About Me

MY MISSION: To bring together people as highly functional teams in a kind, growth oriented and sustainable way, and enable them to use this collective momentum to create solutions they can be proud of.

Key Professionl Skills
Product Management
Agile Product Development
Strategic Design
Co-Creative Design & Innovation Methodologies (Design Thinking, Lean, Sprint, Business Modelling)

Language Skills
Latvian (Native Speaker)
English (C2 / Full Professional Proficiency)
German (C2 / Full Professional Proficiency)
Chinese (HSK3 / Elementary proficiency)
Russian (B1 / Limited working proficiency)

Education
B. Sc. INNOVATION & ENTREPRENEURSHIP
B. Sc. INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
PRODUCT LEADER CERTIFICATE
SCRUM MASTER (CSM) & PRODUCT OWNER (CSPO)
MICROMASTERS DIGITAL PRODUCT MANAGEMENT

Work Experience

VMware, Inc.

PRODUCT MANAGER
VMware Tanzu Labs (EMEA)
REMOTE / SEPTEMBER 2022 -

In my role as a Product Owner, I enable large enterprise product teams to leverage lean, cloud-native development principles to create new software products, transition existing product portfolios to the cloud, and optimizing the use of available cloud infrastructure using VMware and third-party solutions.

    • Reduced product development time from months to weeks, by establishing cloud-native product management practices and enabling product teams to deliver value to their users faster.

    • Achieved a 50% reduction in planned time-to-market, by developing a product portfolio modernisation strategy consisting of more than 30 products with an annual revenue of 600 million € and validated it by delivering product iterations as a product manager.

    • Achieved 800 thousand € in sales for VMware Tanzu Labs, by demonstrating expertise in product management practices, delivering tangible value to VMware customers, and building trust with key stakeholders.

    • Identified opportunities, communicated them to the leadership team, and led sales conversations with VMware customers in EMEA & APAC in close collaboration with VMware Tanzu teams globally.

Key Clients
DATEV eG
Audi AG

Key Projects:
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Volkswagen Group Services

SENIOR STRATEGIC DESIGNER & PRODUCT MANAGER
Business Innovation Studio
BERLIN, GERMANY / MAY 2019 - JULY 2022

Volkswagen Group Services is the internal service provider for the Volkswagen Group. The role of the Business Innovation Studio is to provide support as an internal agency to Volkswagen Group companies e.g., Audi, Porsche, Volkswagen, Volkswagen Financial Services, CARIAD, developing business models, translating them into products and services.

    • Ensured regular product delivery, by managing product development process from ideation to launch in an agile product team consisting of engineers, design and research using the Scrum framework.

    • Successfully launched the product in 7 markets (Japan, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Germany, Mexico and Greece) by continuously improving our ways of working, fostering team culture, and adjusting product development practices to be sustainable and scalable.

    • Highlighted the benefits of customer-centric product development practices, by bringing together user research, product analytics, and market research with the short- & long-term goals of the product team and stakeholders.

    • Grew the internal team product team from 5 to 9, while onboarding additional product managers and collaborating with external product development teams to ensure the ability to scale product development capabilities according to the needs of the product.

Viessmann Group (V/CO)

USER RESEARCHER & DESIGN THINKING COACH
Berlin, Germany / April 2019 -May 2019

V/CO is the digital transformation & innovation unit of Viessmann pursuing transformation from a world leader in of heating technology to providing sustainable solutions for the entire living space in the form of digital products and new business models.

    • Preparation and execution of local and international user research projects.

    • Management of internal and external resources in user research project and support for internal and external projects requiring taking a user-centric approach.

    • Conception and facilitation of internal innovation and Design Thinking workshops.

Key Clients:
Viessmann Group
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Shell Deutschland GmbH

Key Projects:
MIT Energy Initiative workshop development and facilitation
Global Persona & User Need research
Product & Venture team User Research & Innovation support
Company wide Design Thinking enabling

diffferent GmbH

EXPERIENCE DESIGN & INNOVATION STRATEGIST
Berlin, Germany / July 2015 – April 2018

diffferent GmbH is a strategy & design consultancy focusing on translating strategy and innovation processes into products, services and experiences for world leading companies from Germany. diffferent GmbH is part of the SYZYGY group at WPP.

    • Consulting international companies (Deutsche Telekom, VW, Audi, Porsche, Deutsche Bahn) on how to rethink their innovation efforts, empower employees to innovate and develop new products.

    • Conception and facilitation Innovation and Design Thinking workshops both in German and English.

    • Development and facilitation of change projects and formats to enable employees and leaders to implement and apply innovation methodologies.

