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David Harmony’s Career Portfolio

Introduction to David

David is a key influencer and leading consultant in the global revolution of Systems Thinking and the establishment of Adaptive Leadership platforms, since 1989.

He has helped dozens of organizations across 12 industries, to inspire a Culture Transformation, by leveraging frameworks that realize the Shared Agility Mindset which is obsessed with empowering organization talent to exceed Customer expectations.

He’s been a key part of ushering organizations through the Turning Point in the Digitally-enabled Services era, since 1998.

As a proud Indigenous leader, he brings a unique perspective and know-how around Relational Systems thinking and [re] design.

 

My [relational] Values System

 

Some of the Common Outcomes from David’s Leadership

200%+ swing in Employee & Customer Engagement: Attraction, Retention, NPS Satisfaction

Explain further ...

Result:  Average YoY improvement of 200% with scores in 40 to 60 range

  • The Impact: greatly reduced Transactional abandons, improving customer experience, long-term retention and CLV.   Insights leveraged for cross and up sells for ongoing CX/UX journey map prioritizations.   Ideation was usually integrated as part of prioritization due to more actionable insights from well timed, contextual NPS administration.  New customer acquisition sparked through bold direct referral requests.
  • The Measure:  # of Promoters – # of Detractors (excluding Neutral responses).   Average improvement after 12 to 18 months was from a basis of 0 to 40, or basis of 20 to 60 (40 pt swing).
  • How we achieved and measured:
    • Measured NPS in a Transactional context at crucial moments (for ex, when vetting a new self-service workflow, capturing the Product context, User experience data, and qualitative suggestions/comments).
    • Built relationships from current vs next solution experiences, ensuring tripwire telemetry was included in Epic/Feature plans ongoing.
    • Instead of asking “would you [eventually] recommend”, most often David asks for THE prospects info as a true show of satisfaction and trust.
    • Just one example:   Farmers Ins. mainframe retirement required ongoing re investment justification through incremental reductions in the Call Center staffing and cost structure.

New Product Launch Effectiveness: Fit for Purpose Business Cases and Features

Explain further ...

Result:  Average reduction of 300% in # of ProdDev Cycles required

  • The Impact: reduced the number of Build-Validate cycles (PDev teams; Right diamond) required by ensuring next best Hypotheses formulation occured (research teams; Left diamond), focusing experiments, prototyping, and defering decisions to the last responsible moment. (assume variability in Understanding; preserve solution options / minimal architecture and org Debt)
  • The Measure:  # of cycles required to move from a new Product/Feature Idea [adoption or acquisition] into Stable release status achieving predicted outcomes expressed in the Lean business case
  • How we achieved:
    • Ensured Customer / Stakeholder alignment on Initial MVP with minimal Pivots via Test-First (BDD)
    • Customers included sincerely, as part of Strategic planning, CX Journey mapping, and UX design (aka “4 levels of done”)
    • Ideation Backlogs fully integrated into in-take practices (1 version of truth, outside-in)
    • DFC’s proprietary approach to Agile Governance, using interlaced prioritization and Decision-Gates as part of two-layer Backlog, overlapping vetting of value Intent.
    • Left-Diamond cadenced overlap and right-diamond feedback loop closure retrospective learning and ongoing Adatpation of strategic priorities

Flow Efficiency: Speed to Market improvement 300%+ multi-factor

Explain further ...

Result:  Avg of 5-factor reduction in LeadTime for Large Scale orgs & 3-factor reduc. for Mid-sized orgs.

  • The Impact: reduced the MTTR Cycle Times on average from 2 or 3 Fiscal Qtrs down to 4 or 8 weeks, for the cohesive SETs of features (Min Lovable Release MLR)  
  • The Measure: Mean Time To Release Cycle Time Kanban tracking:  from hypothesis formulation/approval to production release & monitoring
  • How we achieved:
    • Taught advanced tactics for Epic writing using my LPM Piloting approach, which ensured MLR determination in a matter of a week or three, rather than typical months involved
    • Ensured Customer / Stakeholder alignment on Initial MLR with minimal timely, meaingful System Demos
    • Intentional coaching plans to mature the Test-First shared mindset and automated infrastructure,
    • Objective leading indicators measurement using DoR and DoD maturations towards MLR defect containment (resolution) and PI containment to <1 Fiscal Qtr
    • Reduced and removed associated Rework cycles due to misalignment
  • How we measured:
    • Tagging in ALM tool (i.e. Jira or ADO) and Dashboard reporting to track the set of MLR features
    • Retrospecting improvement action items to systemically optimize the Flow of Feature in-take (derivation from clear Epic guardrails of Outcomes sought)
    • Coaching of Product Managers and Stakeholders to focus first on Experiential outcomes matched to CX Journey maps per maturing Persona, to expedite GTM shared ownership, preemptive coordination, reducing lag time from incremental Dark Releases

400%+ Multi-factor Productivity Gains (Effective, Bi-directionally Inclusive Strategy Formulation)

Explain further ...

Result:  400% 4-factor improvements on average, with some cases upwards of 10-factor

  • The Impact: clear line of sight and systemic optimized Throughput of the organization Supply-rate (focused talent capacity, optimized velocity, last-responsible-moment decision-making).  This removes the majority of subjectivity in Strategic planning, restoring relationships and the ability to trust the Intuition between decision makers and layers of the org.   This brings compounding Speed to Market due to empowering Focus-and-Finish, optimizing WIP constraints, and the ability to Adapt priorities objectively using the same planning conventions.   
  • The Measure: Efficiency is a 100% scale riding on the wild assumption of clear, compelling, properly sequenced Strategic [effectiveness] planning.  Average efficiency gains might be 20-50%, but multi factor gains rely on starting initiatives in the right interlaced sequence against resources with context-switching dependencies.   Measuring Lead Time and Cycle Times from both in-take and construction/GTM kanbans across a clear Value-Stream-Vertical, reveals greatly reduced context switching penalties.   Velocity improves multi-factor first.   More interesting are the economic outcomes and learnings from the Lean Business Cases becoming more clear and traceable.
  • How we achieved:
    • DFC’s proprietary Portfolio Piloting coaching approach, builds understanding and advocacy within the decision authority structure (pre Agile), far quicker than “big bang” breadth first adoption approaches typically encouraged by the Framework authors.
    • Learning is compounded, making employees available to peers as mentors who may be further ahead on the Agile journey.
    • Centers of Practice and DFC’s unique approach to Centers of Excellence structure, planning, and coaching, yields the multi-factor productivity improvements in substantially less time (commonly 18 mths or less, instead of 3 FYs + with the risk of anit-patterns, shut-downs and restarts of Transformation programs)
  • How we measured:
    • Fit-for-Purpose qualitative and quantitative measures to assess the clarity and competency of those writing the Strategy, the Lean Experiments, and corresponding releasable Features.
    • Retrospecting improvement action items and subjecting to Agile scaling rigor
    • Coaching of Product Managers and Stakeholders to “contain quality” as part OF the Customer Expectation Mgmt discipline (aka “start only what we intend to Finish and Finish what we start ever more quickly)

Responsiveness to Unpredictable Market Forces: Adaptive Planning within 2-3 Sprints

Explain further ...

Result:

  • The Impact: reduced the MTTR Cycle Times on average from 2 or 2 Fiscal Qtrs down to 4 or 8 weeks, for the cohesive set of features (MinLovableRelease) response to competition.  In SaaS industries, often 20+ market share reclaim the very next month (ex Paycor, FiServ, SFG, and USAA CC div.)
  • The Measure: Mean Time To Response Cycle Time Kb tracking:  from competitive response formulation/approval to production release & monitoring, including metrics for the paused/restarted initiatives and their Cost of Delay impacts as part of total Product Line ROI, NPV and Investment Options decision tree analysis
  • How we achieved:
    • Advanced at-scale Estimation coaching, including internal team Calibrations at all levels, and intra-team Correlations to hone a trustworthy Strategic Forecasting engine.
    • Investment Options Portfolio valuations coaching
    • Fully integrated AOP changes and CFO buy-in to participatory budgeting and priority substitutions analysis
    • Taught advanced tactics for Epic writing using my LPM Piloting approach, which ensured MLR determination in a matter of a week or three, rather than typical months involved
    • Ensured Customer / Stakeholder alignment on Initial MLR with minimal timely, meaingful System Demos
    • Intentional coaching plans to mature the Test-First shared mindset and automated infrastructure,
    • Objective leading indicators measurement using DoR and DoD maturations towards MLR defect containment (resolution) and PI containment to <1 Fiscal Qtr
    • Reduced and removed associated Rework cycles due to misalignment
    • Reinforced DFC Decision Gates approach and one-front-door to aid in the Objective and graceful pause/shutdown of in-flight initiatives that block competitive response time
  • How we measured:
    • Retrospecting improvement action items to systemically optimize the Flow of Feature in-take (derivation from clear Epic guardrails of Outcomes sought)

Defects Contained to Origin Release: Shift-Left Test Automation Alignment

Explain further ...

