Casey Arrington

Summary: An emerging company has developed a new blockchain architecture that will completely revolutionize non-financial based uses of the blockchain technology. Innovatively designed from the ground-up to handle millions of real-time interactions, this reconstructed architecture will open the flood-gates for expanded use of blockchain technology in exciting new industries. This cutting-edge network has been proven in white papers and is backed by tens of millions of dollars in capital.

The Sitch: While ingenious, this revolutionary blockchain architecture currently only exists in theories and white papers. The client knows the design principles, the functionality, and the desired goals of the network, but they are unclear on how to take their ideas from paper to reality. And since nothing like this exists out there today and upfront investment of the project is costly, the client needs an expert set-of-eyes on their ideas to ensure that nothing is hiding in their blind spots. With their first partner already contracted and a public announcement of what they are building, the client is up against a tight timeline. The go-live date for the MVP (minimal viable product) is just 2 months out, and the more comprehensive V1 go-live date is a mere 7 months out. Both of these dates cannot be missed in order to keep their investors and partners engaged and to ensure first-mover advantages are realized.

The Goal: Quickly produce a backlog of appropriately sized workable items for their engineers, a project plan that showcases both the priorities & dependencies for their project managers, and a scoping document that highlights what needs to be done, how it needs to be done, and when it needs to be done, including potential areas of concern, for their CEO.
The End Result: A robust deliverable of 162 clearly defined user stories including associated story points and prioritizations, culminating in a custom-crafted gantt chart to showcase resource allocation and dependencies. The blockchain architecture was analyzed inside and out during this process to ensure no rock was left unturned and all findings on the system were provided in a final scoping document. This all-star team transformed this theoretical idea into a concrete plan of action in just 5 weeks. With a clear path to not only meeting, but surpassing their upcoming milestones, the client is equipped to revolutionize blockchain.

More than 200 million satellite images of our home, Planet Earth, are becoming unclassified. But the images sat idle stored away in their physical warehouse. A solution was created to bring the images to the digital age. The current process to fulfill a request for a satellite image took roughly 4 people and 2 to 3 weeks from request to delivery. The process was time-consuming, draining on resources, prone to manual error, and not scalable. There was also a major loss in value potential as there is little visibility to the existence of the images. Storage of images in physical format only makes the images highly susceptible to natural disaster and total loss. The goal was simple, bring these images to the digital age with key principles: ease of accessibility and flexibility to support a wide range of user needs.

My part: Project scoping and product design, product research, use case, and user persona creation, solution architecture guidance, data storage solution creation, georeferencing research and integration, ML/AI research and integration, map provider vendor research and selection.

Key member in the design, creation, and successful launch of SpaceX’s first fully integrated public facing application built to allow suppliers to communicate directly, undertake actions, and access all necessary supplier-buyer relationship information, removing these responsibilities from internal resources. One other product manager and I led a team of 6 developers through the design, architecture, and implementation of this custom-built application that is now used by suppliers to see their purchase orders, confirm them, pay for them, see all related documentation, and see historical information. This product was completely designed (UI/UX, DB architecture, API architecture, security, and automated data feeds) from scratch by myself and my fellow product manager. This product resulted in: quicker turnaround times from initial communication to suppliers to receiving of parts, quicker and more accurate communication from buyers to suppliers, a 1-stop shop for suppliers to see and digest all relevant documentation, and provides a method for constant and consistent feedback to facilitate continuous improvement.

A $400 million construction company utilizing an off-the-shelf (OTS) Project Management software that bills at 1% of revenues. The current software is not only expensive but its capabilities are severely under-utilized. The company has never built software before and has 8 months until the next contract renews.

I was brought in to completely design a custom full-replacement solution, create a product roadmap for how to get there in 8 months, and propose a resource allocation strategy to meet this need.

I was solely responsible for integrating/implementing a 3rd party tax software into the purchasing process within our home-grown ERP system. I worked alongside another product manager who designed the overall financial process and database architecture and handed it off to me to be implemented into all of the purchasing processes within our system. I was responsible for the data migration strategy and execution, and the successful tax calls to the software, which included: automated sending of information, automated receiving of information, adjusting purchase orders when necessary with the relevant information, and automatically and accurately communicating the information to suppliers. This effort resulted in an immediate $3 million savings/month. The project cost, including the purchasing of the tax software and all labor efforts, were paid off in the first month of it being live.

