Vagner Amaral, Project Manager in São Paulo - State of São Paulo, Brazil
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Vagner Amaral

Verified Expert  in Project Management

Bio

Vagner is an agile project manager and serial entrepreneur with 17+ years of experience. He has already created 10+ businesses and worked with companies from different industries, ranging from fintechs to healthtechs, small startups to large multinational coporations, and some of Brazil's most prominent private banks. He is also extremely pragmatic and loves to work with evidence- and outcome-based deliverables; always committed to results and is very agnostic, methodology-wise.

Project Highlights

Projects Forecast (BI)
Created a BI dashboard to analyze the progress and track the results of the products and services that were released.
Efficiency and Flow Metrics (Dashboard)
Created a shared metrics dashboard where we could analyze each team's delivery efficiency and make calculated process improvement decisions based on data.
Prioritization Matrix
Created an artifact to address the subjectivity and ambiguity related to the prioritization criteria and other problems associated with the prioritization process.

Expertise

  • Agile
  • Business Agility
  • Confluence
  • DevOps
  • Kanban
  • Lean
  • Product Management
  • Scrum

Work Experience

Agile Coach for ERP Transformation

2023 - 2024
Yara International - Core Platforms
  • Used Agile practices to enhance predictability and reduce time-to-market, fostering a value-driven, customer-centric, and flexible approach. Improved team engagement through collaboration, ownership, and frequent feedback loops.
  • Addressed delivery delays by mitigating unpredictability and improving planning capacity.
  • Optimized demand management by addressing issues like changing priorities and lack of clarity in business requests and justifications.
  • Addressed capability bottlenecks by reducing queue times and increasing overall productivity.
  • Introduced key efficiency metrics (lead time, cycle time, throughput) for evidence-based decision-making.
  • Established a structured operating model with strategic, coordination, and operational levels.
  • Created a stakeholder communication plan addressing resistance and ensuring clarity in roles.
  • Conducted targeted training sessions, ensuring team alignment with new practices.

Founder

2018 - 2024
New Angle
  • Reduced the development team's overhead by improving internal communications, automating routine tasks, and eliminating unnecessary meetings and other time-wasting activities.
  • Increased the tech team's process efficiency by 50% in less than six months.
  • Created an upstream flow and framework to ensure we were building the right products and services for our clients by using pre-defined prioritization criteria and data-driven decisions brought by our BI team.
  • Redesigned an entire Logitech strategy and organizational structure by implementing the objectives and key results (OKRs) framework within the company and its different departments.
  • Helped a retail company design, build, and launch new products by running design sprints and leading the development teams during the development and product launch process.
  • Involved in the initial stages of a DevOps implementation by setting up the basic CI/CD tools (GitHub, Jenkins) and other DevOps practices and mindset (TDD, BDD, shift-left testing, continuous experimentation, customer centricity, and automation).
  • Facilitated training sessions and discovery workshops in order to prepare professionals and teams to deploy and launch new solutions to the market in the most efficient way possible.

Technical Project Manager

2022 - 2022
Givelify LLC
  • Enhanced the donor experience to incentivize recurring donations through gamification (achievements and medals), resulting in a 20% increase in recurring donations projected for the year after achieving a 5% increase in the 1st month of release.
  • Improved the organizations' donation dashboard, enabling better tracking and sharing of donation impacts.
  • Facilitated organizations in showcasing how donor contributions helped achieve their objectives, increasing donor engagement and satisfaction.
  • Spearheaded the design and implementation of CI/CD pipelines, reducing deployment time by 40% and enabling faster feedback loops.
  • Introduced automated testing frameworks, improving bug detection rates by 30% during the development phase.

