Liam Wickham
Verified Expert in Project Management
Agile Project Manager
Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Toptal member since June 11, 2018
Liam is a seasoned program director and senior program manager with many years of experience in the video game, software development, and pharmaceutical industries. He has a proven track record in the successful scoping, management, and execution of multiple complex technical projects, cross-functional team alignment and influence, digital transformation, and applying lean agile methodologies. Liam is an expert in effective stakeholder management, business turnaround, and conflict resolution.
Project Highlights
Expertise
Work Experience
Chief Development Officer
nDreams
- Oversaw and directed the operational running of nDreams Studios and Shared Services Group.
- Introduced an enterprise Kanban portfolio system to the senior leadership team so that initiatives could be visualized, stack-ranked, value-mapped with strategic goals, and tracked.
- Gathered cross-functional teams to optimize old processes and workflows, transforming them to maximize effectiveness in a scaling organization.
- Transformed an ineffective shared services group and built a new codev/outsourcing team.
- Transformed the underutilized production director to lead a newly created PMO.
- Created a working group to establish global capacity and capability management across multiple studios.
- Established new cadenced ceremonies to greatly enhance risk and opportunity tracking between development studios and senior leadership, utilizing the Kanban system for tracking and ownership.
- Introduced Businessmap (formerly Kanbanize) to development and non-development teams and senior leadership, thus enabling the first cross-departmental initiative tracking system that mapped effort against goals.
- Overhauled a greenlight process to be fit for purpose.
Director of Production & Chief Operating Officer
Rude Robot Studios
- Built an AAA studio and led production, planning, product, and studio management. Acted as a chief operating officer and studio director and built and led HR, recruitment, finance, legal, and outsourcing.
- Established a hiring plan, coached leaders, wrote the company handbook, and led from the front.
- Introduced business and product planning to map game development and growth against investment milestones.
- Optimized complex pipelines and processes in a fully-remote game development environment.
- Targeted product, strike, and core tech teams to focus down on both systems and demo requirements.
- Led product and tech roadmap partnerships, as well as deployment planning.
- Served on the leadership team as CEO’s trusted partner, bringing together all departments.
- Engaged senior stakeholders and customers, communicating consistently across a globally distributed team.
VP of Production & Chief of Staff
Lockwood Publishing
- Led program management and delivery and corrected scaling issues.
- Established an effective initiative prioritization process, greatly reducing chaos and noise.
- Built and led a new product management department that delivered an outcome over output philosophy.
- Created an E-PMO that acted as a program-level umbrella of project excellence and support.
- Led production, program management, project management, and UI/UX teams.
- Handled people, process, and technology change programs and collaborated across multiple workstreams and stakeholders.
- Sat alongside the CEO on strategic oversight, board meetings, and 3Ps top-level decision-making.
Program Manager
AstraZeneca
- Worked within a people, process and technology digital transformation and change program to deliver millions of dollars of savings, as well as saving and improving lives.
- Led the delivery and deployment side of a groundbreaking digital product.
- Provided strong direction and structure around Scaled Agile.
- Coached and mentored leadership team.
Senior Agile Delivery Manager
Jagex
- Worked with product owners, tech services, devops, core tech, and others to assist in agile ceremonies, shared backlogs, and delivery management with virtual and colocated teams.
- Utilized Jira, Confluence, Kanban, and face-to-face facilitation.
- Assisted with company-wide projects from external consultants to internal service desks.
Senior Executive Producer
Sumo Digital
- Led development of console video game, including programme management of a large Agile and stage-gated team - colocated, dispersed and in/outsourced.
- Redesigned and optimized deeply complex pipelines and processes required to bring together feature teams, component teams, and core tech teams effectively and efficiently.
- Led an Agile transformation where appropriate, but also recognized the need to merge with non-Agile methodologies.
- Managed multiple concurrent projects and dependencies, shifting deadlines, capacity planning, milestone deliverables, and resource futureproofing.
- Mentored a team of project managers and junior producers including coaching, training, advising and serving.
- Successfully engaged senior stakeholders and external customers, regularly communicating consistent messaging despite fluid high-level roadmap.
Operations and Project Manager
Wargaming Inc.
- Oversaw operations locally inside of HQ in Nicosia, Cyprus.
- Nurtured relationships with internal business partners and local operations staff.
- Managed tools and environments.
- Liaised with global operations within and between all WG studios and second and third-party mobile development teams.
- Project-managed creation and set up of the new Berlin mobile gaming studio.
