top of page
abstract_technical.jpeg

Professional Experience

MY OBJECTIVE

Lead enterprises in building high-performing teams, optimizing operations, and successfully strengthening internal frameworks across people, processes, and technology. 

MANAGEMENT STYLE

I am a True Leader and guide teams to success by building strong relationships, cross-functional collaboration, best practices and serving as a mentor to ensure teams reach their full potential. By problem solving the issues, streamlining work, and removing roadblocks, my teams can remain focused on creating high value work. 

LANGUAGES

English (native)

German (Professional working proficiency)

Operations Optimization
Change Management

UX DesignOps 

Building an environment in which UX can operate efficiently and remain focused on creating higher value work.

Working Together

Organize

How do we structure our teams, and build the right team?

  • Clearly define the UX Team's function and when to engage with UX

  • Project Dashboards or a RACI section in existing dashboards

​​​

Collaborate

How do we create environments and gatherings that enable effective communications?

  • Regular use of stating Purpose, Objective and Agenda in meeting invites

  • Recap meeting, agreements and actionable items

​​

Human-Centered

How do we create effective hiring, onboarding, and career-development practices?

  • Improve the onboarding experience

  • More focus on development and coaching for career growth.

​​

Getting the Work Done

Standardize

How do we facilitate design quality through consistent toolsets and processes?

  • Map out workflows and document the process

  • Communicate the value of a design system​

​​

Harmonize

How do we share design and research intelligence and resources?

  • Understand what research is already available

  • What designs and templates are already available

  • Improve the use & understanding of enterprise design system, Unify

  • Centralized documentation system for design components

​​

Prioritize

How do we make decisions about what projects to work on, and when to work on them?

  • Project acceptance score

  • Resource management & project allocations

  • Understanding the orgs business goals

​​

Creating Impact

Measure

​How do we make design accountable by defining and measuring design quality?

  • ​How design quality is evaluated and use a consistent set of metrics to track design quality over time

  • The use of design principles throughout the design process as objective measures

​​

Socialize

How we educate others on the role and value of UX design?

  • Educating the org on the role and value of UX Design

  • Sharing success stories of user- centered design

​​

Enable

How do we cultivate the understanding and use of UX activities outside of the team?

  • People outside of the UX team understand when and how to engage with UX

  • The understanding and use of the UX process

  • Enabling others via training to apply UX principles of creating human-centered products

​​​

Applied Experience

abstract_technical.jpeg

Working Together

Increased visibility with Smartsheet and integrations with Microsoft Apps. 

  • Provided a birds eye view of all active work within UX

    • Tracked progress, flagged roadblocks or items at risk, ability to forecast & plan and prioritize work.

  • Deliverables included: 

​​

Developed the Ops Mechs working agreement as a guide for UX collaboration.

It include details such as: 

  1. What (The step in process)

  2. Who: responsible/ participant

  3. Why we do this (objective)

  4. The requirements involved to complete the step

  5. Tools used to support the “What”

  6. Templates available for consistency supported “How we get the work done”

​

Quarterly UX Team Survey

  • Identify the overall team health, opportunities, and areas in which we could improve.

  • Repeat survey at the end of each quarter to track improvements OR declines.

  • Track the metrics throughout the year.

​​

Getting the Work Done

Optimized the UX team’s day-to-day workflows via

  • Work tool consolidation

  • Creating efficiencies in meetings by clearly defining the objectives and post meeting action items. 

  • Leveraged automations and integrations to streamline workflows.

​

Developed and launched a project intake process utilizing Smartsheet forms. 

​

New projects were reviewed and prioritized using an acceptance criteria scoring system.

  • Value to User: The value this work will provide the end user

  • Time of Engagement: UX is being brought in at the right time to provide the most value.

  • Brief: Contains all key details, such as objective, requirements, research & data, and target launch date.

  • Contribution Value: The value that UX will provide to the ask.

