PORTFOLIO • Management

Evolwe.ai
Product & Management Advisor

Evolwe
Global goals
  • Change management: Solve current issues in the company through the improvement of culture, methodology and processes
  • Build Design Department with scalable approach, with transparent, proactive and supportive culture inside
  • Improve teams' efficiency through the improvement of Product Management Dept approach as a Director of Product Management.
Challenges list
The first thing I had done – I gathered the information and got the needed insights about company and product challenges.

Based on figured-out information, I created the following list of challenges on the way to product improvements conduction through my Director of Product & Design competencies and responsibility areas.
A couple of solutions require me to work out of my responsibility area to deliver additional value for company process efficiency and achieve strategical goals collaboratively with other departments.
Challenge 1
From the start: Increase value from the Design
The main challenge was the low seniority of the Design Team, and the absence of culture and practice of improving skills and optimizing work approaches.
That was the reason for the low financial sufficiency from design services for the company.

Solution:
In order to reduce the costs of the company when renewing people in the team and motivate employees to stay in the company longer, I conducted research among employees and implemented tools within the company that positively influenced the HR brand and retention of people in the team.

What was done:
  • Created a competency matrix for the design department.
  • Based on the competency matrix, a knowledge and career management system for designers has been developed and implemented.
  • Knowledge-sharing practices have been introduced and implemented in the design department.
Challenge 2
From the start: The risk of lose Clients
There were 2 cases prevented by me:
  • A Customer became attached to our employee. After the employee's contract termination there was a risk of losing the Customer.
  • The team that worked with the Customer quit entirely and planned to take the Customer away.

Solution:
I had to apply my leadership and personal skills to solve the challenge without aggravating.

To prevent the problem from recurring, I initiated the following actions:
  • Creation of a standard and a checklist for the work of Account Managers in the company.
  • The introduction of mandatory practices for monitoring the client's status by the product manager and account manager assigned to projects.
  • Escalated the need to create and sign a non-poaching agreement and a non-disclosure agreement with all employees of the company (up to this point, these agreements were signed by a couple of individual employees of the company).
Challenge 3
Complications with changing people
in project teams
There were 2 cases that I was able to prevent

Solution:
In order to reduce the costs of the company when renewing people in the team and

What was done:
Created a competency matrix for the design department.
Challenge 4
Creation of the self-sustaining process
in the Design Department
There were 2 cases prevented by me:

Solution:
I had to apply my leadership and personal skills to solve the challenge without aggravating
    Extras
    • Conducted workshops among the specialists of the design department and related departments on the principles of product development.
    • Helped to set up effective work in a pressed time on the start of new projects. This solved the problem of the shortest terms reduction and failing the deadlines on Discovery phase.
    • Shared with Remedy the list of my own contacts to cover company's need in composing a strong skilled teams asap.
    • Studied possible knowledge storage systems and methods of effective knowledge delivery. Set the task of developing the structure of such a system with a reserve for its scaling, formulating strategic points and principles of work.
    • I get involved in the discussion and implementation of solutions on methodologies and technologies solving Remedy's problems in order to minimize the time spent on finding solutions by other leaders.
    Need an experienced expert in Design Management
    to build, launch, scale or transform your
    Product or Design team?
    Need an experienced expert in Design Management to build, launch, scale or transform your Product or Design team?