Iryna Charkovska
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Victoria, BC, Canada
Toptal member since May 15, 2020
Iryna has 13+ years of experience spanning product and project management, strategic and operational planning, performance measurement, continuous improvement, business intelligence, and change management. As a passionate Agile product manager, Iryna focuses on building strong teams while delivering exceptional results.
Project Highlights
Expertise
- Agile Product Delivery
- Go-to-market Plans
- Lean Six Sigma
- Market Research & Analysis
- Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
- Product Discovery
- Product Roadmaps
- Prototyping
Work Experience
Senior Project Manager and Planning Advisor
Alberta Energy Regulator, Canada
- Simultaneously led multiple cross-functional projects, programs, and portfolios designed to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the 1,200-member organization.
- Worked on various projects including software product development, process optimization, and regulatory instrument design and successfully delivered them resulting in $281 million annual savings to the regulated energy industry.
- Advised executive teams during the design, planning, and implementation of agile transformation. Applied a hybrid approach to managing a program with 40+ people using agile software development and waterfall implementation of government direction.
- Coached the product manager and project team during the development of the software that provides a holistic assessment of multiple data points and supports data-driven decision making (600+ users from multiple departments).
- Worked with executives and domain experts to build product vision and overall roadmap for delivery. Led discovery workshops, backlog grooming, and sprint planning sessions.
- Worked directly with strategy ad operations VPs and directors to align project work with the organizational strategic direction.
- Managed the needs of various internal and external stakeholder groups, including energy companies and associations, different levels of government, members of the public, and indigenous people.
- Designed a systematic approach to planning, monitoring, and reporting. Developed and deployed the performance measurement strategy to monitor progress towards desired outcomes and to inform business decisions.
- Provided strategic advice to the executive team during the creation of a new Innovation business unit.
- Guided this department through the identification of its mission, vision, strategic priorities, and positioning within and outside of the organization.
Product Manager, Continuous Improvement
Alberta Energy Regulator, Canada
- Advised the senior leadership teams on developing high-quality project proposals and prioritizing project work based on its impact and alignment with organizational strategic direction.
- Developed a strategy to integrate continuous improvement mindset for problem-solving and process improvement into day-to-day business activities of the 700-member operations division.
- Participated in the development of the continuous improvement training strategy and delivered targeted training sessions to more than 200 people across 12 regional offices.
- Coached and mentored project managers on the application of Lean Six Sigma methodology, project management, and team management.
- Prepared the project managers for ASQ Lean Six Sigma certification.
- Designed the curriculum and led the group and one-on-one training sessions based on my experience of being the first black-belt certified practitioner in the department.
Project Manager, Continuous Improvement
Alberta Energy Regulator, Canada
- Planned and managed multiple cross-functional process improvement projects that contributed to $224 million in annual savings to the regulated industry. Used lean, Six Sigma, and agile methodologies to fit the problem at hand.
- Worked directly with internal and external customers to deeply understand their pain points, needs, and potential areas for improvement. Focused on workflow design, waste and backlog elimination, defect reduction, and quality improvement.
- Used statistical, analytical, and creative problem-solving approaches to identify root causes of problems and develop appropriate solutions.
- Oversaw the implementation of solutions to ensure timely delivery, change adoption, and sustainment. Project results include streamlined processes, increased process capability & predictability, and improved company credibility.
- Continuously worked on negotiating and building consensus across various internal functions: operations, strategy, regulatory development, law, communications, and IT.
- Utilized various team-building techniques to manage distributed teams (e.g., facilitated daily standups and sprint planning sessions while working on a software solution to automate publication of application notices on the company website).
Business Intelligence Analyst
Alberta Energy Regulator, Canada
- Used data analytics and visualization to depict the business unit’s performance.
- Developed and executed a strategy to enhance the business unit’s data collection, data management, and reporting capabilities (e.g., leveraged Tableau to automate three-level reports to satisfy the needs of executives, managers, & technical experts).
- Gathered system requirements, designed, developed, and rolled out a solution that enabled the integration of data from multiple systems and simultaneous review of files by numerous technical experts.
Researcher
Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, Canada
- Assessed the effectiveness of existing programs and policies.
