Jesse E. Owens II

Pragmatic Product Executive

I'm a product management executive with over 17 years of experience spanning multiple industries including Digital Payments, Investment Banking, Education, and Consumer Technology. Currently, I serve as the VP of Product at Wells Fargo delivering on the connectivity of banking products and solutions across the fintech ecosystem through secure, scalable, reliable, and modular developer tools. Prior to Wells Fargo, I served as the Chief Product Officer at SoloFunds lead strategy and execution of building an equitable and affordable peer-to-peer (P2P) consumer lending marketplace for borrowers and lenders. In addition to my vast professional experience, I've earned a digital payments patent along with being an award-winner in the product management industry which includes earning the distinction of being recognized as the "Top 25 Product People of the Year” in 2018 & 2019 by Product School, a global leader in product management training.As Director of Product at MasterCard, I led product teams with a mission to deliver the best in class consumer checkout experiences for the Click to Pay product through quantitative analytics, qualitative insights, and A/B experimentation. The platform is now live in over 35 countries and is supported by over 50 channel partners. And in 2023, the platform drove over 60% growth in transactions.Prior to MasterCard, I was the first Product Manager hire and spearheaded the product development culture at Imagine Easy Solutions (acquired by Chegg), an education technology company that grew into the largest online bibliography site on the web with over 80 million active users through its flagship product EasyBib. During my tenure at Imagine Easy Solutions, I built product roadmaps to grow the freemium and subscription businesses while delivering well-packaged API services to enable seamless integrations with institutional & commercial partners.Before joining Imagine Easy Solutions, I started my career at J.P. Morgan in various software engineering roles in the Asset Management and Investment Banking space focused on the development of global messaging products for the front, middle, and back-office to communicate securitized trade confirmations and settlements for the firm. I'm also a proud alumnus of Norfolk State University (BEHOLD! The Green and Gold), where I majored in Computer Science while conducting auxiliary research in Biometrics with an emphasis on Iris Recognition, Cryptography, and Cloud Computing.Welcome to my website, and I hope to connect with you in the future!

• Work
• Media
• Contact

• Twitter
• Instagram
• Email
• Medium
• LinkedIn

website operated by Jesse E. Owens II

Media

I've been fortunate to be given a platform to share my experiences on several outlets to ensure my successes, obstacles and failures are documented in an attempt to humanize my journey. My career has been filled with peaks and valleys that I'm truly thankful to have learned from them all. As an everlasting growth project, I practice a healthy habit of sharing of my professional experiences to help unlock opportunities to self-improve.I hope my journey can inspire you to CREATE opportunities for others, Identify how your talents can HELP others within your industry, and find ways to HEAL communities one act of kindness at a time.

Featured Speaker Engagements

Featured Articles

Podcasts & Workshops

During my talk at ProductCon NYC 2018, I spoke about the importance of purpose when selecting the right company, refining your self development and connecting the essential components of your product team to achieve a successful work dynamic. In addition, I shared a few tips on how to develop a deep understanding of the Triumvirate (Product, Engineering, Design) within your organization. The following are some of the topics covered:1.) How to select the right company by aligning your core values with the corporate mission statement.
2.) Understand the company business model and how to align your skill sets that will add value to the product team.
3.) How to embrace the purpose of the company as it relates to the community.

In this 3 part product development series on developing and launching your idea with product leader Jesse E. Owens II, the listeners will have exposure in the following areas:1.) Learn how to develop your Idea with proven product development frameworks.
2.) Learn how to cultivate your idea by understanding and empathize with your customer needs.
3.) Learn how to launch your idea.

In this episode I share my personal career highs and lows; and the strategy implemented to advance his career.Resource mentioned in this episode: Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink

• Back