KaiRise

In my role as a Partner at KaiRise, I spearheaded the development of the industry's first on-demand ICAgile accredited course, transforming the way agile training is delivered. By prioritizing flexibility and speed, I successfully increased course enrollment and client satisfaction, making agile training more accessible than ever before.

Partner

Accenture

Working across all Federal accounts and capabilities at AFS’ San Antonio location, promote awareness and adoption of Lean-Agile values, principles, processes and technical practices. Consult with clients and account teams on effective patterns for transformation and high-quality delivery. Provide thought leadership to enable accounts to grow their Lean-Agile practice. Provide sales and BD support at the account, sector and portfolio level. 

Primary focus falls into four key areas:

Delivery Support - Jumpstart new Agile projects by helping client teams understand Agile, onboard key roles, execute Sprint Zero. Work closely with project leadership to assess organizational impediments, measure flow and develop strategies for continuously improving. 

Thought Leadership - Collaborate with the AFS Agile Institute, Accenture LLP,  and the industry as a whole to promote local adoption of our corporate capabilities, and industry best practices. 

Education - Provide classroom training to project teams and clients in our ICAgile accredited courses and the Scaled Agile (SAFe) curriculum. 

Sales Enablement - Play an active role in supporting business development and proposal efforts for Agile opportunities across all accounts.

Agile Consultant

Compassion International

As a servant-leader, coach the global solutions engineering teams (currently 11 agile teams) to manage the life cycle of critical corporate-wide and customer-specific technology based products primarily using Lean and Agile SDLC practices – Scrum, KanBan, XP, ScrumBan, SAFe.  

Continuously develop a work environment promoting continual improvement and learning, free from fear of failure, while supporting mistakes that encourage continual learning.  Employ a Lean leadership style focusing on developing team members’ skills. 
Serve as an Agile Coach and transformation agent as the ministry transforms to a new way of thinking, applying Lean Agile principles to all levels of work.  Create teams that are jointly responsible for success, solving problems together in ways that develop people’s capabilities and increases their engagement and commitment, focusing on respect for people.

Develop and implement global strategy for application software design and development. Ensure staffing and development in function to provide technical and strategic expertise in the creation of global inter-related system design for existing architecture or new deployments.  Direct the development of specifications and requirements to integrate global applications.  Serve as catalyst and expert leader, driving the development and implementation of new standards in software development.

Provide strategic direction in gathering requirements and development specifications to design and integrate into applications.  Direct application software design and development services and technical leadership for existing architecture or new deployments. Create an environment that attracts and develops skilled professional staff engaged in coding, testing, implementing, and maintaining large software applications.

Sr. Director - Solutions Engineering

Direct technology delivery focused on enterprise services (Service Oriented Architecture and the Enterprise Service Bus)  enterprise information management (the Enterprise Data Warehouse) and enterprise database management (MSSQL DBMS).
Direct enterprise information management solutions, division staff and resources. 
Direct solutions delivery, process and policy assurance, budgeting and financial management, resource planning, management reporting and the attainment of cross-organizational objectives and service levels. Collaborate with IT management teams, key decision-makers and global stakeholders to identify, recommend, develop, implement and support cost-effective, strategically - aligned enterprise data management solutions for all aspects of the global organization.
As Strategic Business Partner, and Agile Coach, participate in the development and execution of strategies to drive agile adoption throughout the organization. Examples include defining an Agile maturity model, establishing best practices, teaching Agile related classes and guiding the Managing Directors, Product Managers and project leads in the establishment of Agile practices.

Director - Enterprise Technology, SBP

Douglas County

Responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Elections office in a medium-sized County, providing direct supervision, coordination, and technical guidance to staff, maintaining a high level of morale, ensuring service excellence and increasing team productivity. Supported advanced technical needs of office staff, as well as Directors and Elected Officials both inside and outside of Douglas County, including hardware/software support, project management, business analysis, and vendor relations.   Utilized sophisticated technology skills to streamline processes and reduce overhead by implementing methodologies to improve support, manage customer expectations, and build strong cross-agency relationships. Recognized leader in the State by the Colorado Department of State (CDOS) with regards to voting systems technology and statewide voter registration database management.

Senior Product Manager

Senior System Analyst

Reformed PMP turned Agile delivery expert | Helping you earn more 💵 | Agile certification pays - get yours today at your own pace. KaiRise.com

Instructor-led agile training is one of the worst ways to up-skill your workforce. There are 3 gigantic problems with old-school, instructor led training.

