Software Development
As an engineer and engineering manager, I have developed a product mindset by working closely with product managers and being engaged with the entire product lifecycle. I am also a big fan of Agile, specifically Scrum methodology, for software development.
Product Management
I have training as a Product Owner in Scrum and have filled the role of Product Manager while at NBCUniversal. I volunteered to be a hands-on product owner responsibile for writing user stories and being the 1st liason for a vendor building out the NBCUNow intranet portal.
My approach for working with Product Managers is a collaborative, communicative, and team-centric approach. I work well with product managers by having regular touch-base meetings, working with them on roadmaps and backlogs, and advocating for engineering specific tasks to be prioritized for development. The relationship between Engineering Manager and Product Manager is integral for producing a quality product in as frictionless as possible process.
Scrum Methodology
I have been using Scrum methodology for most of my career. I am a Certified Scrum Master and Product Owner and have taught teams how to implement Scrum. This approach is team-focused where teams should be able to decide how they want to proceed with Scrum. I support my teams in their actions, including when to do daily stand-ups, how to handle planning, when to have retros and demos, and other agile events.
I have led teams that have followed Scrum methodology and teams that have followed a modified Scrum. I have worked with teams that conducted from 1 week to 4 week sprints. I have also led teams that were following a Waterfall methodology as well as a hybrid Waterfall and Scrum methodology.
Planning & Prioritization
Planning typically includes prioritizing work, delegating tasks, and managing the influx of requests. These activities are often done jointly with a Product Manager. The following actions have worked successfully for me.
- Implement request workflow for how requests should be made to the team
- Work closely with Product Manager for priorities and deadlines
Through these actions, I introduced a data-driven prioritization framework that swiftly boosted team velocity by 15% and decreased the operations backlog from 123 to 26 requests within just 1 month.
Prioritization Framework
Research & Development
Throughout my career, I have often looked outside the box for innovative solutions to problems. I have also had the opportunity to work on multiple research & development projects.
Some of these projects have included working on an internal map and directions mobile application. I was able to rapidly turn a facility diagram into an interactive mobile app that included the ability to get directions within the facility. Another project involved developing an interactive animated character that would detect you nearby via your phone and appear on a television to give directions. You could then follow the character as it bounced from one television to another, guiding you to your location.
Research & Development
Product Quality
One of my career goals is to always produce a high-quality product. This includes a product that has been thoroughly tested by developers, QA, and other stakeholders. I have found the following actions to be helpful in producing high-quality products.
- Implement design reviews every sprint to review system design for features
- Implement code reviews required for acceptance and deployment
- Use Test Driven Development to develop code-level test cases early
With these actions, results are quickly achieved. For example, I improved the change failure rate by 20% via code reviews.
Operations
My career began supporting operations and being on call. I have supported teams in scheduling on-call and handling the influx of requests. I have even taken on-call shifts during the holidays to allow my team to take time off.
I worked as an Operations Engineer for Disney Parks, providing Tier 3 support for 20+ live websites.
I also led the efforts for multiple high-priority company-wide initiatives for Disney, including JVM updates, security updates, and content management system upgrades.
While at Amazon, I coordinated urgent log4j updates completed within 6 days across 2000+ applications for the organization.