Tharange Abeysinghe
Product Management Leader
Colombo
Summary
An experienced practitioner of Product Management with over 12 years of proven success in delivering high-value customer-centric solutions to both foreign and domestic markets with unparalleled expertise in Business Analysis, AI-Integrated Product Management & Delivery, Off-shore Delivery Model, Scaled Agile, People Leadership, and Customer Excellence across various market sectors.
Overview
2
2
Languages
7
7
Certifications
12
12
years of professional experience
Work History
Principal Product Operations Manager
Sysco LABS
Colombo, Colombo District
07.2026 - Current
- Conducted a comprehensive assessment of the Product organization's operating model, governance, tooling, and delivery practices to identify opportunities for improving operational maturity, scalability, and execution .
- Partnered with Product, Engineering, Design, Data, and Business leaders to understand strategic priorities, establish relationships, and align on a Product Operations transformation roadmap.
- Defined the vision and strategic direction for the Product Operations function, identifying key initiatives across governance, portfolio management, product planning, AI enablement, and operational excellence.
- Evaluated the existing product lifecycle, planning, prioritization, and roadmap management processes to identify operational bottlenecks and recommend scalable improvements.
- Initiated the design of standardized Product Operations frameworks, including portfolio governance, product planning, roadmap management, operating cadences, and decision-making processes.
- Assessed the Product Management technology ecosystem and identified opportunities to leverage AI-powered tools and workflow automation to improve documentation, knowledge management, reporting, backlog management, and team productivity.
- Began establishing an experimentation strategy by evaluating current product discovery, customer feedback, and measurement practices to support data-driven decision-making and evidence-based product investments.
- Defined an operational KPI framework and executive reporting approach to improve visibility into portfolio health, delivery performance, operational efficiency, and customer outcomes.
- Collaborated with cross-functional teams to identify opportunities for process optimization, standardization, and automation that will improve execution consistency and reduce operational overhead.
- Started developing Product Operations playbooks, governance standards, templates, and best practices to enable scalable and repeatable ways of working across Product teams.
- Partnered with Product leadership to identify capability development opportunities, including AI adoption, operational maturity, and Product Management best practices to support organizational growth.
- Began shaping a long-term Product Operations strategy focused on improving organizational effectiveness, enabling data-informed decision-making, driving AI-assisted ways of working, and scaling product delivery excellence across the enterprise.
Senior/Group Product Manager
Sysco LABS
Colombo, Colombo District
05.2024 - 07.2026
- Designed and established the Product Management organizational structure for Sysco LABS, aligning it seamlessly with the Sysco Corporate Product Management operating model to improve governance, collaboration, and execution.
- Created and implemented new Product Management roles and comprehensive job descriptions, clearly defining responsibilities, career progression, and business value to support organizational investment and growth.
- Led cross-functional product, engineering, design, and analytics teams across the United States and Sri Lanka to envision, develop, launch, and evolve customer-centric web and mobile eCommerce products supporting a business generating over US$30 billion in annual revenue, managing the complete product lifecycle from ideation through retirement.
- Defined product vision, strategy, discovery framework, and multi-year product roadmaps, ensuring alignment with corporate strategy, customer needs, and measurable business outcomes.
- Partnered closely with Engineering, UX/UI Design, Data Analytics, and business stakeholders to optimize product development processes, accelerate delivery, and continuously enhance customer experience.
- Directed market research, customer discovery, competitive analysis, and data-driven prioritization to identify emerging opportunities and inform strategic product investment decisions.
- Built, mentored, and led high-performing Product Managers, strengthening product management capabilities through coaching, performance development, and adoption of industry best practices.
- Established product success metrics and monitored key performance indicators (KPIs) to drive continuous improvements in product performance, customer satisfaction, adoption, and business value.
- Fostered a culture of innovation by championing customer-centric thinking, creative problem-solving, and continuous learning while incorporating emerging industry trends and best practices into product strategy.
- Conducted regular portfolio and product performance reviews, refining strategies, roadmaps, and investment priorities to maximize business impact and customer value.
- Founded the Product Management Centre of Practice at Sysco LABS, creating a community of practice that unified Product Managers and Business Analysts around industry-leading methodologies, knowledge sharing, personal branding, capability development, and thought leadership.
Principal - Business Analysis
Wiley Global Technology (Pvt) Ltd
Colombo, Colombo District
01.2024 - 05.2024
- Spearheaded the Business Analysis Centre of Excellence at Wiley, driving practice maturity, organizational capability, and adoption of industry-leading Business Analysis standards across the enterprise.
