Eliske Wiggins, Project Manager in Zagreb, Croatia
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Eliske Wiggins

Verified Expert  in Project Management

Project Manager

Location
Zagreb, Croatia
Toptal Member Since
November 16, 2020

Eliske has been helping B2B, and B2C organizations plan and execute their product strategy for a decade. She worked in large-scale organizational transformations in various industries with a strong focus on financial services and telecommunications. Her skills range from product ownership to agile project management and agile coaching. As a certified SAFe Program Consultant (SPC), she implements and sustains agile transformation by coaching, training, and certifying professionals.

Project Highlights

DebiCheck - Authenticated Collections
Implemented a new payment system to process bulk transactions for financial institutions, reducing fraud and losses. We collaborated with other banks to incrementally release the functionality across key corporate clients.
Admin Portal Redesign for Account and Card Limits Management
Improved the customer-facing administration portal to help users better manage their cardholders' accounts and limits.
Electric Vehicles Global Integration with Google Maps
Managed the IT delivery of Spin's largest platform integration in partnership with Google, enabling Google maps users to take multi-modal journeys with e-bikes in 84 towns, cities, and campuses in the United States, Canada, Germany, and Spain.

Expertise

Work Experience

Program Manager

2021 - 2021
Spin
  • Joined the IT program management team to drive the company's most significant platform integration servicing 84 towns, cities, and campuses in the United States, Canada, Germany, and Spain.
  • Managed the end-to-end engineering program management activities and post-launch IT service management readiness. Worked with both the internal and external stakeholders to launch the Google partnership.
  • Fostered the collaboration and delivery across multiple development value streams and maintained metrics that provided visibility to the program and portfolio leadership teams.
  • Created IT service management processes to enable post-go-live business support and ensured alignment to the required service level agreements.
  • Conducted post-go-live organizational readiness checks, testing, and reporting to leadership. Helped identify future product improvement and process automation areas.
  • Identified IT program management practice improvements by analyzing the improvement areas.

Agile Transformation Coach and Product Owner

2019 - 2020
Nets Payments Group
  • Supported leadership with program planning preparation activities, assisted in the facilitation of all planning and execution events, and ensured alignment of the program and team backlogs within the value streams.
  • Coached, trained, and helped set up the agile tooling for the value stream teams in the Nets South region as part of the Organizational Agile Transformation.
  • Conducted release management process review and implemented optimizations, ensured teams reached their sprint goals that progressed toward the product vision and overall business value for each program increment.
  • Modernized the issuing card management product to enable back-office limits management and helped implement price management for our merchant's product offering. This strengthened our strategic partner's product offering.
  • Analyzed and optimized the current back-end processing clearing and settlement schemas to a front-end solution for the department specialists to schedule rules through a self-managed application.

Senior Principal Consultant

2016 - 2018
Standard Bank Group
  • Collaborated with the bulk payments leadership program and key bank partners to implement a new payment solution to handle the regulatory requirements for authenticated collections. Created and owned the ITSM processes to support the new capability.
  • Coached and trained the team to support the new authenticated collections capability within the bank. Documented and communicated the platform team practices and ensured operational readiness within the bank.
  • Managed the team backlog for mandated CR's from the South African Payments Association and conducted planning workshops with other banks to ensure alignment and mitigate risks. Ensured go-live functionality was monitored and aligned partner banks.
  • Conducted vendor management activities to prioritize scope and plan the release of the prioritized user stories. Documented and communicated workaround processes to support the manual workarounds for high-risk, high-impact potential incidents.
  • Managed and prioritized defect resolution with the industry implementation of authenticated collections. Conducted impact analysis with other banks and the Payments Association of South Africa (PASA) to review and update requirements.
  • Created and implemented a staff scheme capability for the vehicle asset financing portfolio to support the digital transformation strategy. Ensured full automation of the customer journey and built the capability in the bank.
  • Created team health surveys for the vehicle asset finance leadership team in Standard Bank to optimize the workplace culture. Managed the backlog of prioritized improvements.

Senior Principal Consultant

2017 - 2017
Barclays Africa (Absa)
  • Designed processes and policies for Barclays South Africa's Social Investment leadership team. Guided the client with training and strategic positioning in the market.
  • Assisted with team training on new processes for vetting and prioritization rules of social investment projects.
  • Aided in the unpacking and documenting of the department's strategic objectives, scope, and key results.

