Product Owner Manager
Resume:
VARSHA KOTWANI
Sr. Product Owner / Agile Product Manager
Contact
Austin, Texas
Phone:
Email:
***************@*****.***
**US Citizen - ‘No Sponsorship Needed**
Education
MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (MBA),
2011 to 2013
Datta Meghe Institute of Management Studies,
Nagpur India
Dual Specialization in Marketing and Human
Resources (HR)
Bachelor OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION (BBA),
2006 to 2009
Tirpude Institute of Management Education,
Nagpur India Specialization in Marketing
Management
Certificates
Scrum Alliance – Certified Scrum Product Owner.
ScrumStudy – Scrum Fundamentals
Technical Skills
SAP Ariba Atlassian Confluence
and Jira
MS Suite Miro, Whimsical,
AHA
Pega Frameworks Saleforce: Mulesoft
Azure Devops Power BI
Guidewire
Frameworks
Tableau
MFT (GoAnywhere) Service Now
Prototype Tool:
Axure
Programing: Jason,
Java, SQL
MicroStrategy ETL-Datastage
Alation FreshServices
Workplace Awards
Recognized by senior Management for revamping
the Tibco APIs and increasing ROI.
Acknowledged by Business Stakeholders for
efficient coordination across teams and smooth
delivery of Legal Applications.
Appreciate designing the UI prototype for CRTS.
Recognized on contribution to Marketing Campaign
tool.
SUMMARY
Certified Scrum Product Owner, with more than 12 years experiences of driving product strategies and, development in a fast-paced Agile environment. Proven track record of increasing ROI (up 35%), reducing manual processes (by 80%), and improving user satisfaction (about 38%) through innovative product enhancement. Expertise spans various industries like Insurance Retail, Healthcare, and, Financial Services. I’m skilled in leading cross-function teams conducting market comprehensive research, creating product road maps, and stakeholder management at all levels. Adeptly using emerging technologies aligning products with the market trend to deliver customer-centric solutions. Strong communicator, problem-solver, and agile practitioner dedicated to continuous improvement BUSINESS EXPERTISE
Product Strategy & Vision: Create captivating product visions and roads that align with the company’s strategy while also following market trends. Skilled in leading product discovery, defining MVP, and prioritizing features based on what customers need and the business value. Agile Methodology: Expert-know how of Agile frameworks including Scrum and Kanban. Experienced in leading Agile ceremonies, writing up stories from the user, managing the product backlogs, and ensuring timely delivery of quality products. Gap Analysis and Market Research: Conducted in-depth gap analysis and journey mapping sessions with end users to follow market trends, competitor analysis, and a session of feedback from users to identify user's pain points and opportunities to enhance experience Leverage insights for making data-driven decisions on how the product fits and aligns with end users’ needs, what will be MVP.
Stakeholder and Business Owner Management: demonstrated strong problem-solving and interpretive skills, complemented by effective communication and interpersonal ability. Instilling trust and confidence among stakeholders to meet the business and project goals. Leadership: Managed Agile teams of around 5-11 people. Provide mentoring, remove road hurdles, fostering a culture for collaboration and continuing learning. Experienced in a planning capacity, tracking performances, and elevating team efficiencies. Technical expertise: Strong grasp on Technology Life cycle (TLC) and technical concepts. Work closely with Engineers, Enterprise Architects, and Solution Architects, to define capability assessment, and feasibilities, ensuring architecting alignment to achieve goals Business Impact: Consistently deliver products that drive business growth and customer satisfaction. Examples include increasing ROI by 35% through legacy system modernization, reducing manual processes by 80% through Pega framework applications, and improving data visualization for enhanced decision-making.
REPORTING TOOLS
Business Intelligence: Worked on tools such as Power BI, Tableau, Power Pivot, and Power View.
Data Analysis: Analyzed data for reporting, using SAP Ariba, MS Suite, and Google Analytics. Dashboard Creation: Building dashboards, and visualization to provide insight data set regarding reporting, visualized quarterly goals/achievements, TESTING AND TRAINING
Test Plans & Execution: Developing and executing test plans, test cases, and test scenarios to ensure software meets system requirements.
Testing Types: Conducting functional, usability, integration, regression, and user acceptance testing.
UAT & Training: Creating UAT and training documents, as well as facilitating UAT training sessions.
WORK EXPERIENCE
Saleforce Austin, Tx
Sr. Product Owner July 2024-Present
Successfully delivered multiple high-impact integrations, reducing manual effort by 30% and improving operational efficiency.
● Improved procurement cycle times by 25% through optimized Coupa integrations
(Source to Pay).
