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Michael MancusoProduct & technology executive
Projects & case studies

Complex work.
Concrete results.

Product launches, operating-model changes, and complex AI-enabled builds. Explore the business problem, the decisions I led, and what changed.

Built with agents

Product strategy and a repository-based second brain.

Phase 3 Benefits brings eight health, commuter, and wage-law account types onto one payment card. I built a repository-based second brain—product strategy, specifications, verified facts, and agent memory—to keep AI development aligned.

Specification-driven development at platform scale.

Shared FHIR-based contracts coordinated parallel development across clinical, operational, and financial workflows.

Leadership case studies

Showing 6 of 38

SmileMD

Increased transparency and efficiency by implementing Jira at SmileMD, creating real-time dashboards that streamlined project management and improved team collaboration.

01

Challenge

SmileMD needed a robust project management solution to manage its rapidly growing portfolio of initiatives, epics, and sprints. The existing process lacked transparency and coordination, leading to challenges in prioritizing incoming requests and effectively communicating progress to stakeholders.

02

Action

To address this challenge, I led the implementation of Jira at SmileMD, creating a comprehensive project management framework that included real-time dashboards for enhanced visibility and transparency. Key actions included:

  • Jira Configuration: Configured Jira to support SmileMD’s project management needs, setting up a single backlog with multiple boards to track initiatives, epics, and sprints.
  • Dashboard Integration:Installed three TVs in the hallway, each displaying a different board to provide real-time updates on project status:
    • Initiative Board: Displayed the high-level status of all major initiatives, providing C-level executives and board members with visibility into critical projects.
    • Epic Board: Used by the product manager to coordinate with stakeholders, groom work, and communicate the progress of epics in development.
    • Sprint Board: Showed real-time status of sprints, allowing the company to see who was working on what tasks and when they were due.
  • Radical Transparency: Fostered a culture of radical transparency by making all project details visible to the entire company, enhancing accountability and communication.
  • Training and Adoption: Provided comprehensive training for all team members on how to use Jira effectively, ensuring smooth adoption and consistent usage across the organization.
  • Continuous Improvement: Regularly reviewed and refined the Jira setup based on feedback from users to ensure it continued to meet the evolving needs of the organization.
03

Results

The implementation of Jira and the real-time dashboards led to significant improvements in SmileMD’s project management and overall efficiency:

  • Enhanced Transparency: The real-time dashboards provided unprecedented visibility into project status, helping executives and team members stay informed and aligned.
  • Improved Coordination: The epic board facilitated better coordination between the product manager and stakeholders, ensuring that work was properly groomed and communicated.
  • Effective Prioritization: The transparency enabled by the sprint board allowed for effective negotiation of incoming requests and prioritization of tasks based on real-time data.
  • Increased Accountability: Making project details visible to the entire company fostered a culture of accountability, where team members were more aware of their responsibilities and deadlines.
  • Streamlined Operations: The comprehensive project management framework streamlined operations, reducing confusion and enhancing productivity.
  • Positive Business Impact: The improved project management processes contributed to SmileMD’s ability to manage growth and deliver high-quality results efficiently.

Questions

How was radical transparency achieved with Jira?

Three TVs were installed in the hallway, each displaying a different Jira board — Initiative Board for executives, Epic Board for product management, and Sprint Board for real-time task tracking.

What project management improvements resulted from the Jira implementation?

The implementation enhanced transparency, improved coordination, enabled effective prioritization of incoming requests, increased accountability, and streamlined operations.

How did Jira boards improve stakeholder communication?

Each board was tailored to a different audience — executives saw initiative-level progress, product managers tracked epic-level coordination, and the entire company could view real-time sprint activity on hallway TVs.

How did the three-board system evolve over time?

The three-board system started as a transparency tool and evolved into the primary communication framework — reducing status meetings, empowering teams with self-service information, and giving leadership real-time confidence in project progress.

How did leadership engagement change after the dashboard TVs were installed?

Leadership shifted from requesting periodic status reports to having real-time visibility via the Initiative Board, enabling faster decision-making and more confident prioritization of resources.

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