- Identified regulatory gaps, and evaluated alternative policy options by using statistics, modeling, forecasting, cost-benefit analysis, and impact assessment methods.
- Worked on the “Economic Integration of the Aboriginal Population in Canada” study and the results of the study were presented at the conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and included in “The Economics of Cultural Diversity” publication.
Project History
Business Intelligence Software Development
Led the design, build, development, testing, and implementation of a business intelligence solution enabling data-driven decision-making across multiple functional areas in the organization.
I managed 40+ developers, analysts, testers, and domain experts to deliver a tech solution that assessed large amounts of data and produced insights to enable proactive data-driven decision-making across multiple functional areas in the organization. Stakeholders included internal employees, government agencies, and multiple companies from the energy sector.
Key responsibilities and deliverables:
• Worked closely with the executives on product vision and overall roadmap for delivery.
• Led discovery workshops and business requirements elicitation.
• Ensured alignment of key stakeholders on the priorities.
• Led product design and launch of MVP and subsequent releases.
• Regularly spoke with customers and monitored user experience to identify opportunities for improvement.
• Provided coaching to peer product owners.
• Led tool integration into business processes.
Project result:
• Business intelligence from the tool is used by 600+ users on a daily basis to make data-driven decisions.
• We successfully implemented a scaled agile framework (LeSS) and built a high-performing remote team. This was the first formal agile project for the team and included a large amount of process creation, team adaptation, and executive counseling.
Agile Transformation
Significantly improved program execution by leading multiple delivery teams through agile transformation and adoption of scum methodology.
I rolled out agile product development best practices to help shift the program towards being more user- and product-centric. I also advised the executive team on how to design, structure, plan, and implement agile transformation.
The program teams were poorly organized and did not communicate across despite the need to collaborates on key features. Resources were consistently asked to develop multiple features at the same time, creating a large amount of work in progress (WIP) and not being able to move features across the finish line. I highlighted previously unseen risks and issues and helped the program team avoid and/or mitigate the consequences.
Project results:
• Moved the entire program to scrum methodology and developed product backlogs and sprint plans from scratch using Jira.
• Implemented sprint planning, daily standups, demos, and retrospectives—resulting in the teams’ velocity increasing by 60% and team morale was vastly improved.
Continuous Improvement Transformation
Coached and mentored multiple business units to enable organization-wide transformation using continuous improvement methodologies like lean and Six Sigma.
My participation in continuous improvement (CI) organization-wide transformation started with managing the first pilot CI project. A successful pilot delivery led to a CI rollout across the 1,200-people organization and its 12 regional offices.
Key responsibilities and deliverables (over three years):
• Became the first certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt in my organization.
• Participated in the development and implementation of the organizational-wide CI framework.
• Planned and managed multiple cross-functional improvement projects and lead high-performance geographically distributed project teams.
• Developed a strategy to enhance CI technical capabilities and integrate CI mindset into day-to-day business operations.
• Developed a training strategy and delivered targeted training sessions across multiple regional offices and different levels of employees (including preparing CI change agents in every department).
• Provided strategic advice to senior leadership teams for identifying and prioritizing high-impact project opportunities.
• Coached and mentored CI project leads on the application of Lean Six Sigma methodology, project management, and team management.
• Prepared CI project leads for Lean Six Sigma certification.
