Rachael L. Hanson
Minneapolis,MN
Summary
Dynamic information technology professional with 19 years of diverse experience, poised to transition into a management role within the City of Minneapolis. Renowned for uniting business and technology partners, with a strong commitment to continuous improvement and innovative solutions that optimize business processes and drive efficiency. Expertise in navigating complex challenges through a strategic, big-picture mindset while fostering collaboration and trust among team members. Dedicated to balancing data-driven insights with human-centered design principles, ensuring high adoption rates and impactful outcomes.
Overview
19
19
years of professional experience
Work History
Legislative Business Analyst
City of Minneapolis
11.2023 - Current
- Drove delivery of technology solutions and business process improvements for the Office of City Clerk. Managed project timelines, vendors, and budgets to innovate and support City Council and Legislative Department functions. Provided ad hoc support and asset management to keep the City’s legislative policy process operating when technology issues occurred. Connections in multiple City departments including the City Council, Mayor’s office, and Information Technology.
- Managed the administration, scope, requirements, project plans, financials, training, and communication strategy of information technology projects to support the Legislative Department information technology initiatives.
- Collaborated on the 2024-2025 Information Technology & Design strategic plan, leading exercises to develop our mission and vision, and present our new strategic operating model to the City Clerk.
- Partnered with Data Practices and Records Management for Clerk and Council related electronic records and data to maintain compliance with legal requirements.
- Oversaw and managed the LIMS development budget for 2024-2026 development roadmap as a stretch project.
Nail artist
Nail Ninja
Minneapolis, MN
01.2023 - 11.2023
- In 2018, I went back to school to explore a career in Cosmetology. This experience elevated my client relationship management and consulting skills, as well as deepening my empathy and understanding of people different than myself.
Hair Stylist and Nail Tech
Juut Salonspa
Edina & Wayzata, MN
12.2019 - 01.2023
Business Analyst Consultant
Optum / UnitedHealth Group
Plymouth, MN
06.2015 - 10.2018
- Partnered with various Information Security teams to manage business requirements, user stories, test plans, processes, and corporate communications to create innovative technology solutions. Human Centered Design training (Design Thinking).
- Collaborated with business partners globally to implement SaaS and SIEM database monitoring and protection projects defending 26.7 million members’ data.
- Drove business discussions to define scalable, standardized business processes for over 25 cyber defense business processes. Extensive training in process modeling to create repeatable, manageable, and optimized business processes.
- Wrote implementation communications plans, including executive leadership roadmap presentations, corporate communications, training materials, and meeting decks presented to C-suite leaders.
- Mentored, coached, and trained less experienced business analysts to develop their skills and confidence in their role, encourage and empower them, and drive the development of their career path.
Enterprise Business Analyst Consultant
Logisolve
MN
01.2015 - 06.2015
- Collaborated with teams to analyze technology capital funding requests to deliver business cases for Board review and approval for project funding and implementation priority. Delivered documented artifacts supporting the business case including business goals, business requirements, stakeholder requirements, project scope, and process diagrams.
- Defined business goals, value streams, and as-is and to-be process flows for capital funding projects for a large Pharmacy Benefit company.
- Gathered business owner and stakeholder requirements and assessed gaps against business goals in workshops with various stakeholders and enterprise analysis team members to define initial technology design solutions.
- Utilized a modified sprint methodology for analysis delivery to drive solution ideation quickly for initial funding requests while scoping multiple projects simultaneously.
- Partnered with various levels of senior and executive leaders to define project scope and requirements to successfully request the required funding to meet project delivery needs.
- Authored effective presentations to communicate project plan and delivery goals for technical development funding needs to C-suite leaders.
Essentialsit (Business Analyst Consultant)
Trissential
Wayzata, MN
05.2014 - 01.2015
- Gathered and managed business requirements and user test plans for Interactive Marketing technology projects.
- Authored business requirements and use cases for Interactive Marketing technology enhancement projects, including digital platforms, for application and digital media upgrades and enhancements.
