Hello, I’m
Balázs
Szamaranszký.
I’m an experienced product owner exploring the waters of agile software development. On this site, you can learn about my journey, discoveries and learn about me.
Traits
Agilist
I have an experience with agile frameworks and with explaining the importance of having an agile mindset. I try to gain trust of developer teams and business to disrupt status quos, make bold decisions and apply the empirical process.
Requirements engineer
All my career I’m collecting, eliciting and translating user needs in to clear requirements according to INVEST and DEEP principles.
Agile Leader
As a leader of a project/product I always point to the vision and goals, strive to create a safe environment for learning, where the team is empowered to make decisions and shield the team from any interruptions from our goals.
Planning and roadmaps
I don’t say when a product will be done. I forecast an interval when it will be most probable done. I apply cone of uncertainty, team velocity, but also team capacity to predict outcomes.
Mapping the problem/product
I use user journey mapping and user story mapping to map the product. This helps to identify the MVP or MMP and slice the product on digestible parts.
Prototyping
I’m a strong proponent of validated learning. This means I’m creating prototypes to test with real users. I use various tools for this as JustInMind, Figma and MS Power Apps.
Visualisator
I believe that most of the people can understand faster when they have the problem visualized and get a lot of examples. For this I usually use miro.com, conteptboard.com, mural.co, MS Visio, Draw IO, PlantUML, C4
Coaching
I enjoy seeing how people grow, so I went through coaching trainings, read some books and am actively coaching individuals.
Prepared for personal growth
If you feel too comfortable in your place, most probably you are not growing. I try to find areas where I can grow, and I’m always opened to personal feedback.
Certification
Project Management Institute – Agile Certified Practitioner (2022)
Scrum.org – Professional Scrum Product Owner™ (2021)
IREB – Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering Advanced Level (2021)
IREB – Certified Professional for Requirements Engineering Foundation Level (2019)
Experience
IT Product Owner
September 2021 – present
iLogistics IT Solutions
Product ownership:
- Leading agile development teams developing digital products
- Supporting business to define product board, product roadmap and user journey
- User story mapping
- Participating on Product Increment plannings (SAFe)
- Release planning and leading
- Introducing new approaches – non-functional requirement definition, C4 documentation, diagrams as code
- Kick-starting new product development – team establishment (roles and responsibilities exploration and definition), MMP, MVP identification, risk analysis, User Story mapping, establishing mode of working with multiple teams on the same product…
- Prototyping (Figma)
Agile transformation:
- Driving agile mindset – ownership, motivation, data driven decision-making and iterative progress
- Challenging status quo on scaled level and providing input, suggestions and leadership for agile transformation (scaled process definition: Epic definition, DoR, DoD, SAFe Operational and Development Value streams, leading scaled retros)
- Participating and leading scaled Scrum ceremonies
- Establishing and leading Community of Practice for Product Owners and Project Managers
- Introducing best practices to POs and PMs as Design Sprint, User Story mapping, using Figma, OKRs,…
- Reducing unnecessary bloat
- Establishing process for digital product rollout
- Release process definition
Proxy Product Owner
March 2018 – present
Siemens Healthcare, s.r.o
- Leading agile team – leading agile team in Kanban, Scrum and Lean agile context, user defining agile
processes (definition of work item types, state-flow, DoD, DoR,…), leading scrum ceremonies, user story mapping - Product feature identification and implementation – discussing product feature proposals and their business value, organizing and leading rapid prototyping (The Design Sprint), end user interviews, designing and presenting proofs of feature concepts, identifying MVP (and MMP) definition
- Roadmap and resources planning – preparing and planning product roadmap based on estimations and team capacity
- Requirement engineering – analyzing and documenting new product feature requests and slicing them to epics, features and user stories. Creating user story maps for products, writing user stories, acceptance criteria and business-driven development scenarios (in Gherkin language). Defining and clarifying of UI, UX and discussing technical implementation with software architects and development team.
- Taking care of the product backlog – Making sure that there is enough front-loading for the backlog, is correctly prioritized, well understood by the whole team, transparent and reflecting reality.
- Reporting – Definition of KPIs, regular reporting to line management and steering boards.
- Participation on release process – preparing team release kick-offs, supporting the team during software release, with testing, release documentation creation and solving problems during release process.
Business Analyst
April 2016 – March 2018
Erste Group IT International
- Close contact with clients, understanding their needs, priorities and creating good relations.
- Analyzing, processing client requests and translating them to a form, which is comprehensible for the development team.
- Responsibility for successfully closing of all client requests in time and in proper quality.
- Analyzing the cost-effectiveness of the solutions and their technical realization.
- Responsibility for creating correct estimates, solve budget issues and having correct project metrics.
- Support with planning and leading product releases.
- Making sure that all technical documentation is up-to-date and correct.
- Delivering correct financial data for operational and project expenses.
- Operating help-desk – solve client issues and questions
GTT Program Manager
Business Development Lead
Web Production Lead
June 2014 – April 2016
IBM
GTT Program Manager
- Creating a global self-sustainable, unique innovation program through effective organization process.
- Preparing budget, resources, metrics and project plan.
- Making the team work well together globally.
- Designing, organizing and planning meetings with management boards
Business Development Lead
- Finding new opportunities for business deals on a global scale
- Finding business answers for client needs
- Understanding client needs and communicating solutions via our offerings
- Support client till contract signing
Web Production Lead
- Processing and translating business goals and online strategy into the appropriate web experience.
- Clarifying out requests with DEV team, budget control and reporting.
Education
PhD for Doctor of Advanced Theological Studies
2014 – Interrupted – Universität Wien, Evangelisch-Theologische Fakultät
Master of Hussite Theology with first-class honors
2011 – 2013 – Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Hussite theology
Bachelor of Evangelical Theology with first-class honors
2007 – 2010 – Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Department of Evangelical Theology
School Leaving Examination, level A with first-class honors
2003 – 2007 – Chemical High School, IT and chemistry, Bratislava
Language skills
Slovak, Hungarian – native language fluency
English – fluent
German – passive