Associate

• Mar 2023 - Present

Senior Technical Product Owner

• Mar 2022 - Present

I was approached by Equifax to return in a contract capacity to help steer the final year of a major transformation project. The role involves leading a tribe of multiple Agile squads and sitting on a leadership steering board. Drawing on my technical background I am able to work closely with cloud architects to deliver a cloud-based solution to securely expose commercial data in a new GCP Data Lake to Equifax’s products. The project involves eliciting requirements, working with Data and Analytics teams, and focusing on security to migrate the legacy platform to the cloud within very aggressive project timelines.

Digital Product Lead

• Apr 2021 - Mar 2022

Led the shift towards best practice product management methodologies. Worked closely with senior stakeholders to elicit strategic intent to underpin objectives and key results which will drive digital prioritisation. Built strong relationships with the Senior Leadership team, Commercial, IT and Change teams to influence the approach taken to delivery; focussed on value realisation and data driven decision making. Led on the benefits and value realisation elements of a successful business case for further digital investment. Key Achievements: • Established Digital Product Management team; recruitment, onboarding and mentoring • Appraised and revised Digital roadmap, introducing value streams, value realisation & MVP • Introduced OKRs to LBS; developing and establishing for both savings and mortgages • Procured, configured, and embedded product management tooling (Aha!) • Successfully led on a 7-figure investment business case for an additional Scrum team • Mentored on Agile delivery/fail fast enablers; test automation, CI/CD, self-documenting systems • Developed digital ways of working model with IT/UX and Data Analytics peers • Led on engagements with 3rd party software suppliers (Fintech and establish software providers) • Represented LBS at product and IT strategy conferences • Established Product Manager/Owner Community of Practice • Built working relationships with financial and digital industry peers

Lead Technical Product Owner

• Mar 2019 - Apr 2021

I identified, refined, and managed the delivery of a roadmap of cloud transformation development; identifying what data lake services suppliers, clients and products needed. I prioritised strategic development to support on-going project demands. I worked with both global and UK teams to support the development of a global data platform. I influenced global product roadmap priorities as well as identify UK roadmap needs. I used my interpersonal and communication skills coupled with my technology background to influence and then translate the Equifax strategy into a technology roadmap. I used my technology background to build strong relationships with our technical teams. I played a pivotal role in the organisation’s transformation from a project to product led organisation; working with teams in the US, Latin America, and Australia to embed a framework for innovation and product development to accelerate the move away from legacy platforms to a native cloud-based technology stack.

Product Owner

• Jul 2018 - Mar 2019

BA/Product Owner responsible for identifying and documenting credit bureau business rules and processes built into an IBM Mainframe. Working in an Agile environment running Scrum, I write Epics and user stories in JIRA which define the requirements necessary to migrate the as-is mainframe solution to a solution on the Google Cloud Platform. I work closely with business stakeholders to derive and articulate business value drivers for the migration underpinned by the business case success criteria, I also worked closely with the Engineers and DevOps to write stories which described the business value of the continuous integration and continuous deployment frameworks being established under a capability maturity model. I participate in daily stand ups and sprint review sessions, I have stepped in for the Scrum master in retro or sprint planning sessions.

Head of Product Development

• Nov 2017 - Jul 2018

I identify, refine and manage the delivery of a roadmap of marketing technology development; identifying what clients need today and will need in the future. I prioritising strategic development to support on-going project demands. Working across the full SDLC, I support the sales team with RFIs and RFPs, I take information from sales interactions to influence product roadmap priorities. As the Head of Marketing Technology BA, I ensure that both client requirements focus on measurable success and appropriate requirement definition techniques are employed for different audiences. I use my technology background to build strong relationships with our technical teams and take on the Product Owner role in Agile ceremonies.Responsibilities & Skills• Roadmap planning of the company’s software offering• Innovation and Market trend analysis• Senior stakeholder engagement and management• Deliver and oversee Business Analysis outputs• Sales support• Technical Solution Design

Lead Business/Technical Analyst

• May 2012 - Nov 2017

Business/Technical Analyst supporting presales activity, contract and legal activity, business requirement gathering, technical design and delivery management. Support test, configuration and deployment activity. Plan and execute user acceptance and the training of new systems and features. Manage the design and evolution of the company’s software platform.Responsibilities & Skills• Oversee the implementation and enforcement of a standard approach to requirements gathering and documentation• Implementation and policing of analytical quality control gates • Maintain a relationship between the BA practice and the Sales, Contract and Legal, Test and Development Teams• Business Case definition and planning/Due Diligence Support• Senior stakeholder engagement and management• Business analysis and process definition• Development of formal documentation; Business Requirements Document (BRD), Software Requirements Specification (SRS) and Test Scripts • Supplier/Third Party management • Delivery Management (includes Scrum Master role where appropriate)A key member of the HSBC Marketing Technology project which won ‘Team of the Year’ at the Communisis Customer Experience Annual Conference in Jan 2018.

