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Hire EliasElias Hayes
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Rochester, NY, United States
Toptal member since March 11, 2024
Bio
Elias is an experienced project manager and scrum master. As a scrum master at Huntington National Bank, Elias applies his Agile expertise and certifications to facilitate Scrum ceremonies, collaborate with product owners and stakeholders, and guide the teams toward continuously improving their work. He has experience supporting product and account opening teams, organizing and executing project planning and communication, and assisting with backlog prioritization and bug resolution.
Project Highlights
Financial Dashboard Redesign
Delivered a dashboard redesign project within budget and ahead of schedule, receiving praise from all stakeholders for the intuitive design and winning an industry award for innovation.
Mobile Banking App Launch
Spearheaded a mobile banking application's successful development and launch, collaborating closely with a team of designers and developers.
Scrum Transformation Initiative
Led a comprehensive Scrum transformation initiative for a banking institution, integrating Agile principles to streamline processes and enhance customer experience.
Expertise
- Agile
- Agile Product Management
- Agile Workflow
- Azure
- Jira
- Kanban
- Scrum
- Scrumban
Work Experience
Scrum Master
2021 - PRESENT
Huntington
- Orchestrated scrum ceremonies, including stand-ups, backlog grooming, sprint planning, and retrospectives, fostering a collaborative environment for agile teams.
- Led and facilitated project planning through meetings, reviews, retrospectives, sprints, release planning, demos, and various scrum-related gatherings, ensuring alignment with Agile principles.
- Negotiated and defined a minimum viable product (MVP) in collaboration with scrum team members and product owners, ensuring efficient feature delivery.
- Spearheaded the development and execution of comprehensive communication plans, both internally and externally, to promote transparency and maintain stakeholder engagement.
- Conducted agile assessments and provided coaching to leadership teams to foster a culture of servant leadership and empower teams to self-organize and continuously improve.
Scrum Master
2021 - 2022
M&T Bank
- Facilitated scrum ceremonies such as stand-ups, backlog grooming, sprint planning, retrospectives, etc. Acted as scrum master for product and account opening teams with a focus on guiding the teams towards improving the way they work.
- Organized and facilitated project planning, daily stand-up meetings, reviews, retrospectives, sprints, release planning, demos, and other scrum-related meetings.
- Collaborated with the Scrum Team and the Product Owner to negotiate the minimum viable product for delivery.
- Assisted in executing internal and external communication plans to promote transparency and radiate information. Assisted with prioritizing and resolving software bugs.
- Coached and educated product owners on how to manage their product backlog, coached team members on Agile principles, and provided general guidance on the Agile methodology.
- Removed release and sprint roadblocks effectively by engaging the right personnel before timelines are jeopardized. Managed and delivered various project tasks and deliverables.
- Engaged with other scrum masters to increase the effectiveness of applying Scrum in the organization. Facilitated getting the work done without coercion, assigning, or dictating the work.
Scrum Master
2020 - 2021
Wave Control Systems
- Served as scrum master for product and software teams, focusing on guiding the teams towards improving their work. Continually refined and evolved agile process for predictable and rapid software delivery, hitting all project deadlines.
- Led and coached product owners to improve storying writing, feature discovery, and requirements gathering process, which led to an increase in customer satisfaction and a decrease in time-to-delivery.
- Defined project scope and schedule while focusing on regular and timely devilry of the value of all projects and sales deliverables. Effectively remove impediments from spirit backlog, increasing productivity.
- Utilized Agile and Scrum practices to help teachers increase their velocity within the first year of adoption. Promoted Scrum framework with high levels of quality for the team, improving team velocity.
- Worked as a scrum master for four agile teams, collaborating with product management and technical stakeholders to clarify each project's schedule, status, and details.
Associate Scrum Master
2019 - 2020
Schottland Family YMCA
- Implemented Agile methodologies using the Scrum framework with two agile teams.
- Facilitated team and cross-team retrospectives to build good working relationships throughout the organization.
- Worked with the executive team to implement product service improvements that increased the conversion rate by 20%.
- Utilized Agile and Scrum practices and values, increasing productivity and overall team satisfaction by 80%.
- Collaborated closely with executive management and technical stakeholders to clarify the schedule, status, and details of each project.
- Defined and managed a well-defined Scrum process and championed ongoing process improvement initiatives to implement best practices for Agile project management.
- Coached teams on identifying the root causes of problems rather than just proposing solutions.
- Acted as a central point of support to the team and always led by example with Agile methodologies using the Scrum framework.
Project History
Financial Dashboard Redesign
Delivered a dashboard redesign project within budget and ahead of schedule, receiving praise from all stakeholders for the intuitive design and winning an industry award for innovation.
This project involved leading a cross-functional team in redesigning the financial dashboard for a banking client, enhancing user experience and data visualization. I implemented Agile methodologies, including Scrum, to ensure iterative development and timely delivery. Our dashboard redesign ultimately resulted in a 30% increase in user satisfaction and a 20% decrease in bounce rates.
Mobile Banking App Launch
Spearheaded a mobile banking application's successful development and launch, collaborating closely with a team of designers and developers.
This project involved spearheading the development and launch of a mobile banking application, leveraging the Scrum framework to manage sprints and prioritize features effectively. We achieved high user adoption rates within the first month of launch, surpassing industry benchmarks and receiving positive customer reviews for the app's ease of use and functionality.
Scrum Transformation Initiative
Led a comprehensive Scrum transformation initiative for a banking institution, integrating Agile principles to streamline processes and enhance customer experience.
This project involved successfully implementing Scrum and Agile principles to migrate legacy systems to cloud-based platforms and introduce innovative digital banking services. We achieved a notable increase in online customer engagement and satisfaction levels.
Skills
Tools
Jira
Paradigms
Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Agile Product Management, Agile Workflow
Platforms
Azure
Other
Scrumban, Microsoft 365, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Scrum Master, Sprint Planning
Collaboration That Works
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