Thene is available for hire
Hire TheneThene Sheehy
Verified Expert in Project Management
Project Manager
Location
Salir do Porto, Portugal
Toptal Member Since
May 8, 2019
Thene is a successful and experienced leader of technology teams, programs, and projects. She provides vision, coaching, and energy to IT and product teams to deliver excellent solutions via Agile thinking and methods. She's currently working from the Silver Coast of Portugal. In 2019, Thene launched a new Portuguese business for Agile coaching and life (happiness and joy) coaching. Since 2021, she has been leading the team of Agile coaches for Talkdesk.
Project Highlights
Panalpina Integrations PADI 2.0
Guided a new team in its first eight sprints using agile and scrum approaches within a very structured waterfall environment.
Agile Coach | US Staffing Agency with Client Platform
Coached a US-based staffing provider in their migration to agile thinking and scrum-style delivery with clients.
Healthways | SulAmérica Well-being Coaching, Portal, and Mobile App
Launched several versions of the Embrace & Well-being desktop/mobile app for Healthways in Brazil, France, and Australia.
Expertise
Work Experience
Director | Agile Operations
2021 - PRESENT
Talkdesk, Portugal
- Provided Agile coaching to software teams at Talkdesk. Promoted to a leadership role.
- Expanded my role in March 2021 to manage the coaches in our CCaaS (Call Center as a Service) business unit, along with new ways of scaling our operations with more and more team members in CCaaS.
- Oversaw release management, operations program management, and metrics/tools. We launched Agile Culture @Scale, our lite-weight governance approach to plan, operate, deliver, and measure in Agile ways while keeping it all sustainable and engaging.
- Coached directors, engineering, and product managers to lead their teams to high-value delivery alongside team health and happiness and a strong culture of collaboration.
- Collaborated with other leaders to find common ways of working that allow us to align our quarterly work plan, summarize our delivery, and highlight bottlenecks and process/flow issues.
- Designed dashboards that track our progress and highlight issues using Jira and DataStudio.
- Created efficient ways of sharing our progress, problems, and plans across our business unit of 250+ people with greater detail while also enabling info sharing to leadership teams beyond our BU with less detail.
- Facilitated large group ceremonies and celebrations that held us together as a team on a common mission.
- Consolidated all of the Agile coaches for Talkdesk in January 2023 into one common group to better support all of R&D and provide better career growth for the coaches.
- Worked to align various ways of working across five prior BUs to enable better collaboration and coordination of work.
Agile Project Manager
2020 - 2020
Toptal Projects
- Provided project management services within the Toptal team to craft an RFP response for US-based clients.
- Crafted the candidate list of user stories and the candidate data model from the RFP information.
- Overhauled the candidate project schedule and the team composition to align with the RFP priorities and planned work.
- Designed Toptal questions for the RFP Q&A session and participated in the vendor Q&A session.
Agile Coach
2020 - 2020
Major US Staffing Provider
- Coached leaders for a new staffing software platform to deliver this product to their client companies using Agile thinking and Scrum methods.
- Trained the product owner in Agile thinking and Scrum methods, cycles, artifacts, and more.
- Coached the development lead in transforming Jira work items to represent business/user-focused epics and stories versus technology components and tasks.
- Worked with tech leaders on new training materials and templates (e.g., SOW) for the internal team and for use with clients as they kick off new client projects.
- Introduced dual-track Agile: For each client, the team will go through design sprints to gather the customization specs, like staffing policies, approval workflow, system integrations, worker types, and more.
- Guided the product owner role, Scrum cycles, process, Jira set up, retraining materials, client SOW templates, epics and stories, and so on.
Scrum Master and Agile Coach
2019 - 2019
Panalpina/DSV
- Implemented scrum ceremonies, like backlog grooming, sprint planning, daily standup, reviews, and retrospectives.
- Managed the backlog with product owners as part of my role.
- Coached the team, which included forming, storming, communication, process improvements, sprint goals, and finding the team's "North Star."
- Worked with Jira and Confluence. Documented processes.
- Provided user story guidance, including naming, descriptions, splitting, the definition of ready, defining when something is done, linking, and subtasks.
- Trained the team in Agile thinking and Scrum concepts and processes.
- Managed the reporting and team progress dashboards.
Senior Project Manager
2018 - 2019
Ignite Technologies (via Online Freelance Agency)
- Managed software projects for Ignite clients, including new installations, upgrades, custom work, and product configurations. The products include Acorn, FirstRain, Sensage, Placeable, ScaleArc, Knowledge Marketing, and all products owned by Ignite.
