Working with individuals, teams, and companies to manage agile projects, translate customer requirements into prioritized tasks, improve processes, and successfully deliver high-quality final products.Latest Project: Working with a for-profit and non-profit corporate collaboration to deliver a revolutionary way of connecting people with cancer to clinical trials.• Led a 9-person team to develop a user-friendly website and supporting materials.• Juggled the customer requirements of the for-profit and non-profit while delivering a solution that resonated with people with cancer and their support teams.Website: https://www.acceleratedsoftwaredelivery.com/

• Built a ground-up native AWS app, from planning to on-time, high-quality delivery in 6 months with a 10-person team spanning 8 time zones, including IT infrastructure/security.• Direct Mission Bio's software projects, including defining feature sets, scheduling, assigning resources, and team growth and development, using agile processes.• Define the Software Change Control and SDLC SOPs to incorporate agile processes.• Organizational work of mentoring team members and identifying and solving systemic problems across the organization.• Catalyst for building interdepartmental cooperation.• Relaunched the women's group of Mission Bio, with ongoing support to revitalize the team, keeping it active and engaged.• Traveled for extended periods to facilitate team building, achieve cross-functional buy-in, and establish trust.

• Data-driven decisions to reduce costs and increase efficiency, decreasing runtime costs by ~60%.• Actively managed international teams, spanning 8 time zones and many diverse cultures.• Managed the development effort of redesigning Mission Bio's multifaceted website, including incorporating SEO best practices and weekly deployments.• Organizational work of mentoring team members and identifying and solving systemic problems across the organization.

• Worked with worldwide software developers and QA to write blog posts on aspects of their job roles, documenting both the technical and creative aspects.• Transitioned the Knowledge Base to the Mission Bio Support Center, using Zendesk as the platform.• Wrote new and edited existing technical documentation for the software and hardware products, R and Mosaic packages, and marketing materials.

Coaching a first-time author on the first two books in his historical fiction series.

Update: "Scrum Narrative and PSM Exam Guide" went on to become part of the required curriculum at Boston University's Questrom School of Business.Working with the author Mohammed Musthafa Soukath Ali to polish and hone his books, "Get SAFe Now" and "Scrum Narrative and PSM Exam Guide," to make SAFe and Scrum approachable for those new to the field. This includes adding real-world examples that clearly illustrate how to first implement SAFe and Scrum in a company and how to expand it to the rest of the company. This requires working with various corporations to be consistent with their websites and messages as well as including updates to the technology.

Project: 53K-word book published by HarperCollinsRole: Editor, and then as the project derailed, took over as project manager and coordinator of a worldwide team of 15“Sam Mason is the epitome of how one individual can make the whole team better. She is a swiss army knife with her ability to take on whatever pushes the team forward. In this 6 month contract, she led project management and editing of a 53k word manuscript, which was delivered under budget and ahead of time. She built every sprint board, led every sprint planning meeting, and kept working teams (which fluctuated between 5-15 members) on track. She also took on extra responsibility depending on the business problems that popped up. ... One review doesn't do justice to the impact Sam Mason had on our team. Without her, there wouldn't be a book … I couldn't recommend Sam enough for any business leader (specifically director, GM, VP, C-suite level) looking to drive highly complex business outcomes at scale.”

iwannabeacook.com is about teaching people the fundamentals of cooking. As my sons enter college, over and over I encounter students who desperately want to cook. They are "tired of the restaurant scene," but they don't know how or where to start. Their parents cannot teach them how to cook, and home economics is no longer taught in school. They learn from watching YouTube videos, which is great for learning one recipe at a time, but not the fundamentals.That's where we come in. Through iwbac's cooking classes and on-line videos, we teach the basics of cooking, but we also provide variations in order to help personalize a recipe and take it to a gourmet level when they are ready.While cooking shows on TV are fun - who doesn't want to create a dish with cornflakes and canned beans? - they don't teach the skills that our young adults need today. Delivering a weekly box of food with instructions is a step in the right direction, but if we can teach the basic skills of the kitchen, then we teach them how to feed themselves for a lifetime.

Project: iPhone game appRole: Project manager, copywriter, confidant to the CEO, and developer of their patent program“Samantha was an extremely attentive team member who performed above an[d] beyond in both writing as well as organization management. Her accountability and communication is likely in the top .01% of freelancers. I am confident that Samantha is capable of performing or learning any variety of tasks she puts her mind to, all of which makes her an invaluable asset to any organization.”

Project: Employment/job-website companyRole: Writer then eventually COO, including hiring 4 developers, developing a patent program, and putting the company in front of a VC selected from my personal contacts“Your CEO lessons were a big part of why things went well today [at the VC meeting], I really appreciate your insights and knowledge! I look forward to our continued lessons and appreciate the value you bring to the team.”

To ease the transition of my departure, I was a consultant for one year.

Accountable for 33% of corporate revenue, i.e., $40 million, and built the most profitable corporate division. Under my direction, the Graphics Business grew 30% by continuing the revenue stream and creating a new product.Created new agile development methodologies to use fewer resources, delivering on-time products under budget.My team’s innovative processes and procedures were adopted throughout the entire company.Customers were our priority: every team member focused on making our customers’ workflow better and easier.Macromedia Fireworks, created from scratch, addressed the high-end professional graphics and animation market.FreeHand 8, the award-winning flagship product, had 350K users worldwide on three platforms in nine languages.

Assumed financial and personnel management of the 65-person Dallas office with a $5 million annual budget.Rapid international expansion led to extensive travel throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Shipped FreeHand 5, simultaneously for Mac and Windows.Responsible for engineering, scheduling, documentation, and quality control, as well as international localizations.

Worked on small engineering teams updating and porting FreeHand 3.0.

Shipped FreeHand 4 for Mac and Windows. Also created the corporate patent program, including five in my name.