Claudia J. - Product Owner (equiv. SAFe Essential level)

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Paphos, Cyprus

Experience

Aug 2024 - Jan 2025

6 months

Product Owner (equiv. SAFe Essential level)

Requirements management
Quality assurance
Risk management
Designing a long-term service roadmap
Backlog management (Azure DevOps)
Release planning in coordination with product-related services
Specification of epics, features, and user stories
Conducting workshops to gather and align requirements with stakeholders
Interface modeling
Establishing interfaces to external systems
Weekly management reporting
Creating decision templates

Aug 2023 - Jun 2024

11 months

OKR Coach

Co-designing, introducing, and evolving OKR as a management system
Coaching on defining top-level objectives and key results
Conducting department-specific OKR workshops
Establishing reporting structures and routines

Aug 2022 - Dec 2023

1 year 5 months

Agile Coach, Project Manager (RTE equiv. SAFe Essential level)

Co-designing, introducing, and evolving a collaboration model for multiple agile teams with cross-team quarterly planning, as part of a restructuring project across all organizational units
Mentoring and coaching Product Owners & Epic Owners, agile methodology training
Design Thinking workshops, introducing Management 3.0 tools like Value Stories, Kudo Cards, Celebration Grid
Workshops on agile leadership
Co-designing future organizational development, business and process analysis, creating an organizational handbook to map company architecture, developing a Business Architecture Blueprint (TOGAF), business process modeling

Feb 2022 - Jul 2022

6 months

Enterprise Agile Coach (equiv. SAFe Portfolio level)

Involved in designing and responsible for implementing a customized scaled agile organizational model, as part of a transformation project at a leading energy provider to establish agile ways of working in over 20 teams
Including leadership training, Product Owner onboarding and mentoring, team workshops, and building and leading the Agile Coaching chapter

Jan 2022 - Present

4 years

Paphos, Cyprus

Co-Founder, Managing Director

CMJ Forward Consulting

CMJ Forward is my boutique consultancy for lean-agile consulting, coaching, and training.
As an Enterprise Agile Coach, I worked, among others, for a strategy consultancy, guiding the introduction of a new organizational model for 21 teams in a scaled agile environment.
In another project, I took on the role of project manager and PO coach in an agile restructuring project with nine teams.
The successful rollout of OKRs as a management framework marked the conclusion.

May 2021 - Nov 2021

7 months

Agile Coach/ Agile Architect (equiv. SAFe Portfolio level)

Coaching of enterprise and solution architects as part of the SAFe introduction
Establishing an agile way of working with a Kanban board
Translating architecture principles and modeling into ArchiMate
Enterprise architecture according to TOGAF
Integrating architecture into PI Plannings
Facilitating workshops to derive an enterprise architecture vision and an EA mission statement

May 2021 - Jun 2021

2 months

Agile Coach (SAFe Large Solution level)

Assessing the maturity of the SAFe introduction and deriving actionable recommendations
Focus on DevOps, Continuous Integration, Continuous Delivery, Continuous Deployment, and agile architecture principles

Oct 2020 - Sep 2021

1 year

Agile Coach (Scrum team level)

Agile coaching, supporting the Scrum Master and mentoring the Product Owner in an agile pilot project
Agile development of an app
Deriving recommendations for setting up multiple agile teams and introducing SAFe

Sep 2020 - Apr 2021

8 months

Agile Coach, RTE (SAFe Portfolio level)

Methodical support and guidance for expanding SAFe in a European authority
Establishment of the Dual Operating Model
Supporting the introduction of a Lean Agile Center of Excellence (LACE) with remote training and coaching for internal change agents
Providing a Business Agility Self-Assessment
Team readiness assessment
Value Stream Identification Workshops
Business and business process analysis

Jul 2020 - Sep 2020

3 months

Agile Coach (SAFe Essential level)

Support for the introduction of SAFe
Focus on value stream and Agile Release Train (ART) identification to derive team structure through workshops

Sep 2019 - Dec 2021

2 years 4 months

Stuttgart, Germany

Senior Technology Advisor, Agile Coach and Trainer

BearingPoint

As a Technology Advisor and Agile Coach, I have mainly supported clients in the public sector and finance/insurance to master their digital transformation, implement agile scaling frameworks, and lead agile software development projects to success.
I also worked as a trainer for the CIO Advisory - Agile Academy, teaching SAFe courses like Leading SAFe and SAFe Release Train Engineer.

Sep 2019 - Apr 2020

8 months

Agile Coach, Release Train Engineer (SAFe Portfolio level)

Provided methodological support and guidance for introducing SAFe in a European government agency
Mentored the internal RTE and coached the program manager, e.g. in developing a vision for the Agile Release Train, onboarding and coaching product owners and product managers, backlog management, and tool training (Azure DevOps)
Advised on creating epics and features for solution development
Facilitated design thinking workshops

Mar 2019 - Jun 2019

4 months

Consultant

Modernized IT system documentation and IT process documentation
Migrated to and provided training on a unified modeling tool
Designed an enterprise architecture metamodel based on TOGAF
Supported the harmonization of modeling processes
ArchiMate and BPMN modeling
Business and business process analysis

Apr 2018 - Jul 2019

1 year 4 months

Agile Leadership (mainly at team level)

Applied agile leadership principles
Practical use of Management 3.0 tools like Kudo cards, personal maps, delegation board, and value stories
Conducted workshops such as identifying team values and delegation poker to develop a delegation board

May 2017 - Sep 2019

2 years 5 months

Mannheim, Germany

External Lecturer

Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University

As an external lecturer in the Business Informatics program, I taught the courses Algorithms and Data Structures, System Analysis and Design, and Project Management Case Study – first in English, later also in German.
I was also responsible for exams and supervising seminar papers.