- Worked within a highly automated environment using Smartsheet, its reports, and dashboards.
- Managed ongoing product improvements via Scrum and Kanban methods in Jira.
- Oversaw PMO playbooks in Confluence and worked within a lean PMO.
- Spearheaded approximately ten projects concurrently.
- Managed and monitored work on approximately 50 projects within a new project management approach since January 2019.
- Worked mainly with US-based clients. Ignite team members are typically global.
- Incorporated the Cardinal Mark 5 product teams, Knowledge Marketing, Olive, Firm58, ResponseTek, and RMSA, into Ignite's process, including SIPOCs creation, Jira and Confluence training, daily standups, work prioritization, and process improvements.
Director of Enterprise Agile Delivery | Program Manager | Agile Enterprise Coach
2017 - 2018
Nextiva
- Worked as an enterprise agile coach/leader to improve the delivery flow, feedback, and continuous learning.
- Managed a team of six Scrum Masters in Phoenix and Kyiv, Ukraine.
- Led discussions with teams to align on the following definitions: done, ready, story pointing, slicing, versioning, and other common framework concepts.
- Implemented a central site for impediments to increase visibility across the entire CRM platform.
- Reviewed all team retrospectives while looking for common issues and themes for improvements.
- Coached product owners to improve stories and match alignment to epics (as product features) and versions (launch, post-launch, and production releases).
- Worked with teams and POs to speed up story approval to enable QA to start earlier testing.
- Supported the public launch planning via Jira data analysis and project plan (Smartsheet).
- Coordinated with UI/UX/CX design team in designing the framework in Jira so that they could track their work, link it to the development teams' work, and integrate them into the flow of work from start to finish.
- Migrated 20 teams (Phoenix and Kyiv) from Rally to Jira and Confluence to enable the quick startup of new teams and to have a common language, process, and metrics for tracking statuses and predicting delivery velocity.
Program Manager
2016 - 2017
PetSmart
- Worked as a program manager handling all of the integrations, reporting, and providing Atlassian and Planview support (six months).
- Led PetSmart's data/enterprise information management (EIM) program delivering holistic customer profile, corporate data analytics, and MDM through various projects and technologies.
- Advanced our use of Agile/Scrum methods to deliver cohesive end-to-end value for the pets and a great pet parent experience to our associates more quickly and consistently.
- Oversaw the Atlassian/Jira and Planview tools admin team for PetSmart Center for Enablement (process improvement team) from June to November 2017.
- Acted as the Scrum Master for the enterprise integrations/API transformation team.
- Evaluated PPM tools to replace the current solution and led the implementation of Sensei's Beacon product (MS Project Online, PWA, SharePoint, and Power BI package).
- Served as the product owner and lead for Jira/Confluence tools.
- Introduced the agile community of practice within PetSmart.
Senior Project Manager (Contract)
2016 - 2016
Dignity Health
- Worked in Dignity Health's population health team.
- Delivered projects in support of a very large employer-payer implementation, the NaviHealth bundled payment data integration (for a hospital's +90-daycare management), the Salesforce and EDW/data warehouse enhancements, and the LabCorp and Quest data acquisition for the clinical networks the company supports.
Senior International Project Manager
2012 - 2016
Healthways (now Sharecare)
- Served as the project/program manager for the implementation of the company's services for a major insurance provider in Brazil (2013).
- Deployed the website capabilities fully and launched the company's health coach call center in Brazil (May 2014).
- Managed the implementation of disease management and senior programs (software enhancements, configuration, facilities, and nurse staffing) with the August 2015 launch.
- Oversaw the build of Embrace, a client/server and web app that uses ICD-10 claims data and clinical rules to determine health risks and conditions, stratify the risk level of patients, and provide nurse scripts, patient education, member actions, emails/letters, and other member engagement mechanisms to improve and manage patient wellbeing. The nurse/coach application is fully integrated with the member-facing mobile and portal app. System design has some variations based on client-contracted services and country.
- Acted as the program/project manager and Scrum Master for two major global releases (six months of development) that included updates to the global product in France, Brazil, and Australia.
- Project-managed a major facelift for the company's portal and mobile apps (from July 2014 to August 2015).
- Spearheaded the deployment of a new health and wellness management web application and mobile application for Healthways International (Australia) clients and their health fund members (2012).