● Enabled real-time budget tracking and forecasting, enhancing financial transparency and decision-making.
● Strengthened security and compliance by integrating Oracle 360 with enterprise identity management systems.
● Spearheaded the integration of Coupa's Source-to-Pay tool with enterprise applications such as BudgetForce, Capad, and Oracle 360, ensuring seamless data flow and process automation across systems.
● Collaborated with cross-functional teams to define and prioritize product backlogs, ensuring alignment with business objectives and delivering high-value features.
● Designed and implemented API-led connectivity solutions using MuleSoft to streamline procurement, budgeting, and data center operations.
● Partnered with stakeholders to gather and refine requirements, translating them into actionable user stories and acceptance criteria.
● Led end-to-end testing efforts, including functional, regression, and user acceptance testing (UAT), to ensure the quality and reliability of integrations.
● Enhanced BudgetForce integration to provide real-time budget forecasting and decision-making capabilities for enterprise-wide financial planning.
● Delivered Capad-specific solutions to address data center needs, including resource allocation, capacity planning, and operational efficiency.
● Integrated Oracle 360 with Active Directory to enable secure and efficient user management and authentication processes.
● Championed Agile methodologies, including Scrum and SAFe, to drive iterative development and continuous delivery of integration solutions.
● Conducted impact analysis and feasibility studies to assess the technical and business implications of proposed integration projects.
● Provided leadership in creating RACI matrices, ensuring clear accountability and collaboration across teams.
● Utilized tools like Jira, Confluence, and Tableau to track progress, document requirements, and present insights to stakeholders.
● Mentored junior product owners and team members, fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement.
Texas Mutual Insurance Company Austin, Tx
Sr. Product Owner Feb 2021-Present
MuleSoft and MFT:
● Driven extensive end-user research to identify product opportunities and potential issues, facilitating GAP analysis and journey mapping sessions to enhance system solutions and project requirements.
● Achieved a 21% increase in ROI by migrating Tibco API’s into fast-spaced technology. i.e. MuleSoft and completely sunset the Tibco.
● Ensured alignment with evolving technology by executing system upgrades, including MuleSoft Java 17 and Runtime 4.6.
● Successfully collaborated with third-party vendors (e.g., Innova) to strategize, implement, and oversee the migration of iSeries applications to modernized frameworks, ensuring seamless integration and enhanced functionality within partner ecosystems.
● Achieved a 94% on-time project delivery rate by managing Agile teams. Assessed team capacity per sprint to gauge velocity and ensure seamless achievement of sprint goals.
● Ensured comprehensive project documentation on Jira and Confluence, including user stories, features, and epics, and orchestrated effective communication channels between end-users and developers to align with product specifications.
● Conducted competitive analysis to identify opportunities for leveraging AI in API solutions, resulting in a 20% increase in API adoption like API Cataloging and API Gateway.
● Led continuous improvement initiatives to automate custom policy management and upgrades, enhancing operational efficiency and reducing manual intervention by 40%. Additionally, spearheaded the upgrade of the Mulesoft CloudHub platform from version 1.0 to 2.0, leveraging new features to improve scalability and performance.
● Conducted thorough risk and impact analyses for various projects, providing detailed insights and recommendations to guide strategic decisions, and demonstrated flexibility in fast-paced, ambiguous environments to ensure continuous progress and alignment with organizational objectives.
● Ensured compliance with security policies and regulatory requirements by developing and implementing a comprehensive security and governance checklist.
● Developed a 28–36-month roadmap to establish a long-term vision for the development team.
● Actively participated in product owner’s activities (creating PO toolkit, templates, and techniques) to enhance the PO community within the organization, provided mentorship to fellow POs to improve skills and effectiveness
Pega:
● Facilitated business owners and end-user alignment through journey mapping sessions, achieving targeted business objectives, and enhancing system solutions.
● Led the development of user-friendly five Pega Framework applications, reducing manual processes by 80%, elevating end-user satisfaction by 38%, and cutting support tickets by 43%.
● Formulated and executed plans for reengineering legacy systems, resulting in a 35% increase in ROI by phasing out Lotus Notes applications.
● Developed and continuously updated the roadmap, based on enterprise priorities to align with business and organization goals, evolving project needs and ensuring strategic alignment.
● Worked with cross-functional teams to proactively identify, roadblocks communicate, and address project dependencies, to achieve project goals
● Driven product discovery by initiating user journey mapping sessions and in-depth analysis of pain points, successfully launching of multiple Pega framework applications that met customer needs and provided significant value.
● Managed the entire product lifecycle from concept to adoption, including defining requirements, prioritizing features, and tracking success metrics to ensure alignment with go-to-market objectives.
