Mitchell Ries
Eden Prairie,MN
Summary
Dynamic Sr. Project Manager with a proven track record at Optum Healthcare, excelling in Agile methodologies and stakeholder management. Spearheaded high-impact projects, enhancing team productivity by 1.5x through effective coaching and leadership. Adept at backlog management and fostering collaboration, driving successful outcomes in complex environments.
Overview
25
25
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Sr. Project Manager, Sr. Business Analyst, Sr. Product Owner, and Sr. Scrum Master
Solution Design Group
Golden Valley, MN
07.2024 - 03.2025
- Spearheaded the Injectables Medicine Project for HealthPartners as the Sr. Project manager.
- Worked closely with the HealthPartners team to define the project scope, created project plans, assessing risks, and manage resource allocations.
- Managed the end-to-end Project delivery, facilitated weekly project status meetings with HealthPartners’ management team to communicate progress, address risks, and align on key milestones.
- Facilitated meetings and workshops with the HealthPartners Injectable Medicine Teams SMEs to gather business needs and requirements.
- Translated those business needs and requirements into actionable, clear, concise, and well-structured documentation, user stories, and detailed specifications using Jira.
- Managed the product backlog, including creating, prioritizing, and maintaining it.
- Worked closely with the development team, facilitating communications, answering questions, and ensuring the team understands the requirements.
- Ensured that all scrum events (sprint planning, daily scrums, sprint reviews, sprint retrospectives) take place, are productive, and are kept within the designated timebox.
- Actively identified and removed any obstacles or roadblocks that hinder the teams progress and encouraged open communication, transparency, and collaboration with the team and stakeholders.
Sr. Agile Scrum Master
Optum Healthcare
Minnetonka, MN
09.2023 - 07.2024
- Partnered closely with the Product owner and Engineering Manager to orchestrate iteration/sprint planning, sprint reviews, daily standups, and retrospectives with scrum team members.
- Facilitated Quarterly Project Planning meetings with 8 scrum teams to plan and prioritize projects, aligning initiatives with strategic goals and resource availability.
- Turned around an underperforming scrum team through customized training on Agile/Scrum, effective coaching, continuous improvement of standups, sprint planning, sprint reviews, sprint retros, and impediment removal, which lead to Agile standards adoption, resulting in consistent, on-time sprint goal deliveries and much higher productivity (1.5x higher sprint velocity).
Sr. Project Manager, Voice of the Customer
Optum Healthcare
Minnetonka, MN
02.2023 - 07.2024
- Managed a team of 5, conducting daily meeting calls to triage comments and surveys left from users of our website the previous day.
- Collaborated with 8 Scrum teams to investigate, diagnose, and resolve issues that were found from our triage meetings.
- Oversaw the implementation of our 2 new comments and survey tracking systems, Qualtrics and GlassBox; conducted training sessions for team members.
Sr. Production Release Manager
Optum Healthcare
Minnetonka, MN
01.2023 - 06.2023
- Coordinated bi-weekly releases for the Medicare and Retirement Acquisition websites, ensuring timely deployment, quality assurance, and stakeholder alignment for the entire release process of our software updates into the production environment.
- Managed monthly releases for the Insurance Solutions website, ensuring timely deployment, quality assurance, and stakeholder alignment for the entire release process of our software updates into the production environment.
- Ensured smooth and successful deployments with minimal disruptions to ongoing operations, managed risks, communicated effectively with stakeholders, and drove continuous improvements in the release processes.
- Conducted post-release reviews to identify areas for improvement in the release process and implemented those changes to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the release process.
Release Train Engineer (RTE) Project Manager
UnitedHealth Group
Minnetonka, MN
01.2022 - 01.2023
- Servant leader and coach, overseeing 8 scrum teams within the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), facilitated and managed the Agile Release Train (ART), ensuring the teams worked effectively and delivered value.
- Engaged with business stakeholders to manage risks, foster collaboration, and drive continual improvement across scrum teams.
- Supported 8 scrum teams in facilitating key ART events like PI planning; ensuring that work is prioritized and delivered efficiently, driving continuous improvements, and delivering value for each of our planned releases.
Program Release Manager
UnitedHealth Group
Minnetonka, MN
08.2018 - 01.2022
- Responsible for planning, coordination, and overseeing the entire release process for multiple related projects and ensuring timelines, resources, risks, and communication across multiple teams to ensure successful and timely software releases.
- Facilitated weekly feature prioritization meetings and Monthly releases for the Medicare and Retirement Acquisition websites and Insurance Solutions Government Programs website, ensuring timely deployment, quality assurance, and stakeholder alignment for the entire release process of our software updates into the production environment.
- Led end-to-end planning meetings to schedule releases, sprints, and creating a clear yearly release calendar to ensure alignment, timely execution, and communicating those release plans, schedule, and status updates to all relevant stakeholders, including business teams and upper management.
