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Rubens CostaProduct & Operations Executive

Career / Selected chapters

A career built around consequential problems.

Product executive and founder with experience leading teams ranging from 4 to nearly 60 people across multiple squads. P&L responsibility at V4, Kintsu and Quero Bolsa, and budget and contract responsibility as Municipal Secretary.

São Paulo, Brazil

Product · AI · Growth

The through line

The titles changed. The work stayed consistent: find the constraint, build the system and make the result measurable.

Selected operating outcomes keep their original scope and qualifiers.

01

Public transformation

A city, operated as a platform.

This chapter connected technology strategy, digital governance, data infrastructure and public-service delivery in one executive mandate.

01.01

Caraguatatuba

Municipal Secretary of Technology & Innovation

Transformed a fragmented technology function into an integrated portfolio of digital products, data and AI. Led multidisciplinary teams and managed budgets, vendors and contracts, connecting technology investments with public-service outcomes.

Selected outcomes

  • Led the Secretariat team to achieve Caraguatatuba’s first “A” (Excellence) rating in i-Gov TI, awarded by TCESP under IEG-M—the municipality’s first top rating across any dimension.
  • Established the first municipal Data Lake and data-governance model. Teams delivered 8 internally developed products, 14 executive dashboards and the municipality’s first AI solution in public operations; six selected products are explored in the case.
  • Chaired the Digital Governance and Data Protection Committees. Connected the PDTI, shared documentation, operating reviews and LGPD 360 to delivery and accountability.
  • R$23M+ in broader contract savings and R$3M+ in direct operational savings represent distinct scopes and methodologies and are not added together.
  • Increased service capacity by 86.6%, supporting approximately 1,400 public employees per month, with 92.1% employee satisfaction and 9.77/10 among secretaries and directors.
  • Substantially delivered a four-year technology roadmap in 16 months. Earned three national recognitions: InovaCidades, Digital Cities & Smart Cities Forum and the Ozires Silva Award—National Reference, Diamond Category.

Public-sector record

02

Product & growth systems

From isolated initiatives to operating systems.

Leadership across SaaS, marketplaces, education and logistics, shaping the product, commercial and operating mechanisms behind scale.

02.01

Quero Bolsa

Chief Product Officer

Led an executive mission focused on operational recovery and sustainable growth for an education marketplace, with Product leadership and P&L responsibility.

Selected outcomes

  • Connected product strategy, portfolio management, Product Analytics, conversion and pricing decisions with financial objectives.
  • Aligned Growth, AI applied to Product, user experience and go-to-market priorities within one operating agenda.
02.02

Kintsu

Chief Product & Operations Officer

Joined as Chief Product Officer in January 2024, expanding my remit to Product & Operations in February. Partnered with the CEO to shape company vision, build the team and align product strategy with business priorities, with P&L responsibility.

Selected outcomes

  • Reduced B2B time-to-market by approximately five months, connecting Product, Technology, Data and Operations to accelerate implementation for pharmaceutical clients.
  • Supported approximately 2.6× revenue growth and three additional pharmaceutical contracts through the combined work of Product, Commercial and Operations.
  • Doubled physician engagement and reached 5,000+ patients through the platform ecosystem.
  • Relaunched the company and product around BioPlanner, establishing a scalable core connecting clinical workflows, structured health data and physician decision support.
  • Established OKRs and Notion as the company-wide source of truth, giving a fully remote team shared priorities, ownership and execution context.
  • Product and company recognized by Janssen and Eretz.bio / Einstein.

Reported operating outcomes

02.03

V4 Company

Business Unit Head — Product & Education

Led the Education business unit with P&L accountability and a multidisciplinary team of approximately 20 people. Owned business strategy, product portfolio, pricing and educational operations, aligning Product, Marketing and Sales Education around growth and profitability.

