
Catherine Conaghan
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Catherine is a certified PMP, Agile product owner, and professional engineer (P.Eng.) with over 13 years of technical project management experience. She has proven success in working with globally dispersed teams to deliver outstanding B2B and B2C SaaS and desktop software projects and products across various areas. Catherine thrives in challenges where she can provide effective solutions for innovative and mission-driven organizations.
Project Highlights
Expertise
Work Experience
Project Manager
Finance App for Fast-growing Startup
- Collaborated with the product manager and client team to establish the MVP requirements for the new finance web application through discovery phase planning.
- Assisted the design and development team in creating a project plan, including timeline, cost, and team resources required to deliver the MVP for the web application.
- Managed the design and development team using Agile methodologies to successfully deliver the finance web application MVP for mobile and desktop, on time and within budget.
Project Manager
Banpu Public
- Created business strategy plans and documentation for a number of innovative products being developed in the Banpu Innovation Lab.
- Managed several projects and teams to deliver prototypes of new innovative products, including a gas control system digital twin product and an e-mobility control and data tracking product.
- Managed the development of a new bespoke and interactive website for the Banpu Innovation Lab, which involved creating detailed requirements and working with the development team to successfully deliver the website in WordPress before launch.
Co-founder
The Lock Inn
- Co-founded The Lock Inn, which is Ireland’s first live, online and interactive event venue and production company that creates, produces, and manages all aspects of online livestreamed events delivered across a range of genres and audiences.
- Supported the delivery of over 50 livestreamed shows (theatre, comedy, film, live music, charity fundraisers, and quizzes) to audiences in over 30 countries, with an estimated 120,000 virtual attendees to date.
- Developed the online event venue website which includes event details, full ticketing solution, and fulfillment of the live stream event itself (including emails, ticket links, password protection, and live streaming of the event).
- Developed multiple similar sites for clients in Shopify to deliver similar platforms for customers to deliver online/virtual live streamed events such as gigs, concerts, plays, and corporate events.
Tech Project Manager for system setup and process improvement
REFNOW SMART-UP Microfactories UG
- Implemented end to end automation process for their marketing function to increase efficiency and reduce errors. This included creating an automated contact categorization function across their database of 6,000 contacts.
- Developed a new OKR system in Coda to make it easier to create, track and manage Objectives and Key Results, including new Dashboard reporting and notification summary emails.
- Developed an automated process for updating the client's website with news and event information from a simple form input from their staff when attending events.
Agile Coach and Scrum Master
Freelance
- Led the development team's day-to-day by managing priorities, feedback on development requirements, and daily stand-up meetings.
- Implemented a new Agile framework for the development team to streamline development and ensure that the highest priority developments were executed per the senior product manager's requirements.
- Set up a more appropriate weekly sprint process, including organizing and leading sprint planning, sprint reviews, daily stand-up meetings, and improving communication between the distributed development team and management.
- Implemented a Jira and Confluence framework to facilitate the new sprint framework and conducted a full set of automated KPI reporting on product development for senior management.
- Consulted on product and user requirements for the energy management industry based on previous experience in the industry.
Senior Project Manager
IES
- Delivered the MVP for a commercial launch of a SaaS web platform which combines IoT, data visualization, analysis, simulation modelling and machine learning to provide advanced analysis for the design and management of smart buildings.
- Delivered ideation to MVP of a web-based dashboard tool. It allows users to create bespoke dashboards to easily view key performance indicators and a range of other widgets targeted at the smart building and smart city sector.
- Managed the delivery of an MVP for the commercial launch of a desktop energy network simulation tool. It enables engineers and consultants to carry out advanced network design and analysis quickly and easily.
- Acted as project lead for an internal iOS- and Android-based energy auditing app.
- Served as technical project manager for several R&D and commercial software projects with budgets from $100,000-$1 million.
- Involved in managing cross-disciplinary teams and working with globally-based partners, suppliers, and clients to ensure successful project delivery.
- Served as Agile advocate for three years, providing coaching and process improvements to promote internal operational efficiencies.
- Coordinated and contributed to the writing of project bids to commercial clients and for R&D research grants. Lead writer of successful proposal bids to the competitive European Union Horizon 2020 grant program (projects in the six-figure range).