Education
Specialization in Software Product Management
University of Alberta via Coursera - Online
Master of Public Administration Degree in Public Policy
University of Saskatchewan, Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy - Saskatoon, Canada
Master of Economics and Business Administration Degree with Honors in Business and Economics
National Technical University of Oil and Gas - Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine
Bachelor's Degree with Honors in Business Administration and Economics
National Technical University of Oil and Gas - Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine
Certifications
Performance Measurement
PuMP
Change Management
Prosci
Lean Six Sigma Black Belt
American Society for Quality (ASQ)
Skills
Tools
Visio, Trello, Asana, Tableau, Slack, Tableau Desktop Pro, Google Docs, Microsoft Project, Jira, Spreadsheets, Affinity Diagrams, Microsoft Access, Financial Data, Flow, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Visio, Confluence, SPSS, STATA, Basecamp, MySQL Workbench, Prezi, GIS, XMind
Paradigms
Agile Product Management, Agile Project Management, Requirements Analysis, Database Design, Kanban, Team Development, Change Management, Agile Workflow, Waterfall Development, Six Sigma, Key Performance Metrics, Agile, Scrum, Continuous Deployment, Continuous Delivery (CD), Quantitative Research, Agile Software Development, Iterative Design, Iterative Development, Database Schema Design, Design for Six Sigma (DFSS)
Industry Expertise
Lean Six Sigma, Oil & Gas, Consumer Products, Energy, Higher Education, Franchises, New Business Ventures, Renewable Energy, Digital Agencies
Platforms
Google Ads
Other
Product Discovery, Product Delivery, Agile Product Delivery, Backlog Grooming, Market Research & Analysis, Customer Interviews, Go-to-market Plans, Product Roadmaps, Lean Product Development, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Product Vision, Scope of Work (SOW), Team Management, Coaching, Team Mentoring, Requirements, User Stories, User Requirements, User Flows, User Research, User Journeys, Strategy, Business Strategy, Performance Management, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), Analytics, Facilitation, Discovery Workshops, Ideation, Ideation Workshops, Workflow Diagrams, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Backlog Management, Stakeholder Management, Stakeholder Interviews, User Interviews, Competitive Strategy, Competitor Analysis & Profiling, Business Models, Value Proposition, User Needs, Miro, Data Pipelines, Data Visualization, Data Warehousing, Databases, Data Architecture, Relational Databases, Data Management, Data Strategy, Product Strategy, Product Analytics, Roadmaps, Feature Roadmaps, Documentation, Process Documentation, Stakeholder Engagement, Market Research, Operations, Continuous Integration (CI), Agile Sprints, Agile Delivery, Portfolio Management, Agile Program Management, Statistical Data Analysis, Mathematics, Mind Mapping, Communication, Workshop Facilitation, Structured Facilitation, Teamwork, Team Leadership, Leadership, Business Process Analysis, Business Analysis, Business Planning, Process Improvement, Project Planning, Policy, Policy Development, Business, Agile Leadership, Waterfall Delivery, Business Consulting, Business Services, Project Delivery, Distributed Team Management, Lean, Scrum Coaching, Scrum Master, Product Owner, Planning, Business Intelligence (BI), Project Management, Program Management, Agile Coaching, Scrumban, Scrum Product Owner, Lucidchart, Presentations, Milestones, Projects, Project Management Operations, Project Management Office (PMO), Sprint Planning, Sprints, Meetings, Data, Data Analysis, Data Analytics, Research, Surveys, SurveyMonkey, Statistical Modeling, Project Tracking, Project Timelines, Project Scoping, Project Controls, Project Reporting, Productivity, Project Analysis, Project Lifecycle, Project Estimation, Change Leadership, Data Products, Teams, Microsoft Teams, Team Effectiveness, Process Design, Process Ownership, Business Advisory, Business Model Canvas, Business Process Modeling, Business Management, Business Process Management (BPM), Education Product Manager, Affinity Mapping, Agile Deployment, Analysis, GAP Analysis, Research Analysis, Best Practices, Budget Modeling, Business Cases, Business Process Flow Diagrams, Business Processes, Business Process Optimization, Business Reporting, Business Requirements, Client Management, Client Relations, Client Presentations, Client Services, Customer Analysis, Product Mapping, Client Relationship Management, Community Development, Community Management, Company Strategy, Compliance, Regulatory Compliance, Continuous Discovery, Cost Reduction & Optimization (Cost-down), Critical Thinking, Customer Analytics, Customer Engagement, User Engagement, Engagement Strategy, Customer Research, Reports, Data Reporting, Reporting, Dashboards, Dashboard