Discover how to hire a COO in 8 steps to drive your business forward. Learn key hiring strategies and red flags to avoid to ensure a perfect fit.
Mike Wellner
Operational Excellence Fanatic - I help organizations ship better software faster
I have 10+ years of experience in helping transform the product delivery operations of organizations from large to small. I thrive leading teams out of chaos and into clarity. I identify systemic problems and solve them in a sustainable, scalable way. Whether you're growing your organization, integrating an acquisition, or tackling a special project, I can help you create an operating model that solves today's challenges while laying the foundation for tomorrow's growth.
Work
Transforming the Software Delivery Operating Model
https://www.lostdogconsulting.com/aboutI designed and implemented and transformation of the Software Delivery operating model for Salesforce.org. This included a portfolio and release planning process, an enhanced dependency management framework, execution tracking leveraging real-time dashboards, a risk mitigation framework, a Go to Market enablement plan, and more. This model enabled the organization to double their product portfolio in year 1 and served as the foundation for their continued growth.
Recovering a Failing Program
https://www.lostdogconsulting.com/aboutI was tapped to recover and lead a failing initiative that spanned over 100 teams at Salesforce Marketing Cloud. The program had multiple disjointed workstreams responsible for major architectural changes across engineering, infrastructure, network, legal, sales, support, marketing, and more. I was responsible for bringing all of them together to execute the program as one team. I achieved this through implementing sound programmatic structure and rhythm. The program was successfully recovered and launched on time, driving a major increase in revenue in the following years.
Integrating an Acquisition's Product & Engineering Organization
https://www.lostdogconsulting.com/aboutI led the acquisition of Salesforce.org into Salesforce.com. This acquisition involved migrating work tracking platforms, adhering to new security and legal requirements, adjusting the operating model and release cadence, and changing the standards for development. My main goal during this acquisition was to find synergies between the two organizations so that the intellectual and operational capital at the acquired organization was valued and incorporated to make both organizations better. This also ensured that the most important resource, the people, felt valued and respected during the integration.
Experience
Salesforce Industries
Director, Technical Program Management
Aug 2021 - May 2023
Salesforce Industries builds Industry Specific software solutions. Industries solutions shape Salesforce to the needs of your business, reducing the need for you to customize things yourself.
- Headed execution of integration of Salesforce.org into Salesforce Industries, identifying commonalities to create a unified operating model and completing initiative ahead of schedule.
- Transformed failing customer migration program into benchmark initiative and drove platform migration for $1.6B customer portfolio.
- Enhanced transparency across development process through implementation of comprehensive system for automated reports and dashboards within work management system (Salesforce).
- Expanded TPM team from five to seven members located across the AMER, EMEA, and APAC regions, achieving 110% of target customer satisfaction rating for FY23.
- Reduced operational inefficiencies and waste by spearheading implementation of automation, process enhancements, and meticulous documentation standards.
- Fostered clear direction and collaboration by instituting communication models aligned to all organizational levels, from individual contributors to executives.
Salesforce.org
Senior Manager, Technical Program Management
Mar 2019 - Aug 2021
Salesforce.org brings the power of the Salesforce platform to nonprofits and education institutions through out-of-the box solutions built on the Salesforce platform.
- Launched and led TPM organization from scratch, earning recognition as a strategic partner across Salesforce.org and securing future investment.
- Designed and implemented software delivery operating model, including developing key business cadences, processes, and KPIs, enabling Salesforce.org to double product portfolio and product delivery organization within first year.
- Enhanced cost-efficiency and revenue generation by implementing multi-cloud release planning process to foster early collaboration with go-to-market partners, lowering support costs and increasing sales.
- Enhanced reliability and awareness of releases by introducing real-time, multi-level dashboards to track program health KPIs.
- Developed successful go-to-market enablement process involving sales, customer support, and professional services resulting in success of innovation following market delivery.
- Increased clarity by creating process and artifact documentation repository using Confluence and Google Sites.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Director, Technical Program Management
Apr 2018 - Mar 2019
- Ensured seamless alignment across 100+ technology, sales, legal, professional services, customer support, and other teams by overseeing effective coordination of program managers and functional leaders, leading to on-time delivery of program.
- Established program rhythms, steering committees, executive sponsors, and communication models to ensure visibility and transparency.
- Realized substantial increase in annual contract value and revenue within EMEA market following successful delivery of international data center.
- Increased market adoption and revenue by mobilizing go-to-market teams to promote and support European data center through collaborative partnership and a robust communication and enablement campaign.
- Standardized new data center build to streamline delivery of future data centers projects.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Senior Release Manager
Jan 2015 - Apr 2018
- Slashed post-release issues and elevated customer satisfaction by transforming engineering culture, instilling developer-centric mindset to emphasize ownership and empower engineering take full responsibility for end-to-end product quality.
- Cultivated advancements in quality by driving program dedicated to enabling all Scrum teams to adopt automated testing.
- Led 98% improvement in adherence to the Definition of Done at Feature Freeze milestone, increasing quality of codebase, enhancing product reliability, and contributing to increased customer satisfaction.
- Decreased post-Feature Freeze code commits by 63% by streamlining development process to reduce waste and rework.
- Enhanced release health visibility through creation and implementation of comprehensive dashboards.
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