Aaron P. Woods

Microsoft

Azure Portal - User Experience Acceleration (UXA)

In this role, Aaron collaborated with design, engineering, and business teams to develop and implement platform-wide Design Patterns which currently impact over 2 million user interactions (per day) across Azure web & mobile applications.

Managed the UI/UX design, development, and engineering implementation of Azure Portal Design Patterns to standardize high-value features such as Create, Manage, Browse, and Delete experiences for various cloud services.

• Drove alignment among over 200 partner teams to ensure standardized solutions were implementable at scale. Provided guidance to sub-domain product managers, resulting in over 85% adoption of developed standards.

• Led all facets of the agile development process for a team of 11 software engineers and 2 UI/UX designers. Managed product phases including ideation, design, user research, software development, QA/QC, telemetry, and documentation.

• Developed and managed the product roadmap, composed user stories, and outlined end-to-end design flows and engineering requirements.

• Published step-by-step design guidance and engineering documentation, empowering teams to independently implement Design Patterns and templates with minimal support.

Senior Product Manager

Podpal

Founder & CEO

The Home Depot

Store and Online Merchandising:
As a Sr. Product Manager at The Home Depot, Aaron has led several innovative products and teams to enhance the company’s merchandising technology applications and business processes to enable multi-million dollar sales opportunities. 

- Provides product leadership to team of 25 engineers, 3 UX, and 3 PM’s to guide product development of the MyAssortment application used by Merchant Planners to execute SKU-store assortment changes and drive sales strategy.

- Partners with cross-functional stakeholders to develop innovative product strategies and technologies related to unlocking Regional Assortment capabilities across omnichannel sales applications (HD.com, OrderUp, ESVS). 

- Leads technology risks and opportunity assessments to outline program-level objectives, activities, and key results. 

- Attracts and retains top talent in the organization through on-site interviewing (40+ conducted) and mentoring PM’s.

Vendor Collaboration: 
In this role, Aaron led technology innovations for Home Depot's electronic data interchange (EDI) systems. 

•  Managed Agile Development Team of 6 engineers and 1 UI/UX specialist. 
•  Created team cadence for agile ceremonies including iteration planning meetings, backlog grooming sessions team retrospectives, and sprint reviews w/ stakeholders and customers. 
•  Paired with UI/UX lead to outline problem scope, customer pain points, user persona, customer journey, and existing business processes.
•  Conducted user research via in-person and remote interviews. Compiled research findings into meaningful storytelling artifacts to educate business partners and development team. 
•  Developed product strategy for execution against customer needs and business goals. 
•  Created and managed product roadmap, and established OKR's for measuring team hypotheses.
•  Wrote all user stories, and organized product features according to core product functionalities (epics). Managed product backlog and groomed daily according to changes in software requirements and user goals/behaviors/needs/desires. 
•  Leveraged software development tools like Pivotal Tracker, Planning Poker, Real-time Board, Trello, Sketch, and Zeplin to drive product development.

Boeing

BCA 777X Composite Wing Center 

In this role, Aaron partnered with internal engineering groups and global suppliers to integrate contractual and Boeing Quality Management System requirements into all aspects of design and manufacturing processes. His efforts focused on supplier verification, product-lifecycle management, and production certification for wing fabrication and fuselage assembly.

•  Led the development of a software system for Statistical Process Control (SPC) of key product features for a major production area accounting for $62MM in labor each year. Quality insights, feedback, and corrective actions derived from this tool led to a savings of nearly 40 hours per unit, approximately $630,000 in labor annually.
•  Reviewed engineering and product-lifecycle specifications using ENOVIA, Catia V5, and other PLM tools.
•  Developed verification & acceptance methodology (what/how/when/how often) and integrated inspection plans into manufacturing execution system to ensure conformity to engineering specifications and regulatory requirements.
•  Led cross-functional engineering teams (DE, ME, IE, R&D and NC Programming) to evaluate plan improvements and assess business cases. Presented data-driven insights and quality metrics to senior leadership and management teams.
•  Socialized shared-vision and best practices to shop personnel via training seminars, tip sheets, and job aids.

Product Quality Engineer III

Magnusson Klemencic Associates

High-Rise Building Design and Construction

As a Structural Design Engineer for one of the world’s most elite structural firms, Aaron contributed to the building design and development of complex, globally recognized projects. He designed structural components and systems using analytical methods, finite element models/simulations and other analysis tools.

