecting 32 carriers and 2 brokers; adoption rose 35% and launch moved up 60 days. Rebuilt benefits selection with customization, price comparison, and best-fit picks, raising completion 30% and speeding decisions 40%. Built a vision-AI and RPA tool that validated Excel uploads against clean data, supporting concepts projected to add $50M over three years.
Open English
Product Owner
Jan 2015 - May 2018
Grew the B2B side of a language-learning SaaS to over $3M in ARR, with 14% higher retention, 86% course completion, and 30% better call-center efficiency. Led a Salesforce Cloud migration with DocuSign, search, and Tableau that raised client retention 8% and revenue 17%.
Mastercard
Program Manager
Aug 2010 - Dec 2015
Built revenue forecasts and Tableau dashboards across 44 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to improve reporting and decisions. Rolled out a quality framework that raised delivery speed and quality 43% and supported contactless-payment work.
Case Studies
A few projects, and what changed because of them.
Native to React Native Migration
Symplast
Migrated Symplast's native iOS and Android apps to a single React Native platform: one codebase, one release pipeline, and the parity gaps between platforms closed.
Challenge
Two native codebases (Swift on iOS, Kotlin on Android) meant every mobile feature was built twice, parity drifted between platforms, and engineering capacity was split across the roadmap for 3,500+ practices.
Solution
Led the migration to a single React Native platform: audited and closed the iOS/Android parity gaps, set shared component and release standards, and moved the team to one codebase, migrating screen by screen so the app stayed shippable the whole way.
Results
- 50% increase in mobile engineering capacity
- Feature parity restored across iOS and Android
- One codebase and one release pipeline for both platforms
- New mobile features ship faster, built once
iOS
Swift
Android
Kotlin
React Native
one codebase
A production AI concierge across voice, SMS, and web
Stay in Lakeland
I founded Stay in Lakeland, a local guide for short-term-rental guests, and built its core: an AI concierge that answers guests on the phone, over text, and on the web from one brain, grounded in live local data.
Challenge
Short-term-rental guests ask the same questions at every hour: the WiFi password, the gate code, where to eat that is still open, how to book another night. A host cannot answer them all, and a generic chatbot that invents an answer is worse than silence when a guest is standing at a locked door.
Solution
Built one AI concierge that answers across voice, SMS, and web from a single brain. It uses tool calls to pull live data (restaurant hours from Google Places, local events, weather) and only reveals a property's private details when that booking is active. It runs on Vercel AI Gateway with a fast primary model and an automatic fallback, with guardrails so it never invents a venue, never claims a booking is confirmed, and hands off to a human when it should.
Results
- One AI concierge serving voice, SMS, and web from a single brain
- Live tool calls (Google Places, events, weather) instead of guessed answers
- Private property info gated to active bookings only, a real security boundary
- Advertiser-funded model: local businesses pay to be recommended, not a cut of bookings
One AI concierge
voice, SMS, and web
Mobile Maturity Model Implementation
Optum
Contributed to the Mobile Center of Excellence at Optum by developing Mobile Maturity Model standards and frameworks that established quality and experience baselines across the organization.
Challenge
Optum had dozens of separate mobile applications with inconsistent quality standards, user experiences, and development practices. Each business unit operated independently with different priorities.
Solution
Implemented best practices for A/B testing, feature flagging, accessibility, and localization. Led change management initiatives using tools like Branch.io, Launch Darkly, and Adobe Analytics to track and improve app lifecycle performance.
Results
- 52% increase in user engagement across key applications
- 35% improvement in development efficiency
- 40% reduction in quality issues
- 95% WCAG 2.1 AA compliance for accessibility
Freight Marketplace Platform
Truckstop
Developed a mobile marketplace platform connecting freight carriers with shippers, implementing sophisticated matching algorithms and location-based search functionality.
Challenge
The freight industry relied heavily on manual processes and phone calls to match carriers with available loads, creating inefficiencies and missed opportunities for both parties.
Solution
Created a mobile-first marketplace platform with real-time load matching, location-based search, and pricing transparency. Implemented features for saved locations, recent searches, and direct communication between carriers and shippers.
Results
- 35% improvement in AI load-match accuracy
- 22% increase in user engagement; 15% reduction in carrier churn
- 18% decrease in empty miles across active carriers
- $3.5M first-year revenue from the Spanish-speaking market
Language Learning Platform
Open English
Led the development of a mobile language learning platform featuring live classes with native teachers, gamified learning paths, and personalized content.
Challenge
Traditional language learning apps lacked the human connection of live instruction, while in-person classes were inconvenient and inflexible for busy professionals.
Solution
Developed a hybrid platform combining on-demand lessons with scheduled live classes taught by native speakers. Implemented gamification elements like leagues, challenges, and achievement tracking to increase engagement and retention.
Results
- 200% increase in daily active users
- 65% improvement in user retention
- 4.8/5 average rating for live classes
- 32% higher completion rate compared to self-paced learning only
International Expansion & Vacation Bundling
Spirit Airlines
Led the revamp of Spirit Airlines' purchase experience for Spanish and international audiences, implementing localization efforts across the mobile app. Integrated the MyTrips experience with Expedia to enable bundled vacation purchases.
Challenge
Spirit Airlines needed to expand its international reach and increase revenue through vacation bundling, but their mobile app lacked proper localization and integration with third-party travel services.
Solution
Implemented comprehensive localization for Spanish-speaking markets and integrated with Expedia's API to enable bundled purchases of flights, hotels, car rentals, and destination excursions in a single transaction.