Selected outcomes

  • Restructured the unit from an internal cost center toward a revenue-generating operation, redesigning its commercial model and establishing data-driven performance management.
  • Redesigned product packaging, positioning and pricing with the team, reducing customer acquisition cost (CAC) by 30%.
  • Increased average revenue per user (ARPU) by 25% for in-person products and 40% for digital products. Together with the team, achieved approximately 18% net margin while maintaining NPS above 95.
  • Connected revenue, delivery costs, product quality and customer outcomes through shared metrics and operating routines.
  • Aligned educational offerings, employee and franchisee training, and sales enablement with business priorities.

Reported operating outcomes

02.04

G4 Educação

Head of Product — Skills Business Unit

Led Product for Skills, a B2B/B2C education SaaS serving 18,000+ users and approximately 4,000 daily active users. Led a cross-functional team spanning Product Management, Product Design, Content, Software Engineering, Technology Leadership and Data Analytics.

Selected outcomes

  • Connected product strategy, personalization and product-led growth (PLG) to improve the learning experience and business performance.
  • Delivered an AI-powered Individual Assessment with the team in under 45 days, integrating it with onboarding and the recommendation engine. As part of the broader PLG strategy, this initiative contributed to a 25% increase in engagement and a 30% increase in visitor-to-lead conversion.
  • Establishing weekly deployments and daily user feedback reduced end-to-end delivery cycles to under 15 days. Behavioral data helped identify and address onboarding friction affecting approximately 40% of new users during their first 15 days.
  • These results reflect the combined work of Product, Engineering, Design, Data, Sales, Content, Growth and Customer Success.

Reported operating outcomes

02.05

Foregon

Head of Product — Marketplace

Led Product during Foregon’s transition to a financial marketplace, connecting product strategy, growth, data and customer experience with commercial priorities. Helped reshape the business model, go-to-market strategy, pricing and operations.

Selected outcomes

  • Led the product and website relaunch across Technology, Legal, Commercial, Operations and Marketing. Simplified onboarding from 14 steps to 2 and introduced acquisition and activation experiments, contributing with the team to +4% conversion and +39% average ticket.
  • Reduced cost per lead by 13% and bounce rate by 18%, while increasing time spent in the product by 63% and NPS by 16 points.
  • Developed enriched-data recommendations and Next-Best-Offer / Next-Best-Action capabilities, achieving over 80% recommendation accuracy for credit approval.
  • Partnered with Technology on AWS-based Data Lake architecture, APIs, integrations and an RFV customer-value model to support personalization and product decisions.

Reported operating outcomes

02.06

Buser

Head of Operational Efficiency & Product

Worked at the intersection of the COO, Operations and Product & Technology, translating operational challenges into product priorities and coordinated action during rapid growth. Led cross-functional initiatives spanning logistics, safety, risk, contingency planning, pricing and customer experience.

Selected outcomes

  • Led the creation of the Logistics Control Tower, bringing fragmented operational data and workflows into a central intelligence platform. It evolved into a predictive decision-support hub, helping teams anticipate risks, coordinate interventions and manage travel operations across functions.
  • Delivered an estimated R$2.1M in operational savings over six months together with the team, through route and pricing optimization—approximately R$80K per week over 26 weeks.
  • Partnered with Product and Technology squads on the driver app, passenger journey, website conversion, payment and wallet usability, and growth initiatives.
  • Establishing OKRs, KPIs and quarterly operating reviews connected product priorities, operational performance and business outcomes. Automation improved partner communication and the identification of inefficient routes.
  • The shared operating system supported incident coordination in under 15 minutes, down from over 90 minutes, and real-time coverage of more than 80% of the fleet in approximately one month.

Reported operating outcomes

02.07

MeDescola Education

Co-Founder & CEO

Built and led an education-technology business from concept through product development, go-to-market and multi-year operation.

Selected outcomes

  • Reached 124,000 students on the platform.
  • Expanded to more than 900 schools across 15 Brazilian states.
  • Achieved a 9% annual conversion rate.

Reported operating outcomes

Education & continued practice

Learning as an operating discipline.

01

Specialization in Public Management — Economics in Essential Sectors

Universidade Anhembi Morumbi

02

MBA — Finance, M&A, Global Strategy

Griffith University, Australia

03

Marketing

UniBTA

04

Testing & Leadership

Reforge

05

Product Manager

MIT Launch X