Matthew Lara Email & Phone Number

• Reconstructed Kroger’s vendor promotion application, enhancing category manager efficiency by increasing throughput by 45% and boosting system performance while also reducing error pages by 95%. Developed a competitive enterprise solution through comprehensive market research and competitor analysis.• Spearheaded the development of an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) for Kroger’s promotion management calendar by first conducting user research interviews, producing journey maps, and executing stakeholder analysis. Led development and launched MVP into production, improving performance by reducing load times by 65% while delivering critical features. • Transformed business and user needs into a prioritized roadmap, balancing customer demands, engineering capabilities, and Kroger's strategic impact. Ensured a well-defined backlog, complete with technical specifications, acceptance criteria, and associated epics.• Outlined strategic product visions in line with Kroger’s broader objectives and collaborated with project managers to design Go-to-Market Strategies. Crafted varied-length roadmaps, complete with milestones, deployment dates, and expected outcomes. • Took on Scrum Master duties, steering Agile ceremonies—including daily stand-ups, sprint planning, velocity tracking, and reviews—across multiple engineer teams. • Led cross-functional teams including engineers, designers, sales, marketing, and data architects to deliver on product roadmaps. In partnership with stakeholders, formulated key KPIs to track development towards milestones and scheduled releases.

Austin, Texas Area

• Implemented an RBAC (Role-Based Access Control) system with machine learning tools to simplify access governance within Visa’s Identity Access Management department.• Leveraged Google Analytics to identify and diagnose performance bottlenecks within legacy system and utilized insights to inform and drive targeted solutions development.• Improved data accuracy for over 300 roles and permission sets by identifying workflow inefficiencies and developing a centralized solution that automated previously manual Excel-based processes, significantly reducing operational overhead.• Overhauled Visa's SOD (Separation-of-Duty) infrastructure by collaborating with engineers to analyze and improve upon design flaws. Crafted a strategic roadmap to steer the system's comprehensive upgrade with a goal of enhancing security integrity.

Austin, Texas Area

- Worked with other departments within Dean of Students to produce a media project to help recruit future interns- Communicated with staff, alumni, and other interns for student centered projects that helped student experience on campus

Austin, Texas Area

Researched technology on analyzing medical files and helped doctors visualize seizure sites of a patient by learning how to register multiple DICOM files.Transitioned often between the responsibilities of market research, solution implementation, and user experience.