Hi, I’m
Heather Mendenhall
Agile Coach
Broomfield,CO
Summary
SAFe Agile Coach Experienced SAFe Agile Coach and Servant Leader with proven success leading high- performing Agile teams in both EdTech and FinTech product environments. Strong Agile delivery experience working at the SAFe Portfolio, Program, and Team levels. Seven years of Agile coaching experience overseeing Research & Design, BIG Data, and API Agile teams, helping them mature their Agile practices incrementally and in a sustainable way. Strong leader and problem-solver dedicated to streamlining operations to decrease costs and promote organizational efficiency. Uses independent decision-making skills and sound judgment to positively impact company success.
Skills
- Agile Portfolio, Program, & Team Delivery Management: tracking risks, dependencies, impediments, decisions, and performance
- PI Planning Facilitation and support
- SAFe Training: PO/PM, SSM and SAFe SASM classes
- Agile coaching & mentorship, continuous improvement, SAFE, Scrum and Kanban frameworks
- Communications Transparency and Collaborative Problem Solving
- Servant Leadership and Stakeholder Management
- Leading Distributed & Remote Teams
- Launching & Leading Communities of Practice & Innovation workstreams
- Data Analysis and Reporting
- Jira Align, Jira, Confluence, Google Suite Tableau, Lean UX
Overview
17
years of professional experience
1
Certificate
Work History
Capital One
Manager, Agile Delivery Lead
01.2022 - Current
Job overview
- Managing 3 Agile teams across two Agile Release trains: facilitating all e2e Scrum/Kanban ceremonies, participating in weekly Scrum of Scrums, weekly syncs with Product Owners, Tech Leads and Senior Leadership
- Drove execution of Product's Design team to an embedded model, essentially moving Designers into Product teams. This resulted in building a better product that achieved end user needs. Additionally, Integrated Design capacity and story points into Design teams Agile practices, executing them like Tech stories in JIRA
- API team impacts include resurrecting sprint retros, revised team working norms and increased alignment regarding relative story point estimations. Made production release process improvements and improved team engagement. Established 3-Amigos weekly sync with PO & TL to discuss sprint goals and be aligned ahead of weekly team refinements and sprint plannings. Establish better vulnerability management practices, weekly pager duty rotation, and better e2e production deployments
- Built the Data teams roadmap in JIRA Align, improved our Jira and Jira Align practices, Help shepherd ongoing leadership discussions to discuss roadmap milestones, real time risks & impediments, and devise strategies to get us on track
- Drive Vulnerability Management practices for two Agile Release Trains and shared best practices with other Agile peers within Risk Tech
- Co-lead the Innovation Forum, which is a bi-weekly sync with only ORM Leads and Engineers, to establish an innovation backlog to focus on some innovation stories in future Innovation & Planning sprints
- Recognized as one of few SPC certified Trainers across Capital One. Coached Tech College SAFe PM/PO and SAFe SSM classes for 50 FTEs across Capital One
- Agile Bridge to Tech Mentor toCafé Branch Lead, who is training himself to become an Agile Delivery Lead. This is an internal Capital One program designed to help Capital One associates build their Agile skills and knowledge base to transition into Agile roles within Capital One.
Capital One
Agile Delivery Lead
04.2020 - 01.2022
Job overview
- Implementing Dual Track Agile for Experience Design & Discovery Tracks bringing order to this Design team that previously had no agile support. Coached Design team on maturing their Agile practices to improve estimation, prioritization and execution of their work
- Lead Big data team to modernize an existing risk data warehouse. Migrating from legacy UI orchestration tool to Apache Airflow, which allows Tech team to easily apply software engineering discipline to data engineering domain. Product partners optimize data for this data warehouse to deliver important quarterly financial reporting to Capital One Board
- Led ART level Inspect & Adapt, PI Systems demos and work with leadership to continue to make these events fun and engaging
- Led Innovation workstream and curated an innovation lifecycle process to drive structure and rigor around innovation practices and IP sprint activities
- Established ERM Train Delivery Survey to gauge train health
- Launched two Communities of Practice, which are bi-monthly community forums for professionals in Agile, Product, Tech, Engineering and Design to come together to share best practices, tools, and metrics
- Served as the Production Manager for a SAFe PO/PM class and SAFe RTE class & Co-lead one SAFe PO/PM class with 25 students
- Recognized by partners for building a positive team culture, being an effective communicator, who facilitates and applies an inclusive lens to ensure all voices are heard and valued
- Served as buddy/mentor for onboarding new ADLS in Risk Tech
Pearson
Release Train Engineer - Operational/Performance Coach
06.2017 - 04.2020
Job overview
- Key Agile team member of newly launched Value Realization Office (VRO), accountable to the Chief Technology & Operations Officer and to the Global Product President with a remit to lead execution of the digital transformation strategy
- Driving delivery of VRO’s overall Program of internal projects, Agile/Lean SAFe trainings and coaching engagements, implementation of JIRA improvements, PI Planning facilitation, and team level Agile coaching
- Facilitate daily standups, bi-weekly backlog refinements, solution demos, inspect & adapt and team retrospectives with a continuous improvement mindset
- Built Lean Center of Excellence (LACE) to be a repository of Agile, Lean, and SAFe trainings and coaching documentation; featuring 5 VRO-sponsored Communities of Practice, and stood up a Guiding Coalition of key stakeholders in Product and Technology to help curate more content to keep the site fresh
Pearson
Technical Project Manager, Delivery Analytics
08.2013 - 05.2017
Job overview
