Data Management & Analytics

LEAN Project Management

LEAN Project management has always come down to a few principles for me:

Know the customer & define the project charter
Identity the KPI’s & any baseline performance metrics
Outline every step in the process toward achieving KIP
Create Indicators for each step of the process & adjust when indicators show an opportunity
Secure suppliers (or team members) & plan for supplier interruptions
Display visual performance reports where the whole team can see

Whenever I approach sprint teams with this in mind, things tend to get done. Of course, there are procedural routines like holding daily 15 min flash meetings where changes in the visual performance are discussed openly; assigning some level of project autonomy to each member; Six Sigma testing & problem analysis to determine root causes and potential growth opportunities; Standardizing change management procedures into priority and authority levels...

These have to be second nature to a project manager. Without the proper procedures being set into the project team culture, meetings stagnate and workflows get muddled. Hold too tight on the reigns or micro-manage the team, and you will see a loss in productivity, creativity, and efficiency.

I have found the greatest success in setting my teams up for success and devoting my efforts to keep the process lean and reducing or eliminating what is referred to in the project management world as waste.

Where to Reduce Waste:

Data-Driven Approach to LEAN Projects

I specialize in searching for missing data, & poorly validated data. This helps me build clean central databases with clear project file organization and permission level controls. This, in turn, makes sure the team has all of the resources they will need to complete tasks without waiting on others, reproducing available data, setting meetings for data discovery, or becoming frustrated with a lack of information needed to be fully utilized.

It's taken some time to realize that increase autonomy levels and standardizing the process and problem reporting & documentation procedures drastically reduce extra processing time and confusing documentation of workflows.

When working through technology projects, it's critical to limit production to exactly what’s needed by fully defining all of the KPI's and adjusting based on variations to those KPI's.

Excess Inventory typically doesn’t apply to IT unless there is unused servers and hardware or excess virtual capacity when load balancers can be used to route occasional spikes in usage.

LEAN 6 Sigma:

My formal training began in the world of 6-sigma. As such, I regularly employ its tactics to drive project iterations and continual improvements while sticking to LEAN principles. The entire 6-sigma process is based on understanding variances to each step in achieving your KPI and bringing them into the mean. I've made special note of "each step" twice now because these are the areas where defects can be addressed and the areas that will lead to the most dramatic improvements in your project. Major steps in any LEAN 6 analysis are as follows:

Data sampling to find mean, median, range, & standard dev.
Likert testing to find customer value and join on the data sample
Set average customer value rank & data points within one standard dev of the mean
Set goals for the highest customer value & best data point
Identify Defects areas where customer value falls below average and damage KPI goals
Identity defects per sample
Set up a process to reduce variance and eliminate defects

With these steps followed, any project can be managed lean, efficiently, and with stakeholder value maximization.

LEAN Project Management Experience:

Project & Marketing Director • Giftibly Inc.

Orlando, FL • 2017

Providing inspirational leadership & technology insights while managing direct reports & project flow between a cross-functional team of 4 web developers, 2 marketers, 2 cinematographers, 3 legal consultants, & 12 active investors

Applying SCRUM principles & change management tools to the iterative development process. Conducting Alpha & Beta tests to provide feature feedback & drive sprints.

Continuous iteration efforts resulted in a new method of cataloging & monitoring consumer preferences online, that quietly encourages consumers to identify their shopping trends & preferences to advertising entities.

Running B2B networking campaign securing affiliate & online advertising contracts with over 300 brand name stores including Amazon, eBay, & Target.

Developing a multi-channel digital marketing campaign that included segmented audience targeting with optimizations driven by analytic event data & VWO testing results. Acquisition campaigns weighted heavily toward paid search, paid social, & earned social strategies. Retargeting campaigns weighted heavily toward automated DRIP campaigns & display remarketing.

Technical Marketing Sprint Leader • Siemens Energy

Orlando, FL • 2015

Headed 2015 Spring team in redesigns & interactive content updates for customer-facing technical sales & marketing team. New materials based on 6-Month energy market deep dive & historic energy customer net promoter score research

Conducted deep dive research & managed sprint team via Agile methodology. Completed production round of material delivery before the start of Q2 & managed iterations through Q4

Technical Project Manager • Mississippi IPA

Biloxi, MS • 2013

Led 8-man project team of developers, medical insurers, physician assistants, & legal consultants to develop HIPAA compliant intranet & web portal for Mississippi's Independent Physician Association.

Completed development 2 months ahead of schedule while delivering bonus addition of medical equipment seller API integration for quick resupply orders