Anne Lancaster Email & Phone Number

Reading, Gb

I'm the sole Product Manager for the kids' side of the Sumdog edtech product, responsible for ensuring that the thousands of children using the product at school and home are motivated, engaged and excited to use Sumdog to help them practise maths and other subjects. I've successfully led the research, design and fulfillment of large projects to improve and update the product within a modest budget, most notably the new inclusive 3D avatar which appears in the games and that children choose to represent themselves. Sumdog is continually praised by teachers for how much children love to play it and I must claim my own part in making this a reality. I have improved the gamification elements of Sumdog, using Octalysis gamification analysis and Behaviour Change taxonomies to create an environment in which children are rewarded and happy to play Sumdog games and thus improve their educational outcomes. I thoroughly enjoy designing new games and am always inspired by user research in schools to make sure that I am super familiar with what children want from the product. I plan the future work in accordance with teachers' needs, children's hopes, available resources and business demands. I stay curious and love to use creativity and empathy to make the best products kids will ever be asked to use for their homework.

Reading, United Kingdom

I was the sole Product Owner & Manager for the BetterPoints web-based client platform and end user mobile app that rewards users for better travel choices. Using behaviour change models, I fine-tuned the BetterPoints engine to promote target habits for which users were rewarded for starting and sustaining over time. Since joining the company, I’ve been instrumental in scaling up the number of engaged and retained users, reaching new markets and territories. I prided myself on asking the right questions to get to the true user pain points in order to solve problems that occurred in its use or rollout. My responsibilities included:- Being the expert point-of-contact for the product within the business and helping internal users work more efficiently when using the platform. - Liaising closely with programme implementation, sales and user support teams to ensure that users’ challenges were created and run to the highest standard.- Balancing competing feature requests from users, clients, internal users and stakeholders, prioritising epics, user stories and tasks in the backlog to provide the best value for the business and a super end user experience. - Playing an essential part of the small scrum team using agile software methodologies; queuing up sprints, mapping user journeys, and wireframing and prototyping features so that the developers knew what to create and why. In early 2020, I designed a white label version of BetterPoints for one of the largest employers in the UK to encourage employees to commute more sustainably. I also devised the UX of the WWF Travel Better tool to help people realise the cumulative environmental impact of their commuting choices.

Reading, United Kingdom

I was primarily responsible for the management of the working relationships with partners in the Reading area, developing new connections, liaising with community groups, charities, retail merchants, corporate partnerships and promoting BetterPoints in Reading and the local region, developing new ideas and concepts for use of the BetterPoints platform.

Reading, United Kingdom

Circles Network is a UK wide organisation renowned for building inclusive communities on the foundations of justice, advocacy, empowerment and friendships. I established and coordinated local Timebanks, to promote the exchange of skills within communities.

Reading, England, United Kingdom

I coordinated a study into how young children regulate complex emotions with the assistance of their mothers. I organised the family lab visits, persuading mothers to join the project, and ran the assessments with help from others in the team, interviewing mothers regarding sensitive topics of attachment and administering tasks with the children. I was responsible for archiving the collected data and the database management, and I used software to statistically analyse the data. I coded the video recordings from the sessions, analysing children’s behaviour on scales of different emotions.

Abingdon, England, United Kingdom

RM Education is the largest educational technology provider in the UK. I managed a wide portfolio of multimedia, backup, security and creative software products. The functions of my role were very varied, including negotiation and procurement, sales training and change management, as well as the more traditional Product Manager responsibilities of balancing requirements and managing the roadmap, backlog and lifecycle of in-house products. I was well respected by developers, salespeople, and suppliers as I was adept at keeping the focus on releasing great products whilst managing conflicting objectives and priorities of the stakeholders.

Assessed and evaluated Virtual Reality (VR) software with young people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). This involved designing structured evaluations, frequent liaisons with schools, direct teaching of pupils using the software, analysing pupils’ use of the technology with a variety of methods, and making recommendations for further design. The team produced a robust educational beta software product.

I taught a mixed ability class of Year 3 and 4 pupils, and completed my Newly Qualified Teacher status following my PGCE the previous year.

Pgce, Infant Primary Focus

Ba (Hons), Psychology

First class