Alexandra Hays
Indianapolis,IN
Summary
Talented Project Lead with strengths in bridging the gap between the business users and technical vision. Looking to share knowledge and grow skillset in a Product Owner role.
Overview
12
12
years of professional experience
Work History
Project Implementation Team Lead
JD Sports North America
2022.01 - Current
- Contribute to ideation, technical development, and launch of Aptos Merchandising as system of record using Agile methodology
- Communicate vision, strategy, roadmap and other decisions to engage stakeholders across organization and gain alignment on company strategies
- Deeply understand future users, their problems, their needs, where they find value, and where we have opportunities to improve and can communicate requirements clearly to development
- Plan, create and execute effective user training, testing scenarios and clear business processes
- Engage with Product Owner in story writing, sprint planning and backlog refinement on tasks related to project
Merchandise Planner
JD Sports North America
2018.06 - 2021.12
- Developed seasonal OTB plans with Buyer, DMM, and VP to maximize opportunities and minimize risk successfully, balancing future trends and current performance resulting in 60% sales and gross margin increase over prior year
- Business lead on Merchandise Financial Planning system enhancements and responsible for communicating user needs to product owner, writing test scripts, and logging bugs
- Partnered with Buyer and vendors on monthly projections at vendor, category and core style level in order to negotiate product needs and maintain inventory on core items
- In collaboration with Analytics team, created financial tools like a Key Item Plan template in Excel used by all planners
- Interviewed, trained, developed, reviewed and managed multiple product allocators
- Evolved strategic plans, budgets, and recaps to maintain strategic agility in a very fast paced, changing environment
Associate Merchandise Planner
JD Sports North America
2018.01 - 2018.05
- Collaborated with Planner to forecast sales and inventory considering release dates, carry over inventory, history and sell through expectations
- Owned markdowns and markdown planning to ensure we were hitting GM% and sell through targets
Merchandise Analyst
JD Sports North America
2017.04 - 2017.12
- Quickly learned structure of large data sets to provide insightful data analysis
Product Merchandiser
JD Sports North America
2013.08 - 2017.03
- Used creative allocation strategies to grow sales in various product categories across 500+ locations
- Identified multiple opportunities to improve allocation system and worked with Product Owner to fix bugs and implement enhancements
Buyer
Von Maur
2011.07 - 2013.08
- Proactively identified trends to maximize sales and tested viability in targeted markets and stores
- Forecasted financial elements of business including sales, inventory and markdowns
- Collaborated with vendors, merchandising and marketing teams to create dynamic and innovative assortments
- Ensured that vendor relations were optimal to negotiate exclusivity, pricing, quality, reductions and on time deliveries
Education
Certificate - Data Analytics
Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis
Indianapolis, IN12.2019
Bachelor of Arts - Fashion Marketing & Management
The Illinois Institute of Art
Chicago, IL03.2011
Skills
- Organization Skills
- Managing Unexpected Obstacles
- Business Requirements Documents (BRDs)
- Process Improvement
- Team Member Development
- Client Relations
- User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
- Process Flow Diagram Development
- Effective Written and Verbal Communication
- Agile Methodology
Timeline
Project Implementation Team Lead
JD Sports North America
2022.01 - Current
Merchandise Planner
JD Sports North America
2018.06 - 2021.12
Associate Merchandise Planner
JD Sports North America
2018.01 - 2018.05
Merchandise Analyst
JD Sports North America
2017.04 - 2017.12
Product Merchandiser
JD Sports North America
2013.08 - 2017.03
Buyer
Von Maur
2011.07 - 2013.08
Certificate - Data Analytics
Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis
Bachelor of Arts - Fashion Marketing & Management
The Illinois Institute of Art
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