Transformation Coach

• Oct 2019 - Present

Transformation Coach

• Oct 2019 - Present

Agile Velocity helps organizations accelerate agility. We’re a full-service transformation partner offering whole organization coaching, leadership and team coaching, and Agile training.We created the Path to Agility™ after decades of training and coaching organizations struggling to switch to a more Agile way of working and accelerate their agility. We have used this framework to guide many different teams and organizations, from growing product companies to household enterprises. Our team is focused on your agility, helping you get the results you desire by taking a pragmatic approach based on where you are today to design your customized agility roadmap. To learn more contact info@agilevelocity.com.

Author

• May 2015 - Present

My personal blog. All characters, events, firms, corporations or establishments appearing in articles on that site, even those based on real people, are entirely fictional. Any similarity to actual persons or entities living or dead is purely coincidental. All celebrity voices are impersonated… and poorly at that. My posts may contain coarse language and due to such content, they should probably not be viewed by anyone. My personal blog. All characters, events, firms, corporations or establishments appearing in articles on that site, even those based on real people, are entirely fictional. Any similarity to actual persons or entities living or dead is purely coincidental. All celebrity voices are impersonated… and poorly at that. My posts may contain coarse language and due to such content, they should probably not be viewed by anyone.

Board Member

• Nov 2016 - Present

Agile Uprising is a purpose-built network that focuses on the advancement of the agile mindset and global professional networking between and among practicing agilists. We will leverage both traditional and emerging communication and collaboration channels to explore various topics of interest. Our network will evolve over time, and our community will be free to join. This is a group founded by passionate practitioners for passionate practitioners, and not a revenue generating organization. We will remain agnostic of certifying bodies, removing external influences such as sponsors, partners and other organizations allowing us to focus purely on the advancement of the agile craft.

Director of Product Engineering and Agility

• Mar 2018 - Oct 2019

Champions the adoption, propagation and scaling of self-organizing, empowered teams not only within software development but across the organization as well. Help the organization continually get better at “delighting customers.” by: • Energizing People • Empowering Teams • Aligning Constraints • Developing Competence • Growing Structure • Improving Everything Leadership • Optimize delivering value over meeting constraints; leading teams over managing tasks; and adapting to change over conforming to plans. • Work as a change agent to help the organization identify ways to continuously improve via learning, knowledge sharing, innovation, and process improvement • Catalyze a trust-filled, transparent, and collaborative environment • Foster a culture of empowerment and accountability • Lead, coach and mentor cross-functional teams as well as individuals • Share, champion, and spread modern agile values and principles • Remain at the leading edge of emerging practices, and contribute to their spreading in the larger development community • Lead effectively in a matrixed, cross-divisional, international organization Motivation • Monitor and impact project/team performance through quantitative and qualitative feedback loops • Be a catalyst that facilitates the timely, creative, high-quality completion of meaningful work • Support individuals to set performance goals and develop on a path of autonomy, mastery, and purpose Team Building • Develop groups of “Birds of a Feather” through competence building, training, mentoring, and coaching • Develop, implement, and promote practices for team health and wellbeing • Support coordination and successful interactions between teams to accomplish large-scale goals • Coach teams to reach self-organization, self-management and high performance • Support the onboarding of new hires, and the start-up of new teams * Help teams build empathy, diplomacy, and effective conflict resolution skills

Agile Coach, Sr. Scrum Master

• Sep 2016 - Mar 2018

Xfinity Mobile Coached cross-functional, direct-to-consumer web e-commerce xfinity.com/mobile team of 30 individuals, comprised of five (5) product owners, seven (7) offshore staff, and 18 developers for a web-facing e-commerce platform for a U.S. national audience. Teamed with other Scrum Masters to increase the effectiveness of SaFE application, Scrum methodologies, and promotion of agile mindsets across the enterprise. • Coached product owners to achieve agile and Scrum mindsets. • Grew an Agile Center of Excellence, a group for professionals seeking to accelerate subject matter expertise. • Mentored and coached team leaders 1:1, to support performance goals and develop the leadership path. • Motivated teams by coaching toward self-organization, high performance, and transparency. • Achieved qualitative and quantitative measures, positively impacting project and team performance. • Maintained the highest level of collaboration, communication, and engagement, by coaching distributed teams. • Optimized Kanban and Scrum processes, by identifying and removing bottlenecks from engineering processes. • Championed agile practices, values, and principles. • Ramped software development team from five (5) employees to 30 individuals over a six (6) month period.

