
Claudia Chen
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Shanghai, China
Toptal member since May 29, 2024
Claudia, an Agile project manager and business analyst, has 18 years of experience leading global technical teams in Fortune 500 companies like Hewlett-Packard, Mercer, Adidas, and Siemens. She specializes in delivering premium HR, finance, database management, and eCommerce solutions and steering business teams through digital transformation. Claudia has championed the integration of multi-project activities such as UAT, E2E, and dry run sessions, resulting in successful MVP product launches.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Business Process Analysis
- Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
- New Product Development
- Product Requirements Documentation (PRD)
- Scenario Analysis
Work Experience
Senior Project Manager
Softtek
- Led product and project teams to develop quarterly roadmaps that outlined key initiatives with high-level velocity estimates and managed program integration.
- Structured and executed sprint goals, scope, velocity, and schedules while managing resources and dependencies to align with strategic objectives, utilizing the Agile methodology for team engagement and continuous improvement.
- Identified IT application risks tied to project requirements and crafted a response plan that outlined mitigation strategies.
- Collaborated with internal and external stakeholders to gather requirements and feedback, offered recommendations, and worked with the tech team to ensure high-quality deliverables.
- Identified requirement discrepancies, analyzed system architecture design to ensure alignment with expectations, and secured the business team's signoff.
- Fostered cross-functional team collaboration, resolving dependency initiatives to ensure efficient delivery and aligning teams on suitable timelines to reach a consensus on deliverables.
- Supported teams in implementing change management effectively and accelerated the resolution of issues.
- Oversaw daily project progress, reviewed dependencies, resolved issues, and enforced DoR and DoD checklists, achieving over 95% on-time delivery of user stories, improvements, and technical debt via regular and hotfix sprints.
- Conducted weekly meetings to present initiatives, programs, team statuses, activities, new actions, readiness, change, and risk management to leadership and steering bodies.
- Established a standard process to ensure efficient change management across cross-functional teams using Agile concepts and enhanced best practice techniques.
Business Analyst
Allegis Global Solutions
- Guided business users toward digital transformation with MVP product launches and oversaw end-to-end operations within the new system.
- Collected and examined business requirements from cross-functional teams to pinpoint new needs, change requests, issues, enhancements, and pain points.
- Analyzed gaps between as-is business processes, business rules, and to-be improvements, following the successful launch of new products.
- Managed and prioritized user stories in the backlog. Reviewed Jira tickets with project teams to explain user requirements in detail and discuss technical solutions.
- Collaborated with global project and business teams to set up weekly communication routines that contributed to the project's successful delivery.
- Engaged with six business teams, totaling over 200 internal employees and over 1,500 external contractors, to ensure successful digital transformation.
- Examined the potentially shippable product to verify that its system performance met anticipated outcomes and results.
- Provided training sessions to a business team to ensure a thorough understanding of the process, enabling them to confidently transition to the user acceptance testing (UAT) phase.
- Led pre-UAT data migration sessions to demystify data fields and helped business teams prep data, ensuring a seamless migration process.
- Managed UAT, end-to-end, and parallel run sessions, tracking status, gathering feedback, and solving blocking issues to deliver the MVP to the business team.
Business Analyst
Mercer
- Tracked and documented requirements to ensure they were well-documented and justified. Prioritized valuable requirements to convert high-priority items into implementable user stories.
- Collaborated with technical teams in Shanghai, the US, and India to execute and deliver the project.
- Facilitated interviews and discussions, using face-to-face, focus groups, observation, and Q&A sessions to extract requirements from the business team.
- Facilitated tech and business team interactions, clarified requirements, explained technical specifications, resolved issues, and identified technical solutions.
- Developed business and product requirements documents, user stories, acceptance criteria, and test cases to ensure that UAT outcomes met expectations and requirements.
- Ensured UI/UX design and API documentation were prepped for development and confirmed the technical solution before the planning meeting.
- Assessed each sprint's potentially shippable product to ensure it met expected outcomes and results.
- Aided in UAT to confirm the absence of critical defects before product signoff and release. Updated user manuals, handled versioning and maintenance, and compiled detailed release notes.
- Gathered and assessed stakeholder feedback, concentrating on their insights and proposals to pinpoint improvement areas. Ensured ongoing enhancement of our services in alignment with stakeholders' changing needs and expectations.
- Demonstrated training sessions to stakeholders, presenting the product and explaining its functionalities in detail. These sessions aimed to enhance their understanding of the business flow, inputs, and outputs related to the product.
Business Analyst
Mercer
- Led and mentored testing teams, fostering a collaborative spirit to ensure the timely delivery of high-quality products that meet or exceed expectations.
- Outlined test strategies, plans, cases, and checklists for each test phase to conduct thorough, efficient testing that meets desired quality standards and requirements.
