Neal Rowland Email and Phone Number

Digital Ownership Education Product ManagerAs the software and technology continues to grow in vehicles, as well as the experiences and engagement with the extends farther outside of the vehicle (e.g., mobile apps), owners need assistance in better understanding and leveraging the technology. My role is to explore the best ways to enhance the connection owners have with their vehicles and services.This is done by collecting and analyzing user behavior, expectations, usage, and research. Using the data to drive product vision, roadmaps, and decisions. Working in an agile way of working with engineering, development teams, quality, global brands, design teams, and marketing to incrementally implement the product. As this is a customer facing product, I must work closely with UX/UI to balance functionality, flow, branding, and innovation. Product design extends across platforms/channels. Must ensure in vehicle (i.e. on screen, voice assistants) align with the apps, websites, and printed materials. The product I manage is possible due to the wonderful work and effort of various teams. These teams are spread globally. Across time zones and working styles we are able to support each other and achieve amazing things. Always focused on the owner and their needs and desired outcomes.

Agile coach, change agent, and advocate for the Agile Lean mindset, methodology, and strategy across the enterprise. Responsible for communicating, maintaining, and maturing the agile growth and best practices worldwide. Building the strategy and vision for the Stellantis Software organization (SWx). Collaborating with senior leadership to formulate then implementing agile transformation. My team and I evaluate the organizational readiness and fit of new and existing agile teams. Onboard new teams and products regularly into the agile framework. Providing guidance and support as an agile transformational coach to reshape project management and the delivery of value. Develop and deliver formal and ad hoc training, workshops, learning resources, and other on-demand assets (e.g. guidebooks).The role is fast paced and far reaching. I am empowered to make positive, comprehensive change in the way we approach work, collaboration, the culture, and coordination at a global scale across North America, Italy, Brazil, and India. My assessments and recommendations feeds into the Agile maturity strategy roadmaps that improves the features in millions of vehicles being produced every year.

Assisting teams and organizations with the Agile transformation and effectiveness. Whether individual teams or large organizations seeking to scale, transiting to an agile way of working needs guidance.Authored Agile Scrum Project Management book. Built online interactive elearning courses and games.Recent clients:- University of South Florida- Texas A&M - Centric Consulting- Microsoft- Institute of Project Management Ireland- VectorCreative source for Project Management (PMP), IT Service Management (ITIL), Agile Project Management (PMI-ACP), Scaled Agile (SAFe), and other professional certification training, instructional design, delivery, consulting, and guidance.Agile coach for teams - especially non-software organizations - seeking to implement Agile/Scrum methodologies.Developer, author, consultant, freelancer, and instructor of courses on a variety of project management concepts; PMP certification; agile scrum; ITIL practices; & many other management topics and approaches. This content is delivered via a multitude of engaging learning approaches - online, interactive, blended, instructor-led in person, and new, unique ways. Video illustrations at https://www.youtube.com/c/theCrowdtrainingDesigned and built interactive online self-paced course for PMBOK 6th editio Exam prep called PM City. Complete with interactive lessons, animations, whiteboard drawings, gamification, practice tests, and more! Facilitated courses on project management, soft skills, IT practices, and others. Corporate clients include Sound Transit, AAA, Microsoft, Plex, Skillsoft, Carlile, Tacoma Community College, Pierce County Water Works, US Air Force, Torrance Learning, Amazon...Produced coursework for Gogo Training, ITPrenuers, TechScholar, LearnSmart, RedVector, Logical Operations, OSP International,...Developed trivia app called Gridiculous. Speaker at conferences on: management, interactive learning, immersive empathy, instructional design, and AR/VR.

Evolved a learning product for Harley-Davidson employees. Worked with graphic designers, learning consultants, instructional designers, and business owners to enhance the educational programs. The project's objective was to transform a few instructor-led courses for Harley-Davidson motorcycle dealerships employees into smaller, more immediately practical learning boosts via the manager's or associate's mobile device or laptop.

One of the lead co-authors of the PMI Authorized Project Management Professional (PMP Exam) Instructor-Led Training course.Author of the Agile Project Management courseware, IT service management books, and other project management materials. Author and on-screen talent for various Windows based program educational content.Advisor and reviewer on other courseware, manuals, and material.

Agile project manager for the new Dealer Learning Experience product. The software product is a learning management system for Ford dealership sales consultants, service technicians, parts and service advisors, and Ford Credit consultants. As served as the agile team's Scrum Master, as well as the agile coach for the development team and all other teams within the product organization.Managing the resources and communications between the development team, design team, legacy software team, and product owners [for US based product and global versions of the product being rolled out at various times over next two to three years].Facilitated scrum and agile activities on a 10 day iteration timebox; including, but not limited:- Daily standups- Iteration Planning - Sprint Review / Iteration Review- Backlog Refinement / Grooming- RetrospectivesBuilding, revising, and aligning product road map and release plan based on 10 day iterations (sprints), product owner needs, project vision, and resource capacity.Responsible for consolidating all the project metrics to produce reports, maintain dashboards, and communicate regularly with all stakeholders.Using Rally and JIRA agile software to manage our user stories, themes, epics, and work in progress. Coordinating with the product owner and our team to cultivate a valid product backlog that is continuously revised to adapt to the needs of the business as well as our productivity.

