Lir Cowman

Delivered comprehensive Microsoft 365 migration training to 100+ legal professionals across five sessions, successfully transitioning non-technical staff from a decade-old version of Windows Office. Designed and executed an end-to-end training program covering Windows and Office Suite changes and platform differences, collaborating with IT teams to identify unique corporate pain points and proactively address them. Achieved excellent client satisfaction with seamless knowledge transfer that required no additional support. Future-proofed the live training with additional videos, session recordings, and supplementary how-to documentation.

Delivered a high-impact project management training session to 50 senior consultants in the Amazon Marketplace (EU and UK) unit, equipping teams with essential PM tools and methodologies tailored to Amazon’s operational context. Conducted a comprehensive needs analysis to identify critical skill gaps and customized the curriculum for a team with no prior formal project management training, ensuring relevance to Amazon’s unique requirements. Achieved outstanding participant feedback, with attendees praising the session as “a great session with interesting content” and commending the delivery: “Lir was great! The content was fabulous.”.

Gathered and analyzed existing training approaches and materials for 10 plants, creating a standardized, simple, and flexible framework. Developed core training tools. Designed a training checklist and training rating system to accelerate time-to-productivity and ensure consistent assessment, incorporating peer learning, train-the-trainer models, and gamification elements. Engaged stakeholders for change. Conducted interviews with training leads, HR, and supervisors to identify gaps and opportunities, presenting a consolidated improvement plan to the North American HR team. Enhanced training efficiency. Recommended simple, effective solutions such as role-based certification paths, structured onboarding, and training best practices, reducing reliance on ad hoc methods while maintaining plant-specific flexibility.

Supported the client account lead in working with high-risk, high-complexity new clients. Held a light touch role, ensuring clients and engineering teams were happy and that all actions were followed up on. Made improvements to working practices, such as introducing low-effort documentation and bookable slots for easy communication between client teams.

Assessed the needs using a discovery process. Devised a mixture of individual interviews and team workshops to uncover ways of working and pain points. Presented the discovery results to the leadership team as a roadmap. Clarified what I would do, including actions, measures, and timings. Highlighted problem areas teams to address, including issues raised by employees during the discovery phase. Delivered the roadmap as planned, including restructuring departments into cross-functional teams, implementing changes to workflows and tools for better clarity and prioritization, and providing Agile support and team coaching to drive improvement. Provided assorted business support and troubleshooting, including addressing process and tool changes required by the CRM transition to HubSpot, facilitating leadership teams, and driving policies and strategies for AI, vendor selection, etc. Coached several members of the management team to help them navigate a challenging period and regain a sense of proactive autonomy.

Improved the processes used by the product team to deliver, support, and optimize their SaaS platform, supporting automotive dealers to enable the team to scale rapidly. Gathered and analyzed data to uncover pain points and successes and document current processes. Generated and got consensus on a broad swathe of changes to the roles, team structure, processes, documentation (roadmaps and templates), environments, and tools. Drove the rollout of these changes by senior team members—conducted regular check-ins and adjustments over the following 9-month period. Wrapped up with a final 1-year check-in set of interviews with the original interviewees to ensure current improvements are firmly embedded and check for future improvements. Coached senior team members to support the transformation process and ensure the managers thrived through the changes. The coachees and their managers noticed tangible positive changes and confidence and leadership improved significantly.

Performed a rapid analysis of the best Asana approach for MBS's specific needs. Provided customization and training in Asana for the team, including documenting processes and creating custom training materials. Completed all tasks within 25 hours of effort. Analyzed and documented current project processes with task flow diagrams after stakeholder interviews, with recommendations for process improvements to improve efficiency and reduce risk. Created and iterated a range of Asana templates and defined best practices to optimize the team workflows for different project types. Created training materials for the team, covering basic Asana usage for new team members, the details of the company's specific best practices and processes, and tips and tricks for advanced users to improve efficiency.