- Launched successfully several new Australia clients and managed the Healthways work for a client call center move in Brazil (2012).
- Managed a major release of the company's core software platform for call center nurses, health coaches, and enhancements of the member web and mobile portals (~11 months, 80 enhancements, three countries in 2013).
- Created a new client cookbook to enable the international team to launch products/services for new clients with consistent quality (from 2012 to 2013).
- Oversaw the international strategy development project with the senior leadership team (2012).
Director of Telemedicine Tech Solutions, Business Intelligence, Databases, and Middleware | Program Manager | Team Leader
2008 - 2012
Mercy Health System
- Worked as the director, program manager, and senior project manager of telemedicine technology solutions.
- Delivered TeleHeadache, TeleStroke, remote-home monitoring services, hearing-impaired and language TeleTranslation services, and TelePsych via telemedicine technology.
- Designed a clinician workflow using a combination of telemedicine technology with Epic’s EHR/EMR system.
- Ensured that all critical epic workflow steps were properly defined and sequenced for procedure order, data gathered during the procedure, and billing.
- Established a new telemedicine technology service line for IT, including standard solutions, project intake processes, and project management.
- Worked with clinical leaders to develop a multiyear telemedicine roadmap along with budget expectations to meet it.
- Oversaw the cross-functional technical teams in projects resulting in an improvement of telemedicine capabilities.
- Defined eight standard use cases for Mercy TeleMedicine.
- Project-managed the deployment of Mercy’s first telemedicine perinatal center and additional outreach locations (two remote sonogram beds, two remote fetal monitoring, and two TeleVisit rooms).
- Spearheaded the enterprise-wide deployment of vendor software for web-based nurse scheduling (approximately 12,000 nurses, an 18-month plan; Smartsquare software).
- Organized the nursing strategic plan and for the nursing leadership team.
- Acted as the director of infrastructure application solutions, BI/reporting, and database/middleware.
- Managed the DBA group (Oracle, SQL, Epic Cache), the infrastructure application admin group (WebSphere, IIS, SharePoint, Maximo, Ruby, Quality Center, AppWorx, DataStage, TIBCO, and more), BI operations, and Clarity Reporting teams (approx 40 staff).
- Supervised the business intelligence (BI) operations and Epic/Clarity (healthcare management) corporate data reporting, including 370 enterprise reports.
- Oversaw the data warehouse ETL/load, business-objects reporting support, extracts, business objects administration, and end-user support.
- Collaborated with the BI custom development team for universal design and development.
Project History
Panalpina Integrations PADI 2.0
Guided a new team in its first eight sprints using agile and scrum approaches within a very structured waterfall environment.
Project Tasks:
• Trained the team in agile and scrum, which included teamwork skills and stages, problem-solving, WIP limits, and Kaizen thinking.
• Facilitated conversations with product owners to prioritize backlogs.
• Managed the product backlog and assisted product owners and external requesters.
• Held daily standups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives.
• Taught user story writing, slicing, defined terms (ready, done), and sprint planning.
• Generated weekly progress reports to upper management using data from Jira boards.
• Tracked team velocity and influencing factors.
• Maintained and monitored two team dashboards (Jira and Confluence)—showing product and team)progress. It sliced current/past sprint work by business unit served, story type, and status, which enabled a better analysis.
• Created initial content in Confluence, encouraged ongoing use, including a link to Jira issues.
• Worked with the team to expand content when they agreed upon integration frameworks and common components along with support documentation.
• Maintained the product roadmap (Confluence gadget) for external stakeholders.
It was a six-month contract set to end in mid-October. DSV has since purchased Panalpina.
• Trained the team in agile and scrum, which included teamwork skills and stages, problem-solving, WIP limits, and Kaizen thinking.
• Facilitated conversations with product owners to prioritize backlogs.
• Managed the product backlog and assisted product owners and external requesters.
• Held daily standups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives.
• Taught user story writing, slicing, defined terms (ready, done), and sprint planning.
• Generated weekly progress reports to upper management using data from Jira boards.
• Tracked team velocity and influencing factors.
• Maintained and monitored two team dashboards (Jira and Confluence)—showing product and team)progress. It sliced current/past sprint work by business unit served, story type, and status, which enabled a better analysis.
• Created initial content in Confluence, encouraged ongoing use, including a link to Jira issues.
• Worked with the team to expand content when they agreed upon integration frameworks and common components along with support documentation.
• Maintained the product roadmap (Confluence gadget) for external stakeholders.