- ScrumMaster for two distributed teams comprised of two JIRA Data analysts, Enterprise Data Warehouse development team, offshore development team and product owner
- Developed communication strategy and training schedules to launch Delivery Excellence Metrics project and Tableau dashboards debut, which focused on promoting program and team metrics to monitor ongoing delivery improvements
- Led Enterprise Agility and Delivery Excellence Metrics teams in developing comprehensive procedures and documents for training and coaching engagements
Pearson
Talent Acquisition Partner
08.2013 - 05.2017
Job overview
- Oversaw international hiring activities for Higher Education technology teams in Pearson Global Product Group. Worked with senior leadership to learn about group operations, team culture, and position needs to produce active and passive candidates and sourcing programs to attract top talent
- Completed talent acquisition and management for 250+ internal placements at all levels in multiple locations and geographies
- Staffed for special projects: GLP and Cardinal Programs, developed Taleo training guide for hiring managers, developed communication capabilities throughout global TA, PDR job descriptions and framework conversions for vision and framework projects
- Identified and created recruitment and administrative performance metrics and data to analyze trends, drive change, and assess progress
Tek Resource, LLC
Recruitment Consultant
03.2013 - 08.2013
Job overview
- Placed 10 IT specialists with existing and new companies in technology software, oil and gas, and medical device settings. Found candidates for contract, contract-to-hire, and direct hire positions
Harden Healthcare, LLC
Recruitment Consultant
08.2012 - 03.2013
Job overview
- Helped director of recruiting and three senior recruiters fill 1,100+ open jobs weekly
- Pre-screened resumes prior to sending to corporate hiring managers for consideration
- Assisted with writing job postings and job descriptions for boards
- Provided support to hiring managers and HR teams to keep recruitment processes aligned with organizational goals
- Generated and analyzed reports to monitor employee engagement and attrition trends
- Updated social media outlets including Facebook and Twitter
BurtonJames LLC
Recruiter - Consultant
07.2011 - 01.2012
Job overview
- Matched numerous digital, mobile design, and strategy experts with numerous digital companies
- Networked and built relationships with potential candidates and industry professionals to identify potential candidates, stay informed about industry trends and gain insight into skills and qualifications in demand
- Developed strategic communication plan to expand social media footprint
The Creative Group
Technical Recruiter Manager
11.2010 - 07.2011
Job overview
- Co-launched new staffing division in Austin after forging new relationships with regional design, interactive, high-tech, and entrepreneurial business communities. Promoted awareness of available talent
- Developed lists of qualified candidates for corporate hiring managers
- Managed recruitment team and trained and mentored new advisors
The Creative GroupAtlanta , Georgia
Interim Division Director
07.2010 - 10.2010
Job overview
- Motivated team members to meet and exceed sales targets
- Trained staff and provided successful techniques to improve overall service to customers
- Set and monitored sales targets and identified potential customers
- Researched emerging industry trends, applications, and concepts to enhance products and services
The Creative GroupAtlanta, GA
Senior Account Manager & Recruiter
07.2006 - 10.2010
Job overview
- Sold more than $2.5M in overall revenue and reached $1M in total sales in record 2.5 years. Monitored and analyzed customer feedback to identify opportunities for improvement
- Developed and expanded client base to $5M in annual staffing helping rank in Top 20 of 80-team members. Helped office reach all-time best 3,700 hours with 130 consultants billing weekly
- Secured exclusive agreement to staff contract creative positions for all Time Warner networks in Atlanta including CNN.com, Cartoon Network, Turner Classic Movies, Turner Presentation Services, and Turner Sports
- Chosen as member of Field Advisory Council to discuss emerging U.S. hiring trends connected to social media and Web 2.0 initiatives in 2010
- Researched emerging industry trends, applications, and concepts to enhance products and services
- Developed deep knowledge of customer businesses and relationship to company objectives
- Contributed to annual revenue goals by selling new services and developing new accounts
Education
University of San FranciscoRemot
Master's Certificate from Online Marketing: SEO →SEM→PPC→ Email & Affiliate
05.2004
Georgia State UniversityAtlanta, GA
Bachelor of Arts from Film Studies and Journalism
05.2003
Certification
- Certified SAFe 5 Agilist Scaled Agile, Inc. 05/2021 - 05/2024
- Certified SAFe 5 Program Consultant Scaled Agile, Inc. 05/2021 - 05/2022 (working on renewal)
- Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) Scrum Alliance 02/2019 - 02/2021
- Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) Scrum Alliance 2/2019 - 02/2021
Availability
See my work availability
Not Available
Available
monday
tuesday
wednesday
thursday
friday
saturday
sunday
morning
afternoon
evening
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Timeline
Manager, Agile Delivery Lead
Capital One
01.2022 - Current
Agile Delivery Lead
Capital One
04.2020 - 01.2022
Release Train Engineer - Operational/Performance Coach
Pearson
06.2017 - 04.2020
Talent Acquisition Partner
Pearson
08.2013 - 05.2017
Technical Project Manager, Delivery Analytics
Pearson
08.2013 - 05.2017
Recruitment Consultant
Tek Resource, LLC
03.2013 - 08.2013
Recruitment Consultant
Harden Healthcare, LLC
08.2012 - 03.2013
Recruiter - Consultant
BurtonJames LLC
07.2011 - 01.2012
Technical Recruiter Manager
The Creative Group
11.2010 - 07.2011
Interim Division Director
The Creative Group
07.2010 - 10.2010
Senior Account Manager & Recruiter
The Creative Group
07.2006 - 10.2010
University of San Francisco
Master's Certificate from Online Marketing: SEO →SEM→PPC→ Email & Affiliate
Georgia State University
Bachelor of Arts from Film Studies and Journalism
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