Rachel Bailey

Crewe, Cheshire ·

Senior Product Owner with over 8 years owning, and 10 years developing SaaS applications. I have a great passion in helping development teams achieve project goals, as well as working and guiding customers throughout the full development cycle. My previous experience in web development allows me to have invaluable understanding and appreciation for the development processes.


Experience

Product Owner for Mobile & SDK

IMS (Insurance & Mobility Solutions)

Ownership of both the SDK and customer facing mobile application which allows users to monitor their driving feedback, as well as receive rewards should their driving improve. The responsibilities included:

  • Facilitating the development of new features and functionalities, whilst working closely with the UX/UI and development teams in designing the look and feel of these features
  • Prioritized feature list items from the product backlog to suit business needs whilst considering development capacity
  • Wrote narratives, use cases, user stories and requirements to enable the product planning process
  • Developed, monitored, evaluated and standardized key metrics and product analytics to improve technical and customer / business performance
  • Ran all agile ceremonies with both Mobile & SDK development teams, allowing for direct communication and alignment on product vision and goals
  • Created the scoping for product improvements including development of business cases, supporting metrics, business requirements, and product specifications
  • Delivered quality documentation including customer journeys, use cases and technical diagrams
  • Regularly reviewed and maintained written documentation to ensure products are functioning as designed, accurate information is being presented, system issues are properly reported, and product releases are properly tested prior to a production release
  • Oversaw user acceptance testing and supported go-to-market planning and product adoption
  • Frequently reviewed product to have final decision on accepting or rejecting features or changes
  • Assisted in the detection, diagnosis and resolution of defects within the Mobile & SDK products
  • Worked with analytical team partners, ensuring success measurement plans are executed and outcomes are communicated to the necessary stakeholders
  • Worked alongside the Support Team to identify root causes of known bugs, as well as identify any feature gaps of the product
March 2023 - Present

Digital Product Owner

VetPartners Ltd.

As part of my Digital Product Owner role within VetPartners my responsibilities included:

  • Taking ownership and accountability for the Pet Parent Online Ordering & Booking projects
  • Working with 3rd party development teams to share product vision & outline priorities, as well as helping the teams to deliver in scope, on time and in budget solutions
  • Completing UAT activities on development releases, ensuring they align with the provided A/C and business requirements
  • Working closely with the Project Director to outline the best practices for delivery processes
  • Completing onsite training with veterinary staff ahead of feature releases
  • Providing regular updates across the VetPartners leadership team
  • Liaising with UX, Marketing & CRM teams to ensure aligned vision
  • Supporting recruitment of new members of the team
June 2022 - December 2022

Senior Product Owner

Codeweavers Ltd.

Ownership of the new analytics ‘Insights’ product, alongside taking lead on high value project work streams for both manufacturers and lenders within the automotive industry. The aim of which is to help our customer sell more cars, more efficiently.

  • Product Owner of Data Analytics Team, responsibilities include supporting data driven decisions throughout the business and for our customers, as well as providing success stories for tenders
  • Project lead for up-to 3 high value work streams for manufacturer & lender projects at one time
  • Creating product/project roadmaps to ensure team & company have clear vision of goals
  • Supporting team throughout the Scrum/Kanban/Extreme Programming methodologies by leading stand-ups, user story & goal writing, acceptance criteria signoffs and team retrospectives
  • Running stand-ups with customers to allow for open and transparent discussions throughout development
  • Working alongside our design & technical teams to ensure all requirements are considered, achievable and in line with the platform vision
  • Leading development within cross functional teams (QA, frontend & backend developers, design, marketing etc.)
  • Providing project updates to every level of the business to ensure visibility of teams progress, especially throughout long term projects
  • Training of new Product Owners into the business to support additional workstreams as the company grows
May 2019 - June 2022

Product Owner

Cyber Media Solutions Ltd.

During the redevelopment of an 8 year old system, I was asked to take on the Product Owner role alongside my developer role. Following the success of this project, I continued the roles of PO alongside my developer role. Responsibilities included:

  • Creating user stories for the team. Due to experience developing the project, I was able to create detailed development requirements which were key in delivering the project under strict deadlines
  • Lead contact between technical 3rd parties & development team, ensuring that all requirements and changes were understood by all sides
  • Maintaining cross team communication to ensure resource (e.g. designs) were signed off ahead of development progressing, minimising the risk of blockers during the project
February 2017 - May 2019

Scrum Master

Cyber Media Solutions Ltd.

During my role as developer, I had the opportunity to also become the web development teams Scrum Master. The team consisted of frontend, backend, and design team members.

  • Running Scrum ceremonies (stand-up/planning/retrospectives etc)
  • Addressing any blockers the team raise in a timely manner
  • Monitoring and adapting to team’s velocity ∓ capacity
  • Working with the full Scrum team to strengthen Scrum principles
  • Working with the development team & Product Owner at the time to plan sprints in line with project timelines
June 2014 - May 2019

Web Developer & Platform Support

Cyber Media Solutions Ltd.

At Cyber Media I progressed from a graduate with basic knowledge of C# and Visual Basic to a developer who confidently, and consistently, developed robust PHP and ColdFusion applications. This also included:

  • Developing new/existing sites from the outlined user stories, performing code review and testing of colleague’s work
  • Demonstrated functionality both internally and externally to collect feedback and document future enhancements
  • Gained experience in communicating complex technical changes/issues to non-technical backgrounds
  • Working with the company’s Product Owner at the time to advise on customer requirements and any potential technical limitations to achieve functionality within timeframes
  • Supported legacy systems within SLA, including investigating and addressing defects & responding to customers technical queries
June 2011 - May 2019

Education

Staffordshire University

Internet Technology & Mathematics
Bachelor of Science

1:1 Hons

September 2007 - June 2011

Skills

Programming Languages & Tools
Product Ownership
  • Requirement Gathering
  • User Story & Goal Shaping
  • Acceptance Criteria Writing
  • Project Roadmap Creation
  • Cross Team Collaboration
Development
  • PHP
  • MySQL / MSSQL
  • Database Modelling
  • C#
  • ColdFusion
  • Zend Framework
  • JavaScript/jQuery
  • WordPress/Joomla
  • Code Reviewing

Interests

Working with Pets As Therapy to bring regular animal companionship to people in hospitals, nursing homes and student unions through visits with Blanche the pug.