​​

Enterprise Architecture 

  • Led technical solutions and application implementation

  • Worked with technical & compliance leads to run risk assessments and set up SSO (single sign on).

  • Partnered with Enterprise Architects and application admins to set up, launch, and onboard new software and/or applications

Creating Impact

Created Impact Metrics Tracking via

UX quality scoring system to measure UX design quality and socialize the successes.

  • Value to User:

    • Does the product deliver the functionality and features that is needed and desired by the user and is the design something we are proud of.
  • ​Level of Engagement:
    • Collaboration and involvement started at the right time and continued through to delivery.
  • ​Research Informed:
    • Major design decisions are based on research data.
  • ​Designed Delivered vs. Developed:

    If changes occurred, did they cause negative impact on the user.

​​

​UX Quarterly reporting

  • Showed data on work completed and highlighted our best work to executive leadership.

  • Demonstrated the value of UX and how research informs design.

  • Dashboard for visual data of completed work with presentation template and formula for reporting and speaking to the work done.​

Deluxe 

UX DesignOps Program Manager

11/2022 – 9/2023

Digital Transformation

Cross- Functional SOP development, standardization, consistency and scaling strategies for growing organizations. 

Working with enterprises of all sizes and non-profit organizations to to understand their unique needs and create custom solutions to increase their productivity, reduce costs, and streamline their processes.
​​
Visibility

  • Introduced work management tools for project intake, tracking, reporting, risk management, and resource management. 

  • Documented Process and Workflows

Consistency 

  • Developed standard operating procedures (SOPs)

  • Naming conventions 

  • Project status standardization

  • Documented Process and Workflows

Efficiency

  • Agile development - Utilized agile creative processes to increase efficiency, exceed expectations, and reduce costs.

  • Templates for repeated work, such as briefs, presentations, content, etc

Applied Experience

abstract_technical.jpeg

Allina Health

Marketing Operations Consultant

2/2022 – 9/2022

Pain points:

  • No standardization or consistency across the teams under Marketing. (brand, speciality, digital, and creative)

  • Gaps in the workflow process and staffing.

  • Underutilized technologies .

  • No visibility on the work in each branch of Marketing. 

  • Siloed teams with limited cross-functional collaboration.

​​

Solutions and Deliverables: 

  • Clarified roles & responsibilities and identified role gaps within the marketing & design teams.

  • Workplace technology tool audits and/or new SaaS tool implementation, best practices, training, and scaling strategy. 

  • Introduced a project intake form, automations and weekly cross-functional leadership teams intake & assignment meeting 

  • Increased visibility by created primary dashboards for reporting and used app integrations to connect other data sources. 

  • Created consistency and reduced redundancies with templates, process, and streamlined workflows via automation and app integrations. 

  • Provided a suggested org structure and staffing recommendation to leadership.

Shinebox

Operations Consultant 

6/2021 – 1/2022

Pain Points: 

  • Various workplace technology tools were used within the agency’s day-to-day. 

  • New tools were often added as workarounds. 

  • No defined processes or operational standards.

  • Everyone had a different method and set of tools used for project life cycles. 

  • Redundancies in processes and information was not centralized leading to no single source of truth.

  • Confusing and long onboarding for new team members.  - even when moving to other client work within the same agency.  

​​

Solutions and Deliverables: 

  • Evaluated all technology being used, conducted interviews with the departments, worked with the owners on the solutions, then presented and delivered my final recommendation. 

  • Developed scaling strategy and ensured proposed solutions were cost-effective, efficient, and supportable as the organization grows.​

​

To better understand and work in the existing processes and technology, I filled in as a Senior Digital Project Manager in addition to being an operations consultant. 

AdFed Minnesota

Board Member: Program Manger

6/2019 – Current

Pain points:

  • No standardization or consistency 

  • Lost information and/or not shared with all the key recipients 

  • Unorganization of artifacts

  • Annual turnover of board members with each person owning & sharing documents. This often caused rebuilding or recreating templates, documents, and files. 