Result:  Defect-Escape rates reduced 90% within first 2 Fiscal Qtrs

  • The Impact: reduced the escape rate of defects largely due to sub optimized flow of strategy and misalignment across disciplines.   
  • The Measure:  Count of Defects by triage level that are discovered AFTER the Iteration which introduced the change (tracked by Iteration proximity and planned reductions)
  • How we achieved:
    • Ensured Customer / Stakeholder alignment on Initial MLR with minimal timely, meaingful System Demos
    • Intentional coaching plans to mature the Test-First shared mindset and automated infrastructure,
    • Objective leading indicators measurement using DoR and DoD maturations towards MLR defect containment (resolution) and PI containment to <1 Fiscal Qtr
  • How we measured:
    • Tagging in ALM tool (i.e. Jira or ADO) and Dashboard reporting
    • Retrospecting improvement action items and subjecting to Agile scaling rigor
    • Coaching of Product Managers and Stakeholders to “contain quality” as part OF the Customer Expectation Mgmt discipline (aka “start only what we intend to Finish and Finish what we start ever more quickly)

Testimonials

Cris Barnes

Thank you for all of the effort and attention you have put into this brief 6 month engagement.  We are far from a full Strategic / Cultural shift, 

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Cris Barnes (Solution Architect: Mobile and Shared Services Platform)
Lexmark (Cloud Services)
Amrit Kumar

Reflecting on my own career and life journey, I have met very few people that stand out for their combination of talent, honesty, and compassion. Dav

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Amrit Kumar - VP JP Morgan Chase
JPMorgan Chase
Pirai Savarkar

What I appreciate most about David is that he trusts his Team and Empowers them to deliver successfully.

David is an excellent leader. I really enj

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Pirai Savarkar - Senior Program Manager
Farmers Insurance
Bob Boyle

David was a guiding light for our organization and me in so many ways. His knowledge and expertise in Lean & Scaled Agile provided the organizati

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Bob Boyle - Lead Internal Coach
Sammons Financial Group
Clayton Faria

David was instrumental in helping our teams change from a fragmented, technology-driven planning system, towards a customer-centric, strategic cultur

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Clayton Faria - Portfolio Director
A FinTech Organization within the USA
Cochabamba, Volivia Team (75 ❤️s)

We will miss you David.   You touched our Hearts and made us feel “as one” with the Corporate team members in the United States.

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Cochabamba, Bolivia Team (75 Hearts)
Thomson Reuters Gov't Rev Div.
James Schroth

David provides a tireless approach to coaching an organizationthrough agile transformation. His personality and demeanor help him become a respected

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James Schroth - Sr. Dir Product Mgmt
Paycor Inc.
Jed Summerton

I had the pleasure of working with David during the inaugural release of a business intelligence platform in an Education context, involving statisti

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Jed Summerton - Chief Solutions Architect (former Telecomm Exec)
Connect - the Knowledge Network
Jeff Ostrander

I worked alongside David for several years and was profoundly impressed with his focus, intelligence and — most of all — with his great h

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Jeff Ostrander, Pilot now, Sr Software Architect then
Wings of Mercy
Kathy Clark

I had the pleasure of working closely with David as a coach of professionals dedicated to learning and growth for themselves and their customers in a

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Kathy Clark - Culture Change Consultant, Board Member, Senior Leadership Advisor
Northwestern Mutual
Kevin Winchester

If you are a Baseball person, I’d tell you that David is a “5 Tool Player”.  His talents are as deep as they are wide.  David is a dy

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Kevin Winchester - Agile CoE Leader
Paycor Inc.
Lee Cookman

David brought just the right combination of experience, technique, and passion, at just the right time, to help us to launch an Lean delivery environ

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Lee Cookman - Sr. Director Retail Lines
Capital One
Michael C. Farris

Over the course of my 30 plus years of experience as a consultant it is rare that I have come across a special talent. David displays such a talent.

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Michael C. Farris - Strategic PM / Consultant
American Family Insurance
Paul Cameron

David’s wealth of experiences have fueled his passion to see workplaces become more efficient, effective and overall a more enjoyable place to

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Paul Cameron - Sr Scrum Master / Release Coordination
Paycor Inc.
Peg Ryan

Bright mind, cool head, kind heart. These three attributes make David Harmony the quintessential team builder. Not only is he current in state-of-the

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Peg Ryan - Head of Digital CX
Farmers Specialty Lines
Scott Richardson

David served as our first Agile Coach from the start of our Agile transformation. His deep knowledge of Agile, Lean, Scaled Agile , and the human ele

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Scott Richardson - CDO / CIO
Fannie Mae (then) / Ally (2020)
Tim Nargassans

David was a great partner during our organization’s SAFe Agile transformation.  A trusted advisor who became a true friend during our enga

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Tim Nargassans - Agile CoE Leader
FIS - Data Services Group
Zhen Tao

With David’s trusted advisory, we were able to excel Paycor’s Agile journey. David diligently focused on teaching our teams the underlyin

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Zhen Tao - Zhen Tao - CIO / CEO
Paycor Inc.