Senior Project Manager
Wargaming Inc.
- Managed a high-profile project to recommend, evaluate and implement a PPM / EPPM system across the organization.
- Directed a team of process and business analysts.
- Collaborated with leadership stakeholders to ensure portfolio-level prioritization was considered and implemented.
- Ran vendor workshops and assessed RFPs.
- Led trips to multiple internal clients as well as vendor sites to collate information and ensure requirements were met.
Head of Operations
Eyecon
- Directed the operations of the new Guernsey office after setting it up from scratch.
- Led the project and program management, team mentoring, and coaching.
- Involved in operational and organizational management, customer and delivery management.
- Delivered compliance documentation and ensured reporting and analysis met regulatory expectations.
Senior Consultant
East Harbour Associates
- Handled requirement gathering and running of performance management projects.
- Analyzed and implemented KPIs/metric, business and process analysis, and knowledge management.
- Prepared and delivered CxO-level presentations and engaged in relationship building.
- Led projects from crowdsourcing education experts to selling and implementing Confluence/Jira packages.
General Manager / Programme Manager
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
- Led a group of highly experienced technical architects, server service engineers, along with more traditional video games development teams.
- Ensured stakeholder requirements were kept in line with strategic needs.
- Engaged producers and project managers to form matrix-managed teams each of which utilized project methodologies from PRINCE2 to agile to lean.
- Held full strategic planning and P&L management.
- Reported to a senior director and program managed five direct and 40+ indirect reports.
- Provided inspiring leadership, directed creative as well as financial efforts, identified business opportunities and oversaw an ongoing strategic expansion and growth plan that required careful restructuring of the team.
- Established joint ventures/strategic alliances with other Sony Computer Entertainment groups and interfaced with regional business groups and game developers across the world, as well as VPs and directors.
- Maintained stable and secure platform and deliver cost-cutting initiatives to business regions and developers.
- Managed communications and relationships with key stakeholders.
- Delivered disparate projects across multiple cost/profit centers on time and within scope, handling all the various problems, opportunities, and temptations that come with that.
Head of Operations / Developer Support Project Manager
Sony Computer Entertainment Europe
- Oversaw operations, support, knowledge management and platform analysis.
- Built the developer support team from the ground up. Developer support generated the documentation, technical support, issue tracking and resolution, samples, and direct communication with developers.
- Managed the operations team. Operations handled the critical weekly content production cycle that published assets to the live environment, as well as issue tracking and resolution from internal regional business groups, and the entire infrastructure architecture and integrity underlying the platform.
- Took over the operations team resulting in adopting a semi-ITIL structure and handling critical publishing infrastructure and training of a service desk team, utilizing Jira and CMSs.
- Managed all projects such as documentation releases, the creation of samples, localizations, and developer support conferences.
- Created an Agile philosophy within the teams across departments, before Agile existed.
Consultant and Project Manager
Various
- Served as an E-Learning Project Manager for multiple companies.
- Contracted as a Web-Enabled Learning Developer for the UK Foreign Office and Hewlett-Packard.
- Provided freelance web development as an independent contractor.
- Hired as a technical author and intranet developer for Pfizer Inc.
- Provided services as a technical author and website developer for Network People.
Psychology and Sociology Teacher / Head of Department
Kent College, Canterbury
- Taught Psychology and Sociology to teenagers and evening class students.
- Led the Social Sciences department.
Project History
Merlin - Clinical Study Data Digitization
At AstraZeneca, I was the program manager in charge of business and IT for Merlin, a drug study design wizard that matched big data with advanced analytics to drive quality and speed savings. Merlin was predicted to save $1 billion over five years.
This was a highly complex program of work that was part of a digital transformation program, and we needed to work closely with dozens of data privacy, quality assurance, TMOs, PMOs, deployment steering groups, IT departments, BAs, and countless others. This meant needing to track dependencies and risks across a half dozen streams of work while corralling subject matter experts who were keener to talk all day about fascinating subjects than come to any conclusions.
I led workshops with people who had worked at NASA, trained product managers who happened to be non-Agile Directors with 30 years of study design experience, and was part of the leadership team negotiating budgets. I won a tripling of the development team size and put in place all the operational processes of the leadership team (including Portfolio Kanban).
I was the key influencer in creating a product management guild that was widely praised from the CEO level downwards.
Project Manager - Enterprise Project Portfolio Management solution
Led evaluation of shortlisted EPPMs, including Agile solutions, through to selection and implementation.