  • Outdated information & mailing lists

  • Overspending on unknown subscriptions. 

​​

Solutions: 

  • Implemented Google Workspace, connecting it to the primary Adfed.org domain. 

    • Migrated data and content from former Gmail accounts & drives.

    • Created user group emails and using keyword filters, set up forwarding & automations to the relevant group email(s). 

  • Introduced naming conventions for files and folders

  • Structure the Drive and folders for easy and intuitive navigation. ​

Outcomes:

Each year, when the board changes, only the members within the groups need to be updated. 

  • Previous members will no longer have access to the AdFed G-Drive or documents

  • New members have access to the entire AdFed G-Drive 

  • No access restrictions should occur so long as the documents are kept within the G-Drive.​​

abstract_technical.jpeg

Pain Points: 

  • Technology gaps were causing the biggest pain points with this agency​

Solutions and Deliverables: 

  • Since Smartsheet was already being trialed by the Director of Project Management, I worked with her to maximize its benefits and integrate it with other applications in use. 

    • Set up Resource Management ​

    • PO and invoice tracking with workflows and app integrations into their payments system 

    • Production project intake and the digital production board

    • Project number generation with workflow automation to Production Slack channel to initiate server folder creation. ​

  • Dropbox integration and SOP development & rollout

  • MS Outlook + Trello + Dropbox integrations setup, and SOP development.

  • Workamajig (Project Management Software) testing and recommendations. 

  • Provided end-to-end production management from creative development through final art delivery for advertising and branding campaigns, ensuring seamless collaboration with internal teams and external vendors.

  • Transformed productivity and efficiency through introducing Smartsheet and Dropbox integrations for improved collaboration, workflow automation, version control, visibility, and image tracking.

Spearheaded Smartsheet implementation, development of SOPs, app integrations, workflow automations for billing, and production assignments. â€‹

Successes & ROI's:

  • Created VISIBILITY on all work

  • Efficiency and effectiveness - Creative and Production teams became self-managing 

  • Revenue growth - Drove significant increase in production revenue through workflow automations.

  • A single source of truth, which created easy onboarding, work coverage and balance.

  • Reporting! Planning! Forecasting!

​

Led Information Architecture & Server migration project.

Pain points: ​

  •  No standardization or consistency across the various workflows = very siloed and confusing process for those outside of that work.

  • Onboarding & training was very frustrating and often left the new PM spending more time trying to find information or answers and less time being productive.

  • No formal intake process. Work was coming in directly via emails causing limited visibility of the work in progress, often resulting in too much work and not enough project managers or vice versa.

  • Stakeholders were also working in silos and were not always aligned with the silo that the Project Manager assigned worked in.

Solutions:

  • Introduced an intake process - work capacity calendar- in which had a maximum number of slots available. Projects were sized at intake by effort and time. 

  • Aligned all processes and workflows across all digital workstreams.

  • Helped implement CRM (Salesforce) to automate the email work.  

  • Tested Smartsheet as Mac compatible MS Project-like solution to timeline visibility across all workstreams.

ROI: 

  • An incredibly streamlined process for email and paid media deliverables with better project forecasting, planning and overall onboarding & training process. It became so automated that the need for project management was only half of what was needed before. 

Wunderman Minneapolis

Digital Project Manager

8/2014 – 4/2016

Solve 

Contracted Senior Project Manager

5/2019 – 9/2019

BBDO Minneapolis

Senior Integrated Program Manager

10/2016 – 12/2018

Little & Company

Contracted Senior Project Manager

12/2018 – 5/2019

“Thank you, Megan for several months of dedicated service to the Brand and Marketing team at Allina Health. We are very fortunate to have had your expertise. Thank you for helping us to elevate things to the next level!” 

Allina Operations Manager
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT, SCRUM AND AGILE IN PRACTICE

Product Management

Supporting development of good products and experiences for end users. Applied Use in Operational Transformation and UX Design

Use Golden Circle Framework to identify the “why”, “how”, and “what” in order to:

  • Understand the company and define the goals. (Purpose)​

  • Best solution to the problems impeding the ability to reach the business goals. 