Complete re-write and technology stack upgrade of RFPO application, resulting in enhanced user experience, improved data accuracy, and fewer clicks/unnecessary time spent within the application, while increasing application flexibility and decreasing technical debt.

This application caters to a user-base of over 5,000 people and is one of the most traffic-heavy applications within the home-grown ERP system. Because of the extremely diverse user group and the high number of visits, the UX/UI design was critical to the overall success. After doing extensive user research and analysis, and conducting user behavioral studies, the final design resulted in a more efficient user experience within the application, while also increasing the overall accuracy of the information input by the user. Along with the UX/UI re-design, I took this opportunity to remove built-up tech debt in the application to allow us to react more swiftly to future enhancements. The roll-out of this new application included a data migration effort that I also completed utilizing Microsoft SQL.

I completely designed a Request for Quote (RFQ) solution, including DB architecture, technical solution design, functional solution design, and UX/UI design. The design of this new product had to seamlessly integrate into the as-is purchasing process, and hold enough benefits to attract user engagement. During the solution design, I did deep-dive research in the as-is process with our internal buyers, spoke in great detail with SMEs, and incorporated industry best-practices. The design allows for the system to improve on itself, taking historical information from past RFQs to provide recommendations to buyers in quality standards, past defects, price breaks, and other potential suppliers. It also would seamlessly integrate into a contract module, allowing buyers to create contractual agreements with suppliers and to eliminate unnecessary repetitive tasks during the purchases process.

I was responsible for the full design of the entire solution including DB table design, technical solution design, data conversion strategy, and implementation/testing, solution architecture, internal application display of history, and external display of history to suppliers. I conducted deep-dive research to answer the critical questions of what are we going to capture, how are we going to capture it, how are we going to display it internally and externally, and how is this solution sustainable over time. I was responsible for getting internal stakeholder buy-in through functional specifications and projected ROI.

This product saved time for internal users when trying to answer ‘how did the purchase order get this way?’. This product is extremely vital when dealing with the amount of turnover we had with our buyers.

This product also saved immense amounts of time for our suppliers as they had dedicated resources assigned to try and figure out what changed from PO to PO revisions. The information would get constantly lost or overlooked, resulting in critical delays in production

I led the complete and overall design and successful implementation for a process that automatically requests trace-ability information from suppliers, and automatically uploads and stores them within our custom-built ERP system. I was responsible for creating all relevant documentation, including process flow diagrams, functional specifications, technical specifications, Excel template creation, and communication materials for suppliers. I worked extremely close with my stakeholders and key suppliers to design a solution as automated as possible for both us and our suppliers. The end product automatically determines, based on information present on a purchase order, if we need to request traceability information for that part from a specific supplier. It would then automatically generate an excel template that is e-mailed to the supplier. The supplier would fill in all required information and e-mail the excel back to us, which would then be automatically received and uploaded into our system (while having numerous error checks in place). This solution took a very manually intensive process and automated the entire thing, saving hours of time for us and our suppliers.

Spearheaded effort to remove logic from within applications and create public APIs, producing consolidated, centralized components and allowing easy integration with other internal and external applications. I was fully responsible for writing both functional and technical documentation, initial testing and bug identification/tracking, QA testing, and user testing to ensure a successful/non-disruptive roll-out. These changes allowed us to centralize all logic, making future changes and enhancements much less disruptive and quicker to implement and test.

A complete and full redesign of the Purchase Order release process. This was originally a very fragmented/independent process that I re-designed and turned into a message-bus type architecture where each successful completion of a step triggered the start of the next step. This gave us far greater control of the process, made it less error-prone, and protected us for when the process would fail in the middle. I led this effort and worked with one developer to completely document the as-is process, to-be process, write the functional/technical documentation for it, implement it, fully test it, and integrate it into our production system in under two weeks time. Because it was a time sensitive task and because we bore full burden of it being error proof, I also wrote numerous reports that would immediately detect and notify us if something were to go wrong after it was live.