Career Overview

Adaptive Leadership Experience

Culture Transformation Experience

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Character and Interpersonal Qualities
  • Intellectual curiosity with a passion for problem solving and change management
  • Proven ability to create rapport with and influence all levels of stakeholders
  • Low-ego while being equally comfortable giving and receiving direction, leading and contributing, driving executive conversations or supporting as necessary
  • High EQ with a strong ability to ‘read the room’ and adjust approach, facilitate change management tactics, and foster trust at levels of the organization
  • Ability to plan, execute, mitigate risk, and be accountable for results with a bias for action
  • Unique ways of understanding and unifying people amidst significant change and strife
  • Strong personal credibility and leadership skills; can comfortably lead senior executives through difficult trade-off discussions and creatively drive consensus
  • Unique ability to balance equally building relationships and driving performance
  • Ability to apply modern, light-weight Portfolio & Program Management best practices with a predisposition to produce fast, practical recommendations and objectively traceable outcomes attributable to incremental change. Industry-first, uniquely accurate forecasting optimizations.
  • Ability to rapidly get to an ’80/20′ answer, and comfort tailoring the analytical approach as necessary given program and project timelines
  • Expert verbal and written communicator; ability to cut through the noise and make the complex simple
  • Extensive knowledge of and ability to expertly apply change management principles throughout a complex organizational structure
Core Skills and Usage Contexts
  • Strong sense of self Response-Ability instilled since age 5.  He brings a General Manager-persona and persistence.
    • “Accountability is reactionary; outward attempt to control infinite complexity.   Self-responsibility brings order within systemic chaos”.
    • David role models an inspiring way for people to take pride in shared ownership for driving amazing shared experiences for both Employees and Customers.   People serving People!
  • Strong expertise in Customer and Employee attraction, engagement (retention), and (personal) growth strategies.
  • Demonstrated ability to lead cross-functional teams, drive product vision, and execute on product roadmaps.
  • Is highly collaborative and enjoys working in partnership with many areas to identify goals and work together to achieve them.
  • Exceptional analytical, problem-solving, and data-driven decision-making skills.
  • Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively with stakeholders at all levels.
  • Advisory and Mentoring
  • [re] Education, [re] Kindling Imagination and Curiousity
    • Mentor & educate colleagues including other coaches Agile practitioners, software team members, product owners, business stakeholders, etc.
    • Base mentoring on best practices as well as practical approaches to what will work best for the team, train, and/or client
      Coach teams which may be at different levels of Agile maturity
      Running workshops as needed on topics such as specific ceremonies, story decomposition, road mapping, etc.
  • Training
    • Black belt status with Scaled Agile Inc. as an SPC6 training ALL curriculum since 2012
    • Assess areas where training maybe needed for the team and/or stakeholders
    • Develop and/or customizing standard materials to address needs
    • Customize standard SAFe training materials with client relevant examples, as necessary
    • Facilitate and conduct training
  • Facilitate Team Success
    • Facilitate team process (Scrum, Kanban, etc.)
    • Assess current state and identify opportunities for improvement and transparency based on practices that are pragmatically align with the organizations specific constraints and opportunities while remaining true to the Agile Manifesto.
    • As a mentor / Agile Coach is responsible for guiding teams into the Agile methodology, providing employees with feedback and means of improvement, catalyzing organizational growth and answering questions.
    • Providing hands-on support to all employees, collaborating with people across widely varying levels and roles, leading teams toward further understanding and adoption of Agile as well as overall company growth and improvement
  • Develop Agile Adoption Strategy
    • Working with the key stakeholders, participate and possibly facilitate organizational adoption strategy design and implementation, from the introduction of Agile and employee education, to fostering teams and cultures that practice Agile, to sustaining Agile methodologies and continually offering strategies for improvement
  • Basic Qualifications
    • 23+ years of consulting experience with a focus in the Agile environment
    • 33+ years of business operations experience (contract & vendor mgmt, financing, annual strategic planning, quarterly rolling-wave budgeting, talent mgmt, efficiency and effectiveness measurement)
    • 30+ years of experience of Portfolio / Program management, processes analysis / improvement, and practice standards establishment using Agile, SAFe, Lean, Lean Startup and Waterfall (down properly vs. “traditional chaos”)
  • Key Skills
    • Demonstrated experience in showing high EQ (empathy, self-awareness, motivation, self-regulation, and social skills) across organizations
    • Experience as an Agile Transformation Leader collaborating with Agile and non-Agile (external) teams
    • Outstanding relationship management skills to work with personnel at Executive levels
    • Outstanding verbal and written communication skills to audiences of all levels, including client-facing skills
    • Experience with recruiting and building out teams; experienced management with a strong history of mentoring others
    • Experience in understanding business context and providing value-added outcomes
    • Experience in understanding technology and industry trends and ability to recommend relevant solutions to clients
    • Ability to facilitate and lead meetings to reach conclusions, identify tasks, record actions, and achieve results
    • Ability to lead, train, and provide feedback to staff and corresponding managers
    • Experience leading effective collaboration across a team of project managers focusing on different functional areas for the same project
    • Expert using Adaptive Leadership SDLC management tools (Jira, Jira Align, Azure Dev Ops, VersionOne, Rally, etc.)
    • SAFe Program Consultant (SPC6) Certification
    • Willing to support all U.S. time zones and European/Asian zones as appropriate; remotely in remote-first work culture
    • Willing to travel monthly to regional leadership destinations and quarterly / globally to major PPM events (ex PI planning events, System Demonstrations, etc), adhoc as requested
Career Overview
  • 31+ years of experience instituting Lean leadership & Just-In-Time delivery systems within tangible goods, software and services industries. Understands the paradigm shift and origin of systemic issues resulting from manager career transitions, from a Manufacturing to Service-based economy.
  • Leadership role in Turnarounds, Carve-outs, M&A stabilization, Privatization and priming for IPO. Understands the pressure that businesses are facing and has relevant incremental solutions.
  • 27+ years of direct support at the C Suite level and most Sr. Management Teams. Can garner interest and incremental reinvestment in culture change initiatives.
  • Highly proficient in Technology projects having served as an Analyst, Developer, Architect and Project manager on very complex initiatives (Mainframe retirement, distributed applications platform modernization, data warehouse optimization, enterprise business intelligence/analytics, omni-channel strategy, mobile platforms)
Overview of Lean-Agile Transformation Experience
  • Certified SPC (v2 to v6) SAFe Practice Consultant with Black Belt trainer status on Scaled Agile Inc. Has mentored and certified 500+ Product Owners and 100+ Product Managers through SAIs materials (PoPm, APM, LPM, LS/SA) and substantial fast-follow time embedded in their org’s adoption of Adaptive Leadership and customer-centered, Design-Thinking culture.
  • Led the direct launch and optimization of 30+ ARTs, 8 CoEs, 21 Lean Product Line Portfolios, with indirect support of another 60+ ARTs including hybrid Waterfall Programs
  • Astute in influencing willingly–vulnerable participation by Stakeholders and Change Agents, as part of realizing supportive Transformation Leadership Teams (TLT).
  • Keen understanding for Dependency management and conditions which block Transformation plans. Communicates clearly with / through TLT and CoE.
  • Diplomatic, yet effective in helping management realize truly cross-functional Teams that can deliver holistically. Understands how to gradually reduce barriers and rebalance the Flow of work.
  • Deep and broad experience as practitioner and senior leader across several business functions in a unifying role, realizing highly effective negotiation across internal functional boundaries, while optimizing cross-functional Teams in their support the culture Transformation.
  • Leverages a unique approach to establishing overlapping Refinement rhythms and Kanban in-take process to realize fully Calibrated and Correlated Estimates, which ensure trustworthy Forecasting capability for Sr. Leadership teams and optimal throughput for the organization
  • Advanced skill configuring and leveraging insights from ALM solutions including VersionOne, Rally, Jira/Align, TargetProcess, and Azure DevOps
  • Also experienced with LeSS, RUP, XP, A/TDD, BDD, FDD, Agile / Incremental Data Architecture
  • Unique experience with Agile-Contract Vendor Negotiating and Value Chain Flow / Restructuring
  • Early adopter (2013), Design Thinking mentor as part of Digital Modernization and Omni-channel strategy trends across industries. Major productivity gains are indeed possible, through leverage of these practices, which enable true Lean Startup thinking and Innovation. Demonstrated notably with FedEx Services Marketing division. David’s influence in CX/UX & Lean Portfolio Mgmt. is now part of SAFe 5.x framework.
Decision Framework Consulting (DFC) Dec 2012 to Present

I have been Advising executives and guiding crucial organization culture change. As a Strategy coach, helping people virtually restructure to optimize availability and influence of one another across the layers of the org, has realized the expression that “Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast”. People must be inspired to be productive. They must be included in Strategy formulation, to be inspired to share ownership and obsess over amazing outcomes for Customers, Partners, and Employees. People serving/supporting People. 🙏🏽

✅ 50+ clients served with ~75% success rate across 12+ industries. Details at http://Portfolio.Harmony.OnLine

What I’ve been involed with …

Founder and Principal Consultant

  • Enterprise Business Agility (EBA) consulting: Lean-Agile Transformation risk/readiness Assessments, Transformation Roadmaps and Lead Coach role over CoEs and new Portfolio / Program (ARTs) launches
  • Optimization of existing Portfolios and Programs, Training and Implementation initiatives, with objective, economically traceable product telemetry and 300% improvement in speed to market
  • Leadership mentoring and Executive advisory in the optimization of Continuous Delivery Pipelines to realize multi-factor productivity gains
  • Product Management leadership and mentoring, and Product Engineering ops support towards unifying culture change. Leveraged ELT/SLT Advisory Workshops, strategy transition and optimization Consulting, Certified Training (SAFe, Lean, Scrum), Embedded Coaching, and Mentoring of Product Managers across the layers of organizations, spanning 12+ industries within Public, Private and Gov’t sectors
  • Strategic assessment and financial justification for complex technology-driven initiatives
  • Employee engagement and retention strategy initiatives in the EBA context (specific incentives and career pathing HR adaptations)
  • Hire screening of employees for proven experience in Agile methodology and transformational leadership
  • Consulting support for executive teams in backfill scenarios, transitioning and transforming Portfolio Governance from prior to next Team composition (PE/VC-startups, M&A, IPO priming, R&D Carve-outs, Stabilization, Sunsetting)
  • Proprietary Product Offerings online to Assess, Mentor and Guide Organizational Change across all levels and roles
  • Portfolio and Program Management of Enterprise Business Intelligence / Data Warehousing and Distributed Software Solutions

My Impact:

  • Serves as a lead Change Agent and mentor, working with internal lead change sponsors and Teams across all layers of the org. Prepares and delivers against a multi-year Lean-Agile Transformation plan. Establishes modern processes for mitigating OCM and Product Delivery risk. Average impact is a 50% to 100% reduction in total implementation timeline (2 FYs vs 5+).
  • Optimization of Strategic Continuous Delivery Pipelines in SaaS / PaaS contexts, realizing average of 400% multi-factor productivity gains. Restructured and optimized the connection between Strategic planning / budgeting team layers down through to Operations support to realize fully optimized DevOps cultures.
  • Speed to Market Minimum Viable/Valued Releasing (MVR/P) improvements of 300%+ for mid-sized orgs. and upwards of 500%+ for large scale orgs. Unique approach to scaled agility estimation and interlaced prioritization of concurrent initiatives.
  • Lean-Agile practices adherence via internalized org-sustained coaching establishment. Leading vs Lagging metrics monitoring and KPIs for simplified and improved on-going investment of culture change initiatives. Proprietary approach to transformation metrics tied to product telemetry with incrementally, economically verifiable outcomes.
  • Calibration of near-term (6 to 9 months) portfolio forecasting, bringing predictability to product road mapping towards crucial trade-offs decision making and GTM planning, often a key part of repairing market reputation.
  • Human-centered design thinking tools and culture establishment, expediting R&D experimentation with economically traceable outcomes attributable to specific releases and product/service enhancement outcomes.
  • Clients experiencing 200%+ swing in Employee & Customer Engagement evident by ease of Attraction and Retention metrics and detailed tracking of NPS Satisfaction. Establishes granular NPS traceability in the context of change to financially justify ongoing investment. Average YoY improvement of 200% with NPS scores in 40 to 60 range.
  • Sample case studies available: https://scaledagile.com/insights-customer-stories/ FedEx, NW Mutual, Capital One, Fannie Mae.
Overview of Scaled Agile Framework specific Experiences

David is a key influencer and leading consulting in the global revolution of Systems Thinking and the establishment of Adaptive Leadership platforms, realized by Culture Transformation frameworks that realize the Shared Agility Mindset that is obsessed with empowering organization talent to exceed Customer expectations.    He’s been a key part of ushering organizations through the Turning Point in the Digitally-enabled Services era, since 1998.