    • Development of customer-centric service concepts using innovation methodologies (Design Thinking, Business Model Canvas, Lean).

Key Clients:
Volkswagen AG
Audi AG
Porsche AG
Deutsche Telekom AG

Key Projects:
Innovation methodology enablement at Deutsche Telekom
Workshop design & facilitation Porsche Innovation Week
Global automotive UX & Service trend research
Sustainable shared mobility service design
International taxi Service trend research

Educations

B. Sc. Innovation & Entrepreneurship

BUSINESS ACADEMY AARHUS
Aarhus, Denmark / August 2014 – January 2016

Innovation and Entrepreneurship programme is a Cross-disciplinary programme for students who want to learn to develop business ideas and test them in practice.

The program focuses on knowledge and tools that enable to start your own business or to start and run innovative projects and companies. As a part of the programme students must establish and run a company in collaboration with your fellow students. The ideas are developed together with your team or develop further and implemented in a company.

    • Cross-disciplinary program with a focus on skills, knowledge, and tools (User Centricity, Lean, Agile, Business Model Canvas, Design Thinking) that enable to start a business or to start and run innovative projects and companies.

    • Thesis: “Development of innovation team empowerment facilitation process at different GmbH” / Final Grade: A “Excellent”

Achievements
Top in class (Average Grade 12 / A)
Winner “Experts in Teams” Annual Innovation Competition
Runner Up “Open Data Innovation” Aarhus Municipality Innovation Competition

B. Sc. International Economic Affairs

UNIVERSITY OF LATVIA
Riga, Latvia / September 2006 – July 2010

Professional bachelor program focusing on the principles and concepts of economics, project management, accounting, and marketing with an emphasis on international companies and markets.

  • Courses

    • Mathematical Economics & Theoretical Economics

    • Statistics

    • Business English & German

    • History of International Economics & Business

    • Entrepreneurship

    • Globalisation & Processes in Economics

    • Leadership & Management

    • Managerial Psychology

    • Marketing & Public Relations

Additional Education & Courses

Product Leader Certificate

PRODUCT SCHOOL
Online Course / July 2021 – September 2021

8-week program for professionals with 3+ years of Product Management experience and strong technical/business backgrounds lead by Google product owner Shilpa Vir on Product management practices at software-based companies.

  • Covered topics
    Product analytics
    Product strategy
    Customer development
    Databases and data visualisation
    Machine learning,
    Software development frameworks
    Product growth and scalability

Micromaster Digital Product Management

Boston University / edX
Online Courses / January 2018 – October 2018

Course focusing on understanding the principles and processes for product development, as well as identifying variations in the PM practices across different organisations and emergent digital markets.

  • Covered Topics
    Product Management with Lean
    Agile and System Design Thinking
    Strategic Social Media Marketing
    Driving Digital Innovation through Experimentation
    Business Analytics for Data-Driven Decision Making

Art & Science of Product Management

STANFORD CONTINUING STUDIES
Online Courses / December 2016

Course designed to help those looking to transition into a product management role, as well as entrepreneurs looking to build great products.

  • Covered Topics
    Product roadmap planning
    Stakeholder management
    Development of a cohesive product vision
    Agile product management
    Product development and engineering estimation.
    Product marketing & release

Certified Scrum Master (CSM) & Scrum Product Owner (CSPO)

Scrum Alliance
Berlin, Germany / December 2019

Course and certification on approaches for validating product assumptions, learn advanced interactions with customers and users and master advanced Product Backlog management as a certified Scrum product owner.

Course and certification on how to help your Scrum Team perform at their highest level and follow Scrum values, principles, and practices daily as a certified Scrum Master.

Certified SAFe Agilist

SCALED AGILE Inc.
Online Course / April 2021

Course focussed on underlying principles as derived from Lean, systems thinking, Agile development, product development flow, design thinking, Lean Portfolio Management, and DevOps. Enables to support and participate in PI Planning events and to understand the work of one or multiple Agile Release Trains (ARTs).

A SAFe Agilist is able to apply Lean, Agile, and the Product Development Flow principles in a constructive manner, in order to improve productivity, employee satisfaction, time-to-market, and quality.

Chinese Language Courses HSK1 - HSK4

CHINESISCH SPRACHSCHULE MAO
Berlin, Germany / November 2018 -

Chinese language course focussing on introducing all levels of Chinese learners to the Chinese language and preparing them for Chinese language proficiency exam (漢語水平考試).

Certified
Chinese Proficiency Test - HSK2 Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi / 汉语水平考试
Issuing authority: Konfuzius-Institut Berlin