🚫 It pulls workers away from their daily jobs to take training
🚫 It takes forever to schedule, coordinate and run
🚫 It doesn’t scale

◾️What I do

I'm a partner at KaiRise, with three decades of experience helping enterprises implement agility. We've cracked the code on how to train your staff in a way that actually generates results.

◾️How We Help?

I’ve distilled what I’ve learned into the fastest most effective way to earn the ICAgile Certified Professional Certification. We created the world’s first on-demand ICAgile accredited course.

It’s used at enterprises around the world to transform the learning experience, while stretching budget dollars and…

👉Is Available 24/7
👉Is Trusted & Certified 
👉Has Bite-sized learning for seamless integration into daily tasks
👉Has zero death by powerpoint or forgetting everything you’ve just learned
👉Will certify your workforce in half the time of regular training

◾️Expected Results

✅ 40% reduction in training costs
✅ 30% increase in the volume of certifications issued
✅ 50% reduction in the time to complete training
✅ 72 Net Promoter Score (excellent)

◾️Don't just take my word for it

“Absolutely loved the content, format, and instruction style of this course. The self-pacing was great for my learning style. Would recommend it to practically anyone!”
Stella Griffith - Sr. Business Analyst at Fidelity Investments

“Great Course and Engaging Style. From the bite-sized learning modules to the reinforcement through quizzes and interactive activities, this course is a great intro to the world of Agile.”
Ian Santo Domingo - Principal & Managing Director at Vault Consulting

“I am a Certified ScrumMaster, but I truly believe this course has set me up for broader organizational success. I can't say enough great things about Agile Foundations!”
Lindsey Parker - Strategic Projects Coordinator at Fellowship of Christian Athletes

And many more at www.KaiRise.com

◾️My Background

With three decades of hands-on experience, completed 16 agile certifications, and having trained thousands, I've garnered over 10,000 followers and earned recognition as a top voice in the Agile Community by LinkedIn. My journey has taken me through diverse landscapes, from startups and nonprofits to global corporations and government agencies.

◾️Contact

Ready to change your enterprise training experience? Send me a LinkedIn DM and let's explore if we're a fit. 

💻www.KaiRise.com

Mike Lyons

Professional Quitter

Photography, Videography, Content Creation, Channel Operator, SEO. Story Teller.
I am a landscape photographer intent on capturing the world from my perspective. I also enjoy street photography, and participate in photography katas to more rapidly improve my style and improve my image creations.
I will also be working to instruct others on how to improve their photography, as well as image processing and modifcation. Working with Generative AI to harness the latest technologies to create more striking final edits.

Professional Photographer

World Hugger

I am taking a one year sabbatical beginning July 1, 2025.  We will visit 25 countries across the world over 395 days.
As value maximizer we did all our planning, invested funds to take our adventure, booked our flights and hotels for the first 3 months of the journey and will be worldschooling our son for year.
I have applied much of my experience with Kanban to help my family visualize the efforts it will take to bring together such an adventure. We worked as a team on all the items to prepare our home for rent, to research our travel plans together, and make the most efficient route with the least friction.

Value Maximizer, Dream Enrichment

Unify Consulting

Scrum Master to 18 development teams creating releases for a major wireless provider over a 26 month period. My specialty was uncovering the chaos teams were caught up in and finding rapid results in small changes. We take our wins quickly, get control again of our processes, then seek ways to improve, relentlessly.

Initially assigned two Scrum teams to deliver stories and bug fixes to support the online purchase process, promotions, and related logistics and delivery work.

Created a Lunch and Learn Series across 4 teams that share dependencies to improve our knowledge transfer and better deliver our shared work.

Currently supporting four Scrum teams delivering stories supporting the product backend in the areas of Java, MicroServices/Docker & Telemetry. We create the app that more than 100 million people each day are using. We do Cobrowsing, payment arrangements, digital everything, T-Life, Tuesdays and 7 other work streams across our teams of about 55 developers and testers I support.

Created a new 'Cultural Ambassador' role with my Scrum Teams. Each sprint one person is chosen for this role and provides music that we play during our retrospective and is given time to tell us about their country and culture and what they love.  Great team building exercise for globally dispersed and culturally diverse Scrum Teams.

Spearheaded the Community of Practice for Scrum Masters, supporting a group of 65 Scrum Masters cross-training and challenging each other. Joined a team of the worlds finest Agile Coaches to tackle a $1Billion dollar transformation. I survived that to join a new wave of ACs and a new transformation.

Stepped up to be a lead Scrum Master for the new corporate Agile transformation initiative to ensure this time we are more flexible, use better metrics, dont lead with a system that satisfies Accounting but fails the Product and SLT. I coach new Scrum Masters and Team Coaches how to use frameworks, than pragmatically adjust to serve their teams.

