Lavina Polees
Tel: (561) 325-9356 | Email: lpolees@gmail.com | Boca Raton, FL | lavinapolees.com | LinkedIn Profile
Summary:
Results-driven professional with extensive expertise in project planning and execution, product management, and Agile methodologies. Proven track record of successfully leading cross-functional teams through the product development lifecycle, from conceptualization to delivery. Skilled in managing product backlogs, sprint backlogs, and user stories to ensure alignment with stakeholder expectations and market demands. Proficient in conducting user acceptance testing and prioritizing features to maximize value delivery. Excellent organizational skills combined with effective stakeholder communication and collaboration abilities enable seamless project execution. A dedicated servant leader with a focus on coaching, mentoring, and supervising teams to achieve project objectives. Experienced in driving process improvement initiatives and facilitating methodologies transitions to enhance overall efficiency and effectiveness. Adept at fostering cross-functional collaboration to drive innovation and achieve business goals.
Professional Experience:
FlexShopper – Boca Raton FL – August 2022 – Present.
Product Owner/Project Manager/Business Analyst/Scrum Master
Navigated between roles within the same company in an extremely fast-paced environment. As an Agile Product Owner, tailored my approach to focus on the product features within each project, ensuring successful deliverables and stakeholders’ satisfaction. As a Project Manager and Business Analyst, I oversaw multiple projects across departments from inception to implementation, created comprehensive business requirement documents and guided multiple development teams through the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), utilizing various methodologies and approaches tailored to each project's needs. Primary focus projects included vendor onboarding (EDI connections) for the marketplace, collaboration with third-party tire stores to establish lending options in partnership with other lenders, development of a complex Magento storefront GameRex.Co, integrated with the company's internal payment plugin, implementation of the reporting to Credit Bureaus, and many others. Each project launch resulted in significant increases in company revenue.
Product Owner:
Maintained a defined product backlog, ensuring clarity of project priorities and fostering streamlined workflows, which helped overall process flow and reduced delivery time by 15%.
• Facilitated User Acceptance Testing (UAT) sessions, promoting collaborative engagement among UAT assignees, developers, and QA teams, which granted transparency and reduced development efforts at a limited capacity.
• Acted as an effective servant leader to ensure timely deliverables, easily adapted to changed business requirements, communicating smoothly with stakeholders and development teams, which helped to establish trust and comprehension between parties and enabled us to act as one team to achieve our shared goal, ultimately bringing millions of dollars in revenue to the company.
• Adaptable to working in fast-paced environments under extreme pressure and colliding priorities.
• Highly skilled at handling everyday routines with exceptional patience while supporting other team members, especially through every hard transition and changing methodologies and/or approaches.
Scrum Master:
• Facilitated Scrum events: sprint planning, story grooming, sprint review, sprint retrospective. Acted as a scrum master at daily scrums and other scrum events to backup an existing scrum as needed.
• Helped remove impediments, coached teams on Agile principles and new processes, helped to educate the team about new workflows and grant smooth transitions, minimizing the level of stress to change and addressing all the arising questions or concerns immediately on a daily basis.
Project Manager:
• Applied industry insights to refine project planning and resource allocation, enhancing overall project efficiency and alignment with organizational objectives, applying Lean Six Sigma principles helping eliminate waste and grant maximum productivity.
• Collaborated closely with developers, and stakeholders, aligning solutions with precise business requirements to achieve maximum balance in planning phase for each project.
• Customized Jira and Confluence layouts, designs, workflows, and dashboards to facilitate seamless collaboration and information dissemination across teams.
• Ensured all projects were delivered on time, within scope and within budget.
• Managed changes to the project scope, project schedule, and project costs using appropriate verification techniques.
• Measured team performance and velocity using appropriate project management tools and techniques.
Business Analyst:
• Created and maintained comprehensive project documentation.
