Renee Lizear
Olney
Summary
Dynamic leader with extensive experience at Federal Student Aid, adept in product vision and strategy, and fostering stakeholder alignment. Excelled in staff management, enhancing team collaboration, and driving product lifecycle management. Achieved significant improvements in operational quality and productivity, demonstrating critical thinking and project management prowess.
Overview
13
13
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
FAFSA Product Manager
Federal Student Aid
01.2024 - Current
- Prioritized roadmap in order to achieve product goals and metrics.
- Documented user stories, specifications, and product features into detailed work order to communicate across teams and build mandatory requirements.
- Collaborated with sales, marketing, and support teams to launch products on time and within budget.
- Reviewed sales, customer concerns, and new opportunities to drive business strategy at weekly planning sessions.
- Coordinated project planning and execution with team members and team leads.
- Communicated effectively with team members to deliver updates on project milestones and deadlines.
- Managed product demonstrations and testimonials for performance evaluation.
- Established criteria for each milestone within product roadmap as means to measure developmental progress.
- Analyzed metrics to measure product performance.
- Liaised with clients to better understand business needs and current market landscape.
- Maintained positive vendor relations to build strong partnerships.
- Directed planning and budgeting efforts.
Acting Director, Product Management Group
Federal Student Aid
05.2022 - 01.2024
- Leveraged professional networks and industry knowledge to strengthen client relationships.
- Spearheaded innovative approaches to resource allocation and strategic planning.
- Launched staff engagement, gender diversity and cultural programs in addition to robust reporting tool that increased operational quality.
- Trained and guided team members to maintain high productivity and performance metrics.
- Recruited, hired, and trained initial personnel, working to establish key internal functions and outline scope of positions for new organization.
- Updated and resolved incidents and managed accessorial charges objectively while maximizing profit.
- Implemented innovative programs to increase employee loyalty and reduce turnover.
- Tracked trends and suggested enhancements to both challenge and refine company's product offerings.
- Assisted in recruiting, hiring and training of team members.
Senior Advisor, Product Management Group
Federal Student Aid
08.2020 - 05.2022
FAFSA System Integrator/Mobile App Team Lead
Federal Student Aid
01.2019 - 08.2020
- Coached team members in techniques necessary to complete job tasks.
- Evaluated employee skills and knowledge regularly, training, and mentoring individuals with lagging skills.
- Trained new team members by relaying information on company procedures and safety requirements.
- Managed schedules, accepted time off requests and found coverage for short shifts.
- Evaluated staff performance and provided coaching to address inefficiencies.
Training Specialist
Health Resources & Services Administation
02.2017 - 01.2019
- Trained and mentored [Number] new personnel hired to fulfill various roles.
- Conducted orientation sessions to assess skill levels and areas of strength and weakness.
- Assisted in analyzing and assessing training and development needs for organizations, departments and individuals.
- Collected data on program effectiveness to develop modifications and improvements to curricula.
- Developed lesson plans, instructional materials and written practice tests for [Type] and [Type] training courses.
- Designed and delivered web-based, self-directed learning materials.
- Analyzed and evaluated training effectiveness and program outcomes.
- Conducted needs assessments to identify gaps in performance and develop targeted learning solutions.
- Used [Software] to design training for [Type] employees and increase company retention and productivity rates [Number]%.
Test Team Lead
Federal Student Aid
09.2011 - 02.2017
- Optimized test cases to maximize success of manual software testing.
- Defined, created and controlled testing environments for successful software deliverables.
- Coordinated work with various teams to solve problems and improve efficiency for software testing and automation.
- Monitored resolution of bugs, tested fixes, and helped developers tackle ongoing problems by providing QA perspective.
- Kept scripts and test cases updated with current requirements.
- Documented testing procedures for developers and future testing use.
- Developed and maintained defect databases for known issues.
- Authored and maintained well-organized, efficient and successful manual test cases for entire team.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Criminal Justice
State University of New York, Buffalo State Colleg
Buffalo05-2010
Skills
- Product vision and strategy
- Product issue resolution
- Customer training
- Staff management
- Product lifecycle management
- Stakeholder alignment
- Product validation
- Requirements gathering
- Software development
- Jira, atlassian, rally
- Teamwork and collaboration
- Product development
- Project management
- Critical thinking
- Scrum framework
- Improvement metrics measurement
- Product roadmaps
Certification
- PMP - Project Management Professional
Timeline
FAFSA Product Manager
Federal Student Aid
01.2024 - Current
Acting Director, Product Management Group
Federal Student Aid
05.2022 - 01.2024
Senior Advisor, Product Management Group
Federal Student Aid
08.2020 - 05.2022
FAFSA System Integrator/Mobile App Team Lead
Federal Student Aid
01.2019 - 08.2020
Training Specialist
Health Resources & Services Administation
02.2017 - 01.2019
Test Team Lead
Federal Student Aid
09.2011 - 02.2017
- PMP - Project Management Professional
Bachelor of Science - Criminal Justice
State University of New York, Buffalo State Colleg
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