As of May 2023, David was recertified on the latest SAFe 6.x framework.   He conducts frequent public and private Training for Leading SAFe, Lean Portfolio Mgmt, and Agile Product Mgmt.  He was first certified on version 2.x.   He has influenced the maturation of this framework from the early days, directly influencing its CEO Dean Leffingwell and the original thought leaders on many occassions.   Many of his ideas shaped what eventually became the Portfolio and Product Mgmt dimensions.

David has veteran experience in launching, operating and fine tuning 14 Enterprise Portfolios and 90+ Agile Release Trains (31 directly, 60+ indirectly through Portfolio Governance).

 

Six of those Value Streams predated the SAFe v1.0 publishing in 2012, leveraging fully the concepts of Lean system optimization and economic decision-making, relying on Value System boundary management, Product Flow, and Continuous Delivery.   Each ART that he has directly mentored had on average 10 teams with approximately 200 people in total (including Portfolio, Program, System Team and downstream implementation functions).

David’s career began in Lean Manufacturing, where he served as a part of Transformation teams to optimize large operation teams across entire Value Chains.  Frameworks like SAFe leverage and originate from Lean Systems Thinking/Engineering.   David’s direct implementation experience has influenced the foundation of modern frameworks.   

He is sought after as a premier Embedded Coach and successful implementation mentor.  In his absence, clients have stated that “attempts to change their culture were merely academic aspirations with very few implmentation benefits realized, blocked by improper change priming and management resistance to change, as a key part of inspiring substantial behavioral change at scale”.

Here’s a breakdown of experience by Industry and timing:

When Industry Train Count Context Sector
2006-2008 Education 2 Hosted Web & Business Intelligence (Data Warehousing) Government / Private VC
2008-2012 Insurance 4 CRM, Enterprise Service Bus, Data Services, Credit Mgmt Services, Hosted Web Policy Mgmt (Mainframe Retirement) Commercial
2012-2013 Financial Services 2 Hosted Web (Property Valuation, Taxation and Collection; Government) converting to SaaS orientation Government
2014 Technology Infrastructure 1 Cloud-based service management & Enterprise Resource Planning (help desk system cutover) in a SaaS orientation Commercial
2014 Human Capital Mgmt 2 Human Resource Mgmt systems in a SaaS orientation Private / Commercial
2015 Financial Services 2 Enterprise Data Warehouse: Enterprise Service Bus establishment for mortgage securitization; Enterprise Analytics Government
2015 Financial Services 3 Banking, Marketing Operations.  Establishing Portfolio and Program Kanban with existing Technology ARTs. Commercial
2016 Financial Services 2 Banking: Merging Business functions with Technology towards holistic delivery (Mortgage, Credit Cards, Auto Lending) Commercial
2016 Financial Services 2 Banking: Financial Services Automation (B2B, B2C, C2C integration).  Two different ValueStreams. Commercial
2016-2017 Insurance & Financial Services 3 Life Insurance & Investing: Distribution Strategy and Field Support ValueStreams.  Including Enterprise Corporate Strategy connectivity, Portfolio Funding and Governance. Commercial
2017-2018 Logistics 2 Global Logistics, Marketing Strategy Portfolios and Implementation Programs Commercial
2018-2019 Insurance & Investing 2 Life Insurance & Annuity Mgmt. + Enterprise Planning and Portfolio establishment Commercial
2019 Healthcare 2 Fine tuning of CoE supporting 40+ ARTs and integration of 2 existing LOB Lean Portfolios Commercial
2020 Financial Services 2
Establishing org’s 1st Agile Portfolio and 2 ARTs within a technology incubator initiative to modernize PAAS solution delivery of AWS AI architecture for Banking industry clients
Commercial
2021 Printing / Embedded Solutions 2 Established org’s initial 2 ARTs and began to teach Lean Portfolio flow of Strategy formulation Commercial
2021-2022 Financial Services 3 Established this Credit Union Service org’s first Development Value Stream with 3 ARTs and a Solution Train, and initiated launch of a Lean Portfolio.   Included a LACE, CoPs, and an Implementation Community of internal SPCs Private
2022-2023 Financial Services 2 Mentored the Center of Excellence for Business Agility coaching, in a very large Banking system.   20+ internal coaches and 12+ contractors, gaining alignment on their Playbook and Strategies for coaching next level of scaling, from ARTs up to Portfolio coordination.   Was a key thought leader and consultant, advising Sr Leaders inside the org.   Also supported the optimization of two existing ARTs within the Attract and Onboarding steps within the Customer Orientation phase of their Operational Value Stream. Public
2023+ FinTech, Education, Health 5+ Supporting tune-ups of Portfolios and ARTs towards better integration internally and with Customer via Design Thinking “left diamond” optimizations. Private, Public, Gov’t

Education and Certifications
  • MBA from Western Michigan University in 2005 with focus on Organizational Effectiveness
  • Master of Science – Computer Science from Grand Valley State University (GVSU) in 2002 with focus in Object- Oriented Design and Data Architecture
  • BBA from GVSU in 1993 with focus in Accounting and Finance
  • CSM – Certified Scrum Master from the Scrum Alliance
  • SPC6 – Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) Program Consultant from the Scaled Agile Academy
  • ICP-Certified Agile Professional with IC Agile org in route to Expert Designation as an Agile Coach

 

 

 

 

 

Considering an Exit of Consulting as of July 2023 (why?)

Why the return to inside Employment?

There are pros/cons to guiding this major cultural change from a position of “titled authority”.   For the early adopting Orgs, a consulting role paired with Adaptive Leaders worked well.  Innovators and Early Majority Adopter mindsets inherently appreciated and embraced what we taught as consultants.  Titled authority was tertiary and used mainly to help “turn the ship in the channel” when dealing with system issues and usually for later Milestones of change.   Title authority was not a starting requirement for initial, common maneuvers.

In present economic conditions and variables from later attempts to adopt Lean-Agile leadership practices (20+ years into global change), the spotlight shifts internally towards expedited success.  Late Majority Adopting orgs have major cultural resistance and will require Titled Authority to initiate change and counter substantial resistance.   

My goal is for 2/3rds of life awake to be “invested” in work causes that truly inspire us-reuniting.   It breaks my heart to see people proclaiming at their retirement party or from their death beds (too soon after retirement) … “what was that all about?!   I should have ___ instead!  I pray my kids don’t follow my example. 😢 ”   I have a unique ability, since I was very young, to help People to reunite towards inspiring, loving causes which are good for all states of being (humans, animals, insects, plants/trees, environment, etc).

Additionally, I miss the deeper working relationships and personal bond from being IN an organization and among the People long-term.  My heart yearns for this return to internal employment.  Proving together, that we CAN master the delivery of OUR unique promise to society, is something a Consultant usually misses out on with shorter tenure and “tune-ups oriented” support.

