Christopher Cotton

• Directly led 3 cross-functional agile product teams consisting of 9 direct reports to deliver new BI module, Insurance Policy Administration module, and new Developer Portal.
• Created and continually iterate on 12-month product roadmaps for BI, Insurance, and Dev Portal solutions to set strategic vision, priorities, and manage stakeholder expectations.
• Balance long-term planning with rapidly addressing bugs, backlogged enhancements, and delivery impediments threatening sprint commitments.
• Partnered closely with sales, marketing, infrastructure, configuration, and support teams to develop integrated launch plans, enabling on-time delivery of capabilities to clients within budget.

Product Owner:

• Defined product vision, developed product roadmap, and managed delivery plan for new Business Intelligence Module.
• Responsible for leading all Agile Scrum/Kanban ceremonies - grooming, planning, review, and retrospective utilizing Azure DevOps.
• Coordinated with marketing and sales teams to develop release materials, planned communications, and Inline Manual content.
• Validated flexible data model and enhanced user experience by onboarding two initial clients from diverse sources, conducting customer training and gathering feedback after releases to apply to future product improvements.

Data Analyst:

• Worked with cross-functional data team to define standardized data model designed for flexibility across insurance industry clients and reporting needs. This enabled building scalable tables and relations that could be reused for multiple reporting use cases.
• Standardized reporting by consolidating 100+ legacy Excel reports and third party benchmark sources into 40 streamlined, interactive Power BI reports. Enhanced usability by combining most used data sources into unified visualizations that clients can filter and manipulate without generating new reports.
• Validated report accuracy by thoroughly reviewing logic, calculations, and establishing test data sets for automated checks and output analysis.
• Verified optimal display on web and mobile interfaces and exact alignment of visualizations and tables to UX design requirements.

• Provided individual coaching and career development support for team of 6 business analysts in addition to concurrent role as Senior Business Analyst.
• Created skills matrix and training plans for 6 team members, leading to 15% increase in skills proficiency over 6 months.
• Implemented productivity and quality metrics for 6 analysts, enabling all team members to meet or exceed specified thresholds. Reported progress to leadership on quarterly basis.

• Progressed from BA to Senior BA in March, 2019, increasing responsibility from 1 to 3 concurrent client teams.
• Gathered business requirements through client interviews, process analysis, and workshops. Documented detailed specifications, SOWs, and user stories.
• Led agile scrum process for team of 8 developers by managing backlog, sprints, planning, reviews and retros.
• Partnered with clients to develop release plans, success criteria, and UAT test cases, ensuring alignment and leading to On-Time Product Delivery rate > 90%.
• Utilized industry knowledge to translate user requests into strategic technical requirements and propose solutions.
• Managed stakeholder expectations throughout requirements, development, and testing phases.

• Managed full project life cycles with budgets up to $200,000 per project; led multiple simultaneous cross-functional teams supporting Finance, HR, Legal.
• Led training for 20 users on new HR software and presented project status reports regularly to Director and Executive levels.
• Built relationships with business partners to identify improvements and collaborated with 3rd party vendors on software upgrades.

• 1 of 2 members selected for inaugural IT Leadership Development Program, gaining experience in business analysis, programming, and project management through 6-month rotations.
• Led customer contract data cleanup initiative, completing project 1 month ahead of schedule and exceeding customer expectations.
• Wrote SQL queries and developed Oracle BI Publisher reports, automating processes and saving finance team 2 hours per month.
• Led 2014 Security Remediation project following penetration test, achieving 80% remediation of vulnerabilities within 6 months.

• Collaborated with 40+ members to develop upgrade roadmap and checklists, enabling transition from Windows Server 2003 to 2012.
• Researched requirements for Windows Server 2012 NFS proof of concept to improve upon existing ZFS.
• Wrote 6 PowerShell scripts to automate daily system administration tasks.

• Trained over 5 employees on Delta's Global Distribution System and mastered 2 different airline reservation systems over 4-year period.
• Developed excellent communication, stress management, and time management skills by efficiently handling 500+ passenger requests daily while attending university full-time.
• Arranged prompt flight, hotel, and transportation alternatives enabling customers to reach destinations despite frequent cancellations and delays.