Wittenberg University

Outcome Driven Product Manager │ User Experience Expert │ Prototyper │ Strategist │ Research & Discovery Lead │ Agile & OKR Advocate│

Product lead at G20 tasked with building company Product Playbook + methodology and leading product transformation at a Fortune 500 bank. 

-Conducted discovery spints to uncover data and insights to take back to the teams and stakeholders.
-Implemented Product Strategy, Outcome driven roadmaps, and Objectives & Key Results.
-Identified gaps in metrics and introduced plans to gather and define value for the product line.

Product Lead

Joined Model-E group focusing on Ford BEV's and user problems with Public Charging. Leader on all user facing public charging products and services at Ford including Fordpass mobile app and Charge Assist in HMI/IVI.

-Set outcomes: 1st time plug success, repair time for chargers, & Ford charge network enrollment
-Facilitated Discovery Sprints + user experience interviews to identify key insights around customer problems & hypotheses
-Gathered requirements and planned releases for ChargeAssist, a Fleet vehicle only product to all BEV retail customers

Ford Motor Company

Product Line Manager: Public Charging Experiences

Hired into the Enterprise Connectivity team at Ford to support the list of Discovery products: Try the Tech, Remote Vehicle Setup, Digital Owners Manual, etc. 

-Connected teams to clear product vision & implemented OKRs to measure success
-Decreased user dropoff by 15%, reduced manual profile deletions by 12%, & increased profiles delivered by 10% in the first 6 months
-Brought clarity through data & metrics to validate key assumptions & knowns/unknowns
-Sunset Ford’s first Product, then Product Line after invalidating customer value

Product Line Owner Discovery

Responsible for Delivery and Product Growth + Education in new Chicago region. Maintained sales pipeline, client relationship management, and Full time consultant. Drove product and agile principles to deliver high value products to customers in tight iterations.

-Consulted with a number of clients in the financial, agricultural, and automotive space. Keeping their identities private

Accenture

Regional Delivery Manager, Industry X.0

Develop partnerships between Pillar Technology and local companies to help solve the Bay Area’s most challenging business and tech problems.

Initiate conversations across industries to help unpack problems at all levels, understanding where opportunities for positive progression within the business lie.

Connect West Coast companies with Pillar’s network of Software Artisans, Digital Experience experts, Marketing gurus and thought leaders to disrupt your competition before they disrupt you.

Pillar Technology

Director of Growth and Emerging Markets

Software Product Owner Consultant for wide array of clients in the Midwest. Gathered requirements, created features, managed/prioritized team backlog, coached client on product mindset + principles.

-Signed NDA and must keep client information and metrics private

Software Product Owner

Acting as  Delivery Lead (DL) which is a combination of Scrum Master/ Iteration Manager for internal Pillar projects. Managing cadence, leading stand-ups, and removing blockers for teams of outstanding programmers to deliver mass value and customer delight. Experience story mapping, leading backlog grooming, Agile retrospectives, product roadmaps, and all things Speed to Value.

Delivery Lead

Hiring brilliant programmers to solve challenging business problems through high velocity teams, the best software practices, and active mentoring/transformation work.

-Hired the most employees in company history including the most senior programmers
-Pillar opened an office in Iowa based on number of candidates hired + relocated (prior was mostly traveling consultants)
-Resulted in $x millions and numerous new clients + engagements out of the region

Agile Talent Engagement

Assumed the role of regular full-time teacher for 3 AP senior and 2 general level freshman classes for 3 months. Responsibilities included developing units and lesson plans for each day, creating fun and demanding assessments, giving students individualized attention and feedback, working closely with faculty in my wing, differentiating lessons for students on IEPs, and more.
Led student project where seniors wrote and organized their own Shakespearian sonnets by category/theme, showing exemplary individual and large group work.
Practiced and tested my pedagogy of teaching as a means to help students understand themselves and one another. With a teacher in the center acting as educator, social worker, comedian, and trusted adult.

Tecumseh High School

Student Teacher

While abroad in Germany, I served as student teacher and teachers assistant for 4 different English teachers at a German high school (Grades 5,7,10,11, and 12)
Gained experience in planning, positive communication skills, grammar instruction, and working with students learning English as a second language (ESL)
Created an camp over Easter Break to individually tutor seniors in preparation for their English university placement exams

Hundertwasserschule

Teacher Assistant/Student Teacher

Integrated a class of incoming freshman into college community, opportunities, and activities.
Served as resource for my group of students with any problems, need for intervention, and resolution.

New Student Days Orientation Leader

Managed the information desk and was responsible for handling all calls and emergencies at the student center in shifts from 5:00-9:00 pm or 9:00-1:00 am. Gained additional experience hiring and training new employees, creating schedules, and communication/customer service skills.

Information Desk Worker/Student Manager

I maintained the Yacht Club doing physical labor and heading up restoration projects. I also courteously dealt with community members' complaints and emergencies, working more with customer service communication, and problem solving skills,

Menauhant Yacht Club Steward

I was the senior tennis instructor for 5 years at the Menauhant Yacht Club. I organized clinics by age group and ability, taught students from ages 6-18 + adult clinics, and helped hire and train new staff. I received customer service experience through continuos interaction and feedback with parents and students.

Nat Bennink