Analyzed all their websites, approximately 12,000 pages across over 20 subdomains. Proactive custom analysis tools and methodology were needed as there was little existing data available. Mapped out the main sites, creating a breakdown of sections and pages. Created custom GA reports to prioritise areas of work by popularity. Planned and managed the restructure and rewrite of the content. Managed a team of up to 10 Toptal designers, writers, and developers as the project progressed, planning and reviewing their work. Worked closely with the Tulsa marketing department throughout, building strong relationships within the teams and coaching and training individuals as the team grew. Revised the process and project management tools for the Tulsa University team, defining how the Monday.com project management tool is used, improving the process, and providing training materials for the team.

Successfully designed and built the new LR.org website on a new technical platform within eight weeks. Joined shortly before the launch date to review and manage the development agency's work and to onboard and manage the incoming content migration team. Audited the site content, mapped out the current structure, and analyzed how these would migrate into the new structure. Managed the content migration team, prioritizing the movement of thousands of pages. UAT'ed all work by the agency and recommended a practical set of changes to optimize the work for launch.

Defined and iterated the project process in a rapidly changing environment, where senior leads requested extensive change monthly. Selected tools and optimized them for the team, with frequent changes to ensure alignment with process changes, supported by constant training and documentation. Defined and supported the team with planning and provided support for product owners and business analysts, working out the structure and hierarchy in an environment of constant flux. Coached senior team members to help them succeed in a challenging environment. Scaled the team from less than five to more than 100 within three months, monitoring the productivity and efficiency of a globally dispersed team.

Analyzed the complex business processes of a large (1,000+) Google team within days of starting the role. Identified how best to use the selected tool, Asana, to work with the process, gaining support and insight from the many stakeholders. Tested, iterated, and rolled out this approach, with training, to senior Google management, within the tight 2-month deadline.

Joined the GSK NEXT Innovation Oral Health team to manage and launch their first project, a real-world evidence behavioral science experiment using IoT-enabled toothbrushes. Initiated and led the discovery process, with hypothesis formation workshops, research coordination and strategic direction analysis. Managed a third-party partner launching a novel offering in the consumer service area

Defined processes and Trello templates for a wide range of types of projects and operations, collaborating with primary stakeholders to refine and adjust. Integrated Trello with a range of power-ups, e.g., TeamGantt for project management and planning; Unito to improve flows of cards between boards. Created a training deck on Trello usage to take the company from beginner to expert level and enable them to continue improving as they evolved.

Defined requirements for the PM toolkit; analyzed several options against the requirements; recommended Asana as the best fit for their needs; set Asana up and rolled it out. Analyzed and defined the current project management process; devised and rolled out process improvements. Defined roles and responsibilities for account and project management teams; devised a quantitative approach to team planning. Created a wiki for internal knowledge management within the first weeks. The wiki became the primary living source of process and company knowledge. Created a pricing model, enabling the team to estimate pricing and margins easily based on deliverables and costs, and created a new tool to select and manage the FL coach team. Trained and coached the team through a period of disruptive change for the company.

Delivered a light-touch project as a scrum master, keeping the agile team unblocked and joining in the scrum rituals with just a few hours per month. Defined a process with the team, moved ticket management from Trello to Jira, and introduced Asana for project management and planning. Led the developer and QA team recruitment; defined the job descriptions and the onboarding and offboarding processes. Coached the leadership team and senior team members (CTO, POs, and technical leads) through transformational change.

Reviewed and documented the client's current sales and operations processes then proposed and drove process changes to improve efficiency and transparency. Evaluated tooling options for project management and sales teams. Defined requirements, assessed options, and led selection for the new toolset. Drove fundamental changes to the usage of Wrike for project managers (e.g., workflow automation). Defined the executive team’s product improvement and new product innovation process. Created and populated a company-wide wiki to improve knowledge transfer and company communications.

Optimized operations for YLD. Developed a balanced scorecard: a company dashboard with objectives, metrics, and targets with the leadership team. Further improved internal communications. Proposed changes to the sales CRM. Delivered MVP for B2B SaaS in the finance sector. Led an embedded YLD and client development team to deliver a successful MVP over ten weeks as the Agile Coach, leading to further work. Led the discovery workshop for a new publishing client. The rapid analysis uncovered several approaches to accelerate development. The client engaged YLD to support them for the remainder of the project. Coached C-suite team members to clarify and enact change. Led the new business team in complex, documentation-intensive responses, including creative concepts, work schedules, and budget planning for a one-year delivery, and ensured compliance with legal and procurement requirements when delivering the RFP.