Various Confidential Clients: Feb 2023 to Present

Enterprise Business Agility Consulting

  • Advising ELTs and SLTs in both first-attempt contexts, and also level 3 maturations of their Lean-Agile Adaptive Leadership platforms, including LPM launches/optimizations and to some extent ART launches
  • Focusing on supporting CFOs in the adaptations of their Annual Planning process, shifting towards rolling-wave quarterly planning (ear-marking of funds) with PI-specific fund lock-ins tied to fit-for-purpose traceable Lean experiments (Portfolio coaching on proper Participatory Budgeting practices and well-formed Epics with monetized outcomes traced through modern product telemtry).
  • Lean-Agile hire screening for individuals needing help assessing the truth/reality about candidate organization work cultures, AND conversely, supporting HR depeartments in truly Lean-Agile org cultures to qualify top talent as part of streamlining the influx of applications in this transient, turbulent knowledge-worker / digital economy.
Fidelity Investment Services - Capital Markets: Sept 2023 to Present

Enterprise Business Agility Consulting

  • Full SAFe Configuration install, beginning with 3 ARTs, an SRE/Infrastructure Solution Train, and layering in Lean Portfolio Mgmt in 2024.
  • Mentoring the Senior Leadership Teams for 3 Product Lines (Transfer Agent, Derivatives, BPS) on Lean Agile Leadership and leading timely in the adoption of SAFe towards full benefit realization
  • Launching one central LACE and Implementation Communities for each line of business.
  • Co-Authoring a Transformation Backlog in ADO, sparking bi-directional influence and ownership between Implementation Communities and LACE
  • Staffing and Mentoring a coaching team (3 consultants, 10+ internal SPCs) in the Launching of ARTs
  • Scheduling and Conducting SAFe Training (Leading, PoPm, S4Teams, S4Archs, S4Sms, LPM)
  • Working towards C Suite influence and Enterprise Risk Committee on key adaptations to Annual Planning Process, Incentive Programs, and HR implications for career path changes and Agile talent screening, acquisition and retention
Wells Fargo: Sept 2022 to Feb 2023

Enterprise Business Agility Consulting

  • Advised a sub division Coaching Org. on common topics around Portfolio/Program coaching and change mgmt. as well as Sr. Mgmt influence via Strategic Flow.
  • Coached 2 young ARTs (Team of Teams) through two Quarters of Planning and Exeuction.   Focus was on stablizing the in-take practices, striving for inclusion and co-commitment on Plans.  Estimation calibration was a key focus towards mid-range ETA planning and negotiation with Sr. Mgmt.
  • Advised Portfolio Strategy formulation and initial attempts to flow OKRs through an Epic in-take kanban system.   Expectation mgmt was a key focus, with tie-ins to objective demonstrations of outcomes via properly executed System Demos.
  • Reviewed and advised on simplifications to cross Journey (cross Product Line) in-take practices.   The theme was Capacity Allocation policies and work-type routing changes to ensure empowerment without clogging the top-level prioritization focus.
Credit Union Direct: Nov 2021 to July 2022

Enterprise Business Agility Consulting

  • Full SAFe Configuration install, beginning with 3 ARTs and a Solution Train, layering in Lean Portfolio Mgmt in PI3
  • Mentoring the C Suite on Lean Agile Leadership and leading timely adoption of SAFe towards full benefit realization
  • Launching a central LACE and Implementation Communities for each ART
  • Co-Authoring a Transformation Backlog in ADO, sparking bi-directional influence and ownership between Implementation Communities and LACE
  • Staffing and Mentoring a coaching team (5 consultants, 4 internal SPCs) in the Launching of ARTs
  • Scheduling and Conducting SAFe Training (Leading, PoPm, S4Teams, S4Archs, S4Sms, LPM)
  • Working with C Suite and Enterprise Risk Committee on key adaptations to Annual Planning Process, Incentive Programs, and HR implications for career path changes and Agile talent screening, acquisition and retention
Lexmark (Cloud Services, CT+Ventures): Apr 2021 to Oct 2021

Enterprise Business Agility Consulting

  • Essential SAFe Configuration install, beginning with 2 ARTs and Lean-Portfolio Pilot coaching to prove the possibilities and broaden the engagement approprirately
  • Mentoring Senior Mgmt on Lean Agile Leadership and leading timely adoption of SAFe towards full benefit realization
  • Launching a Hub-and-Spoke LACE and core Implementation Community to drive bi-directional influence and full adoption of Principles/Practices
  • Co-Authoring a Transformation Backlog in ADO, sparking bi-directional influence and ownership between the Implementation Community and LACE
  • Staffing and Mentoring a coaching team (2 consultants, 3 internal SPCs) in the Launching of ARTs
  • Scheduling and Conducting SAFe Training (Leading, PoPm, S4Teams, S4Archs, S4Sms)
  • Working with C Suite and Risk Managers on key adaptations to Annual Planning Process, Incentive Programs, and HR implications for career path changes and Agile talent screening, acquisition and retention
Fidelity Investment Services: Feb 2020 to July 2020

Enterprise Business Agility Consulting

  • Assessment of a 14 month-in-progress incubator initiative seeded with $60MM investment and potential to scale across their entire 55,000 employee base.   Included LOB Stakeholder interviews, cross-functional surveys with Strategic and Solution practitioners, and direct observations of maturing ARTs, to help the client pin point their delays in PAAS delivery and to improve the Transparency of their strategic planning system end to end. 
  • Establishment of a Lean-Agile Portfolio Team, to realize Cadenced Flow of Strategy in-take, challenging for MVP identification and delivery each fiscal quarter.  Baslining of Agile-oriented KPIs as part of course correction in burn-rates towards economically justified and directly observable delivery of incremental MVP delivery.
  • Vetting of multi-year Product Vision and PAAS strategy, virtual restructuring of initial Value Stream to improve the Flow of delivery while reducing risk and dependency blocking conditions.
  • Leveraged the SAFe S-curve implementation roadmap and associated Training regimen, building out a 1st time LACE and Transformation Roadmap, mentoring Leadership to “use Agile to become Agile”.
  • DevOps coaching with Architects to shape/influence Strategic goals iteratively through the new Portfolio, including the maturation of a new Product Mgmt discipline representing post-incubation scale and coverage.
  • Calibration and Correlation of the Agile-vertical estimation practices, to improve the predictability and reliability of Market Release announcements corresponding with Industry conferences.   Showing client how to avoid “vaporware” and realize relevant feedback against their Live, evolving PAAS, to hone their Lean-Startup capabilities.
  • Grow and Split approach towards specialized dual-track delivery and formation of a 2nd ART associated with Value Stream analysis, resolving major resource contention and gaps in Stakeholder commitment.
  • Coaching to optimize 2 ARTs, including the Agile Practice mentors (SMs, RTEs). 
Anthem Insurance : May 2019 to July 2019

Enterprise Business Agility Consulting

  • Fine tuning of existing LACE / CoE presiding over 2 existing Line of Business (Commercial and Government) Lean portfolios and integrating them into a new (1st instance) Enterprise Portfolio.   
  • Began to Adapt the LPMs to properly overlap the Flow of co defined and committed-to Intent across the layers of the organization.  Initiated a calibration estimation practices in each layer and Correlating estimates across layers to improve long-term forecasting and stabilize the quarterly rebalancing (ear marked vs committed, return of funds and zero-based budgeting tied to Epic-driven Investments) process.
  • Began an integration the LPMs with a new (1st instance) Large Solution ART.
  • Mentored senior Lean-Agile Coaches and Senior Management (SVP level) to effectively leverage the new Leadership platform.   Initiated a Continuous Learning culture and Lean-Startup Experimentation mindset.   How to measure the success of Strategic experiments and embed courageous yet objective tiered decision making authority to pivot Investments and the focus of talent, when clearly warranted.
  • Advised Sr. Leadership on Annual Operations Planning (AOP) transformation.  Milestones (degrees of) for change, timings and on-ramp required to stabilize the system-wide estimation practices and validate their reliability, and when to incorporate new practices and cease existing practices (i.e. within the Finance function and Budget Submissions process).
  • Voluntarily exited early due to organizational design/restructuring concerns which are blocking ability of business stakeholders to engage at a pace appropriate to realize the virtual structure required to establish Flow and Reliability in forecasting, justifying broader attempts to adopt LPM and AOP integration.   Advised them on the leading indicators of near-future readiness, typical on-ramp timings, sequence of change activities (Transformation Roadmap developed), within each specific layer and across layers, and the type of External consult recommended at each inflection point.
Sammons Financial Group (W. Des Moines IA) | July 2018 to April 2019

Enterprise Business Agility Consulting

  • Advised Senior Leadership team regarding Benefits to be had, common Challenges and Solutions, to enable an enterprise realization of Business Agility, in part, through Scaling Agile practices to adapt the entire Strategic Planning and Execution system.   Indirectly supporting a substantial reinvention and modernization effort, through Lean-Agile coordination of major CX Journeys led by other consulting firms.   A Transformation Leadership Team is forming and expanding as their Transformation plan takes shape across Lines of Business.   Investments and Insurance context with ~2,000 people involved.
  • Established a 1st time new Agile Portfolio for the Annuity line of business, through a series of vertical slices and pilots to prove the value of Transparent Flow, Interlaced Prioritization, and Economically sound Validation of strategic hypotheses.
  • Convinced client of benefits of Program level coordination of Delivery across Implementation teams against broader time horizons, by simultaneously connecting the new Agile Portfolio’s people, artifacts and cadence, to the Implementation teams through SAFe-like Release planning conventions.   Client is not yet bought into Program Increment conventions of SAFe.  Proving the ability of dynamic coaching and meeting the client’s next need.
  • Enabled bi-directional influence and inclusion in decision making, through the new vertical Team of Teams, is a prime directive for the change sponsor.   Client wishes to enable Agile Governance and Accountability of all Teams, across all layers of the organization.  
  • Helped leadership to incrementally time Compliance function influence across the layers of Strategic dissemination in a highly regulated environment. Example: Partial ROTH Conversion product feature addition and distribution across white labeled product offering.  Compliance risk mitigation included in the Lean Hypotheses validation in Epic planning and delivery.
  • Supported all internal Lean-Agile coaches across the three divisions of the company through formation and operation of Centers of Practice, and gradual (by client choice) establishment of a Center of Excellence, nurtured by their Office of Business Transformation.
FedEx Services (Memphis TN). : Oct 2017 to Jun 2018