Technical Project Manager

2021 - 2021
Critical Start, Inc.
  • Organized the work structure, from strategic objectives to projects to aligned tasks, aiming to prioritize valuable projects and create an efficient framework for new product and feature delivery.
  • Prioritized high-value projects, leading to a 15% increase in project delivery efficiency and increasing the average estimated return of investment per project by creating a new, well-defined, data-driven prioritization process.
  • Implemented a systematic approach for new product and feature delivery, improving team coordination and execution.
  • Established robust monitoring and alerting systems using Grafana and Prometheus, achieving 99.9% uptime for mission-critical applications.
  • Standardized Git workflows across teams, ensuring consistent version control and seamless collaboration in large-scale projects.
  • Fostered a DevOps culture by hosting cross-functional workshops, resulting in a 20% improvement in team collaboration and delivery speed.

Agile Leader

2019 - 2020
PagSeguro
  • Formed and structured new teams implementing their Kanban systems and methods from scratch.
  • Built a data-driven culture within the teams to ensure that all decisions were based on our performance and efficiency numbers and metrics.
  • Handled a difficult situation through proven conflict resolution techniques which led to the reassignment of one of the team members to another project without impacting our team's commitments and delivery dates.

Agile Coach

2017 - 2019
Banco Carrefour Solucoes Financeiras
  • Assisted in defining the vision, mission, and objectives, specifically OKRs and KPIs, of all teams involved in the bank's digital transformation.
  • Guided the implementation of the scaled agile framework, SAFe, with a few. adaptations across the whole organization.
  • Defined the roles and responsibilities, events, and artifacts related to the framework and coached teams on how to best implement and use them within the context of every department, area, and development team within the bank.
  • Defined the strategy for the digital marketing department of the bank by running a three-stage plan: the diagnosis – market research – benchmarking.
  • Developed a clear value proposition for CSF (Carrefour Bank) within the group to drive the prioritization of improvements, development of innovation strategies, creation of communication channels, content management, among other goals.
  • Structured and integrated the management of the different areas involved in the digital transformation, such as marketing, customer success, product, and technology based on the customers' journey.
  • Assisted the digital marketing squad in measuring and monitoring the results and performance of the campaigns, including creating new SEO strategies for the organization.

Scrum Master

2017 - 2017
Banco Itaú
  • Managed the development of the business version of the mobile app for the largest financial institution in Brazil.
  • Assisted the development teams comprised of iOS and Android developers, UI/UX designers, DevOps, QA, and API specialists, in delivering the redesign of the entire bank´s mobile app.
  • Served as an active member of the company's agile chapter by facilitating workshops and sharing knowledge through internal blogs and live presentations of Agile, Lean, Kanban, design thinking, and other leadership practices.

Iteration Manager and Agile Champion

2013 - 2017
IBM
  • Served as an Agile coach to support and promote the adoption of agile values, principles, and practices in the company as part of the new IBM's transformation and organizational culture changes effort.
  • Specialized in several agile methodologies, tools, techniques, and frameworks (working with both co-located and distributed teams).
  • Collaborated and led the L2 team for IBM’s social software called "IBM Connections," which was the most successful software product introduction for IBM at the time with $17 million in worldwide sales in less than six months.

Founder

2011 - 2013
Overcome Games
  • Managed all the contracts of the company for new and active clients.
  • Developed new partnerships and opportunities with different clients and other games and apps development companies and startups.
  • Created several experimental projects related to social media and the entertainment and music industries.

Team Lead

2007 - 2011
IBM
  • Performed the role of a team leader for the L2 application support team of IBM's Social Software (IBM Connections).
  • Maintained the team's application stability, availability, and performance by keeping track of our software's KPIs and SLAs.
  • Created, reviewed, approved, and coordinated all change requests related to our applications.

Project History

Projects Forecast (BI)

https://datastudio.google.com/reporting/3b80fc72-2c69-44aa-be24-7b98e2383541

Created a BI dashboard to analyze the progress and track the results of the products and services that were released.

I created the logic behind the solution as well as the integration between the data source (a Google Sheets file) and Google Data Studio (GDS) so that our client could have the visibility and transparency necessary to track the expected results by the solutions that were being delivered to their clients.

