Mikhil Gandhi
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
London, ON, Canada
Toptal member since January 31, 2022
Mikhil, CSM and CSPO, has led projects, products, and digital transformations in finance, fintech, insurance, retail, eCommerce, and energy sectors. He has worn multiple hats, including BA, scrum master, product owner, co-founder, and project management consultant. With 8+ years of experience in different aspects of software development through various lenses, Mikhil collaborates with senior management, product owners, and remote multinational Scrum teams to deliver solutions and drive results.
Expertise
- Agile
- Agile Software Development
- Backlog Management
- Business Analysis
- Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)
- Scrum
- Scrum Coaching
- User Stories
Work Experience
Scrum Master
Zoetis
- Established and scaled Scrum processes for a diagnostic data team, driving continuous improvements through coaching, process optimization, and Agile best practices to enhance team efficiency and delivery cadence.
- Transformed business requirements into actionable user stories with clear acceptance criteria, ensuring alignment between cross-functional teams, stakeholders, and the technical team for timely and quality deliverables.
- Owned release and quarterly planning cycles, integrating stakeholder inputs and capacity planning insights to create realistic roadmaps and delivery forecasts within Jira and Confluence.
- Led Agile events including daily scrums, backlog refinements, sprint planning, reviews, and retrospectives, while also mentoring the product owner on backlog grooming, story mapping, and prioritization strategies.
- Created robust documentation and reporting frameworks using Confluence, Zephyr, and Jira dashboards, enabling transparency, audit-readiness, and stakeholder confidence through real-time status updates and compliance reports.
- Championed cross-functional collaboration by proactively engaging stakeholders, surfacing blockers early, and ensuring alignment across data engineers, analysts, and product teams to support diagnostic data platform delivery.
- Streamlined project administration and governance, managing sprint timelines, resource allocation, and team bandwidth while ensuring all compliance and documentation needs were met through structured Confluence workflows.
Scrum Master
Commonwealth Financial Network - IT, Enterprise Infrastructure
- Joined the enterprise as the 1st dedicated Agile practitioner and helped build the Agile Centre of Excellence.
- Developed and maintained detailed project plans, outlining scope, objectives, deliverables, timelines, and resource allocation.
- Ensured Agile values and principles were upheld, which resulted in continuous improvement in people, system techniques, delivery, and psychological safety.
- Prepared and presented project status reports, including progress, risks, issues, and mitigation plans to stakeholders and senior management.
Scrum Master | Senior Business Analyst
GoodFood Market Corp
- Joined the team as a founding member of the PMO to establish best practices in Agile principles and project management.
- Managed the implementation and deployment of back-end solutions, including a micro-fulfillment center setup, eCommerce integration with a warehouse management system, and a last-mile delivery application.
- Collaborated with stakeholders to gather detailed project requirements and translate them into actionable user stories and tasks.
- Developed a comprehensive work breakdown structure (WBS) that outlines all project tasks and activities.
- Defined and managed project timelines, setting clear milestones and deadlines for deliverables.
Senior Business Analyst | Scrum Master
First Canadian Title
- Managed portfolios of small, medium, and large product initiatives united under a clear product strategy that generated annual revenue of up to $10 million.
- Provided day-to-day tactical objectives and just-in-time decisions to system-level questions and defect triage for frequent and incremental product releases every two weeks.
- Managed product ideation, research, planning, prototyping, and costing.
- Allocated resources effectively, ensuring team members have the necessary skills and tools to complete their tasks.
- Defined and managed project scope, ensuring that changes were documented, evaluated, and approved through a formal change control process.
Scrum Master | Product Consultant
Gradeazy (Freelance)
- Coached the team to a higher level of Scrum maturity, which increased customer satisfaction by 20%.
- Identified and managed dependencies within the project and with external teams or systems.
- Pinpointed potential risks and issues early in the project and developed mitigation and contingency plans.
- Negotiated with the management team and product managers on product backlog prioritization and refined and prioritized high-value and high-quality releases.
- Managed relationships with external vendors and contractors, ensuring deliverables meet project requirements and quality standards.
Product Manager
Principal Rock E Venture Co
- Specified market requirements for products by conducting market research through customer visits and third-party data.
- Led series of A/B experiments and incremental feature updates to improve customer engagement by more than 10%.
- Defined product vision and roadmap for core products, partnering with the engineering team and end-users to improve user experience and collaboration.
Project History
Development of a Secured Debt Management Platform
Led the development of secured debt management platform and managed multiple releases for a fintech company.
I managed a remote team of eight developing a new secured debt management platform. I assisted business and technology stakeholders in generating and prioritizing the backlog, creating user stories, organizing user acceptance tests, and migrating data from the legacy platform.
Implementation of a Last Mile Delivery Application
Launched and managed several releases of last mile delivery for a grocery eCommerce client.
I managed the requirements analysis and planned and prioritized the feature backlog to ensure maximum value delivery. I collaborated with the business stakeholder to define the product vision, roadmap, and growth opportunities. I also managed the product validation and supported the customer during the implementation process
Development of a Hiring Assessment Platform
Launched and managed multiple iterations of a hiring assessment platform for a startup.
I assisted a startup in developing a hiring assessment platform from scratch, which included managing a remote team of five consultants to develop and roll out the product in frequent releases. I helped the product team adapt to the Scrum framework and define the product roadmap. I also created and prioritized the product backlog to identify the MVP requirements.
Education
Bachelor's Degree in Petroleum Engineering
Pandit Deendayal Energy University - Gandhinagar, India
Certifications
Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)
Scrum Alliance
Certified Scrum Master
International Scrum Institute
Skills
Tools
Google Docs, Jira, Confluence, Slack, Postman, Office 365, Miro, Figma, Asana, Axure RP Pro, Microsoft Visio, Balsamiq
Paradigms
Agile, Scrum, Azure DevOps, Agile Software Development, Requirements Analysis, Agile Project Management, Agile Delivery, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Agile Leadership, Management
Other
Scrum Coaching, Business Analysis, User Stories, Backlog Management, Communication, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), Project Management, Scrum Master, Sprint Retrospectives, Agile Coaching, Microsoft Office, Sprint Planning, Team Building, Continuous Improvement, Waterfall Methodology, Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Market Research & Analysis, Scrum Product Owner, Product Owner, Sprints, Sprint Ceremonies, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Backlog Grooming, Stakeholder Management, Smartsheet, GAP Analysis, Engineering, Data Analysis, Project Management Office (PMO), PMO Development, Remote Team Leadership, Data Migration, Last Mile Logistics, Product Vision, Product Roadmaps, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Requirements, Design Sprints, A/B Testing, UX Research, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Program Increment Planning, Documentation, Project Reporting, Business Requirements, Stakeholder Engagement, Zephyr
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