Enterprise Business Agility Consulting

  • Assisted the Customer Experience Marketing (CEM) function VP and Managing Directors through their re-organization in support of aggressive Omni-Channel Strategy
  • Positioned CEM to clearly envision and validate Strategic Themes and Initiative outcomes by using portfolio Kanban and Lean-Agile funding practices
  • Coached 100 Portfolio members through progressive elaboration frameworks including Design Thinking and Lean-Agile Large Solution Flow
  • Worked with other external coaches to launch a SAFe Large Solution by connecting new CEM enterprise investment portfolios to long lived Capability platforms, involving 5 pilot ARTs with potential for 12+ ARTs
  • Assisted the Senior Management team with employee engagement and culture change initiatives
Northwestern Mutual (Milwaukee, WI) Oct 2016 to Oct 2017

Enterprise Business Agility Consulting

  • Mentored senior leadership in the formation of their Transformation Leadership Teams (TLT) and overall approach to driving change across the organization as part of Reinvention.
  • Mentored 12 Lean and SAFe (SPC) internal coaches within the Continuous Learning and Improvement organization. Built self-sustaining momentum for their long-term Improvement initiatives and supported through on-going restructuring.
  • Reset and established their Agile Enterprise Portfolio strategy through coaching of the Corporate Strategy and Funding & Governance teams.
  • Established Agile governance and strategic investment of 5 long-lived Platforms through Strategic Themes, Drivers and Indicators across 6 SAFe portfolios including other business areas operating with a more traditional Lean Systems approach.
  • Led for the Value Stream Mapping and the launch of 3 new ARTs in the Distribution Strategy and Field Rewards context.
  • Highly regulated environment needs incorporated within the Agile Transformation Roadmap, Playbook and live coaching guidance for when to include Compliance function and to what extent, as part of Strategic KPI formulation and Program Increment backlog refinement. Example IUL Product introduction and risk profile validation for Personas as part of 3 Program Increment events. Compliance function was taught how to Tag and Trace their influence across all Backlog management practices and derived cross-functional team deliverables.
Fiserv (Atlanta GA and Dublin OH) May 2016 to Oct 2016

Enterprise Business Agility Consulting

  • Advised Senior leadership in the formation of their Transformation Leadership Team (TLT) and overall approach to transforming their Division of the company
  • Private coaching of Executives and Middle Management, reinforcing Intentional Adaptation of plans and Transparent Leadership via formal Backlog Mgmt. Matching Supply and Demand.
  • Identified 4 key Value Streams and helped the TLT establish 4 portfolios (funding and staffing of corresponding Programs and Delivery Teams)
  • Launched one of those Portfolios into Scaled Agile delivery, beginning with their first quarterly offsite planning event.
  • Launched and coached two new Agile Release Trains (ARTs) into Program Increment 1
  • Guided TLT through a Transformation Roadmap and Communication Strategy
  • Highly regulated environment required incremental influence of Compliance function to “let go” of upfront, overly detailed, large batch influence, which was slowing down strategic initiatives. Three phase / quarterly coaching plan was leveraged to help client prove that compliance work could be delegated between Portfolio, Program and Implementation team layers.
USAA ( San Antonio TX) Jan 2016 to Mar 2016

Enterprise Business Agility Consulting

  • Helped two new Agile Release Trains (ARTs) fine tune their first Program Increment (PI) Execution practices and prepare for their second PI
  • Established a Transformation Roadmap aligned with internal strategic priorities, acknowledging internal and external economic constraints
  • Educated and coached leadership through the Scaled Agile adoption milestones
  • Privately coached of Executives and Middle Management through sensitive issues, reinforcing Adaptive Culture via Servant Leadership
Capital One (San Antonio TX) Jun 2015 to Dec 2015

Enterprise Business Agility Consulting

  • Organizational restructuring advisory and hiring support (Marketing Operations)
  • Cultural Change leadership support during an integrated (Business & Technology) Enterprise Agile Transformation
  • Established a Transformation Roadmap aligned with internal strategic priorities, acknowledging internal and external economic constraints
  • Educated and coached leadership through the Scaled Agile adoption milestones
  • Screening, selection and oversight of other Agile coaches
  • Established a Transformation office and motivated ownership from [formal, informal] leaders nationwide (USA)
  • Launched three Agile Release Trains (ARTs) leveraging the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
  • Improved client confidence in Scaled Agile governance by leveraging client’s Lean Management environment in their highly regulated context. Mapped RACI diagrams and transition responsibilities in a highly visible manner, until Agile Roles were clear, properly owned and measurable in both universal ways (lagging metrics, process adherence) and strategically significant ways (leading indicators defined per Epic).
Fannie Mae (Washing DC and Herndon VA) Jan 2015 to June 2015

Data-Driven AI Agility Consulting

  • Trained and coached several hundred-people including leadership, shared services and system teams, while launching 20 new Agile delivery teams (2 ARTs) as part of a new Program for a mortgage securitization compliance, Federal mandated initiative. High pressure, highly regulated context as part of 2008 crisis recovery.
  • Taught Lean Systems delivery, Scrum, SAFe and XP in a Data-oriented organization with 700 people
  • Hire screening of Scrum masters and additional coaches as part of an Agile Center of Excellence build-out
  • Established a Guiding Coalition to own the cultural transformation and ensure long-term self-sustainability
Paycor Inc. (Cincinatti OH). Jun 2014 to Dec 2014

Enterprise Business Agility Consulting

  • Enterprise coaching activities including leadership and cultural assessment, organizational change planning and delivery, education and training towards launch of 3 new SAFe programs
  • Training of Scrum masters and Product Owners, [re] interviewing for Product Owner and Scrum Master roles across 18 teams, plus formation of 5 new teams
  • Established portfolio planning, team re-structuring and enterprise resource planning practices
  • Established an Agile Office (Kotter: Guiding Coalition). Active recruitment and coaching of internal Agile coaches, Program Managers, Scrum masters, Product Owners and functional leadership. Groomed the change backlog
  • Leadership coaching across all functions to help with cultural impediments. Middle mgmt. leadership development
Savvis-Century Link (St. Louis MO) Mar 2014 to May 2014

Program Agility Consulting

  • Advised the Agile Office on SAFe practices. Coached one Agile Release Train, consisting of 50+ people on 6 scrum teams, pursuing a Help Desk ticketing system migration (from a custom ERP to BMC Remedy)
  • Reviewed and adjusted PSI planning practices; co-led and shadowed two PSI planning sessions
  • Established, trained, led, and transitioned two new scrum teams. Calibrated them into the SAFe program
Thomson Reuters - Government Revenue Mgmt. Division (Portage MI) Dec 2012 to Mar 2014

VP of Product Development & Engineering (SaaS)

Selected by GM to create a unifying, adaptive leadership culture and optimized strategic pipeline. Over the prior 8 years, 26 acquisitions occurred as part of M&A growth strategy across the USA. Five directs with 350 indirects and $60M budget responsibility.

key impact:

  • Lowered the artificial firewall between Operations and Project Development teams. Established a DevOps culture. Redistributed capacity to Strategic initiatives realizing 400%+ productivity gains and 90% less quality issues. Saved three contracts worth $20M total.
  • Retained 90% of contracts during my tenure, a 100% improvement in this volatile, politically driven arena. We had to ‘what-if plan’ based on which Mayor would be [re] elected and rapidly adapt strategic priorities in the backlog in a matter of weeks post- election. Grew our market share by 40%, acquiring mostly new territories.
  • Mentored all Product Managers and Product Owners, establishing a CoP and proper Customer Journeys maps, centralized backlog, and rolling-wave implementation of Product Roadmaps using Lean Startup experimentation. Calibrated portfolio forecasting and broader estimation practices.
  • Led the OCM execution with HR and modernized the PMO practices to a SAFe-like level 4 maturity. Kotter’s 8 Step and ADKAR Communications & Execution models were used. Instituted Agile Risk Mgmt. practices.