Agile Consultant

2016 - 2016
Alexander Forbes
  • Conducted analysis of the current backlog of the digital transformation portfolio.
  • Implemented a Kanban framework and Agile lifecycle framework to measure and track portfolio epics and features.
  • Introduced and trained the teams on the principles of Kanban and how they prioritize and manage features aligned with portfolio vision.

Product Owner & Change Agent

2014 - 2016
Internet Solutions (Dimension Data)
  • Assisted with the agile transformation and change management activities for the new ways of working. Reviewed the business analyst team project scope definitions and helped with time estimation and sprint planning.
  • Designed and implemented the carrier and connectivity product fulfillment processes for our enterprise client segment aligned with the enhanced telecommunications operations map framework (eTOM).
  • Conducted product enhancements of the cloud product fulfillment to enable automated self-provisioning for our B2C segment.
  • Unpacked the go-to-market and sales drivers with the group financial leadership team. Analyzed and implemented the automated internal IT systems for the sales incentives payout's aligned with the compensation plan set out for each FY.
  • Analyzed and proposed a digital workflow solution for the group sales leadership team to assign, manage, and contract account territories.
  • Collaborated with the product development management leaders to establish their strategy and ROI to market for software-defined networks (WAN).

Process Manager & Analyst

2012 - 2014
Vodacom
  • Conducted change management activities with leadership and teams of product process and solution changes.
  • Created process guides and BPMN processes aligned with the enhanced telecommunications operations map (eTOM) framework and testing end-to-end systems.
  • Communicated and collaborated throughout the OSS BSS of enhancements, creating user guides, procedures, and training to impacted stakeholders.
  • Assisted in testing the converged credit vetting rules with IT business analysts and development teams from the key platforms (CRM, provisioning, and billing) in Vodacom Business.
  • Implemented product provisioning processes for geographic number porting, hosted call centers, broadband wireless, ADSL, VoIP solutions, video collaboration, mobile VSAT, VSAT, and VPN hosting. Monitored process workflow performance.
  • Scoped, planned and supported the implementation of the automated provisioning for the AgriSA VSAT solution to provide rural farming communities with world-class communications systems.
  • Trained Vodacom Business project managers on the product provisioning procedures for new and enhanced product offerings.
  • Conducted data analysis of the product provisioning turn-around times aligned with business OLA's. Provided reports and workshops for the OSS BSS executive committee with GAP analysis and areas of improvement. Reduced provisioning to times by 30%.

Product and Customer Acquisition Analyst

2011 - 2012
3fifteen - Dimension Data
  • Reviewed RFP requests from account managers, prioritized the backlog of opportunities, and facilitated scope definition workshops and resource allocation. Reviewed project proposals and ensured the alignment of requirements.
  • Enhanced the sales processes and support system. Provided the leadership team with frequent updates on win-loss ratio reports per market segment for strategic decision making that improved sales by 33% and reassigned resources accordingly.
  • Developed the internal sales processes, knowledge management system, and trained teams.
  • Enhanced a client's major retail supply chain's shipping solution. The creation of a modernized solution helped reduce losses incurred from storage costs, insufficient route planning, and stock control discrepancies.
  • Conducted product analysis and delivery for B2C digital marketing, CRM, and bespoke development products.

Scrum Master

2010 - 2011
Clockwork Zoo
  • Managed the delivery of the animation team's deliverables through planning, review, and removal of all impediments—conducted team career development initiatives and reviews of outputs with the leadership team, both offshore and local.
  • Conducted all local HR support functions with the remote parent company. Assisted in hiring top talent and contract negotiations.
  • Managed budgets and operational costs for the local team. Reported to leadership and partners on status. Ensured all communications and collaboration was conducted often and regularly.
  • Ensured the team's high delivery. The team was awarded their second international Disney children's animation project. Both projects were the first awarded in the African continent.

Project Management Officer

2007 - 2008
Amdocs South Africa Joint Enterprise
  • Liaised with the multinational Next Generation Operational Support Systems (NGOSS) Leadership team on the modernized product delivery for a large African telecommunications provider.
  • Managed client communications, maintained project plans, and resource planning activities. Supported the HR department with local tasks, reporting, and the onboarding of international consultants.
  • Conducted regular marketing research and created supporting knowledge management documentation.

DebiCheck - Authenticated Collections

https://debicheck.co.za/

Implemented a new payment system to process bulk transactions for financial institutions, reducing fraud and losses. We collaborated with other banks to incrementally release the functionality across key corporate clients.

As part of the Standard Bank South Africa, we implemented a new payment back-end system to process bulk payments. I served as a product owner and helped implement the regulatory requirements as outlined by the Payment Association of South Africa (PASA).