Sprint Performance Reports

https://datastudio.google.com/reporting/94d56d69-f5c1-4034-9e38-51074596f254

Created an automated report that was integrated directly with the client's Jira API to ensure that our sponsors and stakeholders would have a one-page view of how the teams were performing during sprints.

I designed the data visualization and the logic behind the data source (a Google Sheets file), which had an automation script developed to ensure we would get the most recent data directly from the client's Jira API. With that, we could generate a daily 'snapshot' of the current sprint's progress for each team, and have that snapshot sent by email to all interested stakeholders to keep them updated about the team's progress and sprint performance.

Efficiency and Flow Metrics (Dashboard)

https://datastudio.google.com/reporting/47e208f2-d129-4df7-ba1f-128ac98d38ff

Created a shared metrics dashboard where we could analyze each team's delivery efficiency and make calculated process improvement decisions based on data.

I structured the data source (a Google Sheets file). I created the logic, formulas, and custom calculations needed to generate shared metrics dashboards where we could analyze each team's performance and metrics and make data-driven decisions on improving the team's deliveries and processes efficiency by making the workflow steps bottlenecks and queues visible—allowing us to manage the flow more efficiently.

Teams Setup Framework

https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_lC1P6Ew=/

Developed an exclusive framework used whenever a new team, area, business unit, or department needed to be created from scratch.

I created this framework to help me guide companies and organizations and accelerate the formation of new teams, areas, business units, and departments, starting from their purpose and objectives and going all the way down to their workflows and value streams. The initial classes of services would be based on the context of each team's needs.

Prioritization Matrix

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10wL-3gDMmuFNZiJFow1D7ro-C0k4oJJo9rzPo_FRRdc/edit?usp=sharing

Created an artifact to address the subjectivity and ambiguity related to the prioritization criteria and other problems associated with the prioritization process.

I created an artifact that helped teams, departments, and managers address the subjectivity and ambiguity related to the prioritization process and criteria used by the company at the time, and which used to create extremely long discussions and a lot of confusion among teams and stakeholders, generating a lot of frustration and a feeling of "time wasted" during the meetings. After implementing the Prioritization Matrix as an "official/standard" artifact to guide the discussions and organize the list of proposed solutions in the "right" order, the main problems and constraints related to the process were either addressed or completely resolved.

OKRs Progress Reports

https://datastudio.google.com/reporting/b97a8081-a80a-4d13-8935-59a4bede3439

Created an automated report in Google Data Studio to show the current progress of the company's OKRs.

I improved the visibility of a client's strategic objectives and its key results/goals (OKRs) by creating an automated report in Google Data Studio so that everyone in the company would have access to follow the company's progress related to its defined and shared objectives. The solution considerably increased the organization's transparency and, consequently, employees'/collaborators' engagement, ownership, and accountability.

Education

2023 - 2024

MBA in Business Administration

FIAP - São Paulo - Brazil

2009 - 2010

Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA)

Universidades Anhanguera - Sao Paulo, Brazil

2004 - 2006

Bachelor's Degree in Information Technology

Universidade Braz Cubas - Sao Paulo, Brazil

Certifications

MARCH 2021 - PRESENT

CXP (Customer Experience Professional)

Kanban University

JUNE 2020 - PRESENT

Agile Governance

Software Zen

APRIL 2020 - PRESENT

Scaled Professional Scrum (SPS)

Scrum.org

FEBRUARY 2019 - PRESENT

Kanban Management Professional (KMP)

Kanban University

SEPTEMBER 2017 - PRESENT

Management 3.0

Happy Melly

MAY 2017 - PRESENT

SAFe Agilist (SA)

Scaled Agile, Inc.