Utilized agile methodology to manage a team of 7 developers and 2 other product managers through all projects dealing with supply chain specific applications. Led sprint planning sessions, daily stand-ups, backlog grooming, and sprint review/retro sessions. I managed not only our internal team, but also 3 different, and often times conflicting, business stakeholders ensuring happiness with the quantity and quality of work that was being done. We were recognized as an exemplary team at SpaceX utilizing agile, as recognized by numerous ‘kick-ass’ awards.

I led the overall design and implementation of a solution that would automatically determine all relevant documents, based on information on the purchase order, attach them to the purchase order, and send them to the supplier. Examples of this include necessary quality clauses, part drawings, part specifications, contracts, revision history, etc. I was responsible for completing all relevant documentation (functional specifications, technical specifications, testing documentation), testing solution and bug tracking, QA testing, user-handoff, and change management efforts. This solution is a huge time saver for our buyers as they would previously have to do all of this manually, often times forgetting certain documents. This allows buyers to simply allow the system to automate this entire process for them, so they could focus on more value-added activities.

During an SAP Financial System ERP Implementation, I was responsible for creating the Master Data architecture to be used to represent all customer information within the new ERP system. The master data design is one of, if not the, most important aspect to an SAP ERP system implementation. It drives how other processes will need to react when running, storing, and interpreting data. In creating a Master Data design, you must take into consideration ALL processes that may be affected by it to ensure that the design can handle/accommodate all of the client’s requirements. I was brought in to do this work and to create a master data design that would set the foundation for the SAP ERP implementation.

Responsible for creating and spec’ing out the solution for a tool that would use machine learning to suggest what the cost should be for a specific part. I worked with a BI engineer on this feature to calculate the ‘should cost’ of a part that anyone had the potential of buying for a rocket/research & dev/etc., We incorporated ML in order to calculate the rate, and improve on it each time as buyers bought more of it, across various suppliers. The goal of this was to ensure that whoever was buying the part, they had the tools and knowledge necessary to ensure we were not overpaying for it.

I led the complete design and implementation of a CRM system for a US-based insurance company to be used by their call center. I led one developer in the development of this system, highlighting necessary customizations. I was fully responsible for the entire design of the CRM system, including the UX/UI, process flows, and integration into their SAP ERP system. I conducted numerous blueprinting workshops, gathering information on how users do their job currently, and how they would do it in the future. I focused on simplification, providing users with only the necessary information needed and having the system guide them through various actions they would need to undertake. I was also fully responsible for all data migration efforts from their legacy system, to their SAP ERP system, and then into their CRM system.

Fully responsible for requirement gathering, blueprinting workshops, gap identification, configuration documents, custom development identification, and completion of all functional/technical specifications for a new workflow system for numerous clients across the US and Canada in the insurance and finance industries. I led numerous sessions in order to gather information on requirements and as-is process, as well as numerous sessions on the future-to-be processes, taking into consideration industry best practices. I worked with external clientele to ensure I had a complete understanding of what was wanted and expected from our solution. I also worked with our internal developers, clearly articulating the necessary development needed to meet those needs. I then tested all requirements fully, and was responsible for all change management documentation and sessions, ensuring a smooth transition from the old process to the new process.

Fully responsible for requirement gathering, blueprinting workshops, gap identification, configuration documents, custom development identification, and completion of all functional/technical specifications for integration between ERP system and external Collection Agencies for numerous clients across the US and Canada in the insurance and finance industries. I led numerous sessions in order to gather information on requirements and as-is process, as well as numerous sessions on the future-to-be processes, taking into consideration industry best practices. I worked with external clientele to ensure I had a complete understanding of what was wanted and expected from our solution. I also worked with our internal developers, clearly articulating the necessary development needed to meet those needs. I then tested all requirements fully, and was responsible for all change management documentation and sessions, ensuring a smooth transition from the old process to the new process.