  • Define the processes, systems, and best practices. 

The framework pinpoints the purpose and strategy and long-term success plan. 

​

​

Scrum Master & Agile 

Certified Scrum Master and experienced Agile Project Manager. 

  • Dedicated to collaborative teamwork, efficiency, and effectiveness

  • Skilled in applying empirical pillars of Scrum: transparency, inspection, adaptation

  • Uphold Scrum values: commitment, focus, openness, respect, courage

  • Experience applying Scrum beyond technical projects to creative development.

Agile methods led to quicker client feedback, fewer rounds, and lower budget burn rate compared to waterfall

User Experience

Deep understanding of user experience (UX) design and the Design Thinking Process.

Skilled in user experience (UX) design following a human-centered approach to create high value solutions focused on understanding users' needs and designing enjoyable, meaningful experiences.

  • Knowledge of ADA/WCAG Compliance

  • Experience in UX Research: Quantitative and Qualitative methods, User Interviews, and Usability testing. 

  • Successfully led UX/UI team in the redesign and relaunch of an enterprise design system. 

    • Preached the value and cost savings of the use of the design system across all products.  

    • Influenced adaption. ​

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT
TECHNICAL PROJECT MANAGEMENT
DIGITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT

Integrated Program Management

An accomplished program manager leveraging over a decade of experience guiding marketing, design, and advertising initiatives from concept to completion with a focus on achieving overarching goals rather than outputs alone. 

  • Extensive experience managing multiple complex projects across different clients from inception through completion.

  • My approach is cross-functional, bringing together stakeholders, IT, development teams, and vendors to drive results.

  • Key responsibilities included strategically managing resources, freelancer needs and contracts, digital assets, operations, processes, and team development. 

  • Supported my teams by removing roadblocks, solving problems proactively, and ensuring they can stay focused on delivering excellence.

  • My priority is enabling teams to do their best work through an open, communicative environment built on mutual trust and respect.

Technical Project Management

Experience leading ongoing digital marketing services including email marketing, website maintenance, SEO, analytics reporting, and strategic initiatives to improve the website.

  • Liaison between internal teams, client and 3rd party vendors

  • Managed creative teams to meet client expectations and deadlines

  • Lead process change and implementation

  • Managed all facets of documentation for project creation and execution including scope & brief creation, creative direction, timelines, creative reviews and development.

  • Lead internal and external meetings covering all aspects of the project lifecycle from kick-offs to creative review.

  • Trained and mentored Project Coordinators and Project Managers.​

Digital Asset Management

Managed lifecycles for 100+ digital assets from inbound to distribution across campaigns.​

  • Defined and established asset manager role, owning Dodge/Chrysler brand asset governance.

  • Managed Usage rights

  • Metadata tagging and DAM data Management

  • Tracking all assets used on website and paid digital media. Flagging assets in which usage rights did not match or were expired.

  • Trained internal teams on new DAM system. 

  • Own and managed the retouching process.

  • Developed and defined the Asset Manager role & process with SapientNitro Chicago.

  • Assisted in the migration of data and assets from the V1 to V2 asset management system.

  • Designed and developed the server's architecture and established a naming convention standard.

LEADERSHIP STYLE
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
VENDOR & TALENT MANAGEMENT

Leadership and Mentorship

Set individuals and teams up for success via process improvements, organization of information, and learning opportunities. 

  • True Leader - Collaboration, open communication, trust, respect, empathetic, and equality. 

  • Cross-functional leadership, working with stakeholders, IT, dev teams, design and vendors. 

  • Support my design teams by problem-solving, streamlining work and removing any roadblocks so that they can remain focused on the work. 

  • Approachable, knowledgeable and often a go to for career advice, support, and guidance. ​

Resource Management

Resource management has also been part of my role as both a Program and Project Manager. 

