Partnered with an early-stage startup to define the MVP for a consumer-facing e-commerce portal enabling users to list items for sale and set up personalized storefronts. Led discovery workshops to align founders and stakeholders on scope, user needs, and business goals before a single line of code was written. Translated a broad founding vision into a prioritized, buildable MVP — balancing ambition against real constraints of budget, timeline, and a lean team. Delivered a clear product foundation that gave the startup confidence to move into development without second-guessing scope. THE CHALLENGE • Founding team had strong vision but no structured product definition or delivery framework • Scope ambiguity risk — feature ideas were expanding faster than resources could support • Dual user journeys required — both buyers and sellers needed seamless, distinct experiences • Limited runway meant MVP had to be lean without sacrificing core user value • No existing backlog, roadmap, or documented requirements to hand off to developers • Stakeholder alignment needed across founders with different priorities and assumptions APPROACH Discovery & Stakeholder Alignment Facilitated structured discovery workshops with the founding team to surface assumptions, define target users, and agree on the core problem the product needed to solve. User Journey Mapping Mapped end-to-end journeys for both buyer and seller personas — identifying key touchpoints, pain points, and must-have interactions to include in the MVP. MVP Scoping & Prioritization Led a feature prioritization exercise using impact vs. effort frameworks. Separated must-have MVP features from future-phase enhancements to protect launch scope. Story Mapping & Backlog Build Translated the prioritized scope into a full user story map and sprint-ready backlog — epics, user stories, and acceptance criteria written to definition of ready. Wireframing & UX Flow Produced wireframes for core flows including item listing, storefront setup, and buyer browsing — giving the team a visual reference to pressure-test before development. Roadmap & Handoff Delivered a phased product roadmap showing MVP scope and post-launch priorities, along with full handoff documentation to onboard the development team cleanly. DELIVERABLES • Discovery workshop facilitation and findings summary report • MVP scope definition with prioritized feature list and out-of-scope log • User story map covering full buyer and seller journeys • Phased product roadmap aligned to startup business goals and runway • Sprint-ready backlog with epics, user stories, and acceptance criteria • Wireframes and UX flow for storefront setup and item listing • Handoff documentation package for development team onboarding

Led a complex, cross-functional initiative from initial discovery through final delivery. The project spanned multiple stakeholder groups across business, technology, and operations — each with competing priorities and different definitions of success. Engaged as the central point of accountability from day one, I owned scope definition, resource planning, risk management, vendor coordination, and executive communication. Operating under real constraints of timeline, budget, and organizational change, I kept the project aligned, visible, and moving — delivering all primary objectives on schedule and within approved budget. THE CHALLENGE • Multiple stakeholder groups with competing priorities and no unified project vision • Undefined scope at project initiation with pressure to begin delivery immediately • Cross-functional dependencies between teams operating on different timelines • Emerging risks and issues requiring rapid escalation and decision-making • Executive visibility requirements demanding consistent, accurate status reporting • Mid-project priority shifts requiring formal change control and replanning APPROACH Initiation & Scoping Facilitated stakeholder workshops to align on project objectives, success criteria, and boundaries. Produced a formal project charter signed off by all key sponsors. Planning & Scheduling Built a detailed project plan mapping milestones, dependencies, resource assignments, and critical path. Established baseline for tracking schedule and budget performance. Risk & Issue Management Maintained a live risk register with probability/impact assessments and documented mitigation strategies. Escalated proactively — no critical risks materialized unmanaged. Delivery Execution Coordinated cross-functional workstreams using a hybrid methodology — structured phase gates with agile sprint cycles for development and testing tracks. Stakeholder Communication Maintained a single source of truth for project health, RAG status, and action items. Change Control Managed scope change requests through a formal process — assessing impact, securing approvals, and updating the plan before any changes were absorbed into delivery. DELIVERABLES • Project charter with scope definition, objectives, success criteria, and sponsor sign-off • Detailed project plan with milestones, dependencies, critical path, and resource assignments • Risk register with probability/impact ratings, mitigation strategies, and owners • Weekly stakeholder status reports with RAG indicators and executive summary • Issue log and formal change control process with documented approvals • Steering committee presentation deck updated bi-weekly throughout delivery • Post-project retrospective report with lessons learned and recommendations

ENGAGEMENT OVERVIEW Serving as Product Owner for a digital product team, I introduced AI into core PO workflows that had traditionally been manual and time-consuming. This included using AI to conduct and synthesize user research, generate and iterate on UX wireframes and prototypes, and accelerate the discovery-to-delivery cycle. I also designed and built a custom AI-powered PO productivity tool that centralized backlog management, sprint planning support, and stakeholder communication — reducing admin overhead and keeping the team focused on outcomes over process. AI INTEGRATION AREAS User Research & Synthesis Used AI to analyze interview transcripts, identify themes, and generate structured insight reports — compressing multi-day synthesis into hours. UX Wireframes & Prototyping Leveraged AI to rapidly generate low and mid-fidelity wireframe concepts from feature descriptions, enabling faster stakeholder feedback loops. Custom PO Productivity Tool Built a working AI-powered tool using the Claude API to support backlog management, story writing, sprint planning, and status reporting in one place. Backlog & Story Generation Used AI-assisted prompting to draft user stories, acceptance criteria, and edge cases from discovery notes — accelerating sprint readiness. DELIVERABLES • AI-assisted user research synthesis framework and prompt library • Wireframes and prototypes generated and refined using AI tools • Custom PO productivity tool built with Claude API (React + Node.js) • Backlog structured from AI-driven discovery insights • Sprint planning templates powered by AI drafting • Documentation of AI-augmented PO workflow for team reuse