Product Manager Senior

Shankar Paravastu

Senior Product Manager – Technical

309-***-**** *******.*********@*****.*** US Citizen Mundelein, IL-60060 LinkedIn

Professional Summary

Results-driven Senior Product Manager with over 15 years of experience in delivering impactful digital solutions across Insurance and Financial Services. Proven expertise in backlog management, Agile leadership, and regulatory compliance. Adept at bridging business and technical teams to deliver customer-centric products that align with strategic OKRs and regulatory standards. Proficient in Agile methodologies (Scrum, SAFe, Kanban) and Waterfall, with a deep understanding of SDLC, AWS Cloud, DevOps, and AI. Adept at managing complex projects/features in matrix environments, leading both onsite and offshore development teams.

Professional Skills

Strategic Planning Backlog Management Agile (Scrum) Problem Solving Stakeholder Engagement Budget & Resource Allocation IT Compliance & Risk Management Project Planning Feature Refinement Product Development Release Management Cross-functional Collaboration KPI/OKR Alignment.

Technical Skills

JIRA JIRA Align Confluence Splunk Git Hub Git Lab Jenkins JSON Figma Slack MS Teams MS Office One Note Visio Z-OS Windows Linux AWS MIRO Service Now Power BI API.

Professional Experience

Northwestern Mutual, Milwaukee, WI

Sr Product Manager – Illustrations (10/2021 – 10/ 2023)

Spearheaded the delivery of high-impact features for Risk Products (Term Life, Whole Life, Universal Life, and Disability Insurance) enhancing agent illustration capabilities and client satisfaction.

Communicated product vision, priorities, and roadmaps to development teams, ensuring seamless execution and alignment with business goals.

Collaborated with cross-functional teams, including designers, developers, and UI specialists to deliver user-centric features aligned with key business objectives.

Refined product features and ensured readiness for PI (Program Increment) planning.

Owned and continuously prioritized the product backlog, ensuring alignment with business objectives, regulatory compliance, and OKRs to achieve key outcomes.

Facilitated Agile ceremonies (Daily Scrum, Sprint Planning, Retrospectives) to drive execution, maintain alignment, and successful product delivery.

Discover Financial Services, Riverwoods, Illinois

Product Owner – Payment Authorizations (12/2018 – 10/2021)

Spearheaded the development and delivery of credit card payment features, including Tokenization, and Spring-based Orchestrator API feature, driving operational efficiency & enhanced customer experience.

Owned and continuously prioritized the product backlog, ensuring alignment with business objectives, regulatory compliance, and OKRs to achieve key outcomes.

Translated complex requirements into actionable user stories with clear acceptance criteria, enabling high-performing teams to deliver quality solutions.

Collaborated with cross-functional teams (designers, developers, security, business stakeholders) to deliver user-centric features aligned with key business objectives.

Partnered with technology teams to create and refine technical features that optimize system components, improve infrastructure maintenance, and enhance operational efficiency.

Led Agile ceremonies (Daily Scrum, Sprint Planning, Retrospectives) to drive execution, maintain alignment, and successful product delivery.

Blue Cross Blue Shield (Info Nero) Fargo, North Dakota

IT Program Manager (01/2018 – 12/2018)

Successfully delivered the Provider Enrollment and Credentials Program for Medicare.

Owned and managed unified program plans, backlog prioritization, interdependencies, and risk mitigation efforts across business and IT teams.

Led Agile ceremonies (Daily Scrum, Sprint Planning, Retrospectives) to drive execution, maintain alignment, and successful product delivery.

State Farm Insurance (HTC), Bloomington, Illinois

Sr Technical Project Manager (08/2006 -11/2017)

Managed multiple high-budget projects in application development,data warehousing, infrastructure, and security compliance, with budgets ranging from $1 M to $ 10 M, ensuring full accountability for scope, cost management, resource allocation, risk mitigation and dependency tracking.

Created and executed detailed project plans, guiding projects from conception through implementation and maintenance, leveraging best practices/methodologies for successful outcomes.

Identified and mitigated risks, resolved issues, and ensured smooth project transitions into production while offering ongoing production support as needed

Provided regular project update and progress reports to Key Stakeholders.

Education

Master of Business Administration, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois (2014)

Bachelor of Technology, JNTU, Hyderabad, India

Certifications

Project Management Professional (PMP)

Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)

SAFe 4.0 Scrum Master (SSM)

Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)

Contact this candidate