  • Created visibility on resourcing via cloud-based collaborative documents and project management tools. 

  • Introduced technology-based resource management

    • Workamajig​

    • AtTask - now Workfront

    • 10,000 ft - now Resource Management by Smartsheet

    • Smartsheet Legacy RM 

    • Jira

    • Trello ​

Vendor & Talent Management

Own and manage vendor, business partner, and contracted resource relationships with creative talent, production, and development teams with local, national, and international locations. 

  • Maintain the business relationships with vendors, consultants, and freelancers.

  • Contract management, invoicing, write the SOW's, and payment processing

  • I have a robust list of vendors that I bring with me from company to company. My vendor connections include, swag, print, photography, experience design, event planning, CGI studios, video production, production artists, technical and creative writers, strategist... 

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS 
AdFed_MN_Logo_Black.png

Member of the Board 

2019 - Current

Joining the AdFed board in 2019, I quickly set my focus on SOP development for a busy non-profit with annual board member turnover.

​

PROJECTS: 

  • Project Managed the redesign, build and launch of the new Adfed website - www.adfed.org

  • New program brainstorm sessions & creative identities for Open Minds, Behind the Pin and Round Table programs. 

  • Introduction and rollout of Google Workspace as our centralized hub & source of truth.  â€‹

​​

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION:

  • Created project intake process and automated workflows

  • Built an Intranet via google sites to serve as an interface for locating files in a very unorganized G-Drive

  • Coordinated and implemented Google Workspace for AdFed

  • Migrated former G-Drive and AdFed associated gmail accounts to the new Adfed.org Google Workspace.

  • Repurposed the Intranet to serve the board as a resource for onboarding, processes, and more. 

  • Standardizing project plans and process

  • Onboarding SOP's

​​

PROGRAMS & TOOLS:

  • WordPress - page builds, content entry and media management.

  • Google Workspace - Sheets, Forms, Slides, Drive, Sites, User & Group Management.

  • Google Workspace app integrations - Trello, Zapier, Calendly 

  • MailChimp

2019 – 2020 Accomplishments:

  • Thoroughly reviewed the existing internal project intake process and identified solutions to create clear lines of communications and workflow efficiencies. 

  • Successfully launched new branding and www.adfed.org website.

2020 – 2021 Accomplishments:

  • Further developed and rolled out the mar/comm project process, created more visibility and mapped out social content posts & needs. Improved internal communications.

  • Worked with team to further evolve the website.

  • Built and rolled out the AdFed Intranet as a central hub for communications and process. 

2021 – 2022 Accomplishments:

  • Focusing on the operational side, I continued to improve and build Adfed within Google Workspace, create a more efficient workflows and processes for board turnover and created a better overall onboarding experience.

2022 – 2023 Accomplishments:

  • Building the technology and centralized data source foundations

  • Fully implemented and roll-out Google Workspace SOP's, including project request intakes, file management, and guidelines.

  • Structured and built out G-Drive, introduced a standard naming convention for files, and best practices.

  • App integration with Trello for Project Management and asynchronous collaboration.  

  • Established groups for all board members, marcomm chairs, individual programs, membership chairs, etc to: 

    • Set up workflows within the primary email accounts to push emails to a specific group. ​

    • Group members are updated with each board year, but the workflows will not require any updates or changes. 

2023 – 2024: Goals

  • Continue to support the organization's operational needs

  • Governance of all programs and applications

  • Brand governance across the AdFed and Ad 2 groups. 

EARLIER EXPERIENCE

Department Support 

  • Supported a busy creative department by acting as a central point of contract for the artists, managing artist relationships, and participated in creative input.

  • Supported Management by maintaining artists’ contracts and/or creating new contracts as well as providing new artists onboarding. 

​

Artist Support​

  • Provided artists with creative briefs for new projects.

  • Received, sorted through, and logged artists' submissions.

  • Provided creative feedback and next steps post artwork sorts and selections.