I participated in regular collaboration with other bank partners on change requests, focusing on ensuring the prioritization of our team's requirements. I was involved in frequent collaboration, planning, communication, and release management activities.

In my role, I helped implement monitoring solutions and the ITSM processes that are aligned with the overall bank's support procedures (bulk payments system run book owner).

Organizational change management and program alignment for the new back-end system were critical components of my daily activities. I supported the team with defect management activities, daily standups, and remote vendor management.

We introduced new ways of working and redefined the team's internal processes. I assisted in building the team's capability by helping with the resource planning and defining roles and responsibilities according to the SAFe Agile model, including knowledge transfer and coaching of the team.

Admin Portal Redesign for Account and Card Limits Management

https://www.nets.eu/

Improved the customer-facing administration portal to help users better manage their cardholders' accounts and limits.

I improved a strategic banking partner’s customer journey. We implemented various optimizations and simplified the overall process to improve the overall customer experience drastically.

I assisted with business process analysis, customer journey mapping, story mapping, and estimations. I acted as both the project owner and Agile coach for all planning and execution events.

With the implementation of the Scaled Agile Framework, I coached the local team on Agile practices, introduced and set up the Agile tooling, ensured alignment of the backlog within the value streams, released management activities, managed defects, and ensured teams reached their sprint goals that progressed toward the product vision and overall business value.

Vodacom Satellite Connect Pilot for Remote Farming Communities

https://www.itweb.co.za/content/VKA3Wwqd6o87rydZ

Launched the pilot project to provide VSAT Internet and VoIP services to South African farming communities and agribusinesses, where more traditional communication methods are problematic due to difficult access.

The Agri South Africa communication pilot project was a key strategic driver to enable stable and efficient connectivity for the critical farming sector to stimulate economic and rural development. The automated provisioning workflow was an essential component to achieve business value by reducing lead-times and manual set-up costs.

After installing hardware, the switch on and monitoring of the network data provided us with the ability to automate our internal provisioning workflows and monitor the quality of service.

The pilot included various regions to test satellite connectivity with a phased approach to monitor the network data, extract, translate, and transfer the data as triggers for the business support systems. The solution allowed the provisioning project managers to monitor implementations from initiation to activation.

I worked closely with the network engineers, system development team, and selected pilot customers to monitor the process end-to-end, coordinate, and identify improvement opportunities.

After the pilot implementation, I created the business processes, helped define improvement requirements, and communicated and trained the internal business teams on the new product offering and processes.

Electric Vehicles Global Integration with Google Maps

https://www.spin.app/blog-posts/spin-integrates-with-google-maps

Managed the IT delivery of Spin's largest platform integration in partnership with Google, enabling Google maps users to take multi-modal journeys with e-bikes in 84 towns, cities, and campuses in the United States, Canada, Germany, and Spain.

I worked on the Google partnership that enables mobile users to discover Spin’s Ford-owned electric bikes and scooters via Google Maps in popular urban areas. The solution helps commuters make use of sustainable multi-modal transportation for shorter journeys in cities, thus helping municipalities and cities reduce traffic in populated areas. I managed the end-to-end engineering program management activities and post-launch IT service management readiness and worked with the internal and external stakeholders to launch the Google partnership.
2020 - 2022

Honours Degree in Psychology

University of South Africa - South Africa

2014 - 2018

Bachelor's Degree in Counseling Psychology

University of South Africa - Johannesburg, South Africa

2011 - 2011

Diploma in Professional Business Analysis (IIBA)

Faculty Training Institute - Johannesburg, South Africa

JUNE 2020 - PRESENT

Certified SAFe 5 Release Train Engineer

Scaled Agile, Inc.

APRIL 2020 - PRESENT

Certified SAFe 5 Program Consultant

Scaled Agile, Inc.

MARCH 2020 - PRESENT

Certified SAFe 5 Scrum Master

Scaled Agile, Inc.

MARCH 2020 - PRESENT

Certified SAFe 5 Agilist

Scaled Agile, Inc.

FEBRUARY 2019 - PRESENT

Certified SAFe 4 Scrum Master

Scaled Agile, Inc.

FEBRUARY 2015 - PRESENT

Advanced Business Process Modeling with ARIS v9

Software AG

JULY 2014 - PRESENT

ADKAR Change Management

Prosci

JANUARY 2012 - PRESENT

Certified Business Analysis Professional (CPBA)

IIBA

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