Mina Valcic

As the technical product manager, I contributed to Alteryx, an analytics platform that can connect to various data sources such as clouds and data lakes. The clients use the platform to create data pipes, transform the data, and apply multiple ML and AI algorithms.

I also guided the technical product management in defining requirements for the engineering teams, created roadmaps, and planned the releases. I helped teams successfully build the cloud-based data connectivity tools that enabled users to connect to and use their data from Office365, Dropbox, Google Drive, Amazon S3, and Snowflake remote cloud storage. As the product owner and scrum master, I set up the environment following Agile methodology and Scrum framework within two teams. I also accepted new features and proposed new deliverables based on customer feedback and competitive landscape analysis.

The users can securely store and manage their personal information (end-to-end encrypted), connect with people in the desired way, and benefit from calendars, groups, notifications, and other features.

As the technical project manager and product owner, I determined the appropriate size and capabilities necessary for the design and development team and was instrumental in identifying and hiring candidates. I led the technology selection and translated business requirements into technical requirements for the MVP scope. I also supervised the team of software developers, test developers, and UI/UX designers from the project kick-off until the product launch, fostering team spirit across a remote team and keeping activities on track when needed.

PRODUCT
360 Polaris is a revolutionary ad monetization platform for video, web, and mobile publishers owned by Europe's leading programmatic advertising technology provider. It enables automated trading of digital ad inventory and helps media owners optimize their programmatic advertising strategy and maximize revenue. The platform has 120,000+ direct and 600+ million indirect users.

CHALLENGES AND ACHIEVEMENTS
The platform launch enabled a 50+% rise in revenue growth over one year and positioned Improve Digital on the Deloitte Fast50 list with a growth rate of 5466% over the five years. We established a Spotify organization model for 100+ team members in five countries. I led six teams (out of 18) that delivered the platform on budget and time. In a rapidly upscaling environment, we onboarded 40 developers in six months to become productive in two weeks. I managed complex team interdependencies, handled a scale-up on the product management side, and was a data tribe lead who helped four teams deliver several real-time and BI solutions with cutting-edge technologies.

The technology stack included PHP, Java, AWS, Kafka, Hadoop, Samza, and Cassandra.

I consulted with a startup and led the delivery of a native mobile application that helped people solve math issues. The user entered a math problem and was entertained while playing a math quiz.

I also conducted market, competition, and user research and leveraged insights to define the MVP scope and roadmap. I was involved in advising the client on the technology selection and development team creation and creating business and technical requirements. I led a cross-functional development team and launched the app under budget. I defined a go-to-market and marketing strategy that resulted in over 1,000 users in the first month, a high user engagement rate, and the App Store rating of over 4,6.

The platform's purpose was to enable contracting with new customers, servicing all communication, and handling payments with existing customers. As an agile project manager, I led three development teams in the IT department, with over 60 people working on the same product during its continuous development, product launch, and maintenance period. The technology stack included PHP, Java, CRM, business process management, Odoo, ServiceMix, and jBilling. Several customized applications, various technologies, and highly configurable systems within one platform made the development and maintenance very demanding and inefficient.

Due to several parties involved in the project, their conflicting interests, and organizational issues within the client's organization, we, as a team, faced various challenges. The main obstacles were the reluctance of the most experienced people to collaborate, lack of functional knowledge and documentation, unsuitable platform legacy architecture, and divergence on the management level. By continually working on improving and resolving issues to motivate teams and satisfy business, we learned many lessons and finally found a win-win setup. I'm thankful for being a part of this very challenging project.