Projects: 
Amazon Headquarters: Seattle, WA
- Owned various product designs in support of efforts to construct the multiple high-rise buildings and iconic Amazon spheres that grace the campus. 

150 North Riverside Tower: Chicago, IL
- Contributed to major components of the steel gravity reinforcing system design.

Fashion Show Mall Expansion: Las Vegas, NV
- Provided structural design and development of structural system supporting the large video display board addition at the Fashion Show Mall main entrance. Determined layout and sizes for main framing members as well as designed various steel connections for complex truss system. Evaluated impact to existing building components and provided retrofit designs where required.

General Duties:
•  Established definition of product requirements and integrated structural engineering details into product design.
•  Guided CAD/Revit drafters to communicate design intent and ensure engineering specifications were properly translated into construction documents.
•  Relayed design strategy to peer reviewers through detailed engineering calculations and reports. Developed calculation packages in support of the permitting process in order to achieve city approval for design and construction phases.
•  Coordinated with other engineering groups including architects and contractors to optimize design, fine-tune quantities, and establish construction methods.
•  Performed detailed quality analysis of as-built/shop drawings and submittals throughout the product life-cycle to ensure product conformance to original design requirements and intent. Approved changes as needed.

Structural Design Engineer II

Carrasquillo Associates, LTD

Materials, Construction, and Structural Consulting

Aaron managed various forensic investigations in North and Central America. He applied root-cause analysis to derive solutions and determine appropriate action plans for assessing current and future structural (and material) deterioration. This required collaborating with various professionals including attorneys, technicians, and engineers to drive integrated schedules and ensure requirements and commitments of work agreements were materialized.

Analysis and Material Investigation of Bridge Pier Deterioration: Honduras
Modeling and Analysis of Cement Silo Roof Collapse: Miami, FL

•  Hired and managed small research team for 12-day failure investigation in Honduras.
•  Organized and conducted field operations including data collection, physical sampling, material handling, photo documentation, and non-destructive testing to drive analysis and validate or disprove hypotheses.
•  Leveraged advanced MS Excel and PowerPoint knowledge to analyze data and produce graphics highlighting key findings, enabling senior management to make cost-effective business decisions.
•  Communicated with attorneys, technicians, and engineers to drive integrated scheduling and ensure fulfillment of investigation requirements and service level agreements.
•  Presented engineering findings to senior leadership and briefed internal personnel for depositions.

Forensic Project Engineer

The University of Texas at Austin

Engineering Research

As a Graduate Research Assistant studying under Dr. Jim Jirsa, Aaron developed advance testing protocols for composite materials used in building construction and bridge technology.

•  Created and advanced the Double-Punch Test (DPT) Research & Testing Program to establish quality assurance/quality control test protocols for Fiber-Reinforced Concrete (FRC) composites.
•  Introduced new improvements to simplify test protocols and tools for end-users. Fabricated and tested 120 specimens to summarize data trends, reliability, and replication of testing process.
•  Developed ASTM proposal for adoption of DPT as new and improved standard testing method for FRC.

Graduate Research Assistant ­

CH2M

Education & Mentoring

One of Aaron's proudest accomplishments to date was developing the LINES Mentorship Program (Lasting Innovation Needs Engineering Students) during an internship in Tampa, FL. Having benefitted from similar mentoring initiatives, he created the volunteer‐based project to prepare students for careers in STEM® fields. He proposed the curriculum to corporate executives, school officials, and teachers. As a result, the LINES Program was integrated into Middleton High School’s senior engineering capstone course. The program, hailed by the city’s mayor, ran for two years and mentored more than 60 students. Additionally, LINES awarded $5,000 in scholarships to 10 program participants, all of whom went on to college.

Civil Engineering & Construction Co-op

Freight Operations – Process Improvement

In his role at CSX, Aaron contributed to Regional Development and Process Improvement projects for one of the nations's leading transportation suppliers. He helped drive new business development initiatives for rail service partnerships, and contributed to LEAN projects seeking to streamline internal operations and deliver on transportation service agreements.

Process Excellence & Regional Development

Aaron is an experienced product leader, engineer, and designer. He leverages his diverse technical background, strong communication skills, and leadership ability to bring revolutionary products to market, guide teams, and achieve scale. He is a servant-leader, passionate about driving value through his spirit of excellence.

When he's not building amazing products, Aaron enjoys spending time with family, hiking, playing acoustic guitar, and advocating for children and adults on the Autism Spectrum.

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