Maria Van Wambeke
Product Operations Expert and Evangelist
Maria is a Product Operations’ Evangelist with over 20 years of experience leading product management, product operations, and program management teams for both private and public companies. Her power skills lie in scaling operations and cross-functional teams using Agile methodologies, driving alignment and efficiencies across teams to ensure delivery of the best products for customers. Maria excels in deep engaging communication and facilitation that gets to the core of issues, and she’s adept at introducing solutions that create sustainable change for organizations and teams. Beyond her professional endeavors, Maria is an avid outdoors-woman who loves to unplug while solo backpacking throughout the world. Her passion for exploration and adventure not only enriches her personal life but also brings a unique perspective to her professional approach, fostering creativity, resilience, and adaptability.
I am the Product Operations leader and evangelist that takes teams from zero to exemplary through governance of frameworks, Agile methodologies, and best practices while often supporting executive leadership in a Chief of Staff capacity. I solve complex organizational challenges by adapting solutions to fit the environment. With a track record of decreasing slack and optimizing output, I clear the way so organizations, teams, and individuals can perform at their absolute best.
Here’s how:
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT: Robust Product Management talent stack with experience at all levels of PM hierarchy. Managed re-platforming initiative resulting in a 75% reduction in build time, 60% decrease in cost, 30% reduction in Level 1/2 support requests
PROCESS & SYSTEMS DESIGN: Bridge people, processes, and systems through design and implementation of scalable SOPs. At F5, built product lifecycle management framework (PDLC) adopted by 20 teams, improving on-time product delivery by 12%
TYING DELIVERY TO STRATEGY: Strategic enabler that marries product vision/strategy to output so teams remain hyper-focused on delivering value to customers. At F5, used OKRs and Value Streams to connect the dots between strategy and delivery
OPERATIONAL RIGOR: Streamline and scale operations and business activities. At F5 and Ridecell, reduced Product Manager (PM) administrative workload by 20% and 15% respectively, so PMs could focus on providing customer value
DATA & ANALYTICS STRATEGY: Develop systems that empower teams to make data-driven decisions, even in times of ambiguity, while effectively mitigating risk. At F5, drove analytics’ framework design and execution with 99% adoption by teams
ROADMAP & RELEASE PLANNING: Instrument consistent and transparent roadmap creation and communication processes. At F5, built strategic mapping and categorical allocations for roadmaps decreasing unplanned work and freeing resources by 12% to provide value to customers
CUSTOMER SUPPORT MODELS: Design systems for support, triage, and escalation of customer requests to optimize experience and resolution effectiveness. At Business Wire, implemented Jira ServiceDesk while reducing Level 1/2 requests by 30%
Follow Maria Van Wambeke
LinkedIn
Profile:
Product Operations is the career made for me and I love it. I experience life by taking in large amounts of information, identifying friction, and distilling inputs into structured paths of action that lead to positive change for people. Being the catalyst for change within organizations fulfills me.
Services Offered:
- Business Consulting
- Program Management
- Project Management
- Strategic Planning