Aaron Cargill
Product Manager
Norwich
Summary
Passionate, future thinking, design focused, value-driven product manager with experience leading cross-functional teams to plan, build, launch and manage purposeful customer focused products. With many skills ascertained over my many years or promotions through a software house, I am able to listen, created, design develop products and their roadmaps to achieve customer satisfaction while sticking to company objectives.
With extensive Agile experience and analytical abilities I can work confidently with development, testing, implementation and support teams to evolve and support a product strategy.
Working across 2 software products involves working in a forever changing, highly design focused, communicative and fast pace environment which requires a cool head, excellent management skills and an organized approach.
These skill have enabled me to achieve a life time goal, in 2019 I completed an Open University degree in IT and Design which required a high level of commitment and focus.
Overview
13
13
years of professional experience
7
7
years of post-secondary education
Work History
Associate Product Manager
Battleface
06.2022 - Current
- Working as an Associate Product Manager managing UK, EU and Australian markets to bring insurance products to life for our B2C, B2B and B2B2C clients.
- Working on insurance products from idea conception to launch. These products can take the form of an API, FTP or direct to consumer via our Website or affiliated application.
- Managing requirements and stakeholder engagement from all internal Teams, compliance, underwriting, sales and management, allowing for collaboration and positive design as well as constantly improving internal processes.
- Running and organizing stakeholder engagement meetings with internal management teams to develop a deeper understanding of the companies objectives and product vision so define a product roadmap that achieve the companies goals thus Increasing revenue.
- Documented user stories, specifications and product features using an Agile MVP approach. Each requirement is recorded into Coda to enable clear communication across teams and improved visibility of what comes next, this is especially important as many teams are spread across multiple timezones.
- Managed work items into bi-weekly sprints including multiple weekly catch ups with our engineers based in Malta, this is espcially critical because of the nature of working in a start up environment as priorities can change on a weekly basis without notice in line with the companies needs.
- Frictionless testing and analysis of delivered developments, using our staging environment or via postman API in conjunction with implementation with our offshore development/ testing teams. This allows us to evaluate and make proactive changes if required.
- Organised coordinated product releases, which involves releasing the develoment, testing, sign off and final delivery to internal implementation teams/support. This allows all teams to plan accordingly to support each stage of a release and finally the end customer.
- Consistent reviews of products and delivery using retros, with the aim of improving our process, with a 'what could have been done better approach', ultimately improving processes make each delivery much more precise.
- Ability to use many different product management tools such Coda, Figma, Microsoft Dev ops, Jira, Microsoft Teams, Click up.
StockViewer & Leaselink Product Manager
Ebbon Dacs
04.2021
- Working as Leaselink Assistant Product Manager I was promoted to a new dual role of Stockviewer & Leaselink Product manager, managing and looking after two fundamentally different applications.
- Managed concept-to-launch of the Stockviewer application which enables vehicle stock managers such as lease companies and dealerships to interact with each other in real-time. This is the newest Ebbon-Dacs product to hit the market in 2021.
- Conceptualized and deployed enhanced product features and optimized implementation for use in marketing strategies based on external and internal requirements, This created the foundation of the application roadmap.
- Maintained positive customer relations via catch ups and feedback sessions, using an iterative agile approach to design functionality, received feedback and to build strong partnerships and a even stronger application.
- Documented user stories, specifications and product features into azure dev ops to allow clear communication across teams and improve visibility of mandatory requirements.
- Created and managed work items into bi-weekly sprints, including weekly catch up with developers to allow us to stay on course for functionality releases in conjunction with implementation teams and customer expectations.
- Directed testing in coordination with our offshore testing and development teams, while making continuous evaluations to allow proactive adjustments to functionality.
- Organized and coordinated a frictionless release schedule across all business departments and offshore development teams.
- Managed engagement with our internal stakeholders and developed a deeper understanding of the companies objectives and product vision, which allowed me to plan an achievable roadmap
Leaselink Assistant Product Manager
Ebbon-Dacs
Oxford
10.2016 - 06.2021
- Promoted to Assistant product manager after two years of working hard as a business analyst.
- Co-managed Ebbon-Dacs oldest, functionality rich, and most profitable web based application Leaselink. This allows lease companies to procure vehicles from the point of customer order to vehicle delivery.
- Working within a team of two co-managing our offshore teams in Latvia, organizing bi-weekly sprints, engaging with internal stakeholders and assisting/covering the product manager when required.
- Managing communication with offshore development teams throughout the development process including concept demonstrations, user story reviews and training.
- Engagement with internal stakeholders to plan an ongoing roadmap focused on the company’s future goals.
- Working closely with all areas within the business to ensure that all teams have the knowledge of the products so that they can be supported, increasing customer focused perception of our products.
- Planning release schedules across the UK and International markets.
- Bug prioritization, making sure that key issues are resolved quickly and efficiently, reducing the impact on users and insuring continued confidence in the software.
- Covering all activities of the product manager when they are unavailable, this included liaising with the company’s higher management teams and making key decision regarding the application.
- Managing and organizing the software release process which includes scheduling release dates, testing developed functionality prior to release night on our internal testing environments and organising the relevant teams to take part such as support and overseas developers.
- Collaborating with all internal teams, visualise new design ideas and concepts to maximize the product offering and increase revenues, ultimately building an exciting roadmap.