• Established and maintained relationships with third parties/vendors, reduced delivery timing for vendor onboarding initiatives, which significantly increased company revenue. Bringing in Gaming products to the marketplace was the most impactful for the company.
• Demonstrated versatility in selecting and implementing appropriate methodologies—Waterfall, Agile, or Kanban—based on project dynamics, timelines, and overarching business goals. This adaptable approach optimized project management strategies and facilitated seamless transitions between methodologies.
• Authored detailed business requirements documents and flow charts to provide comprehensive and visual guidance throughout project development phases.
GLO LIFE INC – Remote – 9/2018 – 6/2022.
Scrum Master/Agile Coach
Scrum Master:
• Maintained Sprint backlog and provided steadfast support to the Scrum framework for sprint releases which granted maximum transparency and clear workflow for the teams.
• Fostered collaboration with product owners, team members, and fellow Scrum Masters, contributing to the definition of effective solutions and driving project progress.
• Successfully navigated coordination with multiple Scrum teams, both internal and offshore, to streamline workflows and enhance overall efficiency.
• Proactively identified and addressed impediments, implementing solutions to prevent distractions and maintain project momentum.
Agile Coach:
• Delivered Agile coaching to teams, offering necessary training to instill a positive mindset towards Agile methodology.
• Collaboratively, with highly skilled team members, achieved substantial cost savings exceeding $400,000 by coordinating the transition from Waterfall to Agile.
ASUS Global PTE Ltd – Moscow, Russia – 09/2007 – 12/2017.
Project Marketing Manager/Brand Manager
Taiwanese Computer Hardware Company. Advanced from a Brand and event management to assume the role of Sr. Project (Product) Marketing Manager – Smartphones. Particularly notable accomplishment includes attaining a 3% market share within only a year in the fiercely competitive smartphone market.
Project Marketing Manager:
• Devised and implemented comprehensive Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies, driving the successful launch of the initial ASUS smartphone generation and subsequent iterations. Showcased innovation by optimizing budgets through pioneering methodologies to amplify campaign efficacy.
• Oversaw quarterly budget allocation with a strategic approach, engaging in direct negotiations with headquarters for approval. Struck a balance between fiscal prudence and campaign impact through creative budgetary management.
• Played a pivotal role in talent acquisition, recruiting seasoned contractors to ensure timely project delivery within budgetary confines. Achieved an average reduction of 50-65% in budget, underscoring operational efficiency and resource maximization.
• Conceptualized marketing initiatives aligned with approved quarterly plans, fostering collaboration within the team to ensure seamless and timely execution.
• Was first introduced to Lean and Agile and started to implement Agile techniques in some of the marketing initiatives.
Brand/Event Manager:
• Orchestrated Gaming Events as a sponsor liaison, ensuring ASUS branding compliance with company guidelines. Implemented additional activities and micro-events to maximize customer exposure.
• Managed stand construction for exhibitions and Gaming Events, ensuring impeccable execution.
• Coordinated marketing activities with strategic partners including Intel, Microsoft, AMD, and Nvidia, accountable for the correct brand implementation in every campaign following each partner’s guidelines.
• Cultivated strong relationships with retail partners, facilitating joint marketing incentive activities.
Skills:
• Excellent MS 365, Teams, Google, SharePoint
• Excellent Interpersonal and Communication skills
• Collaboration skills
• Sprint Planning
• Release Planning
• Story Grooming
• Requirement Gathering
• Resource Allocation
• Scrum, Kanban and Waterfall
• Business Analysis
• Business Requirement Documentation
• Magento
• Project Management tools: Jira, Confluence, Trello, Asana, Monday.com, Plainview, Visio
Education and certification:
• SAFe Agilist certified, SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager in progress
• Design Thinking Practitioner, IBM
• Master’s degree, Russian State University of Tourism and Service
Multilingual: fluent in English, native Russian, basic Spanish
Additional information: Green card holder, authorized to work for any employer.
References are available upon request.