It was a six-month contract set to end in mid-October. DSV has since purchased Panalpina.
Agile Coach | US Staffing Agency with Client Platform
Coached a US-based staffing provider in their migration to agile thinking and scrum-style delivery with clients.
Project Tasks:
• Implemented an agile-based process to improve their customization design and implementation for their platform for staffing clients. Uses dual-track agile to enable concurrent design and implementation sprints.
• Coached use of Miro for Discovery Workshops.
• Used RACI to align with the new agile process and roles within their structure.
• Standardized the list of epics and stories as a starter list.
• Conceptualized a data model for their platform to use with all of their clients.
• Created training materials on the new agile process and terminology.
• Modified the executive status report template (for their internal execs and clients) that aligns with the new process.
• Developed Jira operating agreements to align sprints, projects, boards, and Jira usage to the new process so that Jira reflects reality and can transparently provide work statuses.
• Reviewed client’s prior retrospective and lessons learned to help find relevant process improvements.
• Recommended Scrum.org.
• Provided training materials.
• Tested possible app for asynchronous daily standups due to timezone challenges (Friday.app).
• Provided Jira tips and techniques for better, easier usage.
• Implemented an agile-based process to improve their customization design and implementation for their platform for staffing clients. Uses dual-track agile to enable concurrent design and implementation sprints.
• Coached use of Miro for Discovery Workshops.
• Used RACI to align with the new agile process and roles within their structure.
• Standardized the list of epics and stories as a starter list.
• Conceptualized a data model for their platform to use with all of their clients.
• Created training materials on the new agile process and terminology.
• Modified the executive status report template (for their internal execs and clients) that aligns with the new process.
• Developed Jira operating agreements to align sprints, projects, boards, and Jira usage to the new process so that Jira reflects reality and can transparently provide work statuses.
• Reviewed client’s prior retrospective and lessons learned to help find relevant process improvements.
• Recommended Scrum.org.
• Provided training materials.
• Tested possible app for asynchronous daily standups due to timezone challenges (Friday.app).
• Provided Jira tips and techniques for better, easier usage.
Healthways | SulAmérica Well-being Coaching, Portal, and Mobile App
http://painel.programasaudeativa.com.br/Launched several versions of the Embrace & Well-being desktop/mobile app for Healthways in Brazil, France, and Australia.
Healthways International team created a new well-being improvement center in Sao Paulo with a team of health coaches where they gave advice to members of SulAmerica's health insurance program (Saude Ativa). In addition to coaching calls, members have access to the Healthways well-being web application and in 2015, the new mobile app.
Project Workstreams:
• Web Portal and Clinical
• Information Technology (IT)
• Facilities
• Call Center Operations
• Legal/Regulatory
• Translations/Localization
• HR/Training
• Project Management
• Client Management
The initial versions of this project (and for other countries) were managed via waterfall methods. In 2013, the entire team switched to agile/scrum methods and my role shifted to a dual one of scrum master and project manager (for ongoing management reporting.)
Project Workstreams:
• Web Portal and Clinical
• Information Technology (IT)
• Facilities
• Call Center Operations
• Legal/Regulatory
• Translations/Localization
• HR/Training
• Project Management
• Client Management
The initial versions of this project (and for other countries) were managed via waterfall methods. In 2013, the entire team switched to agile/scrum methods and my role shifted to a dual one of scrum master and project manager (for ongoing management reporting.)
Nextiva Agile Transformation
https://www.nextiva.com/products.htmlAdvanced the capabilities of 20 agile/scrum teams based in Phoenix (US) and Kyiv (Ukraine) in a little over three months.
Project Tasks:
• Migrated 20 teams (Phoenix and Kyiv) from Rally to Jira and Confluence.
• Encouraged them to follow a common framework and space template to enable the quick startup of new teams and common language, process, and metrics for tracking statuses and predicting delivery velocity.
• Created a new agile Confluence space containing all the information about team operations, Scrum, and Kanban framework, sprint cycle, process flow, Jira setup, tips/techniques, roles/responsibility definitions, team ceremony schedules, sprint impediments/velocity summaries, and retrospective library.
• Led discussions with teams to align on the following definitions: done, ready, story pointing, slicing, versioning, and other common framework concepts.
• Began early discussions on a dual Agile track with new UI/UX/PX vice president.
• Migrated 20 teams (Phoenix and Kyiv) from Rally to Jira and Confluence.
• Encouraged them to follow a common framework and space template to enable the quick startup of new teams and common language, process, and metrics for tracking statuses and predicting delivery velocity.