- Innovated and evolved Business Analysis frameworks, methodologies, requirements engineering models, and best practices aligned with IIBA standards, improving consistency, quality, and delivery outcomes across product teams.
- Led research and innovation initiatives to strengthen collaboration between Business Analysis, Product Management, and Engineering, introducing modern analysis techniques that improved solution discovery and product delivery effectiveness.
- Served as a trusted advisor to product and delivery leadership, providing strategic guidance on Business Analysis practices, requirements engineering, stakeholder engagement, and delivery optimization across a diverse product portfolio.
- Owned the strategic direction and continuous evolution of the Business Analysis practice, driving capability development, governance, standards, and operational excellence across the organization.
- Represented the Business Analysis discipline internally and externally by promoting its strategic value, contributing to industry forums, mentoring practitioners, and strengthening Wiley's reputation for Business Analysis excellence.
Manager - Business Analysis
Wiley Global Technology (Pvt) Ltd
Colombo, Colombo District
07.2021 - 01.2024
- Established and headed Wiley's global Business Analysis function, overseeing Business Analysis, Technical Writing, and SAP Consultancy while positioning the practice as a strategic partner to Product, Technology, and business leadership.
- Built the Business Analysis organization from the ground up by designing the organizational hierarchy, competency model, career framework, and standardized role descriptions aligned with industry best practices and Wiley's job architecture.
- Directed all aspects of people leadership, including workforce planning, recruitment, performance management, coaching, succession planning, compensation recommendations, and talent retention for a high-performing global team.
- Defined and institutionalized enterprise Business Analysis and Technical Writing standards by implementing SAFe-aligned methodologies, governance models, templates, and quality practices across multiple product and technology teams.
- Developed a standardized Requirements Engineering framework that established consistent elicitation, analysis, modelling, documentation, and traceability practices, improving the quality and consistency of business outcomes.
- Partnered with Product, Engineering, and business stakeholders across the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia to navigate complex delivery challenges, facilitate decision-making, and ensure successful delivery across the product portfolio.
- Served as the executive advisor on Business Analysis strategy, organizational capability, delivery governance, and practice maturity, influencing strategic decisions and investment in business analysis capabilities.
- Fostered a culture of continuous learning and professional excellence through coaching, mentoring, and personalized development, enabling Business Analysts to grow into high-performing strategic partners.
- Launched enterprise capability-building initiatives, including the Business Analysis Internship Programme, monthly knowledge-sharing forums, and solution evaluation sessions, strengthening practice maturity and promoting innovation across the organization.
- Championed an inclusive and people-first leadership approach by supporting team members through professional and personal challenges, fostering engagement, resilience, and sustained high performance.
Senior Lead Business Analyst / Product Owner
Wiley Global Technology (Pvt) Ltd
Colombo, Colombo District
04.2019 - 07.2021
- Setting Product Vision and Objectives & Key Results (OKRs) for two mission-critical products in partnership with the Product Managers, UI/UX, Sales & Marketing, and SMEs/VPs of the respective products' value streams
- Defining the lean business cases and product roadmaps for both products in collaboration with the Product Management leadership
- Defining the engagement plan and approach by assessing, reviewing, planning, and defining the required BA role for the intended product and stakeholders to maximize the value addition.
- Leading the synchronization on the product vision and roadmap with the Product Management by with the strategic vision of the product and market to determine and prioritize business value in feature delivery.
- Owning requirement engineering and management by taking ownership of end-to-end activities on requirement elicitation, analysis, requirement definition, refining, facilitation, and collaboration to garner customer acceptance in deliveries. Tasks include:
- Lead requirement decomposition efforts of capability/program Epics into SMART User Stories with a clearly defined acceptance criterion.
- Utilize requirement modeling techniques to analyze and visually convey logic, data elements, and process flows.
- Leverage wireframing to translate solution requirements into visual designs that can be referenced by the scrum/UI & UX teams to baseline GUIs.
- Liaise with the scrum teams to derive the technical specification that needs to be mapped as subtasks under each potent User Story.
- Assess and maintain Requirement Clarity Index (RCI) with the relevant stakeholders to take recursive actions to preserve requirement clarity.
- Lead prioritization and refinement of the program/team backlogs during Scrum ceremonies.
- Monitor and manage requirement parity while reflecting on the integrity of the relevant user stories, test cases, and design.