Sr. Consultant - Scrum Master - Agile Coach - Team Coach

Seatle Diverse Properties

•	In 2020 I launched a rebranding and technology refresh for Seattle Diverse Properties Real Estate. 
•	We work with buyers, seller and investors combining our experience and technological edge for our client's advantage. 
•	The pandemic forced immediate changes to our family business, forcing rapid shifts due to public health regulations and the real estate market pressures. 
•	We hired virtual staff, coordinators and a marketing team and went online in a traditionally hands-on business. Shifted to new software platforms and expanded into new areas of expertise.
•	We are top producers in the area with more than $25 Million in sales during an incredibly competitive and challenging Seattle RE market area during the pandemic. 
•	Our growing team is poised for our biggest year as we hit our 15th year serving our clients and our community.

Co-Owner, Technology Strategist

Microsoft

Principal analyst of the security assessments of Azure Stack Hub hybrid cloud solution using Qualys Vulnerability Manager, Policy Compliance, and WAS modules.

•	Created a program around Vulnerability Assessment and Policy Compliance programs for Azure Stack Hub, including the DOD JEDI program efforts. Implemented DISA STIG Compliance.
•	Program produced end-to-end scanning and reporting of Azure Stack Hub physical hardware, network and hardened Azure Stack virtual infrastructure components for each of the monthly releases.
•	Created training collateral and configuration documentation for Vuln and Compliance programs
•	Served as the Agile Program Manager and Scrum Master for the vulnerability assessment program for all 8 partners in the OEM Azure Stack Hardware Partners ensuring hardware, software and network products are secured during each release.
•	Developed relationships and services with 3rd party companies for common business deliverables, ran scrum of scrum events and retrospectives. 
•	Conducted monthly scanning of customer releases and Azure Stack Updates; the reports determined security ship posture, shipping status, and could delay releases for high severity issues.
Reduced total vulnerabilities by 96% compared to the two previous cloud generations.
•	Cross team collaboration with globally dispersed teams and virtual groups. I ran daily scrum stand ups and weekly touch base with our partner development teams. Worked closely with the TPMs and Product owners to determine high value deliverables to add customer value.
•	Risk management, driving innovation, delivering value for government and corporate business advantage.

Program Management in Software Engineering - Security Analyst, Azure Stack Solutions Integrations

Created monthly servicing packages for CPS Premium on-premises enterprise hybrid cloud solution ‘datacenter in a box’ as part of an Agile team. Role included program management and software engineering to develop servicing and integration packages for CPS Standard targeting smaller hybrid cloud deployments. 

•	Managed the hardware deployment and configuration, end to end solution software deployment, bug discovery and fixes for both CPS Premium and Standard.
•	Served as the lead security analyst for CPS Servicing responsible for Qualys vulnerability scanning, reporting, and design. Created the monthly plan of record for the test matrix and ensured the lab systems were prepared in time for each monthly sprint. 
•	Managed operational process improvement, training and documentation for FTE and contractor teams. Primary escalation engineer for CPS Standard partner solutions by HPE and Nutanix.
•	9 incremental releases in PM function of the servicing releases from build, test, service ops, and retrospectives.

Software Engineer – Operations, Cloud Platform System (CPS) Servicing

Led datacenter and customer facility refresh project of the EEC and rebranding to the CPEC. 

•	Project managed deployment of over 700 servers, dozens of CPS stamps, Cisco 9000 core, 88 new TOR network switches, modernized 40-seat customer lab desktop infrastructure.
•	$11 million project investment to ensure the Solutions team had access to cutting edge hardware positioned properly to support the next phase of ‘Cloud Readiness’ at Microsoft.

Software Engineer – Operations, Coud Platform Engineering Center (CPEC)

Hosted onsite project visits by external customers, partner companies and internal Microsoft product development groups to design and validate Windows Server solutions. Individual project goals included gathering customer requirements, building complex end-to-end test environments to suit each solution design, creating documentation and facilitating customer test plan validation work during their multi-week visit.