- Conducted post-release reviews to identify areas for improvement in the release process and implemented those changes to improve efficiency and effectiveness of the release process.
Lead Product Owner Manager
UnitedHealth Group
Minnetonka, MN
03.2016 - 08.2018
- Managed and mentored a team of 8 Product Owners, managing specific projects, providing guidance and support to ensure alignment with strategic business initiatives, and successful product delivery.
- Collaborated closely with management teams to prioritize key initiatives, ensuring alignment with business goals and readiness for inclusion in the next release.
- Established product vision, roadmaps, strategy, managed the product backlog, and collaborated with various cross-functional teams to ensure successful product delivery.
Sr. Business Analyst
UnitedHealth Group
Minnetonka, MN
03.2011 - 03.2016
- Recruited to join the inaugural Agile team for the Medicare & Retirement Government Programs project, leveraging my extensive Agile expertise.
- Contributed to numerous Medicare & Retirement Government Program Projects over a span of 5 years, driving successful outcomes and ensuring compliance with healthcare regulatory requirements.
- Evaluated different technical solutions to determine their feasibility, cost-effectiveness, alignment with business needs, and designed new processes and workflows to support new business goals and objectives.
- Effectively communicated findings, recommendations, business requirements, and solutions to stakeholders and technical teams through presentations, reports, and other means to ensure clear and effective communication throughout the project lifecycle.
Business Analyst, Project Manager, Product Owner, and Agile Roles
Various Consulting Firms
Minneapolis – St. Paul area
09.2003 - 03.2011
- Provided expert advice and guidance as a Business Analyst, Project Manager, Product Owner, and Agile services for a variety of companies, including Dolan Media, Northwest Airlines, United States Postal Service, Best Buy, Delta Airlines, and Wells Fargo RCIS.
- Led and contributed to a wide range of projects across multiple industries, adapting to diverse business needs, assessing client needs, conducting research and analysis, developing solutions, implementing strategies, and delivering successful outcomes.
- Objective problem-solver, leveraging my expertise to help clients achieve their goals while I built and maintained strong professional relationships with clients, fostering trust and collaboration.
Software Engineer
Navitaire
Minneapolis, MN
03.2000 - 09.2003
- Responsible for designing, developing, and maintaining accounting and auditing software for airline ticketing systems, ensuring accuracy and compliance in financial transactions.
- My responsibilities included coding, testing, debugging, various programming languages and frameworks, while collaborating with other team members to deliver high-quality software solutions.
- Worked with other engineers, designers, project managers, and stakeholders to ensure successful project delivery.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Business Computer Information Systems
St. Cloud State University
St. Cloud, MN12-1999
Skills
- Agile methodologies and frameworks
- Scrum and Kanban
- OKRs and sprint planning
- Backlog management
- User story creation
- Leadership and coaching
- Agile transformation
- Executive coaching
- Project management coaching
- Business analyst coaching
- Project owner coaching
- RTE coaching
- Agile mentoring
- Team leadership
- Conflict resolution
- Cross-training and facilitation
- Stakeholder management
- Technical proficiency in tools (Rally, Azure DevOps, Jira, Domo, Aha, Glassbox, Qualtrics)
- Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Visio)
- Use case modeling
- Soft skills development (empathy, collaboration)
- Critical and strategic thinking
- Problem-solving and time management
- Leadership and negotiation skills
- Active listening and influence
- Work ethic and positive attitude
- Attention to detail and self-motivation
- Willingness to learn and dependability
Certification
- Certified SAFe RTE, 03/20
- Certified SAFe PO/PM, 02/20
- Certified SAFe Scrum, 11/19
- Certified SAFe Agile, 09/19
- Certified Scrum Master, 01/09
Timeline
Sr. Project Manager, Sr. Business Analyst, Sr. Product Owner, and Sr. Scrum Master
Solution Design Group
07.2024 - 03.2025
Sr. Agile Scrum Master
Optum Healthcare
09.2023 - 07.2024
Sr. Project Manager, Voice of the Customer
Optum Healthcare
02.2023 - 07.2024
Sr. Production Release Manager
Optum Healthcare
01.2023 - 06.2023
Release Train Engineer (RTE) Project Manager
UnitedHealth Group
01.2022 - 01.2023
Program Release Manager
UnitedHealth Group
08.2018 - 01.2022
Lead Product Owner Manager
UnitedHealth Group
03.2016 - 08.2018
Sr. Business Analyst
UnitedHealth Group
03.2011 - 03.2016
Business Analyst, Project Manager, Product Owner, and Agile Roles
Various Consulting Firms
09.2003 - 03.2011
Software Engineer
Navitaire
03.2000 - 09.2003
Bachelor of Science - Business Computer Information Systems
St. Cloud State University