Development, Performance Evaluation, Data Product Manager, Data Research, Data-driven Decision-making, Data-informed Decisions, Discovery, Customer Discovery, Workshops, Employee Training, Enterprise, Enterprise Architecture, Estimations, Feature Planning, Feature Analysis, Feature Prioritization, Flowcharts, Process Flows, VFQ, Risk Management, Remote Team Leadership, Remote Work, Learning & Development, Management, Management Reporting, Mentorship, Mentorship & Coaching, Metrics, Microsoft Office, Microsoft Excel, Business Operations, Product Planning, Strategy Planning, Project Portfolio Management (PPM), Executive Presentations, Process Analysis, Project Budget Management, Project Coordination, Qualitative Research, Quantitative Modeling, Release Management, Executive Reporting, Requirements & Specifications, Functional Requirements, Scope, Scope Management, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Time Management, Training, Training Content, Training Materials, Agile Transformation, Vision Development, Waterfall Methodology, Workflow Analysis, Workflow, User Workflows, Business Unit Strategy, Client Reporting, Consulting, Management Consulting, Culture Management, Learning, Market Sizing, Market Segmentation, Operational Efficiency Improvement, Operational Excellence, Personas, Process Control, Product Descriptions, Product Launch, Product Ownership, Product Research, Project Consultancy, Business Optimization, Process Optimization, Survey Development & Analysis, Team Building, Value Analysis, Process Innovation, Executive Support, Executive Coaching, Software Consulting, Freelancing, Task Management, Business Logic, Implementation Project Management, Training & Training Content Development, Data Warehouse Design, Prototyping, Lean Experiments, Pricing Strategy, Wireframing, User Behavior, System Requirements, Data Integration, SQL, MySQL, Data Structures, Technical Documentation, Product Requirements Documentation (PRD), Validated User Research, Quantitative User Research, Business Transformation, Budgeting, Risk Analysis, Statistics, Economics, IT Projects, Lean Development, Salesforce Lightning, Pitch Decks, Pitch Preparation, Pricing Models, Education, IT Project Management, Data Flows, Business Design, Business Research, Business Modeling, Business Coaching, Budget Management, Business Process Re-engineering, Cash Flow Modeling, Customer Journey, Communication Strategy, Competitive Intelligence, Consumer-facing Product Design, Cost Management, Cost Estimation, Cost Modeling, Relational Data Mapping, Relational Database Design, Excel VBA, Finance, Financials, Financial Analysis, Financial Reporting, Growth, Product Growth, Growth Strategy, Human Resources (HR), Hiring, Vendor Selection, Vendor Management, Inspections, Risk Modeling, IT Product Management, Performance Optimization, Languages, Language Learning, Lean Product Manager, Lean Project Management, User Journey Maps, Markets, Market Fit, Market Strategy and Research Product Manager, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, User Metrics, Organizational Design, Structure & Organizational Design, Pitch Deck Consultant, Product Portfolio Manager, Presentation Design, Price Analysis, Product Benchmarking, Product Management, Product-market Fit, Technical Project Management, Quality Management, Resource Allocation, Startups, Visual Basic, Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), Annual Budgets, Client Lifecycle Management, Data Modeling, Decision Analysis, Know Your Customer (KYC), Lean Canvas, Lean Product Management, Story Mapping, Journey Mapping, New Product Development, Product Development, Product Development Manager, Product Strategy Consultant, Regulated Industries, Revenue Strategy, Revenue Optimization, Staffing, Translation, User Retention, Wireframe to Product, Financial Planning & Analysis (FP&A), Innovation, Innovation Strategy, Innovation Management, New Business Development, Technical Business Analysis, Technical Reports, Writing & Editing, Organizational Leadership, Feasibility Studies, Product Leadership, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Financial Modeling, R&D, Market Entry, Account Management, Customer Support, Request for Proposal (RFP), Product Design, Product Marketing, Technical Product Management, Channel Strategy, Salesforce, Python, Consumer Behavior, Lean Startups, Auditing, Brand Management, Business Development, Quality Control (QC), Quality Assurance (QA), Scaling, User Conversion, Funnel Analysis, Big Data, Brand Marketing, Cash Management, Commercialization, Cost Control, Data Science, E-learning, Machine Learning, Pricing, Data Science Product Manager, ClickUp, Web, Branding, Agency, Creative Design, Outsourcing, WordPress, User Experience (UX), User Interface (UI), Startup Growth Strategy Development, Modeling, Web Product Management, Digital Strategy
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