SONYA HOWARD

• Oversaw development of new products.
• Cultivated valuable relationships with external partners including Policy makers and Program department facilitating successful launches.
• Collaborated with marketing teams to create compelling product messaging, leading to increased sales and market share.
• Enhanced product development processes by streamlining workflows and improving communication between departments.
• Created product roadmaps to help guide product development processes and align with overall business goals.
• Participated in comprehensive market research to identify untapped opportunities for new product development or improvement of existing products.
• Managed cross-functional teams to ensure timely delivery of high-quality products, resulting in strong stakeholder satisfaction.
• Liaised with internal and external parties on procurement of new product formulations, international requirements and regulatory changes.
• Optimized resource allocation by conducting thorough assessments of project requirements, budgets, and timelines.
• Maintained internal product knowledge database.
• Mentored junior team members, fostering professional growth opportunities while increasing overall team productivity.
• Identified opportunities for new products and improvements to existing products to increase customer satisfaction.

• Coached Executives, directors, managers, and teams towards agility to increase cashflow, build the best motivated team, create efficient/proficient systems, and manage their time.
• Enhanced team productivity by implementing Agile methodologies and facilitating daily stand-up meetings.
• Transformed project delivery by coaching teams on Scrum, Kanban, and Lean principles.
• Established a culture of continuous improvement through retrospective meetings and process refinement.
• Reduced time to market with the introduction of cross-functional teams and efficient backlog management.
• Streamlined communication between departments by creating a centralized platform for project updates and progress tracking.
• Developed customized training materials for Agile adoption, ensuring relevance to organizational needs.
• Mentored junior team members on Agile best practices, fostering collaboration and growth within the team.
• Increased stakeholder satisfaction by providing timely status reports and incorporating feedback into project iterations.
• Facilitated conflict resolution within teams to maintain momentum towards project goals.
• Led successful Agile transformations in multiple organizations, resulting in more efficient processes and higher-quality products.
• Optimized resource allocation by working closely with project managers to prioritize tasks based on business value.
• Empowered team members to self-organize, boosting morale and overall job satisfaction.

• Guided Frameworks team and Web Application team on how to use SAFe/Agile/Scrum practices and values while building infrastructure, backend services, user interface, and testing for International Hotel Group Concerto application.
• Improved team efficiency by implementing Agile and Scrum methodologies for project management.
• Coached cross-functional teams on Agile principles, leading to an increase in successful project deliveries.
• Developed custom Scrum boards for better task tracking and transparency within the team.
• Conducted daily stand-up meetings, sprint planning sessions, and sprint reviews, ensuring effective communication among team members.
• Resolved conflicts and facilitated open communication among team members, promoting a healthy work environment.

• Helped initiate the Compensation Engine Team that built an API and Rules Engine for Agents to offer consistent refunds to eligible customers who experience downgraded flights, thereby solidifying the final scope of the first MVP1.
• Improved team efficiency by implementing Agile and Scrum methodologies for project management.
• Created comprehensive user stories with clear acceptance criteria to guide development efforts.
• Assessed and reported progress to stakeholders regularly, maintaining transparency throughout the project lifecycle.
• Collaborated with Product Owners to refine requirements and ensure alignment with business goals.
• Facilitated seamless integration of new team members into existing projects without compromising productivity levels.

• Led five teams, across multiple work streams for a pharmaceutical company, as part of a SAFe, Agile Transformation Organization, using Scrum, XP, and Kanban, within scaled agile framework: while acting as a Change Agent and leading continuous improvement of teams, resulting in teams delivering value faster.
• Streamlined project delivery by conducting daily stand-ups, sprint planning, and review meetings for multiple projects simultaneously.
• Collaborated with Product Owners to develop clear product roadmaps and ensure timely release of high-quality deliverables.
• Resolved impediments to team progress by proactively identifying issues and facilitating effective solutions.
• Managed risk effectively through comprehensive assessment, mitigation strategies, and contingency plans throughout the project lifecycle.

• Coached five teams, across multiple work streams for a pharmaceutical company, as part of a SAFe, Agile Transformation Organization, by participating in Scrum of Scrums, at the program level, utilizing scaled agile concepts: while mentoring other Scrum Masters at the team level
• Resulting in 80% of teams changing from waterfall to agile transformation.
• Coached cross-functional teams on Agile principles, leading to an increase in successful project deliveries.
• Implemented key performance metrics to track team progress and identify areas of improvement consistently throughout projects'' lifecycles.
• Boosted customer satisfaction scores by providing regular updates on product enhancements resulting from feedback provided during sprint review meetings.
• Facilitated Scrum framework – sprint planning, backlog grooming, daily scrums, sprint reviews, and sprint retrospectives.
• Worked closely and listened to team members' feedback to identify issues and resolve conflicts.
• Collaborated with product owners, team members, technologists, and other scrum masters to define solutions and drive progress.

• Created a Scrum process to manage non-profit business goals by helping the team embrace Scrum values, adapted and applied Scrum principles, and implement Scrum practices, resulting in increased members and sponsors.
• Tracked project and team member performance closely to quickly intervene in mistakes or delays.
• Scheduled and facilitated meetings between project stakeholders to discuss deliverables, schedules and conflicts.
• Maintained open communication by presenting regular updates on project status to customers.
• Drafted project reports to identify successful outcomes, insights and future recommendations.
• Negotiated and managed third-party contracts related to project deliverables.
• Coached teams in Agile practices and provided necessary training to create positive mindset to Agile methodologies.

• Coached and mentored the team on Agile and Scrum values coordinating cross-functional teams to deliver ‘Done' products based on promotions for pricing and new devices, resulting in the new Cricket brand getting new enrolled customers purchasing new phones
• Exhibited Lean-Agile leadership and behaviors of a lean-agile mindset, overcoming missed stories and artifacts, by educating the IT-QA team on what needed to be tested, ensuring QA team had the current updated documentation, ensuring QA team were a part of the Agile meetings and tracked the progress of the QA team, resulting in removed obstacles so that Designers could focus on coding, and improved the transparency of the work completed
• Reinforced Working Agreements, overcoming missing vital members during Dry Runs, by validating the Pre-Production environment was ready prior, resulting in no more interruptions with the Dry Runs
• Facilitated the team's progress toward their delivery goal, overcoming Designers being pulled into other projects with equal priority and UAT not being completed, by facilitating discussion with the team on how UAT is a part of a ‘Done' product, resulting in obtaining dedicated Designers to completed UAT within Sprint
• Facilitated Scrum Retrospective, overcoming Pricing Promotions incorrectly stated on the website, by establishing a Working Agreement between QA and the Content Team, to ensure QA receives and reviews the Content documents, resulting in a dedicated QA resource for verifying promotions each Sprint release
• Enabled close cooperation across all roles and functionality with Scrum Work Streams.