Debra Edwards Email & Phone Number

Reading, England, United Kingdom

Reading, England, United Kingdom

London, England, United Kingdom

• Established the first dedicated Agile Scrum squad for the UK&I technology department. Teamed with the Innovation Hub business team and delivered innovative tech solutions for live restaurant trials and experiments• Delivered over 30 prototypes, MVPs, learning pilots and new features, tested impacts on themes of reduced operational complexity, step-changing sustainability, improved speed of service and customer experience• Partnered with business teams and suppliers, conducted market analysis and identified opportunities for product innovations and optimisations• Seeded Scrum practices to the greater community through training, knowledge share and targeted collaborations and helped to introduce Agile behaviours throughout the organisation• Originated a concept to solve for order accuracy, partnered with a vendor to design, build and restaurant-test an MVP, and ultimately captured new data on order assembly accuracy• Guided a multi-disciplinary team of 6-8 through discovery (using design-thinking methods) and backlog refinement• Led the team in continuous learning and improvement and generated an 8% reduction in the 3-month cycle time• Devised product objectives and success criteria in collaboration with tech and business teams and suppliers• Promoted transparency in metrics and KPIs and drove business growth and customer experience improvements• Introduced the reporting and dashboard tool Screenful, streamlined team and stakeholder communication and decreased admin time by 4-6 hours per sprint• Collaborated and negotiated with diverse groups such as executives, directors, managers, suppliers, corporate teams, business teams (e.g., restaurant operations, Accounts, Communications) and other IT teams (QA, Architecture, Data, engineers etc)• Engaged with customers and users and through interviews, observation, and surveys, determined their wants and needs

London, England, United Kingdom

• Built, nurtured and led teams of 7-10 product managers, project managers and technical analysts and orchestrated the strategies of key B2B systems for 1,400 UK&I restaurants. Increased sales, customer satisfaction, order throughput and operational simplicity• Devised and launched the first product management strategy and delivery framework for the McDonald’s UK&I Product team and championed the ongoing maturity of the practice• Grew the talent pool by developing and coaching four direct reports to promotion• Created the first product portfolio governance body for restaurant operations-based products, and facilitated justifiable decisions on investments and release sequencing• Created and aligned a portfolio of technology roadmaps to business objectives, corporate and market strategies, and global technology standards. Managed a BAU (business of usual) budget of GBP 2 – 3M• Partnered with department heads, cross-functional and corporate counterparts and set long-term strategic vision and plans for the product portfolio• Managed the life cycles (between concept and retirement) of enterprise software (using Agile and waterfall methods) including point-of-sale (POS), back-office applications, kitchen video systems, customer self-order kiosk software and home delivery technologies (Software as a Service / SaaS)• Determined go-to-market strategies and launch plans, and synchronised cross-functional deployment efforts• Coordinated parallel streams of IT deliverables and achieved the successful reopening of business across UK&I during the COVID-19 crisis response and recovery• Implemented McDelivery (home delivery) SaaS technologies, integrated with both Uber Eats and Just Eat platforms and launched to 1,400 UK&I restaurants over 2 years

London, England, United Kingdom

• Headed a team of 3 technical analysts (1 offshore), piloted and launched modernising back-office and shift management solutions to 1,400 UK&I restaurants. Reduced operational complexities, created management time-savings and reduced financial losses• Collaborated and negotiated with diverse groups such as executives, directors, managers, suppliers, corporate teams, business team and other IT teams (Test, Architecture, Data, engineers etc)• Conducted RFI and RFP processes, selected and trialled the first IOT / mobile app solution and streamlined food safety check procedures

Illinois, United States

• Facilitated McDonald’s Corporation in developing the current global customer service model by delivering an innovative order-matching product and trialling it in 55 restaurants in Europe, Australia, and the US• Simplified the adoption of technology solutions for 6-8 international IT teams by creating adoption planning and implementation information, consulting with teams on integration and mass-deployment readiness, and extending the organisation's pool of technical implementation experts

Prior Roles at McDonald’s Corporation:Senior Technical Business Analyst; Business Operations Consultant; Business Analyst

Master'S Degree, Technology Management

Passed Modules: Managing Technological Innovation; Strategic Capabilities for Technology Innovation; Entrepreneurship; Sustainable.

Ordinary National Diploma, Graphic Communications

Higher National Diploma, Computer Science