Laura Frantz Email & Phone Number

Charlottesville, Va, Us

Reston, Virginia, Us

Utilities hire ICF to design multi-pronged decarbonization programs that de-silo traditional energy efficiency, demand response, EV, and other offerings. In my role as Senior Director of Product Development I am leading the development of PowerGuide®, ICF's proprietary beneficial electrification decision support platform that combines ICF's beneficial electrification, energy efficiency, behavioral economics, and utility data insight generation expertise to help utility customers make educated technology choices across all of ICF's business models.

London, London, Gb

The client, a large gas transmission and distribution company servicing 4.5 million customers, hired PA Consulting to establish data governance practices and develop supporting technology that will give its 5,000 employees clean, reliable, and accessible data and information. Laura first led the development of a Google Cloud-based Proof of Concept (PoC) to explore data analysis and visualization and obtain customer feedback, working with a UX designer and engineers to design, wireframe, prototype, and deliver a successful PoC that helped secure the full build SOW. She then designed and facilitated a human-centered design workshop to map out the service blueprint for product MVP and generate user stories for Jira. She led a team of data analysts to define transformational logic to support in-depth platform analyses, witeframed the MVP and subsequent releases, and participated in sprint estimation and Agile ceremonies.

Reston, Virginia, Us

Utilities across North America and Canada hire ICF to implement energy efficiency programs on their behalf. Laura led on-time and within-budget DSM IT systems configuration, development, and integration efforts in support of 11+ utilities and organizations using both Agile and waterfall methodologies, managing an average of USD $1M-3M annually. Technical work included SaaS platform configurations; website and web app builds; native mobile app builds; XML, flat file, and API integrations; and extensive report and data dashboard development. List of client engagements includes:PSE&G NJ Residential Energy Efficiency Programs, 2021 – presentBEIS Green Homes Grant Program, 2020 – 2021PHI (Pepco and Delmarva Power) Energy Savings for Business Program, 2017 – 2018PECO Smart Ideas for Your Business Program, 2016 – 2018Entergy Arkansas Direct Install, Agriculture and New Homes Programs, 2012 – 2014Energy Trust of Oregon Existing Buildings Program, 2012 – 2014MA DOER ReBuild Western Massachusetts Program, 2011 – 2013NYSEG/RG&E’s Commercial and Industrial Rebate Programs, 2010 – 2012Georgia Power Company Residential and Commercial Energy Efficiency Programs, 2010 – 2012SCE&G Residential and Commercial Energy Efficiency Programs, 2010 – 2011Delaware’s Sustainable Energy Utility Efficiency Plus Programs, 2010 – 2011

Reston, Virginia, Us

The client, a department of the UK government, hired ICF to implement a £1.5B energy efficient grant program, including development of a multi-phase customer and installer web-based application processing platform. Laura acted as a Product Owner for the effort, including service blueprinting, wireframing, UI prototyping, writing user stories, prioritizing backlog, and participating in Agile ceremonies. The scheme launched September 30, 2020, the site handled over 30,000 grant applications within its first month, and over 48,000 homeowners received assistance via the platform.

Reston, Virginia, Us

AESP is an important conference for furthering business relationships and empowering sales. ICF had an opportunity to promote our voice for utilities offering to utility clients at the conference via an exclusive voice sponsorship worth $10K, the first of its kind, featuring an Alexa app designed to help attendees navigate the conference. Laura acted as Product Manager, VUX designer, test team, and marketing director for this work. The skill was accessed by approximately 5% of attendees and yielded empirical learnings around skill invocation and the challenge of ambient noise poses for natural language processing.

Reston, Virginia, Us

As part of a $30M engagement with ICF, client wanted to explore whether an Alexa voice application could support customer engagement and encourage behavioral change. Acting as Product Manager, Laura performed market research, engaged with the voice practitioner community, and discussed current pain points with clients to create a vision for this new-to-ICF product offering. She defined a product roadmap, wrote and prioritized user stories, led/participated in UAT, and supervised rollout of MVP to ~300 users. The voice pilot yielded valuable customer feedback that informed subsequent releases and confirmed customer interest in voice as an engagement channel, and contributed to 91% of program participants electing to continue their participation beyond the pilot.