Configured and adjusted the tooling throughout the project: Jira for the development teams, Abstract and Zeplin with InVision, and Sketch for the design and UX teams. Led the remote development team in Poland as a scrum master using classic Agile Scrum for the development work while working concurrently with the creative team in London using Kanban to create a design system. Provided Agile coaching and project management for a SaaS location services client based in Germany; delivered the Drupal upgrade in less than the two months allocated.

Defined the delivery process; created all the necessary documentation, lifecycle, playbook, templates, roles and responsibilities, checklists, and supporting sales assets. Identified issues and optimized operations; proactively introduced a company-wide wiki and new resource management tools. Acted as a delivery lead for an existing large corporate SaaS client, completed MVP, and agreed on a six-month team extension. Also delivered a new business with a gambling company, heading the intensive two-week discovery and project initiation.

Defined and improved processes, tools, and practices to enable quality delivery across the multimillion portfolio of 50+ projects across all disciplines. Led and line-managed operations team to support the 100-strong wider team. Coached and led the project management team. Managed risk and monitored the health of budget, scope, and timelines across up to 50 concurrent projects for the main client, Google. Provided hands-on project management as needed. Identified opportunities and managed relationships with senior stakeholders at Google (Potato's main client, 90% of the work), growing the account by 200%. Acted as the ultimate point of contact and escalation. Mentored and coached teams. Served as a line manager for the whole PM team and senior team members in UXD and development teams. Achieved team growth from 30 to 100+ with a low staff turnover of <5%. Defined and improved processes and reporting for resource utilization, project budget, schedule analysis, sales and revenue forecast, pipeline management, and team planning.

Delivered almost £1 million of work over several months as the contract project manager. Launched the first-ever Vauxhall mobile site, built on AEM CMS. Led a complex data integration project, co-coordinating many third parties and senior client stakeholders. Reskinned and rebranded the existing Vauxhall site of several hundred pages within a fixed deadline of three weeks.

Reduced project overages by 85% by improving the project management processes and estimation. Grew the digital account portfolio by 30%, working directly with senior clients, such as Unilever and Duplo. Defined digital processes and trained the wider non-digital, non-agile agency to work with digital, agile teams. Created templates and tools to improve delivery: source control, estimation templates, and many other elements. Recruited new staff (20% growth). Improved efficiency by 10% by training non-digital staff to do digital work.

Delivered a complex Umbraco CMS and data migration project, £500,000 to £1 million range, for a Wunderman Automotive client, Jaguar Land Rover. Managed a complex Flash financial modeling project, from £500,000 to £1 million range, for MRM McCann for a financial services client. Delivered Sitecore CMS and a large eCommerce build; from £500,000 to £1 million range, for Tullo Marshall Warren's charity client, Marie Curie Cancer Care. Managed Flash and Unity online game activation toolkits, from £100 to £500,000 range, for OgilvyAction's telecommunications client, Vodafone.

Optimized process, tools, and templates for the digital team of up to 80, covering project management, resource management, utilization analysis, new business and business development, estimation, sales pipeline planning, and revenue forecasting. Completed hands-on delivery for some of the more complex projects for clients such as Lucozade and Sony. Headed the project management team and drove quality throughout the project management process on all projects. Grew the company from 20 to 80 over two years in the new digital arm of a wider integrated agency.

Delivered a wider range of projects as the senior project manager for this large online marketing agency. Clients included HP, MSN, UPS, and RBS Group. Budgets up to £500,000 per annum. Projects ranged from games, widgets, OLM, eCRM, and site builds. Deputized as head of project management. Defined and improved project management processes, recruited and trained staff, and created documents, tools, and templates for the wider project management team to use. Initiated and delivered internal operations improvements in areas such as resource management.