Lavina Polees
Tel: (561) 325-9356 | Email: lpolees@gmail.com | Boca Raton, FL | lavinapolees.com | LinkedIn Profile
Summary:
Demonstrating diverse experiences and the ability to adeptly assume multiple roles such as Scrum Master, Product Owner, Project Manager, and Business Analyst within highly dynamic environments. Possessing a proven track record of effectively guiding cross-functional teams through the entire product development lifecycle, from conceptualization to delivery. Expertise lies in adeptly managing product backlogs, sprint backlogs, and user stories to ensure alignment with stakeholder expectations and market demands. Excel in prioritizing features to optimize value delivery. As a dedicated servant leader, prioritize coaching, mentoring, and supervising teams to successfully achieve project objectives. Bringing experience in driving process improvement initiatives and facilitating transitions in methodologies to enhance overall efficiency and effectiveness.
Professional Experience:
FlexShopper – Boca Raton FL – August 2022 – Present.
(Finance Technology) Product Owner/Scrum Master/Project Manager/Business Analyst
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) for the marketplace, integrations 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 internal payment plugin, implementation of the reporting to Credit Bureaus, integration with LiveVox to setup new system for the call center 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.
• Participated in design and solution planning to enhance and create new API connections.
• 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.
• Partnered with engineering and technical architects to ensure leadership and implement Agile process, setting scope and provide effective feature prioritization.
• Worked closely with UX/UI designer to make sure development teams had the right designs in Figma corresponding to business requirements and expectations.
• 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.
• Owned product vision aligned with business owners, executive team and communicated the vision and expectation to development teams to ensure the best product increments outcomes.
• Facilitated product and process training to achieve maximum comprehension and transparency for each team ensure smooth alignment and timely and quality deliverables.
• 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.
• Participated in design and solution planning to enhance and create new API connections.
• 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.
• Partnered with engineering and technical architects to ensure leadership and implement Agile process, setting scope and provide effective feature prioritization.
• Worked closely with UX/UI designer to make sure development teams had the right designs in Figma corresponding to business requirements and expectations.
• 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.
• Owned product vision aligned with business owners, executive team and communicated the vision and expectation to development teams to ensure the best product increments outcomes.
• Facilitated product and process training to achieve maximum comprehension and transparency for each team ensure smooth alignment and timely and quality deliverables.
• 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 master 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.
• Owned the Sprint Backlog and evaluated Sprint outcomes, assisted in resource allocation, and coached Team Leads on Jira project workflows. Facilitated maintaining correct statuses within tickets to ensure maximum transparency and visibility of each team member’s work and/or roadblocks.
• 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.
• Owned the Sprint Backlog and evaluated Sprint outcomes, assisted in resource allocation, and coached Team Leads on Jira project workflows. Facilitated maintaining correct statuses within tickets to ensure maximum transparency and visibility of each team member’s work and/or roadblocks.
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 projects documentation.
• Managed reports, transforming data in Excel to provide the correct file for monthly payoff letters (data formatting, encrypting, sending to the SFTP, send reporting through 3rd party online portal).
• Established and maintained relationships with third parties/vendors, reduced delivery timing for vendor onboarding initiatives, which significantly increased company revenue. (Adding Gaming products to the marketplace was the most impactful, for the second year in a row these products are making 70% of the margin).
• 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 as well as reduced delivery timing by 25-50%.
• Authored detailed business requirements documents and process flow charts to provide comprehensive and visual guidance throughout project development phases.
• Managed reports, transforming data in Excel to provide the correct file for monthly payoff letters (data formatting, encrypting, sending to the SFTP, send reporting through 3rd party online portal).
• Established and maintained relationships with third parties/vendors, reduced delivery timing for vendor onboarding initiatives, which significantly increased company revenue. (Adding Gaming products to the marketplace was the most impactful, for the second year in a row these products are making 70% of the margin).
• 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 as well as reduced delivery timing by 25-50%.
• Authored detailed business requirements documents and process flow charts to provide comprehensive and visual guidance throughout project development phases.
GLO LIFE INC – Remote – 9/2018 – 6/2022.
(Healthcare/pharmaceutical) Scrum Master/Agile Coach
Worked with three scrum teams (local and offshore in different time zones) at a project for the pharmaceutical company. Complex website project and 55 applications and subsystems.
Worked with three scrum teams (local and offshore in different time zones) at a project for the pharmaceutical company. Complex website project and 55 applications and subsystems.
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.
• 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.
• 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.
(Taiwanese Computer Hardware Company) Project Marketing Manager/Brand Manager
Advanced from a Brand and event management to assume the role of a Sr. Project (Product) Marketing Manager – Smartphones segment. Particularly notable accomplishment included attaining a 3% market share within only a year in the fiercely competitive smartphone market in the country.
Project Marketing Manager/Brand Manager
Advanced from a Brand and event management to assume the role of a Sr. Project (Product) Marketing Manager – Smartphones segment. Particularly notable accomplishment included attaining a 3% market share within only a year in the fiercely competitive smartphone market in the country.
Project Marketing Manager/Brand Manager
• Devised and implemented comprehensive Go-To-Market (GTM) strategies, driving the successful launch of the initial ASUS Zenfone (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.
• 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 products exposure to the customers.
• 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.
• 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, MS Teams, Google tools, 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
API connections
AWS
Project Management tools: Jira, Confluence, Trello, Asana, Monday.com, Smartsheet, Planview, Visio
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
API connections
AWS
Project Management tools: Jira, Confluence, Trello, Asana, Monday.com, Smartsheet, Planview, Visio
Education and certification:
SAFe Agilist.
Six Sigma Green Belt in progress.
Design Thinking Practitioner, IBM.
Master’s degree, Russian State University of Tourism and Service.
Multilingual: fluent English, native Russian, basic Spanish.
Additional information:
Green card holder, authorized to work for any employer. Open to remote, hybrid/on-site Orlando area.