Business Analyst
Ebbon-Dacs
Oxford
10.2014 - 10.2016
- Working as a Business Analyst within a team of 6, gathering/defining customer requirements, designing new changes and handing over product developments to the community to further benefit the range of bespoke in house-built applications
- Whilst working as a business analyst I have been exposed to all areas of business analysis which has helped me to fully understand the development cycle, learn new designing skills and gaining beneficial management experience
- Meeting with external customers/stakeholders and gathering customer requirements which are then documented, relayed back to the customer, and confirmed
- Turning the gathered customer requirements into user cases and then user stories
- Presenting the concept and vision to offshore development teams before user stories are worked on
- Designing UI functionality mockups using applications like Balsamiq to assist the design process
- Managing an extensive user story backlog within TFS prioritizing tasks on fortnightly sprints
- Testing user stories once developed to make sure they comply with the descriptions and acceptance criteria
- Working in an agile environment and creating developments starting with a minimum viable product and building upon this as the development progresses
- Constant product review to ensure that each development works as expected and any bugs are captured quickly minimizing the impact on customers
- Writing internal specification documentation and release notes
- Assisting the implementation team with product changes on visits to new sites (International and UK) and training new users
- Evening and Weekend cover where needed to assist support releases
- Using/amending configuration files server side to test and assist with integration issues
- Writing SQL statements to query, amend and insert data within the relevant tables
- Recreation of known ‘Bugs’ within the application to clarify information from the support team and understand what fixes are required by the support development team.
Support Team leader & 2nd Level Support Consultant
Ebbon-Dacs
Oxford
05.2013 - 10.2014
- Working as a team leader, in a team of 1st and 2nd level support consultants, helping to support Ebbon-Dacs bespoke in-house built applications, which have a user base in excess of 3000+ users
- Whilst working at Ebbon-Dacs I have been exposed to all areas of customer support which has helped me to excel in my position and in turn enabled me to provide our customers with the best support possible at all times
- Managing the team’s rota’s, holidays and overtime
- Supervising the team’s daily activities and raising call priorities as required
- Managing and escalating calls to development and product teams to resolve issues quickly
- Working to strict customer SLA’s and supervising the team to make sure these issues are dealt with quickly and efficiently
- Assisting the implementation team on visits to new sites and training new users
- Communicating with customer IT teams to overcome any pressing issues while keeping them updated through the life cycle of any problems logged
- Using/amending configuration files server side to help resolve integration issues
- Writing SQL statements to query, amend and insert data within the relevant tables
- Recreation of known ‘Bugs’ within the application on an internal application
- Linking common issues to known ‘Problems’ helping to assist the Product/Development team
- Investigate and resolve server side performance issues
Support Consultant
Ebbon-Dacs, DMS
Oxford
10.2012 - 05.2013
- Taking calls from users via email/telephone/self-service portal and logging these into bespoke Vivantio call logging software
- Working to tight SLA’s
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Use of XML editing tools such as XML Spy to resolve issues/calls
- Accessing servers via remote desktop
- Active Directory
- Microsoft server 2008
- Microsoft Dynamics AX2012 Application
- Recreating and finding Bug’s within the software applications
- Carrying out software testing before any new software release’s
- Outlook express
- Excel
- Word
Media Sales Executive
Oxford Mail
Oxford
02.2012 - 10.2012
- Creating, designing and selling advertising space within seven regional newspapers and associated magazines
- Producing sales quotations to suit customer needs,
- Account management of existing accounts, processing orders, managing customer expectations and improving the customer experience.
- Conducted market research to attract clients in new territories.
- Helped customers in determining design and layout of sold and spec ads.
Business Development Manager
Savona Provisions
Kidlington
01.2009 - 02.2012
- Managing a customer sales territory worth £1.2 million
- Having a high standard of customer service - including working quickly and efficiently with the customer to solve any issues which may arise
- Developing the potential business within my area and prospecting new accounts
- Using various IT programs such as excel, word and outlook express
- Producing sales quotations to suit the customer needs
- Prioritizing my workload and remaining organized to gain the best results.
Education
BSc - Computing and Design
Open University
Remote Learning 09.2011 - 06.2018
AVCE - Travel And Tourism
Lowestoft College
LowestoftBTEC - Travel And Tourism
Lowestoft College
LowestoftGCSE -
LowestoftSkills
Managing offshore development teams
Organising bi-weekly sprints and Software releasing
Taking customer requirements from concept to market deliveryAble to communicate with customers and stakeholders on all levelsUI design using applications such as BalsamiqSoftware release management and organisationMicrosoft SQL ServerTeam LeaderTeamwork and Collaboration
MS Office
Self-Motivated
Analytical and Critical Thinking
Ability to manage multiple products, requirements and roadmaps
Timeline
Associate Product Manager
Battleface
06.2022 - Current
StockViewer & Leaselink Product Manager
Ebbon Dacs
04.2021
Leaselink Assistant Product Manager
Ebbon-Dacs
10.2016 - 06.2021
Business Analyst
Ebbon-Dacs
10.2014 - 10.2016
Support Team leader & 2nd Level Support Consultant
Ebbon-Dacs
05.2013 - 10.2014
Support Consultant
Ebbon-Dacs, DMS
10.2012 - 05.2013
Media Sales Executive
Oxford Mail
02.2012 - 10.2012
BSc - Computing and Design
Open University
09.2011 - 06.2018
Business Development Manager
Savona Provisions
01.2009 - 02.2012
AVCE - Travel And Tourism
Lowestoft College
BTEC - Travel And Tourism
Lowestoft College