- Coordinated with cross-functional teams from Shanghai, the US, and the EU for the successful execution and delivery of our project.
- Conducted automation testing with Selenium, scripting and executing command sequences for regression tests, enhancing process efficiency and testing reliability.
- Executed performance testing using Fiddler to observe and scrutinize the application's network traffic, ensuring system efficacy under diverse load scenarios.
- Performed smoke testing pre-release to confirm the fulfillment of acceptance criteria and the absence of critical defects.
- Signed off on the release post-smoke testing, verifying product quality standards were met and readiness for delivery to the business team.
- Cooperated with developers to track bug progress—from creation, reproduction, verification, testing to closure—maintaining a clear record of the testing workflow.
- Presented introductions and conducted knowledge-sharing sessions with internal teams.
Software Quality Assurance
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
- Collaborated with the project manager to tailor the project's development lifecycle, guidelines, and process model, delineating the scope and suitable process framework for the development plan.
- Crafted a software quality assurance (SQA) plan specific to the project's needs, aligning quality assurance with the development lifecycle, guidelines, and process model.
- Guaranteed requirements were high-quality, well-defined, and in sync with project objectives, aiding the development plan's overall success.
- Conducted audits on ongoing projects to affirm adherence to established quality standards, risk, issue tracking, and change management as defined by the process model.
- Examined work products in detail to ensure they met specified requirements and specifications, upholding the quality and integrity of project deliverables.
- Gathered pertinent data to facilitate ongoing improvement and conducted a detailed analysis to identify any gaps between the current performance and the standard benchmarks.
- Ensured that deviations from the defined activities and products within the project were accurately documented. This included recording any variations in the workflow, changes to the deliverables, or deviations from the specified standards.
- Optimized and enhanced workflows and standard processes to achieve organizational benefits.
- Summarized workflow and process optimization efforts, documented deviations and gap analysis against standards, and presented findings to senior management.
Software Java Engineer
SinoCom Software Group Limited
- Set up the development environment and database configurations, securing the availability of essential tools, libraries, and data structures for coding, testing, and deployment.
- Discussed with technical leaders and business analysts about technical solutions for product requirements.
- Crafted a user interface (UI) and its logic for a software project, utilizing Java and JavaScript.
- Created API documentation detailing definitions, examples, authentication, error codes, and messages.
- Resolved and recreated bugs as reported by quality assurance.
- Completed the baseline code and addressed all change requirements.
- Supported the successful deployment and release of the software project.
Project History
OMNI | Ship from Store (Supply Chain)
Delivered the Omni project, enabling Lululemon to provide online-to-offline (O2O) customer experience and achieved integration of key systems (RMS, OMS, ISS, and more), ensuring accurate inventory management and efficient order fulfillment.
Inventory Accuracy | Connect Inventory from CN to CA for Sales
Enhanced operations through handover procedures, reducing post-deployment issues. Improved collaboration and efficiency across cross-functional teams. Ensure deployment to achieve alignment between business needs and technical solutions.
Legal Hub for Contract Management (CRM)
Delivered core functionalities, including contract management, template management, document stamping, seal management, and 3rd-party integration.
Database Bastion System
Delivered an MVP release within a challenging five-month period, overseeing the project from initiation to delivery, coordinating 11 cross-functional teams and 16 vendor teams.
ECP Multiple Systems
Guided an Agile team to achieve over 95% on-time delivery per sprint, boosting supply chain, sales, and inventory management efficiency and elevating customer experience.
Connect Me | New HR and Finance Application System
Guided business users through digital transformation with an MVP product release and oversaw end-to-end business operations in the new system.
The system has over 300 internal employees and over 2,300 external contractors.
MercerGOLDplus for HR & Benefit & Finance System
Provided critical insights and input to ensure the product satisfies market demands, aligns with business goals, and drives success, as evidenced by a 98% positive user experience, 10% cost savings, and an 8% revenue increase.
MetriX
Oversaw and guided testing teams to deliver high-quality products, ensuring functionality, reliability, security, and fulfillment of customer needs and expectations.
This B/S architecture-based online platform primarily serves internal managers, enabling them to create orders, define goals, scope, resources, timelines, milestones, budgets, and generate confirmation letters. For instance, a PM can generate an order, detail the scope, and assign roles and users within MetriX. Users can log in to review their assigned tasks at each milestone, progressing systematically as tasks are completed.
MetriX further supports project management through diverse reports that enhance timelines, budgets, staff allocation, and schedule management oversight.
Retirement Studio and BencalX for Employee Pension Investment System
Ensured that the product functioned effectively and adhered to the highest quality, reliability, and user experience standards upon release.
BencalX is a dedicated pension calculation system tailored to meet the US pension conditions. It is designed to aid actuaries in accurately calculating the pension valuations of employees, whether retired or terminated.
