Software Development

As an engineer and engineering manager, I have a product mindset and work closely with product managers through the entire product lifecycle. I am also a big fan of Agile, specifically Scrum methodology, for software development.

Product Management

I have been trained as a Product Owner in Scrum and have held the role of Product Manager while at NBCUniversal. I volunteered to be a hands-on product owner responsible for writing user stories and serving as the first liaison for a vendor building out the NBCUNow intranet portal.

My approach to working with product managers is collaborative, communicative, and team-centric. I work well with them 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 the engineering manager and the product manager is integral to producing a quality, frictionless product.

Scrum Methodology

I have used the 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, and teams should be able to decide how to proceed with Scrum. I support my teams in their actions, including when to hold daily stand-ups, how to handle planning, when to have retros and demos, and other Agile events.

I have led teams that followed Scrum methodology and teams that followed a modified Scrum. I have worked with teams that conducted from 1-week to 4-week sprints. I have also led teams that followed a waterfall methodology and 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 are submitted
  • 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.

These projects have included working on an internal map and directions mobile application. I rapidly turned a facility diagram into an interactive mobile app that can 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 consistently produce a high-quality product, which includes a product thoroughly tested by developers, QA, and other stakeholders. I have found the following actions helpful in producing high-quality products.

  • Implement design reviews every sprint for feature development
  • 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 with 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. Some specific work includes the following items.

  • Operations Engineer for Disney Parks, providing Tier 3 support
  • Multiple high-priority company-wide initiatives for Disney, including JVM updates, security updates, and content management upgrades
  • Urgent log4j updates completed within 6 days across 2000+ applications for Amazon Prime Video