Results
- International bookings increased by 38%
- Generated $12M in vacation bundle revenue in the first year
- 92% satisfaction rating from Spanish-speaking users
- 25% increase in average order value through bundling
Areas of Expertise
Where I go deepest, built over 15+ years of shipping product.
- Native & cross-platform development
- Mobile UX optimization
- App monetization strategies
- Mobile-first transformation
- Conversational AI & chatbots
- Predictive analytics implementation
- Machine learning for personalization
- AI-driven UX enhancements
- Two-sided marketplace design
- Matching algorithm development
- Supply & demand balancing
- Marketplace growth strategies
- Legacy system modernization
- Cloud migration strategies
- Digital process optimization
- Change management
- Market research & validation
- Product roadmap development
- Feature prioritization frameworks
- Go-to-market planning
- Agile & Scrum methodologies
- Cross-functional team management
- Stakeholder communication
- Mentorship & talent development
What colleagues say
Recommendations from the leaders and engineers I've built with.
“I had the pleasure of working with Oscar at Symplast, where he managed our engineering team. Oscar is the kind of manager every engineer hopes to have: approachable, supportive, and an exceptional problem solver. No matter how complex the challenge, he was always willing to help, provide guidance, and remove obstacles so the team could succeed. He creates an environment where engineers feel trusted, encouraged to grow, and empowered to take ownership.”
Senior Mobile Engineer · React Native & Expo Specialist
“Working with Oscar has been an absolute privilege. He is a truly exceptional leader: visionary, highly strategic, and capable of seeing not only where the world is heading, but the exact steps required to turn those big ideas into reality. What constantly amazes me is his ability to keep pace with multiple complex projects at once without ever losing sight of the big picture. Above all, Oscar is a deeply kind person who puts the human being first.”
UX Designer · Product Designer
“Oscar is a thoughtful, strategic, and execution-driven product leader who played a key role in transforming Truckstop's mobile experience into a high-value e-commerce platform. His ability to align product strategy with business growth and drive cross-functional success makes him an invaluable asset to any team.”
SaaS Product Leader, Platform Specialist
“Oscar is an incredible product leader and an equally great team leader. He led a number of efforts for Spirit within the mobile app space, including localization, accessibility, and personalization. His ability to break down problems into actionable steps empowers his team with confidence. Oscar might have the most impressive executive communication skills I have seen.”
User-Centric. Mobile First.
“Working with Oscar as a Product Manager was a standout experience. Unlike many PMs, Oscar has a strong grasp of technical concepts and strikes a rare balance between engineering, architecture, and user experience. His leadership created an environment where both product and engineering thrived.”
Software Engineering Manager
“I worked closely with Oscar on a number of initiatives, and relied on him to bring energy, passion and vision to a range of the challenges and opportunities created by our growth. He is a relentlessly entrepreneurial thinker who brings intensive focus resulting in great outcomes.”
Product @ Deluxe | AI & Fintech Leader
“Oscar was able to establish deep trust and relationship with the team and key stakeholders in a very short time. He is highly organized with a sharp focus towards customer experience, highlighted in all aspects of his work whether wire-framing with UX, architectural approach with engineering, or shaping product vision with business leaders.”
Cloud Transformation | AI/ML Solutions
“Working with Oscar Ibars was an inspiring experience. His mobile-first innovation strategy and seamless platform coordination accelerated value delivery for carriers. His creativity in Spanish localization ensured high-quality experiences on time, despite backend constraints. He's a visionary product leader who turns ideas into impact.”
Principal Product Manager @ Truckstop
“I rarely come across real talents who stand out like Oscar. His ability to handle multiple projects while managing multiple senior team members was unlike any I've seen before, and made a dramatic increase in the productivity level of our company. As a team member or a leader, Oscar earns my highest recommendation.”
CEO @ CruisingStores
Bring in a product leader who ships.
A few ways teams bring me in, from a fixed sprint to ongoing leadership. Every one ends in shipped product, not a deck. The best next step is a conversation.
AI Product Sprint
From AI demo to a production feature in 90 days.
90 days · ~2 days/week
Best for: Teams sitting on AI potential but stuck at the prototype stage.
- The highest-value AI use case, chosen and de-risked
- An operating model your team can run without me
- One AI feature shipped to real users: Voice AI, an agent, or a GenAI workflow
- Your PMs and engineers leveled up to keep shipping
Fractional Head of Product
Senior product leadership without a full-time hire.
Ongoing · 1–2 days/week
Best for: Founders and teams that need product direction now, not a three-month search.
- Product strategy, roadmap, and operating cadence
- Org and hiring design, plus coaching for your PMs
- AI woven into the roadmap where it earns its place
- Board- and investor-ready reporting in P&L terms
AI Product Advisory
A senior sounding board for your product and AI bets.
Monthly retainer
Best for: Product leaders who want an experienced second brain on call.
- Working sessions on strategy and roadmap
- AI use-case vetting: what to build, what to skip
- Async access for the calls that can't wait
Think there might be a fit?
Not sure which fits? Book 20 minutes and we'll figure it out.
Latest writing
Let's Connect
Interested in working together? Reach out to discuss how I can help with your product and technology needs.
Open to talking product strategy, putting AI into the product, or working together. LinkedIn is the fastest way to reach me.
Areas I can help with:
Mobile Strategy
Native & cross-platform development, UX optimization, app monetization
Digital Transformation
Legacy system modernization, cloud migration, process optimization
AI Integration
Conversational AI, predictive analytics, ML for personalization
Marketplace Platforms
Two-sided marketplace design, matching algorithms, growth strategies