Community Manager and North American Lead

• Nov 2015 - Nov 2016

At Happy Melly, I nurture and cultivate our growing network of supporters, funders and facilitators. I spread a little love and happiness and communicate the great things we’re doing. I stimulate conversation and make beneficial connections happen. During new member on-boarding process, I make folks feel welcome and help them to understand the various channels we use. I also keep our group up-to-date on what’s happening at Happy Melly as well as help share member experiences and experiments via our blog and social media channels

Agile Coach, Project Manager, Scrum Facilitator and Trainer

• Jul 2015 - Sep 2016

Expert in transforming cross-functional teams to reach self-organization, autonomy, and higher levels of performance through agile mindset and delivery. Coached 21 individuals, including three (3) team leads and two (2) product owners. Worked with iOS, Android and BI/Analytics teams to ensure effective interactions from project kick-off through delivery. • Reduced cycle times from quarters to weeks. Improved end user experience by building quality processes and developing a culture of waste reduction. • Established key performance indicators, objectives, and key results, for application performance and team vision.

Agile Coach / Certified Scrum Master / Project Manager

• Jul 2013 - Jun 2015

Email marketing and auto-responder SaaS for small businesses worldwide. Led, coached, and mentored 25 dev-team members across five (5) product delivery teams in agile methods, including Scrum and Kanban. Supported product delivery and team development through behavior modeling, in-house publication, workshops, and collaboration for this email delivery service. • Recognized with the Rookie of the Year Award as an innovative mentor and coach across the organization. • Improved operational uptime and customer-facing communication, resulting in a better customer experience and increased net promoter score (NPS). • Established a standard cycle time of three (3) weeks for feature releases across web and mobile platforms, by improving team productivity, driving team organization, and implementing best practices across the enterprise.

Director Application Development, Agile Project Manager

• Jul 2011 - Jul 2013

Led Agile development and implementation operations for the organization’s user-­‐facing mobile applications. Managed cross-­‐functional teams, conducting regular performance and salary reviews. Collaborated with stakeholders to prioritize project pipeline by evaluating value and effort. Supported HR efforts across recruiting, hiring and on-­‐boarding staff. • Exceeded stakeholder expectations by developing an outstanding conceptual strategy and detailed execution of rebranding from MyYearbook to MeetMe • Consistently delivered outstanding value within available resource constraints • Improved time to market of new features and maintenance releases by implementing Kanban/Scrum, establishing a regular release cadence across iOS and Android mobile platforms • Drove global growth in social discovery space by overseeing translation company’s iOS / Android mobile applications and web property into 12 languages • Led iOS and Android mobile teams to deliver major feature releases every six weeks

Founder and Principal

• Feb 1989 - Jul 2011

Established and grew a full-service design studio to meet needs of small businesses, national associations, non-profits, and corporate clients, including Volvo and Porsche. Consistently researched market trends to provide innovative marketing, design and web development services including custom CMS development, e-commerce development, B2B and B2C branding, print and interactive advertising, marketing collateral, SEO, paid search engine marketing SEM, social media optimization and SMO. Cultivated strong client relations to build account services with cross-functional products, building a strong book of business. Successfully expanded client value through Agile project management and design expertise to conceptualize, create and deliver innovative solutions for clients within Fortune 500, SMB, education, legal, automotive, consumer goods, manufacturing, pharmaceutical and non-profit spaces. Spearheaded organizational and staff growth to 5 collocated full time employees by leading recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training and coaching initiatives. Collaborated with remote/distributed team members for specific skill set augmentation (copywriting, programming/ development, PR)

Project Manager

• Mar 1994 - Oct 1997

Administered budget, resource allocation, development and delivery of design, construction documentation, and on-site inspection for two 800 student, 85,000 s.f. elementary schools. Established partner relationships with local Township officials to pitch and gain approval, reporting to School Board on project updates. Delivered both $12 million projects on schedule and under budget. Traditional waterfall PM approach, with fixed schedule, scope and budget. Administered budget, resource allocation, development and delivery of design, construction documentation, and on-site inspection for two 800 student, 85,000 s.f. elementary schools. Established partner relationships with local Township officials to pitch and gain approval, reporting to School Board on project updates. Delivered both $12 million projects on schedule and under budget. Traditional waterfall PM approach, with fixed schedule, scope and budget.

Project Manager

• Sep 1982 - Aug 1988

Directed design and construction of new facilities as well as expansion to existing operations. Selected and hired all A/E consultants. Oversaw all phases of design, permitting, site work and bidding of construction contracts. Resided at site from ground breaking through start up. Locations included Atlanta, GA; Tokyo, Japan; Tianjin, China; and Seoul, Korea. Budgets ranged from $5MM to $30MM. In addition, received hands on training in the manufacturing and packaging of pharmaceutical tablet and capsule products, exposure to QA/QC, GMP's, Production Planning, and Plant Engineering in Sydney, Australia.