  • Ensured that artists received final product samples prior to in store releases.

  • Provided artists with in-market testing results.

​

Production Support​

  • Requested final art from artists.

  • Kicked off final art with Production

  • Reviewed and approved mechanicals before releasing to the printers.

​

Process Development  

This role was originally called an Art Assistant. However after connecting with the various departments and identifying gaps in how the creative department connected with the various retail marketing teams, I evolved this role into more. ​

Recycled Paper Greetings

Art Coordinator

4/2011 – 7/2012

AdobeStock_169877059.jpeg

Assistant to the President & Board

  • Calendar management, scheduling,

  • Travel arrangements for President as well as the senior managers

  • Board announcements and organizing board committee meetings, taking minutes

  • Set up conferences

  • File management

  • Writing & distributing office communications

  • Organizing lunch meetings

  • Event planning.


Event & Logistics Coordinator

Planned and organized 1st quarter board meeting and board member retreat for the foundation. 

  • Vendor Management

  • Transportation, accommodations and air travel

  • Organized and managed transportation and travel for the executive team to attend conference in Boston. 

  • Challenges occurred when travel happened during a blizzard in Chicago. 
     

Poetry Foundation

Executive Assistant - Temporary

1/2011 – 4/2011

AdobeStock_76253734.jpeg

Customer & Travel Agent Sales, Customer Service, and Web order processing & troubleshooting.

​

Client & Customer Relations

Developed and maintained client (travel agents) relationships. Assisted direct customers (public) with sales, refunds, dealing with the unexpected and resolving travel related issues.

​

Consultant

Having lived in Europe for two years in addition to previously having traveled there, I used my wealth of knowledge to advise clients, book travel itineraries, forecast their needs, while working within their budgets. 

​

Training

Assisted in new employee training, built and developed training materials, and shared personal travel research. 

​

Translation

German- English translation when working with Deutsche Bahn, ÖBB and SBB

  • Learned basic Italian in order to also assist with the Italian rail system. ​

Rail Europe

Travel Consultant & Coordinator

11/2005 – 4/2007

2/2008 – 11/2010

AdobeStock_225304659.jpeg

Hired during Delta Airlines' 2007 Rebrand Launch. The rebrand included new colors, logo, uniforms, company values and customer focus.


Language of Destination (L.o.D) Flight Attendant

  • German - responsible for announcement and general translations.

​​

International Qualified

  • Completed various cultural training courses for Israel, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Japan, China, and African countries.

 

Domestic Lead Flight Attendant

Responsible for

  • My flight crew

  • Final passenger manifest

  • Communication between the cabin and flight deck

  • Communication with gate agents.

Delta Airlines

Flight Attendant, L.o.D

4/2007 – 2/2008

Volunteer Work

Provided an excellent customer experience for potential adopters, helped keep the center and animal suites clean, helped potential adopters meet animals and provided them with pet education, information and resources to help them find their perfect match.

 

Served as a Lead Volunteer and helped train or guide “Level 1” volunteers and ensured that Kitty City etiquette was followed.


Weekday Lead

Managed a team of volunteers. Made sure that all the closing duties were performed and the shelter was ready for the next morning.


Kitty City New Volunteer Orientation & Training

Taught the introduction class operations in Kitty City, cleaning, safety, cat "resident" care, PAWS Chicago's preferred ways of interaction with the cats, e.g. petting, holding, etc. In addition, I coached new volunteers on how to handle situations such as nervous or shy cats, aggressive cats, and potentially dangerous situations, such as cat fights.


Kitty City Mentoring Program

Provided more 1:1 training with new volunteers in Kitty City. Program was designed for volunteers who were working towards a Level 2 volunteer or other lead roles.


Adoption Counselor

Prior to bringing the new cat/kitten home, adopters met with the adoption counselor. Provided cat/kitten care information and answered questions.

PAWS Chicago

Level II Volunteer, Trainer & Adoption Counselor

2012 – 2014

bottom of page