    • Hired to create a unifying adaptive leadership culture and optimized strategic pipeline. Over the prior 8 years, 26 acquisitions occurred as part of M&A growth strategy.
    • Mentored all Product Managers and Product Owners, establishing a CoP and proper Customer Journeys maps, centralized backlog, and rolling-wave Product Roadmaps.
    • Calibrated the Estimation practices to ensure a near-term Forecasting engine that could be trusted to meet ETAs 6 months out.
    • Led the OCM execution with HR and modernized the PMO practices. Kotter’s 8 Step and ADKAR Communications & Execution models were used.
    • Over my tenure, lowered the artificial firewall between Operations and Project Development teams. Established a DevOps culture. Redistributed capacity to Strategic initiatives realizing 400%+ productivity gains and 90% less quality issues.

    more detail

    • Hired on a bridge contract to educate executive leadership on critical business issues to resolve, ensuring that Agile software delivery adoption was effective (customer collaboration over contract negotiation).
    • Over my tenure, lowered the artificial firewall between Operations and Project Development teams.   Established a DevOps culture.   Redistributed capacity to Strategic initiatives, empowering a DevOps model using Agile Policies (aka Guardrails in SAFe).
    • Better timed and interlaced the Compliance function and External audit process in a highly regulated context, by leveraging Lean Portfolio Mgmt practices. This division of TR is responsible for coordinating the Value Assessment activity across the entire USA (expanding globally) for ALL Commercial and Personal properties, including tax collection and distribution of collected revenue through municipal services.
    • Mentored all Product Managers and Product Owners, establishing a CoP and proper Customer Journeys and Product Roadmaps.
    • Calibrated the Estimation practices to ensure a near-term Forecasting engine that could be trusted to meet ETAs 6 months out.
    • Transitioned 500 employees from chaotic and waterfall practices towards a Scaled Scrum/ Dual-Track Agility hybrid model, as part of Strategically consolidating 26 businesses from Acquisitions over prior 8 years.
    • Led the Change Mgmt execution with HR and adapted the PMO practices. Kotter’s 8 Step Communications & Execution model was used.
    • Hired and augmented the team (~30 people hires, ~10 let-gos) with required talent and experience to spark the Agile transition, including leadership in Release planning, Test Automation and Continuous Integration
    • Established Scaled Scrum in the Enterprise Architecture group (~40 people, Dual-Track Agility) to prove benefits and spark further investment by executives
    • Directly coached ~400 people in USA and Bolivia on lean software development principles and Kanban to stabilize delivery and improve team effectiveness globally.
    Farmers Insurance, Specialty Division (Caledonia MI) Nov 2009 to Dec 2012

    Portfolio Director – eCommerce Enablement

    • Led the 5 year Program to retire the Mainframe and replace with a self-service (SaaS) distributed solution for Independent Agents. Served as both Process Champion and lead solutions Architect, with budget of $45MM in Labor and $12MM in infrastructure.

    • Transitioned 400 people internally and 150 externally (2 vendors in India) from proper Waterfall execution into Lean-Agile Portfolio Governed execution. Served as change sponsor and lead internal coach.

    • Co-led the establishment of the transactional context Net Promoter Score (NPS) tracking program, increasing customer satisfaction by 200% in 2 years. Results were used to justify divestment in large call centers, as self-service features were proven successfully adopted. Those call center funds were redirected to this initiative, for a near net-neutral funding impact over 5 years.

    • Formalized and embedded UX Design-Thinking practices into the requirements solicitation process for a system rewrite initiative with a budget of $57MM, realizing a 50% improvement in customer satisfaction within the first year of go-live and 200% improvement in 2 years.

    more detail:

    • Assessed organizational readiness for an Agile Transition (from Waterfall) and established the program roadmap and corresponding methodologies of best fit.
    • The Scaled-Agile-Framework concepts were leveraged, employing RUP/UseCases for the complex, well-understood migration requirements and reference architecture build-out, and User Stories to understand the balance of functional and non-functional requirements. Several concurrent Design-Build-Test teams were managed by 6 on- going Agile facilitators.
    • Extreme Programing (XP) was leveraged to mitigate the risk of less experienced offshore developers. XP encouraged quick, incremental progress which accelerated learning through pairing design workshops and refactoring sessions with senior on-shore staff.
    • Reviewed, purchased, installed, configured and trained 200+ matrix team members on the Process Tools (Rational JAZZ Platform: RRC-RTC-RQM).
    • Established a Process Center of Excellence with cross-functional representation, which increased sense of ownership and advocacy for the fundamental process shifts.
    • Led retrospectives and continuous improvement of process and process delivery via Rational JAZZ tools.
    • Led the 5 year Program as both Process Champion and lead solutions Architect, with budget of $45MM in Labor and $12MM in infrastructure.
    • Overall responsibility for Risk, Issue and Change management.
    • Co-led all communication to stakeholders, sharing responsibility with the chief business / product owner.
    • Established the Reference Architecture using the RUP and POCs / POTs serving as the first SCRUM master.  Continued to lead the SCRUM of SCRUMs thru my tenure.
    • Influenced and approved all design choices of the SOA solution.
    • Led PMO through the definition of project schedules, resourcing and scheduling of all core deliverables, including contingency planning and attrition succession planning / retention strategies.
    • Established the initial Product and Release Backlogs.
    • Led all planning for releases, iterations and sprints, to successful 90% scope containment.
    • Coaching and mentoring of iteration leads (IT SMEs, Product Owner Delegates, Business Process Consultants and BAs) on the requirements solicitation process as well as overall coordination of Development and Validation of iterative delivery.
    • Travel and extensive agile coaching of team ~70 team members in India.
    • Influenced the Test Automation strategy and execution in support of Iterative and Agile project delivery. Introduced Test-Driven Development and mentored leads throughout the projects.
    • Introduced Continuous Integration, established and governed the foundation of Unit Testing (JUnit:RTC Automated Build/Conditional Deploy) and Acceptance Testing (Worksoft: Certify) Regression beds.
    • Led the integration testing strategy and execution with all internal and external vendor / agency integration points.
    • Led all Data Modeling / Consolidation, Data Quality Assessments, Data Migration, Archiving and Pruning efforts for Phase II of the program.
    • Managed the software transition planning and execution to our off-shore partners who did not participate directly in the Program.
    • Established the approach, staff and governance of the Quality Assurance program.
    • Co-Led Risk/Issue Management and Contingency Planning at the Program and Project level.
    • Led Change Management for the entire Program.
    • Co-Led conflict resolution across all business functions.
    • Led the infrastructure logical to physical planning and appropriate build to specification.
    • Defined annual Goals and Objectives for local IT Division, on-going coaching and twice-yearly performance reviews and compensation decision authority.
    • Introduced Skills-Inventory and Capacity Planning as part of the Resource Planning function.
    Farm Bureau Insurance of Michigan (Lansing MI) Nov 2008 to Nov 2009

    Enterprise Architecture and Data Services Manager

    • Established a new Data Services department including departmental vision, goals and objectives. Gained understanding and control over the demands and capacity of this area by establishing a flexible and visible work queue process with centralized, economically verifiable justifications and prioritization technique.

    • Initiated strategy for enterprise architecture and how to staff, fund, and prioritize vertical process improvements of greatest traceable value to customers. Reduced number of concurrent initiatives to realize 400% productivity gains. Focused on highest business value projects by migrating the org from Project mindset to Product Mgmt. culture.

    • Defined and communicated an enterprise reporting strategy and related migration strategies for a major risk-mitigation initiative.

    • Stabilized and modernized the reference architecture including refactoring to resolve decades of linear programming debt.

    • Established enterprise monitoring of the data tier and defined strategy for improving SLAs on mission critical applications, realizing 90% reduction in outages during my short tenure.

    more detail:

    • Reviewed and documented gaps in the software engineering practices, defined a roadmap and began the migration strategy to Agile methodologies (SCRUM, XP).
    • Introduced Agile SCRUM midway through the company’s multi-year CRM initiative.
    • Served as SCRUM master, leading release & sprint planning, backlog management sessions, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives.
    • Coached all team members on estimation techniques towards overall improvement of velocity and scope planning across sprints.
    • Established test automation and continuous integration to resolve delays and quality problems with their past attempts of iterative delivery.
    • Reviewed, purchased, installed, configured and trained 80+ team members on the Process and Process Tools (Microsoft Team Foundation Server).
    • Established the Data Services department including departmental vision, goals and objectives. Gained understanding and control over the demands and capacity of this area by establishing a flexible and visible work queue process, using SharePoint MOSS and Microsoft Team Foundation Server.
    • Defined and communicated an enterprise reporting strategy and related migration strategy.
    • Established enterprise monitoring of the data tier and defined strategy for improving SLAs on mission critical applications.
    • Planned for software platform upgrades and establish a patch management process.
    • Manage the department’s budget/expenses. Hiring and staff development.
    • Succession planning for two key members of the team. Oversaw knowledge transfer plans and audited knowledge retention through project implementation reviews and post mortems.
    • Stabilized and formalized risk management and change management processes.
    • Initiated strategy for enterprise architecture and how to staff, fund, and prioritize vertical process improvements of greatest value to customers. Reduced number of concurrent initiatives and focused on highest business value projects by introducing Company, Product and Project Backlogs.
    National Heritage Academies Charter Schools K-8 (Grand Rapids MI) 2005 to 2008

    Business Intelligence / Software Development Program Manager

    • Hired as part of a substantial in-sourcing initiative. Attracted, qualified, developed and retained two new teams of 30 (SaaS) and 15 (BI/DW) people to replace 3 problematic consulting firms.