FEBRUARY 2017 - PRESENT

IBM Agile Advocate

IBM

DECEMBER 2016 - PRESENT

Professional Scrum Master Level I (PSM I)

Scrum.org

NOVEMBER 2016 - PRESENT

IBM Agile Champion

IBM

FEBRUARY 2011 - PRESENT

ITIL Foundation Certification

Cabinet Office

Skills

Tools

Jira, Trello, Google Sheets, Google Data Studio, Miro, Confluence, Atlassian Suite, Office 365, Slack, Git

Paradigms

Scrum, Kanban, Lean, Agile, Change Management, Agile Project Management, Agile Leadership, Agile Workflow, Agile Product Management, Servant Leadership, Design Thinking, Behavior-driven Development (BDD), XP, Release Trains, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Continuous Delivery (CD), B2B, Agile Software Development, Lean Project Management, Data-driven Development, Continuous Integration (CI), DevOps, User Acceptance Testing (UAT), Azure DevOps

Platforms

Android, iOS, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

Industry Expertise

Healthcare, Lean Six Sigma

Other

Business Strategy, Forecasting, Team Building, Workflow, Strategic Planning, Facilitation, Metrics, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Objectives & Key Results (OKRs), Operational Efficiency Improvement, Digital Transformation, Workshop Facilitation, Agile Coaching, Business Agility, Service Delivery Management (SDM), Management 3.0, Distributed Team Management, Value Stream Mapping, Product Vision, IT Service Delivery, Leadership, Remote Team Leadership, Backlog Management, Scrum Master, Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), Microsoft Office, Business to Business (B2B), Project Planning, Software as a Service (SaaS), Stakeholder Management, Project Timelines, Agile Transformation, Web, Process Flows, Project Coordination, Communication, Certified ScrumMaster (CSM), User Stories, Agile Product Delivery, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Cross-functional Collaboration, Customer Experience, Scrum Coaching, Digital Project Management, Process Development, Team Management, Certified Scrum Professional, Data Analytics, Business Analysis, Digital Solutions, Business Requirements, Project Reporting, Client-side, Client Delivery Management, SaaS Product Management, Client Management, Product Strategy, eCommerce, Web Design, HTML, Project Management, Product Management, Data Analysis, Administration, Productivity Improvement, Process Design, Process Improvement, Financial Management, Conflict Resolution, Organizational Design, Portfolio Management, Program Management, Scaled Professional Scrum (SPS), Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Product Roadmaps, Market Fit, Customer Success, Risk Management, Extreme Programming, IT Governance, PI Planning, Release Train Engineer (RTE), Agile Release Training, Release Management, Lean Startups, Ideation Workshops, Service Design, Product Design, ITIL V3 Foundation Certified, Game Design, Web Applications, Mobile Applications, Web & Mobile Applications, Consumer Applications, Mobile Apps, Waterfall Methodology, Web Project Management, Technical Project Management, Project Management Professional (PMP), Discovery Workshops, Fintech, Process Improvement Project Management, SaaS, Stakeholder Engagement, Scope Management, Sprint Retrospectives, Product Owner, Startups, Web Development, Front-end, SAFe 6, Documentation, Information & Communications Technology (ICT), Microsoft, Implementation, Migration, Technical Product Management, JavaScript, MySQL, PHP, CSS, Web Servers, DNS Servers, Mail Servers, Internet Information Services (IIS), Internet Protocols, Web UX Design, APIs, QA Automation, New Business Development, Contract, DevSecOps, Feature Prioritization, Feature Backlog Prioritization, Strategic Initiatives, Strategic Planning & Execution, Big Data, Data Strategy, Big Data Architecture, Story Mapping, Multi-functional Teams, Product Ownership, Scrum Product Owner, Backlog Grooming, Quality Assurance (QA), QA Leadership, QA Testing, QA Test Plan Management, Software QA, Feature Roadmaps, Sprints, Agile Sprints, Sprint Planning, Sprint Master, Sprint Ceremonies, Cybersecurity, Zephyr, Strategy, Minimum Viable Product (MVP), Investments, Prototyping, User Personas, Business Model Canvas, Value Proposition, Validation, Hypothesis Testing, Product Launch

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