IT Product Designer and Agile Coach in the Ford IT Product Development Organization for the dealership engagement and training system refresh. Using agile practices and desing thinking to revamp the system for improved user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). Taking a outdated legacy system and being granted the exciting challenge to completely reimagine the end user experience both in the typical desktop engagement and a brand new responsive mobile interface. This is being accomplished via experience mapping, interviews, journey maps, paper prototyping, wireframes presented in PowerPoint, mockups created in Adobe Illustrator, high fidelity prototypes produced in Adobe XD, Sketch, and InVision, and collaborating with a software development team to bring the vision to fruition.The end users of dealership service techinicians, sales consultants, managers, F & I managers, and internal Ford employees are providing feedback and usability tests throughout the iterative development process.Creating and delivering something that will help hundreds of thousands of users worldwide is quite exciting and fulfilling.

Agile lead, project manager, and instructional designer of the Educational Services curriculum for an awesome ERP/Supply Chain SaaS software company based in the metro-Detroit area. Primarily responsible for designing and delivering curriculum for internal and external users of the Plex software, the Plex Community, and more. This includes instructor led courses, but more often in the modalities of the online instructor led training, on demand video training, and interactive e-learning courses. Using agile project management best practices and methodology to effectively manage small teams to deliver customer-centric materials at a rapid pace.My creative responsibilities also extend to development of whiteboard video drawings, illustrations, games, assessments, and other interactive assets, such as using Articulate Storyline to create self paced learning modules.Regular speaker at conferences on a variety of topics, namely project management, agile management, design thinking, augmented reality, and immersive empathy. Presenter at the annual PowerPlex conference for the company.Additionally, leading organizational change as the company is emerging from a niche leader to a larger power in the ERP SaaS space. This includes consulting and merging Agile best practices and IT Service Management with the unique needs of Plex SaaS implementations in factories/sites. This was exemplified during a major event for customers wherein they explored and learned all about the Global Services and Support division via an interactive "Plex Superhero" branded evening that involved the entire division and marketing department.Designed and maintain an education repository using Jive community software and its organizational strategy.

Responsible for collecting, generating, communicating, storing, presenting, etc. the vast knowledge surrounding the service. Vendor consulting position for the Deployment Services team under the Global Foundation Services within Microsoft which sets out to coordinate the demand, capacity, and workflows associated with the various functions involved with deploying infrastructure and networking in datacenters worldwide.Responsible for researching, instructionally designing, maintaining, and presenting training materials for release and organizational change. Delivered via classroom based trainings, live online via Lync, blended learning, and prerecord videos and presentations using PowerPoint, Skype, and SharePoint.In part responsible for constant communications and knowledge transfer to end users and various business groups. Additionally, managing the knowledge, keeping it current, and keeping it accessible.Taught myself SharePoint Designer 2010 / 2103. I have been able to create some exciting and powerful knowledge sharing and collaboration sites. Used vast abilities of SharePoint that can encourage productive collobaration and knowledge sharing beyond a big file folder. By designing and building out these comprehensive SharePoint sites, I have empowered teams and functions to be better able to retrive the material need quickly and in the right format. But at a more exciting level, created dynamic change management systems via SharePoint. Even have gone as far as recreating the Scrum Board and the Agile Project Management sprint work. (Which supported my obtaining certification as a Agile Project Manager via PMI-ACP)My initiatives have supported the Change and Release Management [Service Transition] and increased success of monthly service releases and changes into operations. Working with development teams and TFS to manage releases. As well as the design of the services and tools we support across Microsoft.

This contract/consulting position has been a lot of fun. The website's aim is to develop and present IT and technical training online and low cost. I have the honor of contributing my courseware to their catalog. Additionally, working directly with them for many months guiding their instructional design team, working with the SMEs to produce high quality content, and being a liaison between the technical content providers and the creative production team.My podcasts (Radio Shows) and full online courses are published on their site. Additional courses and podcasts are still being produced and listed.

Designer and facilitator for project management and certification courses; including PMP, ITIL, and various other management topics. Also manage online projects and course delivery, graphic design, research, marketing, and new course development/instructional design.I had the wonderful experience of completely leading the design, development, and implementation of our 35 hour online PMP course. I learned so much about the Learning Management System makertplace, the coordination of an international team, and the eLearning technology involved. Teaching myself Flash and other tools was another benefit.Not only creating an entirely new product line and service model, I developed a comprehensive PMP 4th edition course incorporating various instructional design techniques and cognitive research. Delivering this and my other project management and IT service management (ITIL v3) courses to participants and companies nationwide is where the most enjoyment emerges. Meeting people. Seeing the country. And the satisfaction of helping hundreds of people be successful is very gratifying. It is what gives me such spirited enthusiasm and drive.My ITIL v3 Foundation course was classroom based delivery - with over 96% first time pass rate! Developed materials included: - Presentation items and notes - Keynote slide presentation with animations and original graphics/storyboard - Full color and graphically designed student book; complete with comprehensive content, extension activities, hooks, case examples, and other pedagogically sound aspects - Flashcards - Wall chart with personally designed Process icons and color coding - Activity and content reinforcement game material - Online resources - All material was instructionally designed to incorporate multiple learning styles and pedagogical research on adult learning - Practice exams and rationale

Presenter at local, national, and international conferences.Head of Higher Education sales, partnerships, marketing, and operations.Recognized market space opportunity our products could tap. Led the strategy and development of a new product line and service division. Enjoyed tremendous success working with universities and colleges all across the US and the world to adopt Qwizdom Audience Response Technology and software. Led the University of Michigan and other notable campuses in the standardization of the technology. In addition to securing national and international partner agreements.

Managed regional promotions, inventory, and events. Conducted user training, sales presentations, and conference coordination.