    • Served as lead Product Manager and System Architect, mentoring the scaled adoption of Scrum, including Lean Start-up Business cases mirroring the yet to come SAFe.

    • Raised a Center of Excellence for Business Intelligence, establishing the foundation for predictive data analytics, revolutionizing differentiated instruction to children in highest risk school districts (57 schools).

    • Established revolutionary “Individualized Education monitoring and Teacher Cohort analysis” to optimize rewards system and recruitment of engaged Teachers and Parents.

    • Co-lead to double the size of org during my tenure. Transitioned from VC start-up to Corporate structure and stability. Potential primer for IPO.

    • Financially justified, short-listed, purchased, installed, loaded [Inmon & Kimball] and optimized data cubes of a first time BI environment for NHA (Microsoft platform).

    • Selected, installed and configured Test-Driven Development and Continuous Integration practices leveraging Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS) and NUnit.

    more detail:

    • Hired as part of an in-sourcing initiative, to form/hire and lead teams software engineers, formally establishing the software engineer practices for the company. Manage the transition of the 12 person consulting team to contract term.
    • Established C/ALM full lifecycle practices, leveraging the PMO to advocate for and govern the company’s transition across all business functions.
    • Selected, installed and configured Test-Driven Development and Continuous Integration practices leveraging Microsoft Team Foundation Server (TFS) and NUnit.
    • As SCRUM master, trained and coached sprint teams on sprint planning, User Story development, Test-Driven development and Object-Oriented Analysis and Design to improve team velocity and cadence of integration across sprints.
    • Established Change, Decision, Risk management and Resource Planning, leveraging TFS, SharePoint and @Task.
    • Formalized the defect management process using TFS.
    • Led phase I of an ERP migration initiative from a custom in-house solution to Lawson.
    • Led the strategic planning of NHA’s inaugural launch of their Business Intelligence Program.

      • Managed the RFP process and ultimate consulting firm selection which would assist with Design and

      • Implementation of the roadmap.

      • Managed the consulting firm relationship and consultant team accountabilities.

      • Secured additional consulting assistance for niche needs throughout the 3 year program start-up.

      • Hired 2 data architects and a lead ETL expert as retained staff.

      • Leveraged SCRUM and served as SCRUM master through 12 sprints and POCs/POTs over the course of one year, to a successful delivery of a solution to assess Student growth patterns across many dimensions including Teacher Paths and Cohort time-series analysis.

      • Led the selection, procurement, installation and configuration of the entire environment which included Microsoft SSMS, SSIS, SSAS, SSRS, Performance Point Server, SharePoint Moss, Excel Cube Analytics, SAS, TetraData, Dundas Reporting Bundle (for MetaData Lineage and Data Stewardship).

      Steelcase (Grand Rapids MI) 2002 to 2005

      Solutions Architect & Project Manager

      • Served on the Corporate Architecture team, established and governed corporate standards for Service-oriented design and integration patterns to be leveraged by all IT departments.

      • Led the Global Dealer Alliance integration initiatives for the Financial Services division.

      • Supported the public .com site initiatives which received various awards for usability by external Design communities.

      • Continued to spread the adoption of Iterative and Agile methodologies across the company with frequent training and sprint facilitation visits to the subsidiaries.

      Steelcase (Grand Rapids MI) 2000 to 2002

      Senior Applications Engineer

      • Served on a matrix team of 40+ in the Workplace Services division to consolidate their legacy solutions on to one new modern architecture.

      • Led JAD sessions for all requirements gathering, design workshops and leveraged RAD POCs/POTs and RUP for the broader implementation of the data model consolidation activities as well as the complete build-out of the Service Center’s new global website.

      • Introduced and trained everyone on Agile techniques including SCRUM, Paired Programming, Test-Driven Development and Continuous Integration.

      • Led the training initiatives globally with extensive travel to Europe’s Service Centers; virtual training of locations in Asia.

      • The initiative retained one at-risk account worth $27MM in revenue and realized a 5 month ROI with 60% top-line growth over 2 years due to global expansion.

      Steelcase (Grand Rapids MI) 1999 to 2000

      Financial Planning & Reporting Analyst

      • Delivered a budgeting and reporting solution for North America operations with total spend control of $300MM.

      • Included an SAP/BW data warehouse and federated Sql Server Data Marts presented by custom built Excel Analytics reporting built on Cubes.

      • Envisioned, Designed and Implemented the entire solution within 4 months, avoiding the company over $400,000 in SAP/R3 licenses by leveraging Microsoft Office instead of SAP GUI components.

      • The solution was acclaimed by C-Level management as a “game changer” for Operational Excellence initiatives, driving cost containment and annual YOY reductions in spend by 15% for 4 years realizing 40% cost reduction over the ROI period.

      Steelcase (Grand Rapids MI) 1997 to 1999

      Operations Finance Controller

      • co-led a 3 fiscal year turnaround for a failing manufacturing division, realizing a 160% swing in Economic Value Added (EVA) -$12MM to +$8MM, by educating 600 people on Lean Thinking/Mfg. & EVA, instituting JIT/Kanban processes and automating all associated financial controls and reporting.

      • Responsible for all planning and control over the Grand Rapids Wood Furniture division with a top-line revenue of $132MM.

      • Introduced Economic Value-Added (EVA) analysis and financial controls to the Wood division.

      • Trained over 250 people including all levels of management and department leads on the concepts of appropriate Capital leverage and how each individual could influence ROI.

      • The Wood division realized the single greatest financial performance turnaround in company history.  Over two years, the division avoided a planned shut-down, to becoming the most profitable division in the $3 Billion parent company. Results and the processes used to achieve them were formally recognized by BDO Siedman.

      • While with FP&P TEAM, delivered a budgeting and reporting solution for North America operations with total spend control of $300MM. The solution was acclaimed by Executives as a “game changer” for Operational Excellence initiatives, driving cost containment and annual YOY reductions in spend by 15% for 4 years realizing 40% cost reduction over the ROI period.

      more detail:

      • Responsible for all planning and control over the Grand Rapids Wood Furniture division with a top-line revenue of $132MM.
      • Introduced Economic Value-Added (EVA) analysis and financial controls to the Wood division.
      • Trained over 250 people including all levels of management and department leads on the concepts of appropriate Capital leverage and how each individual could influence ROI.
      • The Wood division realized the single greatest financial performance turnaround in company history.
      • Over two years, the division avoided a planned shut-down, to becoming the most profitable division in the $3 Billion parent company.
      • Results and the processes used to achieve them were formally recognized by BDO Siedman.
      Steelcase (Grand Rapids MI) 1994 to 1997

      Sr. Financial Analyst

      • Served as lead business process consultant on several initiatives to automate the valuation of work in process inventory and to automate the financial reporting process and month end close process in a SAP/R3 AS400/DB2 environment.

      • Led the first project to migrate the company to SAP.

      • Co-led the Lean manufacturing initiatives and trained 600 employees on 5 core lean principles and instituted all associated practices with Industrial Engineering.

      • Introduced Activity-Based Costing and led the Corporate-wide initiative to implement the costing methodology and associated systems / manual processes to realize the vision.

      • Served as the financial lead on Kaizen teams for several years.

      • All other typical responsibilities such as Sales Bid support, yield analysis, make-vs-buys and forecasting.

      ACE Manufacturing Co. ACEMCO (Grand Haven MI) 1993 to 1994

      Cost Accountant

      • Established an automated Activity-based Costing system, realizing real-time valuation of work in process inventory, reducing carrying and obsolescence costs.
      • Formalized JIT delivery scheduling and assisted with training of 90 employees on Lean Manufacturing principles and associated Kaizen events.
      Meijer Inc. (Jenison MI) 1990 to 1993

      Inventory Manager of Produce and Grocery Depts.

      • Managed Inventory Turns and Optimized Margins via POS Analysis
      • Managed Inventory availability on Sales Floor
      • Assisted management with work schedules, procedure standards adherence, morale and team dynamics
      Steelcase Inc. (Wyoming MI) 1989

      Internship support in establishment of Lean Manufacturing (File Division)

      • Assisted in the Formalizing of JIT delivery scheduling and assisted teams in Lean Manufacturing principles adoption
      • Participated in Kaizen Pilot Teams and documented results of Flow Analysis and go-forward Procedures (Scrap mgmt, Downtime recovery, etc)
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