Leeds, England, United Kingdom
A creative digital consultant, with extensive experience in product management and experience design across multiple domains. Proven ability to apply design thinking principles to understand user needs and build empathetic, human-centred experiences. Expertise designing and running collaborative workshops, leading multidisciplinary teams to solve complex problems in innovative ways.
Responsible for the evolution of AND's end-to-end employee experience, employing human-centred design principles to create a progressive, purposeful and impactful value proposition for our ANDis.
Designed and led product discovery across numerous business lines, embedding best practices and a human-centred mindset. Led programme of user research, coaching colleagues on appropriate techniques and approaches, and distilled insights into actionable product backlog. Facilitated creation of shared vision and principles for product with engagement from senior business stakeholders to ensure ongoing buy-in and investment.
Product Owner of an end-to-end exam delivery product in the Education Technology sector. Led three Scrum teams in the fulfilment of a range of complex, business-critical and customer-funded requirements. Onboarded offshore development teams, embedding agile ways of working and fostering a collaborative mindset. Owned requirements gathering and refinement process, working with business stakeholders and clients to analyse needs, elicit business value, and translate into workable backlog items. Initiated user research and discovery programme in order to better inform product development decisions.
Responsible for the commercial and editorial development of a new case study product for the higher education market. Developed and implemented an ambitious content strategy with the aim of growing global representation within the author base, in order to increase the product's value proposition in target markets. Worked closely with the senior product manager and global sales force to identify commercial opportunities and tailor value messages to help realise them. Negotiated an array of partnership and licensing deals with international organisations, ranging from top 100 business schools to regional accreditation bodies. Also managed a small portfolio of renowned journals in the fields of International Business, Regional Management, and Business Ethics and Law. Titles included: - Academia Revista Latinoamericana de Administración (Impact Factor 0.250) - American Journal of Business - Chinese Management Studies (Impact Factor 0.379) - Competitiveness Review - European Business Review - International Journal of Emerging Markets - Journal of Korea Trade (Impact Factor 0.607) - Multinational Business Review
Product Owner of Management First, Emerald’s primary offer to the corporate and public sector. Initiated the functional and editorial redevelopment of the platform. Led a cross-functional team to ensure product was continuously improved in line with user needs and expectations. Engaged with users to inform NPD activities, with a focus on diversifying Emerald’s portfolio beyond the academic sector.
Held end-to-end responsibility for a suite of business journals aimed at the professional market. Managed a team of freelance writers and support staff, and thrived working in a pressurized, journalistic environment. Participated in a number of cross-departmental projects looking at user engagement, increasing downloads, multimedia content, digital platform development and transforming scholarly content for a practitioner audience. Monitored and analysed industry developments to inform editorial output. Formulated commercial growth plans for each journal to ensure they develop competitively in their respective markets. Increased cumulative readership by over 20% in the first 12 months. Achieved this through targeted commissioning, structured social marketing campaigns and improved article metadata. Collaborated with a number of professional bodies including CiPD, the Drucker Society and EFMD. Sat on the judging panel of the EFMD Excellence in Practice awards from 2012 to 2014.
Worked for various academics, providing services such as copyediting, writing literature reviews, proofreading, background research and fact-checking. Projects included articles for publication in academic journals, a monograph on British-Asian Fiction, a collection of author interviews, and a Gothic fiction text-book. As a result of my work, I was commissioned to write a 500-word book review for publication in The Times Higher Education (http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/books/textbook-guides/8-november-2012/student-review-an-introduction-to-literature-criticism-and-theory/410567.article)
Responsible for proofreading and inputting television-listings data in central CMS. This information supplied numerous digital platforms, as well as print media such as Radio Times and TV Guide, with accurate and up-to-date listings information. Collated and copy-edited events listings for publication in local newspapers across the West Midlands. Took copy over the telephone from sports journalists, reporting on national and international events. Required speed and accuracy with regards to spelling, punctuation and grammar, as well as the confidence to query any issues with journalists.