- Provided consultancy, technical input, and wrote several research papers relating to areas in building energy efficiency, smart building control, energy and smart network modeling, model calibration, data acquisition, data-mining, and visualization.
Project Manager
Castlecool
- Employed as a group energy manager for Ireland’s largest temperature-controlled warehousing and logistics. I advanced to the position of group project manager within the first year.
- Managed and implemented an extensive energy management project through the development of a software-based model of the company's warehouse facilities. Identified viable energy and cost-saving measures, resulting in an 18% reduction in energy cost.
- Developed a bespoke in-house preventative maintenance and energy database platform that reduced maintenance costs and allowed for better tracking and auditing of system and building performance.
- Led and implemented a project which streamlined the customer administration process by using data transforms to automate the input of data into the warehouse management systems, resulting in a reduced admin overhead of 35% and fewer errors in orders.
- Facilitated several external client-facing projects focused on system integration and process improvements, which directly reduced labor costs for the company.
- Managed and contributed to all active internal and client-facing projects, including IT, Operational, 'Lean Programmes', Energy, Management, Capital Spend, and Infrastructural projects, resulting in cost savings and revenue growth.
- Managed all I.T. development, budgeting, and planning.
- Became a finalist for GradIreland Graduate of the year in 2011, as nominated by the company for the projects I had led.
Project History
PM for a US-based Finance App for Gig Workers
Worked as a PM and led the team from ideation to launch a new finance app for gig workers for a fast-growing US-based fintech startup.
I led the discovery process with the client, defined the MVP requirements, and forecasted the timeline and cost. I then cooperated with the designer to create the web app design and user stories, prioritizing our work in Jira. I worked with the development team daily to ensure the delivery, managing all team meetings and reporting to the client.
We successfully launched the app six months after the initial project kick-off.
Lead PM for a Corporate Digital Innovation Startup Team
Led the innovation startup team to develop and test ideas for new digital products for the US market. Defined the innovation processes and timelines and executed day-to-day management of the team to test and develop new products.
PM for an Energy Innovation Lab in Asia and the US
Served as the PM for an innovation lab of a leading international energy provider, managing the development of greener and smarter energy solutions in Asia and the US.
I also managed the delivery of a new WordPress site for the innovation lab using a third-party agency, where I ensured a unique website for the innovation lab was created as per the requirements. I was responsible for updating certain content on the site and managing plug-ins, publishing, etc.
PM for a US-based Energy Auditing App
Implemented a new Agile framework and workflow for a distributed web app development team to streamline the development of a data collection and analysis product for the energy management sector.
iSCAN SaaS Web Platform
Launched MVP, led new features, and managed several releases of the iSCAN tool.
iVN Network Modeling Tool
Product owner for MVP commercial release and several release updates since.
iDashboard Tool
Led the development required from ideation to the MVP launch of a SaaS web-based dashboarding tool.
Energy in Time - Smart Building Platform
Lead technical PM for company's role in the Energy in Time Project.
EINSTEIN: Building and Advanced ML Modeling Software Project
Lead PM for the successful delivery of the EINSTEIN R&D project.
REEMAIN: Industry 4.0 and Decision Support Platform for Manufacturing Facilities
Technical PM for the development of the REEMAIN Decision Support tool.
Group KPI Dashboards
Managed and developed a set of new company-wide automated KPI reports and dashboards.
Development of a Hybrid Energy and Supply Strategy
Led and implemented a successful energy management strategy for the company resulting in an 18% reduction in energy costs.
CEDISON: Community Energy Dynamic Solution
Served as the lead PM for the company's roles to deliver an integrated network forecasting and blockchain-based energy trading tool.
The platform showed future energy markets in which decisions on trading energy can be made in real time by all actors in the energy network.
Education
Master of Philosophy Degree (MPhil) in Engineering
Queens University Belfast - Belfast, Ireland
Diploma of Higher Education in Business Management Practice
Micheal Smurfit Business School, UCD - Dublin, Ireland
Bachelor of Engineering Degree in Electronic Engineering
National University of Ireland - Galway, Ireland
Certifications
Professional Scrum Product Owner
Scrum.org
Chartered Engineer (CEng MIEI) Registered professional Title - Professional Engineer Equivalent
Engineers Ireland
Project Management Professional (PMP)
Project Management Institute