This role included: stakeholder management ranging from Cxx to individual project managers; effective communications; vendor relationships; procurement; IT security and integration; Kanban project management; portfolio prioritization; requirements gathering; scope management; whatever else needed doing.
Shortlisted vendors included Agile solutions, with workshops being conducted to put the vendors through their paces and ensure our own preparation was thoroughly assessed.
Senior Consultant and Project Manager - Crowdicity for Education
Led project to deliver ideation/innovation to Government Education Authority using crowdsourcing solution.
Agile Project Management - Rapid prototyping
Led transformation of stage-gated design to a Lean Agile rapid prototyping pipeline.
This was a highly complex and demanding project, involving dozens of teams and scores of stakeholders, but reduced lead time by 50%. Transformation is never easy, but by ensuring that the junior project managers and producers were trained in Lean philosophy and kanban, we were able to stick to the plan and lend support where it was needed.
The end result was collaboration where before there was communication breakdown, reduction of waste, support for Agile methods that led to a championing of Lean Agile.
Education
MBA (to Complete in 2025) in Business Analytics
O.P. Jindal University - India
Postgraduate Certificate in Business Administration
Open University - London, UK
Bachelor's Degree in Social Psychology with Computing
Kent University at Canterbury - UK
Certifications
Enterprise Kanban Management Professional
David J. Anderson School of Management
Kanban Management Professional (KMP)
David J. Anderson School of Management
Professional Scrum Product Owner Level I
Scrum.org
Professional Scrum Master Level I (PSM I)
Scrum.org
Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) Foundation and Practitioner
Axelos
Certified SAFe® 4 Agilist
Scaled Agile Inc.
PRINCE2® Registered Practitioner
Axelos
Skills
Tools
Confluence, Jira Project Management, Trello Development, Microsoft Development, Excel Development, Asana Project Management
Paradigms
Agile Project Management, Agile Project Management, Scrum Master Consulting, Management, Agile Project Management, Team Development, Change Management, Waterfall Project Management, Kanban Project Management, Agile Project Management, PRINCE2, Agile Project Management
Industry Expertise
Video Gaming, Pharmaceuticals, Casinos & Gaming, Healthcare App Design, Government
Platforms
Windows Development, MacOS, Businessmap (formerly Kanbanize)
Other
Operations, Production, Product Planning, Project Planning, Project Delivery, Project Support, Project Lifecycle, Project Tracking, Project Timelines, Product Delivery, People Management, Leadership, Team Leadership, Team Mentoring, Team Management, Team Restructuring, Team Building, Mentorship, Project Portfolio Management (PPM), Video Games, Agile Sprints, Project Consultation, Program Management, Virtual Project Management, Writing & Editing, Stakeholder Management, Stakeholder Engagement, Agile Transformation, Operations Management, Project Leadership, Communication Coaching, Scrum Master Consulting, Agile Coaching, Web Project Management, IT, Technical Program Management, PMP Project Management, Enterprise Coaching, Virtual Work, Virtual Reality, PMI Project Management, Program Delivery, Gaming, Product Roadmaps, Feature Roadmaps, Change Leadership, Scaling, Facilitation, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Cross-departmental Collaboration, Gaming Platforms, Operational Efficiency Improvement, Training & Training Content Development, Product Management, Lean Product Development, Vendor Management, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Mobile/Web Project Management, Mobile Games, Technical Design, Software Project Management, Business Analysis Consulting, Process Transformation, Gantt Chart, Content Management Systems (CMS), Technical Support, Budgeting Consulting, Strategic Planning & Execution, Transformational Leadership, Resource Management, Business Psychology, Training, Executive Presentations, Lean Project Management, PMO Project Management, Economic Development, Compliance, Regulatory Reporting, Senior Executive Management, Leadership Development, Lean Project Management, Strategic Initiatives, Mobile Apps, Hybrid Apps, SaaS, Lean Canvas, Web Project Management, GDPR, Risk Analysis, SAFe Project Management, Big Data Architecture, Analytics Development, Executive Coaching, Board Reporting, Budget Modeling, Capacity Planning, PMO Development, Cross-cultural Management, Game Development, Recruitment, Finance, Legal, Outsourced Development, Planning, CI/CD Pipelines, Projects, Mentorship & Coaching, Remote Development, Marketing Design, Community Growth, Roadmaps, Annual Budgets, Web Technologies, Mobile UI Design, People Development, Program Design, Workshop Facilitation, Drug Development, Clinical Research, Feature Backlog Prioritization
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