Reston, Virginia, Us

Led the full lifecycle of RFx responses. Performed pre-RFP capture and research, set response schedules and compliance matrices, defined win themes, and crafted narrative arcs post-release. Configured response templates, including development of thematic graphics, and recruited SMEs and cross-organizational resources to provide proposal content. Wrote executive summaries and other sections of response as needed. Led all color reviews and performed white glove final proofing. Coordinated with contracts, subcontracts and corporate pricing to obtain all required approvals on-time. Post-submission, pursued and lead post-award debriefs, created orals interview decks, and provided coaching to teams heading into oral presentations and technology demos. Created library of project descriptions and technology write-ups for re-use in bids.

Laura provided part-time business analysis services to Strategy Insight, LLC in support of the US Department of Health and Human Services/Federal Health Architecture National Institutes of Health/Office of Extramural Research. Her work included:• Analyzed development lifecycle enterprise process models and extracted system functional requirements;• Supported business needs statement development;• Analyzed raw end-user survey data, identified trends, summarized findings and prepared executive-level client briefings in support of business case;• Evaluated Strategy Insight, LLC proposal compliance using RFP requirements validation matrix;• Revised and finalized detailed client program needs assessment business case;• Provided other project support as needed.

Montreal, Quebec, Ca

Knowledge Management Methodology Development, National Health Insurance Company, AMS, 2001. Worked with multiple corporate and consulting organizations to create a repeatable, cross-organizational methodology for executing a major enterprise initiative. Gathered, developed, and institutionalized best practices via focus groups and user interviews, performed task analysis, and mapped business processes. Led development of a web-based methodology tool that communicated tasks, activities, lessons learned, and roles and responsibilities for cross-organizational teams. Developed organizational structures, staffing and skill set needs, and transition plans to prepare corporation to fully take over execution and ongoing operations from a team of multiple consulting organizations, participated in system testing and evaluated system Section 508 compliance, and evangelized knowledge sharing at all client levels.Transportation Knowledge Sharing Initiative, Federal Highway Administration, AMS, 1999-2001. Worked with FHWA Senior Knowledge Officers to develop a vision of future-state enterprise collaboration at FHWA. Gathered and documented system requirements for a web-based FHWA employee/client enterprise resource locator using focus groups, design sessions, cognitive walkthroughs, JARs, mockups and prototypes. Worked with users to refine the concept, design and implementation of web-based communities of practice (COPs) using focus groups, design sessions, cognitive walkthroughs, mockups and prototypes, and trained users to perform web-based administrative maintenance.

Houston, Texas, Us

United States Postal Service ATE Knowledge Management Project• Performed functional and technical process analysis; • Conducted knowledge worker interviews/task analysis with several key ATE staff members;• Defined and documented client communication and knowledge processes;• Defined a set of recommended enterprise collaboration initiatives and developed and delivered final findings and recommendations to the client.Office of the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, Army Knowledge Online Pilot and Expansion• Acted as the primary interface between the client and the EDS technical team to define and develop functional and technical system requirements;• Facilitated client interviews to document business processes and designed activity models and established initial performance measures based on results of client interviews;• Worked with technical team to refine system requirements and interface, including extensive user testing;• Trained mid- and senior-level EDS managers and clients on how to use the system;• Assisted in securing significant add-on work within the OPMS client organization.Federal Emergency Management Agency, Public Assistance Program Reengineering Project • Documented existing emergency response processes and assisted in the development and refinement of more efficient processes;• Facilitated intensive client and stakeholder process modeling sessions, and interviews;• Established and maintained a networked archive of project work products and deliverables;• Developed and managed a tool for tracking documentation changes made in the field, tracking the project progress and monitoring project management conformance to EDS project management quality assurance standards.

M.S., Telecommunications And Network Management

B.A., French Language, Literature And Culture