• Created a new agile Confluence space containing all the information about team operations, Scrum, and Kanban framework, sprint cycle, process flow, Jira setup, tips/techniques, roles/responsibility definitions, team ceremony schedules, sprint impediments/velocity summaries, and retrospective library.
• Led discussions with teams to align on the following definitions: done, ready, story pointing, slicing, versioning, and other common framework concepts.
• Began early discussions on a dual Agile track with new UI/UX/PX vice president.
Mercy Health | Maternal/Fetal Clinic via Telemedicine
https://goo.gl/maps/vkFSbkYQps8qKwg28Led buildout and tech selection for a new perinatal clinic in rural Illinois, providing services via telemedicine services.
Project Tasks:
• Managed the deployment of Mercy’s first telemedicine perinatal center and additional outreach locations (two remote sonogram beds, two remote fetal monitoring, and two TeleVisit rooms).
Mercy's Telemed Program advanced further over time; you can find more information at the link below.
• http://www.mercyvirtual.net/
• Managed the deployment of Mercy’s first telemedicine perinatal center and additional outreach locations (two remote sonogram beds, two remote fetal monitoring, and two TeleVisit rooms).
Mercy's Telemed Program advanced further over time; you can find more information at the link below.
• http://www.mercyvirtual.net/
Mercy Health | Telemedicine Technology Director (2011)
Led a team in selecting telemedicine tech for various projects within the health system: video calls, sonograms, etc.
Project Tasks:
• Organized the infrastructure which included sorting out the IT teams for delivery, monitoring common risks, and connecting clinicians working on similar tech uses; primarily a Cisco Tandberg video platform.
• Managed the delivery of telemed services (headache, stroke, remote-home monitoring services, hearing-impaired and language-translation services, and psych)—enabling Mercy to deliver healthcare to underserved areas and optimize and extend the use of critical healthcare providers.
• Designed a clinician workflow using telemed tech and Epic’s EHR/EMR system by ensuring that all critical epic-workflow steps were defined and sequenced for procedure order, clinical data gathered during the procedure, and billing.
• Established a new telemed tech service line, including standard solutions, project intake processes, and project management.
• Worked with clinical leaders to develop a multi-year roadmap and budget expectations to meet it.
• Led cross-functional technical teams in infrastructure projects to improve telemed capabilities.
• Defined eight use cases for Mercy Telemedicine.
• Guided the collaboration for a white paper and strategy to support delivery.
Roles: Project Manager | Tech Leader
• Organized the infrastructure which included sorting out the IT teams for delivery, monitoring common risks, and connecting clinicians working on similar tech uses; primarily a Cisco Tandberg video platform.
• Managed the delivery of telemed services (headache, stroke, remote-home monitoring services, hearing-impaired and language-translation services, and psych)—enabling Mercy to deliver healthcare to underserved areas and optimize and extend the use of critical healthcare providers.
• Designed a clinician workflow using telemed tech and Epic’s EHR/EMR system by ensuring that all critical epic-workflow steps were defined and sequenced for procedure order, clinical data gathered during the procedure, and billing.
• Established a new telemed tech service line, including standard solutions, project intake processes, and project management.
• Worked with clinical leaders to develop a multi-year roadmap and budget expectations to meet it.
• Led cross-functional technical teams in infrastructure projects to improve telemed capabilities.
• Defined eight use cases for Mercy Telemedicine.
• Guided the collaboration for a white paper and strategy to support delivery.
Roles: Project Manager | Tech Leader
Education
2003 - 2004
Master's Degree in Management of Technology
Vanderbilt University - Nashville, TN, USA
1979 - 1985
Bachelor of Science (BSc) Degree in Computer Science
University of Missouri - Kansas City, MO, USA
Certifications
DECEMBER 2019 - PRESENT
Professional Life Coach
Transformation Academy
MAY 2019 - PRESENT
Agile Coach Certification (ACC)
ICAgile
JULY 2017 - JULY 2020
Agile Master
Scrum Study
MAY 2017 - MAY 2021
Certified Scrum Professional
Scrum Alliance
AUGUST 2015 - AUGUST 2021
PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
SEPTEMBER 2013 - PRESENT
Certified Scrum Master (Initial Certification)
Scrum Alliance
SEPTEMBER 2005 - SEPTEMBER 2021
Project Management Professional (PMP)
Project Management Institute (PMI)
Collaboration That Works
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