- Conduct User Acceptance Testing and UI/UX verifications.
- Simultaneously manage multiple products on end-to-end requirement engineering related matters.
- Leading team & deliveries by leveraging Business Analysis and Agile practices to establish benchmarks and standards to optimize delivery, and lead team towards betterment.
- Upholding excellent stakeholder communication & relationships through creating and sustaining effective relationships to optimize stakeholder engagement and commitment in product deliveries.
- Creating, supporting and sustaining initiatives to enable Business Analysis to grow in Wiley to ensure the growth of Business Analysis in Wiley to be high-performing and transformation focused capability. To conduct requirement workshops and trainings to the BA team on newest industrial trends.
Senior/Technical Business Analyst / Product Manager
Pearson Lanka (Pvt) Ltd
Colombo, Colombo District
06.2016 - 06.2019
- Product Manager for one of the largest Learning Management products at Pearson with the objective of retiring the product, migrating the customer base to another suitable Pearson product, and creating a platform from the existing infrastructure to support dependent products
- Managing all aspects of the product with a large 3 teams comprising of 30 members
- Product Owner of 3 growth stage products
- Leading hiring efforts to recruit top talent to Pearson Lanka
Business Analyst/Product Manager
John Keells Computer Services
Colombo, Colombo District
06.2015 - 06.2016
- The Product Manager for two key client projects that were managed from the pre-sales stage until post-delivery maintenance
- Engaging with sales activities to prepare proposals for RFP and to effectively bid for various projects - Leading CSR initiatives for various causes
- Driving technical discussions with the architects and designers to build seamless solutions.
- Leading CSR initiatives for various causes.
Business Analyst/Project Manager
Solutionflock (Pvt) Ltd
Colombo, Colombo District
02.2014 - 02.2015
- Leading product design efforts using Design Thinking to develop an innovative product to delight tourists with premeditated excursion plans
- Leading the BA practice from BA Planning & Monitoring to Requirement Life Cycle Management to effectively capture requirements for both Off-the-shelf and Bespoke products
- Managing over 5 projects in the capacity of a Project Manager with considerable complexities of containing the triple constraints
- Developing solutions using Microsoft .Net, SQL and CodeIgniter/Laravel for PHP for web solutions
- Composing test cases for functional, regression and acceptance testing
Education
BSc - Information Technology (Specialization Information Systems) in IT
Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology
Sri Lanka10.2014
GCE -
Cheadle & Marple Sixth Form College
England, UK.09.2010
GCSE -
Stockport School
England, UK. 04.2001 -
Accomplishments
- Ascentic AI Lunch Pad 2026 - Keynote
- IIBA | Sysco LABS Product Nexus 2026 - Organiser/Keynote
- IIBA SL BA Conference 2025 - Keynote
- Inauguration of Product Management Centre Of Practice 2025 - Keynote
- IIBA's Breaking Barriers As a Business Analyst 2025 - Keynote
- Colombo AI Conclave 2024 - Keynote
- IIBA SL BA Conference 2024 - Panellist
Certification
AI Product Manager by Pendo
References
- Nilupa Kiringoda - Senior Director - Delivery, Sysco LABS Pvt Ltd
Email - nilupa.kiringoda@sysco.com | Mobile - +94 77 383 2350
- Kalana Dias, Director - Delivery, Sysco LABS Pvt Ltd
Email - kalana.dias@sysco.com | Mobile - +94 77 364 7779
Timeline
Principal Product Operations Manager
Sysco LABS
07.2026 - Current
Senior/Group Product Manager
Sysco LABS
05.2024 - 07.2026
Principal - Business Analysis
Wiley Global Technology (Pvt) Ltd
01.2024 - 05.2024
Manager - Business Analysis
Wiley Global Technology (Pvt) Ltd
07.2021 - 01.2024
Senior Lead Business Analyst / Product Owner
Wiley Global Technology (Pvt) Ltd
04.2019 - 07.2021
Senior/Technical Business Analyst / Product Manager
Pearson Lanka (Pvt) Ltd
06.2016 - 06.2019
Business Analyst/Product Manager
John Keells Computer Services
06.2015 - 06.2016
Business Analyst/Project Manager
Solutionflock (Pvt) Ltd
02.2014 - 02.2015
GCSE -
Stockport School
04.2001 -
BSc - Information Technology (Specialization Information Systems) in IT
Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology
GCE -
Cheadle & Marple Sixth Form College