HP Multiple System
Conducted audits for projects adhering to Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) level 5, showcasing excellence in software development and efficient, high-quality project delivery.
• MAGIC, a cutting-edge data analytics system targeting specific product features, technologies, or platforms.
• FletsV22, associated with a fresh lineup of printers, computer systems, or networking equipment.
• Nonstop, corresponding to server hardware and storage solution enhancements.
• IMS Push, an information management system pertinent to systems like content delivery networks, enterprise resource planning, or customer relationship management that necessitate pushing data or updates to users or devices.
ITS-Financial | Stock Investment System
Developed and implemented a software application for stock trading and investment, offering real-time market insights to assist users in making informed decisions.
Education
Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA)
Webster University - St. Louis, Missouri, United States
Bachelor's Degree in English
Shanghai International Studies University - Shanghai, China
Certifications
Program Management Professional (PgMP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
New Product Development Professional
The Product Development and Management Association
Economic and Business Issues in the EU
Webster University
Financial Development and Innovation in New Economy
University of Toronto
Project Management Professional (PMP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Software Statistic Metric Certification
APE Technology
Website Development Certification Engineer
Shanghai Talented Training Company
Japanese Language Proficiency Certificate Level 2
The Japan Foundation and Association of International Education
Network Management Certification Engineer
Shanghai Talented Training Company
Japanese Language Proficiency Certificate Level 3
The Japan Foundation and Association of International Education
Japanese Language Proficiency Certificate Level 4
The Japan Foundation and Association of International Education
Skills
Tools
Jira, Zoom, Excel-DNA, Microsoft Power BI, Confluence, Figma, Fiddler, HP Quality Center (QC), VisualSVN, TFS, Apache Tomcat, Tableau
Paradigms
Software Testing Lifecycle (STLC), Requirements Analysis, Agile Project Management, Azure DevOps, Agile Product Management, Agile Business Analysis, Functional Analysis, Agile, Kanban, Agile Software Development, Change Management, Key Performance Metrics, CMMI, Manual Testing
Platforms
SharePoint, Oracle Database
Industry Expertise
Sustainability, Healthcare, Insurance, Pensions, Energy, Financial Services
Other
Analytics, Microsoft PowerPoint, English, Microsoft Teams, Process Flows, Agile Sprints, Communication, Stakeholder Engagement, Complex Problem Solving, Cross-functional Collaboration, Collaboration, Release Management, Business Process Analysis, GAP Analysis, Scenario Analysis, IT Business Analysis, Business Systems Analysis, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), Databases, Business Requirements, Test Cases, Functional Testing, Regression Testing, Business Analysis, Functional Requirements, Project Management, Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS), HRIS, Backlog Management, Product Owner, Data Warehousing, Product Management, Process Documentation, Data Analysis, Technical Documentation, Community Management, User Requirements, Technical Writing, Technical Business Analysis, Technical Product Management, SaaS Product Management, B2B, Workshops, Startups, Web Design, Documentation, Stakeholder Management, Product Configuration, Flowcharts, Continuous Improvement, Platforms, User Stories, Process Mapping, Leadership, Excel VBA, Presentations, Business Rules Engine, Salesforce, Business Cases, Data Migration, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Facilitation, New Product Development, Product Roadmaps, Business Process Improvement (BPI), BRD, Project Initiation, Performance Testing, Human Capital Management, Salesforce CPQ, Claims, Claims Processing, APIs, Digital Transformation, SQL, Roadmaps, Scope Management, API Integration, Automation, Software as a Service (SaaS), Web & Mobile Applications, Cross-platform App Development, Salesforce Sales Cloud, Inventory Management, eCommerce, Business Process Flow (BPF), Customer Journeys, SAP, Diagrams, IT Product Management, Technical Requirements, Mapping, Migration, System Migration, Strategy, Japanese, Smartsheet, Signavio, Project Planning, Data Communication, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Vendor Management, Strategic Initiatives, Risk Analysis, Requirements, Business Process Flow Diagrams, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Execution Abilities, Team Leadership, Process Improvement, Critical Thinking, Motivation, Conflict Resolution, Risk Management, Innovation, Market Research & Analysis, Customer Insights, Architecture, Data Integration, IT Governance, Software Technical SWOT Analysis, IP Networks, Test Automation, Selenium, Manual QA, Quality Assurance (QA), Quality Control (QC), Quality Improvement, Reviews, Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), Processing, Data Quality Analysis, Quality Auditing, Programming, Java, Oracle, JavaScript, JavaScript MVC, JUnit, Finance, Machine Learning, Economics, Metrics, TCP/IP, ASP.NET MVC, Websites, Web Servers, Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Billing Systems, Akeneo, Salsify, Excel 365, Legal, Data Lakes, User Experience (UX), Change Readiness & Adoption
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