Feb 2017 - Aug 2017

7 months

Project Manager, Analyst

Implementation of the Innovator modeling tool at the client, including building a pilot model to map the application landscape and processes.
Took over project management, requirements gathering, coordination of internal stakeholders, conducting workshops and webinars, supporting model setup, and creating a custom modeling manual.
Main point of contact for the client and link between the business unit, sales, and product development.

Nov 2016 - Aug 2019

2 years 10 months

Nuremberg, Germany

Managing Consultant

MID GmbH

As a Managing Consultant, I led a ten-person consulting team focused on software lifecycle management and agile consulting.
At the same time, I was active in projects myself, including a large-scale EAM project.
I gathered in-depth experience in agile software development (Scrum) as well as in applying agile leadership (Management 3.0).

Nov 2016 - Oct 2017

1 year

Business Analyst, Scrum Master (SAFe Essential Level)

Supported an agile development team
Prepared and facilitated Scrum events
Coordinated obstacles with product owners and clarified them when necessary
Collaborated with other teams and in the Scrum Master Community of Practice
Managed the backlog and maintained Jira
Handled agile requirements management
Conducted requirements analysis
Created UML models
Analyzed impact of change requests
Performed business and process analysis
Developed solution proposals

Feb 2016 - Oct 2016

9 months

Project Manager, Analyst, Tester (Product Owner, SAFe Essential Level)

Led the expansion of the ERP system with an EDI-compliant invoicing solution.
Responsible for international requirements analysis, creating technical specifications, coordinating interfaces with the development team, performing consistency checks, and managing and supporting the international rollout.

Jun 2015 - Oct 2015

5 months

Greece

Expat. Consultant, Coach

Built and enabled two international support teams during an assignment in Greece.
Conducted training and coaching on ITIL, database usage, and specification creation.
Supported team processes, testing, and change management.
Coordinated interfaces with internal IT and business units in Germany.

Jun 2015 - Sep 2015

4 months

Thessaloniki, Greece

Inhouse Consultant

Lidl Greece (Lidl Hellas & Co.)

During my assignment, I played a key role as a trainer and consultant in setting up the Competence Center.
I coached teams, onboarded new employees, and conducted practical training.
I was also the subject matter expert for accounting systems, managing risk of potential issues.

Feb 2014 - Oct 2014

9 months

Project Manager, Analyst, Tester (Product Owner equivalent to SAFe Essential Level)

Implementation of an ERP add-on to ensure compliance with EU Directive 2011/7/EU on country-specific payment terms.
Responsible for consolidating international requirements, creating functional specifications and UX concepts, and coordinating with business units and IT teams.
Led the pilot phase and supported the go-live.

Jan 2014 - Oct 2016

2 years 10 months

Neckarsulm, Germany

Inhouse Consultant

Lidl International

In the international IT project organization, I held a PO-like role for specific invoicing and administration systems throughout the software lifecycle.
I led international software development projects, managed external vendors, supported audit processes with external auditors, and performed standard business analysis tasks.

Feb 2013 - Oct 2013

9 months

Subproject Manager, Analyst, Tester

Reorganized the invoicing process to reduce processing effort for 15,000 transactions per month, including digital signatures, verification, and SAP FI posting, while ensuring legal compliance and audit readiness.
Responsible for gathering requirements, writing specifications, coordinating with development and test teams, and communicating with auditors and business units during the national rollout.

Jun 2011 - Dec 2013

2 years 7 months

Neckarsulm, Germany

Inhouse Consultant

Lidl Germany (Lidl Dienstleistung GmbH & Co. KG)

As Inhouse Consultant in the IT project organization for merchandise management systems, I was the contact person for central administration systems (e.g., invoice verification, monthly/year-end closing, reporting).
In a PO-like role, I was responsible for the deployed modules of the in-house developed ERP system at headquarters.

Oct 2008 - May 2011

2 years 8 months

Ludwigsburg, Germany

Assistant

Institute for Quality Management (IQM)

My tasks as the managing director's assistant included secretarial work, as well as preparing and supporting customer workshops, focusing on Six Sigma, TPS, Lean and Kanban.

Summary

“I help organizations successfully master complex changes – where technology, strategy, and corporate culture meet. Whether in agile transformation programs, building adaptable organizations, or delivering scalable IT solutions, I bring clarity to complex initiatives, structure to ambitious goals, and energy to execution – as a sparring partner, coach, trainer, or hands-on doer. With a clear focus on what matters and a passion for sustainable results, I support businesses in becoming future-proof, resilient, and innovative.”