Fully responsible for requirement gathering, blueprinting workshops, gap identification, configuration documents, custom development identification, and completion of all functional/technical specifications for payment processing for numerous clients across the US and Canada in the insurance and finance industries. I led numerous sessions in order to gather information on requirements and as-is process, as well as numerous sessions on the future-to-be processes, taking into consideration industry best practices. I worked with external clientele to ensure I had a complete understanding of what was wanted and expected from our solution. I also worked with our internal developers, clearly articulating the necessary development needed to meet those needs. I then tested all requirements fully, and was responsible for all change management documentation and sessions, ensuring a smooth transition from the old process to the new process. I worked with company banks and legacy check processing systems to ensure seamless integration into the ERP system.

Fully responsible for requirement gathering, blueprinting workshops, gap identification, configuration documents, custom development identification, and completion of all functional/technical specifications for refund process for numerous clients across the US and Canada in the insurance and finance industries. I led numerous sessions in order to gather information on requirements and as-is process, as well as numerous sessions on the future-to-be processes, taking into consideration industry best practices. I worked with external clientele to ensure I had a complete understanding of what was wanted and expected from our solution. I also worked with our internal developers, clearly articulating the necessary development needed to meet those needs. I then tested all requirements fully, and was responsible for all change management documentation and sessions, ensuring a smooth transition from the old process to the new process. I also worked with the company house banks to ensure a successful transition to the new ERP solution.

Fully responsible for requirement gathering, blueprinting workshops, gap identification, configuration documents, custom development identification, and completion of all functional/technical specifications for correspondence and dunning processes for numerous clients across the US and Canada in the insurance and finance industries. I led numerous sessions in order to gather information on requirements and as-is process, as well as numerous sessions on the future-to-be processes, taking into consideration industry best practices. I worked with external clientele to ensure I had a complete understanding of what was wanted and expected from our solution. I also worked with our internal developers, clearly articulating the necessary development needed to meet those needs. I then tested all requirements fully, and was responsible for all change management documentation and sessions, ensuring a smooth transition from the old process to the new process.

I was fully responsible for taking an as-is approval process, which was the result of many independent changes/tweaks, and re-designing it into a more clear, concise, fluid process. The solution is a workflow-based rules engine that automatically determines who and when a purchase needs to go through approvals based upon the nature of the purchase and the amount of the purchase. The end solution is much more flexible and allowed for future changes/tweaks to happen quicker with less uncertainty. I created all relevant documentation outlining the as-is process and to-be process, identifying gaps and changes needed from a technical perspective. I was fully responsible for the complete end-to-end testing, and proper documentation to show so.

Led the effort to grow our supplier base for our punchout system, which uses cXML to communicate information back and forth between us and our suppliers. I grew our supplier base from an as-is of 8 to 16 suppliers. In order to do this, I acted as a consultant to these suppliers, working with them on their implementation efforts, and the necessary information that would be needed via the cXML information delivery process. These efforts resulted in easier purchases to be made across all of SpaceX with suppliers that we have pre-negotiated pricing with. It also allows us to funnel users to specific suppliers to buy from, increasing the negotiating power of our buyers.

I was responsible for the full design, implementation, testing, bug fixing, re-testing, and the go-live of an email-watcher tool that allows a user to input information into an Excel workbook, email it, and update purchase orders in mass. This task, from start to finish, was done in a single weekend by myself and one developer as it was an extremely time-sensitive task given to us by the CEO of SpaceX. We were able to implement rules within this tool as well that would automatically update other information on the Purchase Order and was dependent on the input information and the current information on the purchase order. Because of its power, the automated rules, and the error-proof catches we put in place, this is still a tool that is used widely today.

I led the complete re-design of SpaceX’s purchase order PDF that is sent to every supplier when we purchase a good or service. I worked extremely close with the purchasing business team and the supplier relations team to design a completely re-vamped purchase order that is easier to read and digest, reducing the number of phone calls needed to buyers for clarity and reducing the number of errors made by suppliers. The solution allowed us to easily cater the purchase order, based on what we were buying, and only show relevant information on each PDF that is sent out. It reduced the overall maintenance needed from an on-going support basis and resulted in a much cleaner purchase order.