● Collaborated with the enterprise architect, solution architect, and business owner to create a heat map and capability assessment, guiding the team in formulating a comprehensive long-term strategy.
Cardinal Health Columbus, Ohio
Sr. Product Owner Jan 2020 - Feb 2021
● Conducted thorough analysis to pinpoint data redundancies, optimizing the customer/end-user experience through enhanced data visualization.
● Focused on migrating data from legacy systems like DB2 and Teradata to modern platforms such as SAP, Cloud/BigQuery, and Hadoop.
● Successfully implemented a plan to enhance reporting capabilities by integrating cloud-based tools such as Power BI, Tableau, and SAP, resulting in improved data visualization and analytics for stakeholders.
● Crafted strategic roadmaps, prioritized backlogs, and initiated change requests by creating cards through ServiceNow, ensuring seamless coordination and alignment with organizational goals.
● Conceptualized a long-term product vision, crafting a detailed roadmap to guide development and ensure strategic alignment.
● Analyzed and determined team capacity for each sprint to accurately measure velocity, ensuring the team consistently met sprint goals with efficiency and precision.
● Engaged with diverse teams to manage and resolve dependencies, ensuring alignment and timely project progression.
● Managed proof of concepts, demo, and trial environments, working closely with Sales and Professional Services to ensure a seamless transition of information through the client journey. This facilitated successful product demonstrations and trials.
● Created comprehensive decision memos to communicate key project decisions, rationale, and expected outcomes to stakeholders, facilitating transparent and informed decision-making processes.
● Conducted regular TLC check-ins to review and sign off on architectural plans, mitigating security risk and aligning with regulatory standards. CBC Innovis/Factual Data Columbus, Ohio
Product Owner June 2018 - Jan 2020
● Worked on multiple initiatives to rewrite and modernize a Credit report tracking system
(CRTS), produced by insights from the Equifax data breach in 2017, with enhancement by reducing manual processes by 69% and increasing ROI by 12% by sunset legacy system.
● Worked on projects, which was focused on redesigning the Score Plus and Billing application, enhancing system efficiency and user satisfaction. Created mock-ups (UI) by usingthe Axure tool for stakeholders and IT developers to ensure clear communication and prevent scope creep.
● Managed user stories using Jira and Confluence and oversaw database changes through ServiceNow for seamless collaboration. Evaluated sprint capacity to optimize team velocity, ensuring the seamless accomplishment of sprint objectives.
● Engineered an evolving long-term roadmap, continuously adapting to new insights, market changes, and stakeholder priorities.
● Communicated product vision and strategy to stakeholders, providing regular updates on development and release statuses. Established alignment within the organization around required launch activities, ensuring successful product launches,
● Acted as a liaison between internal teams and external partners, facilitating clear communication and alignment on project goals, timelines, and deliverables, ensuring successful integration and partnership outcomes.
Meijer Grand Rapids, MI
Business Analyst/Product Owner July 2016 – April 2018
● Worked with the indirect procurement team and revamped the outdated indirect procurement legacy system (Pridium) by transitioning to SAP Ariba.
● Developed a reporting system utilizing negotiated data to facilitate management of ROI for the strategic team.
● Engaged in designing reports using Power BI and outlining the entire P2P process within SAP Ariba.
● Collaborated closely with the strategic team to grasp the 5 W's, ensuring alignment with project goals and successful project outcomes.
● Conducted thorough assessments of team capacity during sprints to derive accurate velocity metrics, empowering the team to achieve sprint goals effortlessly.
● Collected requirements from business owners, drafted requirement documents, performed gap analysis, and maintained requirement metric documents.
● Developed a meticulously planned roadmap, incorporating ongoing feedback to stay aligned with business and market demands.
● Acted as the voice of the market and customer (VOM and VOC) by gathering insights through user research and feedback sessions. Communicated these insights to the team and stakeholders, ensuring that product development was aligned with customer needs.
● Made strategic recommendations on product positioning and pricing based on market analysis and competitive research. This ensured that products were competitively priced and well-positioned in the market.
BMW Mumbai, India
Business Analyst /Product Owner June 2009 – May 2015
● Led the development of a marketing campaign tool, enhancing campaign analysis and providing valuable insights.
● Developed data analysis prototypes and coordinated QA testing to ensure robust functionality and user satisfaction.
● Facilitated JAD sessions, created essential documents, provided use and test cases, and conducted UAT sessions to ensure clear communication and alignment with project goals.
● Actively participated in daily scrum meetings to ensure task completion within defined timelines and maintain project momentum.
Contact this candidate