Liam Wickham, Project Manager in Nottingham, United Kingdom
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Liam Wickham

Verified Expert  in Project Management

Agile Project Manager

Location
Nottingham, United Kingdom
Toptal Member Since
June 11, 2018

Liam excels at understanding that every client and project is different, and each requires unique care and expertise to deliver maximum value and satisfaction. His servant-leadership approach, coupled with pragmatic stakeholder engagement, lends itself to lean agile project and program management. Liam has successfully led multiple teams through Agile transformations, handling everything from writing vision statements to installing Jira.

Project Highlights

Project Manager - Enterprise Project Portfolio Management solution
Led evaluation of shortlisted EPPMs, including Agile solutions, through to selection and implementation.
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.

Expertise

Work Experience

Program Manager

2019 - 2020
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

2019 - 2019
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

2017 - 2018
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

2017 - 2017
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

2016 - 2017
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

2015 - 2016
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

2015 - 2015
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

2012 - 2014
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

2007 - 2012
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

1995 - 2006
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

1993 - 1995
Kent College, Canterbury
  • Taught Psychology and Sociology to teenagers and evening class students.
  • Led the Social Sciences department.

Project Manager - Enterprise Project Portfolio Management solution

Led evaluation of shortlisted EPPMs, including Agile solutions, through to selection and implementation.

On behalf of the Wargaming leadership team, within the Enterprise PMO, Liam led a high-profile project to recommend, evaluate and implement a PPM / EPPM system across the organization.

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.

Took on complete project management and implementation of crowdsourcing solution (Crowdicity) for Local Education Authority. Delivered training to all members of staff. Moderated the platform, handled technical support, motivated and drove the discussions where necessary, held regular evaluation presentations and assisted with motivating stakeholders.

Agile Project Management - Rapid prototyping

Led transformation of stage-gated design to a Lean Agile rapid prototyping pipeline.

As part of a supported transformation into a fully Agile development team, led the analysis and critique of a stage-gated pipeline for developing game content and transformed this into rapid prototyping, including integrating QA, engineering support and reducing waste.

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.
2013 - 2014

Postgraduate Certificate in Business Administration

Open University - London, UK

1988 - 1992

Bachelor's Degree in Social Psychology with Computing

Kent University at Canterbury - UK

MARCH 2020 - PRESENT

Professional Scrum Product Owner Level I

Scrum.org

FEBRUARY 2020 - PRESENT

Professional Scrum Master Level I (PSM I)

Scrum.org

MAY 2018 - PRESENT

Managing Successful Programmes (MSP) Foundation and Practitioner

Axelos

JULY 2017 - PRESENT

Certified SAFe® 4 Agilist

Scaled Agile Inc.

JULY 2012 - PRESENT

PRINCE2® Registered Practitioner

Axelos

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