Ryan Mapes

“Ryan is a natural leader with a knack for outpacing ambitious goals while retaining an enjoyable and fulfilling team environment. During my time at BlackBird, Ryan has consistently displayed a remarkable depth of applicable business knowledge and experience particularly around growth strategy in a marketplace. He’s a deep thinker and articulate communication who will often be found in front of a whiteboard illustrating complex business frameworks in ways that are relevant and digestible. Ryan’s optimism is contagious, and he is capable of rallying large teams around business-level objectives in a way I have never seen before. He’s been an advocate for my professional growth and is always looking for opportunities to uplift those around him. Given the opportunity, it would be an honor and privilege to work alongside Ryan.”

“Ryan was an incredibly thoughtful and focused growth leader at Bloc. He took a very disciplined and process-oriented approach to leading our growth efforts, and his influence on our way of thinking and executing stretched across the entire org chart. I learned a great deal from Ryan while working with him and deeply respect his intellectual talent, any company would be lucky to have him.”

“Ryan is one of the most insightful and pragmatic product managers I've had the opportunity to work with. At Bloc, Ryan brought a disciplined and focused approach to our product growth strategy, rallying an entire marketing and growth team around consistent and measurable results. There's no formula for growing a remote developer education platform, but Ryan was able to identify and leverage opportunities and channels that would have otherwise gone untapped. While we were focused on opposite ends of the product, Ryan was always happy to offer mentorship and support that leveled up the entire product team. To this day I use techniques and frameworks from Ryan's repertoire. I'd highly recommend Ryan to companies looking to take their product growth roadmap to the next level. ”

“Ryan is a structured thinker with years of experience managing growth teams and growth products across a number of different industries. He knows how to efficiently leverage growth tactics across different channels through a growth machine approach (ideate, make assumptions, test, measure and learn fast). More importantly, Ryan has a knack for the overarching strategy layer - either working to efficiently find product market fit or increasing market share once fit is established.”

“We had high expectations for Ryan's leadership to the Growth team at Bloc, and his experience was immediately evident. Ryan is a thoughtful strategist and data-driven growth expert, and his process and discipline were incredibly valuable to the business. Further, Ryan is a strong communicator, a man of character, and an overall amiable guy. I'm so thankful to have worked with him and expect him to find continued success in his career.”

“During my first week at Manta, I immediately knew I would learn so much from Ryan, and I did. Got an idea for a new product? Pitch it to Ryan. He will quickly identify its risks and help you set up tests to determine whether the idea is worth pursuing. In addition to building new products and revenue lines from the ground up, Ryan formed a cross-functional product innovation group and implemented a new process for creating and testing new product ideas quickly using Lean Startup methodologies. Ryan is a great guy and a lot of fun to work with. I'd love for the opportunity to work with Ryan again and highly recommend him to lead product, growth, and innovation strategy for any company.”

“Ryan's cool-headed nature and his ability to see the important details in a field of overwhelming complexity are two of his best qualities. At Manta, Ryan was responsible for some of the company's most successful products. He had a way of boiling down ideas to their most essential elements and capitalizing them that was unique to the company. Ryan was a pleasure to work with and any company would be proud to have him on board.”

“Ryan is one of the best product managers I've ever worked with. He has a great feel for customer needs vs. what the dev team can actually produce. He is second to none when it comes to attention to detail and ALWAYS hits his deadlines. I consider him an "A" level producer who is capable of running teams and products for highly successful companies.”

“Ryan makes products hum. He has a very inventive persistence—the only kind of persistence that makes a difference when growing products and generating revenue. In the 3+ years I worked with him, he was always the guy looking for ways to add more value to a product or process, but was also a master of questioning assumptions to avoid going down rabbit holes without evidence. Ryan built our innovation lab team and led them through lean processes to imagine, prototype and test products that would be viable and truly solve problems for customers. He managed all of this with a rare a balance of both analytical and conceptual thinking, natural leadership and a bone dry sense of humor. Great guy. Hope to work with him again.”

“Ryan is an awesome co-worker, he helped to champion many awesome products that helped to move our company forward. He has great insight on market trends and provides clean concise requirements for product development.”

“I had a pleasure of working closely with Ryan for over 3.5 years. He impressed me as a product strategy genius and an inspiring leader. His cooperative leadership style earned him deep respect among his colleagues at every level. Ryan has a natural ability to dissect ideas and business models and identify their risk factors. As head of Manta Labs innovation business unit, he revolutionized new product creation at Manta. Ryan built a cohesive cross-functional team and skillfully applied the Lean Startup philosophy to create rapid testing of new products. The innovation processes that Ryan set in place will serve us for years to come.”

“Ryan is an evangelist for "the right way to do things." He drives forward, energetically to get things done and done with an eye to value. He's a skilled product manager and a mindful leader. I greatly enjoyed both working with and learning from Ryan.”

“There isn't a problem too complex for Ryan to solve. Its inspiring to work with someone who is not only passionate and dedicated but also brilliant at his trade. When someone asks me, "Hey do you know a great Product guy," Ryan is always the first who comes to mind. Mapes is one of those natural leaders who sets the bar high for all others on his team. He is both eloquent and concise when communicating his ideas and providing feedback to others. Above all else, Ryan is pleasure to work with (especially on those days that go late into the night).”

“Ryan is a very hard working individual with the ability to learn complex skills quickly and thoroughly. He is great to work with and a good friend.”

“Ryan has launched multiple companies and incorporates a solid management foundation. He has a strong business mentality and understands the inner workings of what needs to be accomplished in a new venture. I would want him on my team for any venture I establish.”

“Ryan is a highly reliable and trustworthy entrepreneur. His exceptional leadership and ability to focus his broad range of talents consistently results in success. If given the opportunity, I highly recommend doing business or working with Ryan.”

“Ryan is an excellent leader who "leads by example". He is an honest, inspiring, and courteous individual who will reach levels of success that only great men attain. I work with Ryan on a regular basis and commend his attention to detail, preperation, work ethic, and creativity. I highly endorse Ryan Mapes. Eric J. Corl”