- Managed business requirements and test plans using Quality Center for various technology platform test cases.
- Lead user testing and managed test planning for multiple projects in collaboration with on-site and offshore technology partners to successfully test application and media functionality and usability.
- Juggled multiple projects with various deadlines to deliver artifacts, test cases and testing effectively on-time.
Senior Business Analyst Consultant
Horizontal Integration
Minneapolis, MN
02.2013 - 05.2014
- Represented business process during the design and development of a custom book manufacturing web application. Defined user requirements and use cases, test cases and test plans, participated in JAD sessions, and managed user acceptance testing. Created diagrams and models including state maps, process models, and user interface mockups for an Object-Oriented Design project using Agile methodology. Partnered with various levels within the company including executive leadership. Managed user stories and test cases in Jira. Light SQL used to extract data for proving test results.
- Lead Business Analyst who delivered the pre-assembly component of a custom web manufacturing application in less than 6 months in collaboration with business partners and development team.
- Defined new business processes surrounding the manufacturing of book covers while improving visibility to third party system data and defining the business needs required to integrate effectively with a third-party application.
- Wrote user guides and provided user training to highly entrenched mainframe users on using a web interface to support user change during migration to a new manufacturing support application.
- Managed multiple priorities and development cycles at the same time while collaborating with development team members to successfully migrate users on time to a new platform without interrupting the production season.
Business Change Manager
Anthem / Wellpoint, Inc.
Indianapolis, IN
12.2008 - 12.2012
- Advocate for Marketing process improvements and technology advancements in collaboration with technology vendor partners and internal IT partners. Developed and managed project plans, scope, budgets, business cases, user and functional requirements, test plans and communication plans for projects with budgets up to $4M. Managed multiple projects at the same time, prioritizing work to ensure the successful implementation of various third-party SaaS systems including an Enterprise Marketing Management application, system upgrades and enhancements, and business processes.
- Consulted on the implementation, training plan and support plans, and user adoption strategies for a $4M Enterprise Marketing Management (EMM) SaaS system (Aprimo/Teradata) as technology implementation expert.
- Led a team to successfully scope and deliver a proof of concept, pilot and implementation of a marketing planning and financial management tool, resulting in consistent planning and forecasting processes across all of Marketing.
- Oversaw and developed a system and user support strategy, policies and procedures, rules of engagement, and help desk support intake system to support 700 users for implementation of a new EMM application.
- Created a system support and enhancement roadmap and rules of engagement to define support level agreements and standards for a newly developed Marketing Technology team.
- Received Aprimo Apex Award in 2010 for successfully implementing over 300 automated Marketing workflows and converting all marketing resource management to a single system for over 700 users.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Design Communication
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MNCertificate - Cosmetology
Aveda Institute
Minneapolis, MNSkills
- Technology project management and leadership
- Business analysis & requirements gathering
- Business process management and optimization
- Enterprise systems implementations
- Operating system management
- Change Management
- Application support
- Communications Strategy
- Strategic planning
- Release planning
- IT procurement
Accomplishments
- Developed an organizational change management strategy for [Number] employees as a Lead Analyst.
Timeline
Legislative Business Analyst
City of Minneapolis
11.2023 - Current
Nail artist
Nail Ninja
01.2023 - 11.2023
Hair Stylist and Nail Tech
Juut Salonspa
12.2019 - 01.2023
Business Analyst Consultant
Optum / UnitedHealth Group
06.2015 - 10.2018
Enterprise Business Analyst Consultant
Logisolve
01.2015 - 06.2015
Essentialsit (Business Analyst Consultant)
Trissential
05.2014 - 01.2015
Senior Business Analyst Consultant
Horizontal Integration
02.2013 - 05.2014
Business Change Manager
Anthem / Wellpoint, Inc.
12.2008 - 12.2012
Certificate - Cosmetology
Aveda Institute
Bachelor of Science - Design Communication
University of Minnesota