Kelsey Vanderstine
Springfield
Summary
Detailed professional with proven track record of efficiently managing teams of engineers, researchers, and designers while ensuring productivity and accuracy of work. Expertise in training and developing team members, problem solving, and providing timely updates. Outstanding ability to manage multiple projects and prioritize work efficiently. Adept at working closely with all levels of management to ensure smooth operations.
Overview
9
9
years of professional experience
Work History
Senior Design Program Manager
Northwestern Mutual
07.2025 - 08.2025
- Create processes for designers and researchers within the specified project
- Appointed design consultants and encouraged performance pursuant to deed and scope of service.
- Work with product to provide clarity on design needs
- Establish expectations on changes to timelines when the business changes design needs
- Work closely with product to create feature priority
- Develop meeting cadences that are most beneficial to project completion
- Work with product to define MVP for design
- Guide Tech PM on design process to create an understanding for timeline purposes
- Run Scrum ceremonies
- Create relevant Jira tickets and upkeep Jira boards
- Short-Term Contract
Design Operations Project Manager
Home Depot
10.2023 - 02.2025
- Created Work Management Structure utilizing Jira and Miro for team collaboration
- Leads all team “rituals” including planning, standups, and reviews.
- Identifies project risks and assists in solutioning and keeping leadership aware.
- Revamped DesignOps support ticket intake process.
- Works with Product Owner to ensure all tasks fall into the roadmap and are prioritized.
- Helped create and gather OKRs and other relevant metrics to show implementation improvements.
- Created a “one pager” utilizing Confluence and Jira that auto updates progress within Epics and Tasks which is used weekly by management.
- Contract
UX Research Program Coordinator
Northwestern Mutual
11.2020 - 06.2023
- Evaluated effectiveness of current processes and developing solutions to enhance them.
- Advised senior management on potential solutions for complex problems.
- Ensured compliance with applicable regulations, policies, procedures, and standards.
- Developed recruiting strategies to identify qualified candidates for research studies.
- Reported routine project status and data trends to project lead or departmental management.
- Developed and managed databases for data storage, retrieval, and security
- Collaborated with stakeholders to define business requirements for projects.
UX Design Operations Coordinator
Adobe
10.2019 - 11.2020
- Prepared regular status updates on progress towards key objectives for upper management review.
- Produced and maintained management data related to operational needs and projects.
- Organized meetings, conferences, trainings, and other events related to operations coordination tasks.
- Analyzed data sets to identify opportunities for process improvement.
- Contributed to developing policies, procedures and systems which assured effective operational functioning.
- Assisted with creation and tracking of OKRs and KPIs/
- Contract
Engineering Operations Coordinator
Polycom
07.2016 - 07.2019
- Implemented innovative strategies to optimize operations processes and reduce costs.
- Ensured compliance with applicable regulations related to operations coordination activities.
- Created detailed reports on operational performance metrics and presented findings to senior leadership.
- Worked closely with other departments such as Accounting and Logistics to coordinate material flow efficiently.
- Analyzed current financial state of department to prepare financial reports for upper management.
- Contract
Education
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) - Writing
Savannah College Of Art & Design
Savannah, GA, US06.2011
Skills
- Project management through Jira and Airtable
- Whiteboarding through Mural and Miro
- Proficient in Excel and other Microsoft tools
- Communications through Slack, Teams, Webex, & Zoom
- Ability to identify issues and make a resolution quickly to ensure project integrity
- Works as a liaison between leadership and ICs
- Consistently works to ensure everyone understand the project and what is expected of them
- Project Manages for User Experience and User Experience Researchers
Timeline
Senior Design Program Manager
Northwestern Mutual
07.2025 - 08.2025
Design Operations Project Manager
Home Depot
10.2023 - 02.2025
UX Research Program Coordinator
Northwestern Mutual
11.2020 - 06.2023
UX Design Operations Coordinator
Adobe
10.2019 - 11.2020
Engineering Operations Coordinator
Polycom
07.2016 - 07.2019
Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) - Writing
Savannah College Of Art & Design