Karla J Ramos

The Bankrate CxP component provides a personalized experience for the users of our Bankrate website. Each person that visits our site is on a different financial journey. When our users sign in to the portal, they customize their experience based on their goals and credit. Our job was to provide the user with the most relevant information to help make better financial decisions.

Tasks Accomplished:
• Managed 37 developers, designers, analysts, and other key functional roles across three teams in Detroit, Pasadena, and Charlotte. Responsible for overseeing the planning, development, and execution of project deliverables impacting the user experience of over 50 million users across Bankrate.com.
• Led project planning, budgeting, action plans, and monitoring processes.
• Managed the relationships with the design vendors.
• Developed, implemented, and managed team metrics and made recommendations to teams and management for improvements.
• Interacted with senior-level management on the organization-wide agile adoption strategy and rollout plans.
• Worked with separate instances using multiple agile concepts and methodologies, including Scrum, Kanban, test-driven development, and continuous testing and integration.

Tasks Accomplished:
• Led and managed the team in planning and continuous quality improvement.
• Responsible for the implementation and program oversight, ensuring goals and objectives are met.
• Owned the customer relationship through implementation (post-sale and pre-account management), collaborating with key internal stakeholders to understand business goals and define an implementation strategy.
• Handled implementations of varying scales (medium to large scale) for over 200 bank integrations into the online banking system, including account opening system, wire transfer system, bill pay integration, online QuickBooks, and so on.
• Helped build the process and lay groundwork for the team to scale.
• Completed virtual consultations and optimization strategies, supported roll-outs.
• Performed complex data migrations and advanced CSV imports/exports, including batch processes of real-time data.
• Helped improve efficiencies by up to 60% by replacing old systems with new apps such as Identity Guard for information security (multi-factor authentication).
• Leveraged Waterfall and Agile methodologies in internal and external vendor processes.
• Managed all change management communication to the Change Advisory Board (CAB).

Tasks Accomplished:
• Managed two external Scrum teams in Lithuania and Chicago.
• Liaised with our internal Waterfall-based teams and our two external virtual Scrum teams of engineers, designers, and business analysts.
• Helped the Scrum teams understand the need for clear, concise product backlog items and other rules of engagement, including the definition of done.
• Organized the Scrum process, including prioritizing user stories and backlog management, facilitated meetings, and ensured that the Agile principles were appropriately applied to team and project activities.
• Led the combined team in effective decision-making across various issues, including scope, design, and architecture, to ensure timely and within budget project delivery.
• Managed product planning and development and ensured that the product owners knew how to arrange the product backlog to maximize value.
• Ensured feature development was aligned with well-defined KPIs and project success criteria.
• Proactively managed risks of the project and client relationships, ensuring a clear and measurable impact on client missions.
• Served as the primary contact for the internal Waterfall and external Scrum teams for cross-functional collaboration.