Margaret Ferguson
Verified Expert in Product Management
Product Manager
Chicago, IL, United States
Toptal member since April 22, 2020
Margaret's a 10+ year seasoned agile SaaS product leader, driven to build cutting-edge software through data. Her experience includes defining product strategy through to tactical execution and clients' specific requirements. Margaret builds consensus with project stakeholders ensuring efficient and timely delivery. After her time with both startup and large organizations, solving problems for customers draws Margaret to freelancing.
Expertise
- Agile Product Management
- Feature Backlog Prioritization
- Feature Roadmaps
- Journey Mapping
- Product Delivery
- Product Roadmaps
- Product Strategy
- Scrum
Work Experience
Manager of Product Management
Thomson Reuters
- Implemented product roadmap, product delivery plans, garnering support and buy-in for stakeholders and customers.
- Championed a lean agile enterprise methodology within product and engineering teams, including training, tools implementation, and metric development, delivering effective user stories and requirements.
- Coordinated software training and demonstrations across three separate agency offices, validating and giving solutions for 25 different business requirements.
- Fostered cross-team communication and relationships, keeping all teams aligned and informed.
Chief Operating Officer
National Tax Search, LLC.
- Implemented outsourcing-specific processes to off-shore provider, saving $500,000+ in nine months.
- Sustained and developed existing and new business partnerships, strengthening client base, and developing new business offerings, increasing revenue by ~$200,000.
- Redefined and modified existing department procedures and KPIs, sustaining growth of ~$200,000 in revenue.
Director of Product Management
National Tax Search, LLC.
- Developed and implemented effective product descriptions and scope of services, ensuring timely delivery of new products and services.
- Initiated and completed major client conversions and integrations, creating more efficient processing by the client.
- Maximized and accomplished NTS’ exposure to the real estate, mortgage, and banking industries by marketing and advertising effectively and maintaining costs under 1% of revenue.
Project History
Outsourcing Data Collection and Validation Application
Led product and engineering teams to build an application to outsource entire data gathering process to an offshore company reducing costs by $500,000 in nine months and exceeding contractual service level agreements.
I developed roadmaps, personas, journey maps, data flows, data validations, and workflow, allowing stakeholders and engineers to understand exactly what the expected outcomes were and why this project was important. The web application utilized existing data and disparate data structures. Based on dates and business processes, displayed records to contract workers to collect the required information, data input, and validated the data based on algorithms. This data, and supporting scanned documents, were then published back into the existing application via APIs, quality checked again and posted into the databases for the customer to consume, via website or API. This application provided metrics and exception reporting for internal management.
Education
Bachelor of Arts Degree in Business Administration and Theatre
Augustana College - Rock Island, Illinois, USA
Skills
Tools
Google Docs, Skype, Zoom, TFS
Paradigms
Agile Product Management, Change Management, Requirements Analysis, Scrum, Agile
Platforms
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Industry Expertise
Banking & Finance
Other
Product Owner, Agile Product Delivery, Product Mapping, New Products, Ideation, Product Research, Research, New Product Development, Research Analysis, User Research, User Needs, Voice of the Customer (VoC), Roadmaps, Cisco Webex Meetings Server, Microsoft Office, User Stories, Personas, Journey Mapping, Product Roadmaps, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Feature Roadmaps, Product Delivery, User Requirements, Business Requirements, Software as a Service (SaaS), Product Management, SaaS, Product Vision, Feature Planning, Feature Analysis, Executive Presentations, Ideation Workshops, Senior Executive Management, User Flows, Fintech, Process Documentation, SQL, Product Strategy, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Profit & Loss (P&L), P&L Management, APIs, Jama Connect, Request for Proposal (RFP), Jama
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