Valerio Zanini

Valerio Zanini is an American product management expert, scrum and product trainer, author, keynote speaker, and coach based in Washington, DC. He is a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) and a Certified Product Innovation Trainer (CPIT) with over 20 years of experience in building award-winning products and leading product and tech teams across the United States and Europe. As a CST and CPIT, he teaches product management, innovation, and Agile practices to teams and executives.
Valerio is the CEO of 5D Vision, a company that helps organizations spearhead their product and agile practices through training and hands-on coaching. One of the core offerings is the Spark Engine program in product management and innovation, that supports product managers and product leaders in fostering a deeper expertise of product practices and drives product thinking.
He has authored several books on agile and product management. His notable books include "Deliver Great Products That Customers Love" and "Sprint Your Way to Scrum." Throughout his career, he has held product development and leadership roles at organizations like Capital One and Cisco. Earlier in his career, he co-founded Goozex.com, a leading marketplace for used video game trading in North America and Europe.
==Education==
Valerio Zanini holds an MBA from the University of Maryland. He earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical and computer engineering from La Sapienza Università di Roma, graduating in 1999.
In addition to his formal education, Valerio has obtained various professional certifications, including Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) and Certified Product Innovation Trainer (CPIT).
He also holds certifications as a Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), SAFe Program Consultant (SPC), Kanban Management Professional (KMP II), IDEO Design Thinking for Innovation, Certified Product Innovation Professional (CPIP), and Training from the Back of the Room instructor.
==Career==
===Certified Scrum and Product Innovation Trainer and Coach===
Valerio possesses a 25-year career in software development, system integration, agile transformation, design thinking, and product management. As a Certified Scrum Trainer (CST) and Product Innovation Trainer (CPIT), he has guided several Fortune 100 companies in adopting product-led agile practices and creating winning products, with teams across the United States, Canada, and Europe.
As a trainer, Zanini is known for engaging and interactive training sessions, covering various practices like Scrum, Lean, Kanban, Product Management, and Design Thinking. These sessions have earned praise for their high-quality engagement and depth of content, resulting in a 98% pass rate for the Certified Scrum Master (CSM) exam on the first attempt, along with an NPS of 90.
Valerio also contributes as a trainer and coach at Truly Scrum, dedicated to enhancing the expertise of Scrum Masters and Product Owners, and supporting their career growth.
===Prior Professional Experience===
Valerio Zanini's career spans product and leadership roles in diverse industries, including banking, entertainment, and telecom. 
Notably, he served as the Director of Product Development at Capital One, leading the launch of new products and enhancing the customer experience. He also played a pivotal role in establishing, expanding, and optimizing several Agile development teams, taking on responsibilities as both a product owner and a scrum master.
Before his time at Capital One, Valerio co-founded Goozex.com, a leading online marketplace for used video game trading in North America and Europe. At Goozex, he collaborated closely with the development team, implementing one-month sprint cycles and prioritizing backlog items based on direct feedback from platform users. Under his guidance, Goozex rapidly became the preeminent online video game trading platform.
Prior experiences include positions as a systems engineer at Cisco and co-founding Novaera IT Services, a web development firm. Valerio's creativity extended to creating Italy's first movie website with user-generated content.
===Entrepreneurship===
In 2017, Valerio Zanini founded 5D Vision, a company specializing in Agile, Scrum, SAFe, Product, and Design Thinking training. The company has helped numerous organizations worldwide adopt agile product development practices and enhance productivity through training, workshops, and coaching. Its trainers and certification programs are accredited by the Scrum Alliance, Scaled Agile, Kanban University, DevOps Institute, and Spark Engine.
In 2020, Zanini co-founded Spark Engine, a training and certification institute that offers certifications in product management and innovation. With its CPIP and CDTI credentials, Spark Engine focuses on enhancing product management and innovation practices, and on fostering a culture of innovation within organizations worldwide. Many leading companies now incorporate Spark Engine programs into their internal training for product and innovation roles.
===Author===
As a published author, Valerio has published multiple books on agile and product management. His book, "Deliver Great Products that Customers Love," published in 2018, has been instrumental in educating numerous product managers and teams on effective product management techniques. In 2021, he published "Sprint Your Way to Scrum," offering 50 practical tips to enhance Scrum teams.
Valerio also hosts "Product Bytes," a YouTube channel covering Product Management, Innovation, and Agile subjects.
==Bibliography==
* Deliver Great Products that Customers Love (2018)
* Sprint Your Way to Scrum (2021)
==Awards and recognitions==
* In 2016, Valerio received the Capital One’s Circle of Excellence Award for his product leadership role in launching a suite of products that transformed the customer experience in bank branches.
* He was awarded a Dean's Fellowship in 2004 at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business. This fellowship led to his relocation to Washington DC from Rome, Italy.
==In the media==
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==References==
==External links==
* 5D Vision
* Spark Engine
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* Product Bytes on YouTube
* TrulyScrum on YouTube
Category:Product management
Category:American authors
Category:Keynote Speaker
Category:American people