Technical Analyst

• Dec 2008 - May 2012

Responsible for the capture of high level and low level technical requirements and the design of a technical solution in partnership with Communisis clients (includes Tesco, T-Mobile, HSBC, Barclays, Royal Mail and DCSF among others). Worked on completely bespoke solutions (Pont of Sale applications, E-Commerce sites and workflow), integration of 3rd Party ERP applications with the companies web solutions and migration projects. Coordinated work with our onshore developers and prepared requirements and liaised with our off-shore developers in Vietnam.Responsibility for gathering requirements and producing prototypes and UML based Software requirements specifications. The analytical support continues into the implementation stage to tailor the solution to the company’s development framework while producing a solution that addresses all success criteria identified in the SRS. Responsible for test case generation based on use case and user stories obtained at requirements gathering stage.Responsibilities & Skills• Technical analysis and software design• Business analysis and process definition• Develop formal documentation; Business Requirements Document (BRD), Software Requirements Specification (SRS) and Test Scripts • Delivery Management (includes offshore team co-ordination)

Head Of Digital Development

• Feb 2006 - Nov 2008

As the manager of the development team, I had responsibility for every aspect of the development life cycle. The role involved developing and overseeing the development of bespoke applications, intranet and website maintenance. Key to my role was providing consultation and spotting opportunities; advising government departments looking to develop or procure technical solutions.My role was 30% management, 70% analysis and development (using ASP.Net c# and SQL). My technical knowledge allied with a strong customer focused approached allowed me to build excellent working relationships with departments and clients to understand their requirements and deliver the most appropriate solutions.In my two and half years as the ISD manager I introduced a structured development approach to the team and a formal development process. This allowed me and the team to deliver every application on or before its required delivery date. I managed the upgrade of the company’s intranet from classic asp to a .net 2.0 environment. I introduced OO development techniques and unit testing. I reduced resource requirements by introducing the team to code generation software.I introduce the team to agile development techniques and took on the role of Scrum master on many projects.I was part of the team that obtained a commercial partner to market one of our most successful applications; the application was a winner in the 2008 BECTA awards (under the name Swift). I played a key role in the development and the specification of this application.Responsibilities & Skills• People and performance management• Recruitment• Budget planning and monitoring• Resource planning and scheduling• Senior stakeholder management • Change control• Third Party Supplier Management• Technical analysis and software design• Business analysis and process definition• Develop formal documentation; BRD, SRS and Test Scripts • Software Development (Asp.net 2.0 C# SQL , XML, JavaScript, CSS)

Senior Developer

• Dec 2003 - Feb 2006

As a senior developer in the team my role involved the analysis, specification and development of .Net applications with SQL server back end databases. I coached junior members of the team and investigate and promoted new and more efficient ways of working. I developed some of the company-s biggest applications many with a financial theme.

Applications Developer

• Oct 2002 - Dec 2003

A one year contract; I was given the task of developing an on-line behaviour database and online behaviour audit tool. This was an unspecified piece of work and required extensive analysis and specification working alongside the Educational Psychologists. Both applications were delivered before the defined deadlines and became very successful applications in Education Leeds school software portfolio (adopted nationally). This role required self-management and the full development lifecycle skill set. The result was an online database that handled large volumes of data and rapidly reported behaviour trends. As a result of this success I was offered a senior role in the development team.

Senior Database Administrator

• Nov 1999 - Oct 2002

I became the second member of a newly formed database team in a direct marketing company. The purpose of the team was to develop and maintain marketing databases for major companies After two years in the job we had built the team to 12 and were hosting SQL server databases with VB6 Administration front-ends for among others the likes of Reuters, NEXT, RSPB, Nissan, Skipton Building Society and many others. The role involved working with the client from day one to manage and develop a hosted marketing database, building complex queries against customer orders and demographic information. Many of my customer focused skills were developed in this environment particularly working with people at every level of the organisation from director to shop floor print operators.