•	Managed 55 customer engagement projects as primary PM leading my team during that 5-year time frame. Worked as a collaborating PM in various support roles during dozens of large-scale engagements and events. 
•	Created and matured relationships with influencer companies over several years of deep customer feedback engagement projects.
•	As primary PM I was a critical Interface between customers and the Microsoft product development groups within Windows Server and System Center. Created a framework around customer-focused engineering to capture the customer voice and deliver the most value within our products and services.
•	A successful customer engagement project included collecting customer feedback, filing bugs on escaped defects and customer design requests, and unblocking real world customer scenarios. 
•	As Program Manager I executed projects through all phases using traditional waterfall and hybrid methodologies.
•	Managed partner company engagements ensuring partner hardware, software and services were ready for go-live dates corresponding with product releases of Windows Server, System Server, Azure and SQL. Partner readiness, scale and stability were measurable components to my successful projects.
•	Contributing author for three Microsoft Press books on Windows Server 2012, 2012 R2 and 2016.

Program. Manager – Customer Engagement, Enterprise Engineering Center (EEC)

Reed Elsevier Technology Services

•	Promoted to LexisNexis parent company Reed Elsevier Technology Services (RETS) group and tasked with design and implementation of a global ‘follow the sun’ support model for three product lines. I moved to the Netherlands and opened the Amsterdam support office as lead engineer consulting to various groups to support our global action plan.  Project managed efforts to unify operational processes across Singapore, Amsterdam, London, Springfield, OH and Bellevue, WA offices. Created training documentation and led internal cross-training efforts.
•	RETS top-level Windows engineering and architecture team engineer managing over 200,000 servers and client endpoints globally. Maintained average of 99.9% uptime for five years in LexisNexis File and Serve. 
•	Designed and deployed disaster recovery datacenters in three time zones with geographic load balancing.
•	Created “Pandemic Fridays” designed to validate global remote access and emergency readiness by requiring employees to work from homes in concentrated amounts to simulate a regional disaster or pandemic.
•	Modernized data centers from legacy physical servers to pioneering use of virtualization, private clouds, and geographically dispersed datacenters.
•	Messaging projects supporting high volume email marketing and retention needs. Architected flexible Exchange solutions, hardened gateway appliances, and email archive and retention. 
•	Member of the security review team and change control board, and consulting engineer to several LexisNexis business units. Senior technical lead on two datacenter design and relocation projects. Met team requirement to achieve CISSP certification and engineer security into every solution.
•	ITIL and security focused, creating and adhering to company processes, service catalogs, and support operations procedures. 
•	Broad variety of technical projects included security appliances, BYOD smartphone management and database monitoring.

Consulting Systems Engineer

LexisNexis File & Serve

Senior Systems Engineer for the LexisNexis File and Serve product.  I architected and engineered infrastructure projects, driving revenue growth from $15 to $100 million dollars annually.

Senior Systems Engineer

Corbis

Systems Administrator

Passionate Agilist with strong technical background in Agile Program Management, Engineering and Cybersecurity. 
Demonstrated ability to deliver business and customer value by implementing projects using secure and efficient Agile and Waterfall frameworks. 
Lead talented cross-functional and distributed teams to deliver complex software and IT projects.
Facilitator and servant leader of Agile teams in all phases and ceremonies.

CORE SKILLS
 
•	Scrum Master 
•	Agile Program Management / TPM 
•	Portfolio & Program Management 
•	Team Development, Training, Documentation
•	 Mentoring & Coaching
•	Agile Team Transformations 
•	Agile Methodologies and Maturity 
•	Identifying risk and Process Gaps
•	Stakeholder and Relationship Management
•	Remote Work and Virtual Team Experience

Achievements:
Agile Experience
•	Scrum Master for the vulnerability assessment program for all 8 partner teams of the Azure Stack OEM Hardware Partners, ensuring security posture of hardware, software, and network products for each release.  
•	Cross-team collaboration with globally dispersed teams and virtual groups. I ran daily scrum stand ups and weekly touch base with our partner development teams.  
•	Worked closely with the TPMs and Product owners to determine high value deliverables to add customer value.  Ran scrum of scrum events, large demo events and team retrospectives. 

PM Experience
•	As the primary PM, I managed 55 customer engagement projects at Microsoft, leading my team during that 5-year timeframe. Consulting PM in various support roles for dozens of large-scale engagements and events. My projects led directly to more than $50M in revenue and development of many strategic partnerships.
•	End-to-end project delivery including project plans, task dependencies, resource management and facilitation of all customer related events. Accountable for customer experience, tracked issues, bugs, impediments to resolution. Reported to Senior Leadership and Product Feature Teams as voice of the customer experience. 

Career Interests
•	Transforming into Agile Coach/Agile Lead roles to develop high performing teams delivering products and services using agile best practices. 
•	Accessibility Champion, look for opportunities to deliver products and services that bring technology to everyone. DE&I Ally.

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Mike Lyons

Colin Robinson Agile Facilitator-Value Delivery Leader

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