Ford Pro's design and digital-product organization had grown to 13 teams with no program layer: no shared intake, no portfolio visibility, and inconsistent planning against a $250M+ global budget. In 18 months I stood up the program management practice from zero: hired and onboarded a senior PgM team, authored the operating charter, and built agentic AI workflows into intake, status reporting, and forecasting from day one, not as a retrofit.
The result: one source of truth for the portfolio, planning cycles cut roughly in half, and 30+ reporting hours reclaimed every week. Each card below is one pillar of the build.
Building a Program Management Practice
Needs & Process Discovery, Partner & Team Lead Relationship Management, Staffing Proposals
Building A Practice
Outcome: a working program layer across 13 teams where none existed: shared intake, a single portfolio view, one planning rhythm.
- Org-wide Needs Evaluation
- Process Inventory & Gap Analysis
- UX team (x9) - mission fluency (x9) & channels establishment
- Digital PM team (x4)- mission fluency & channels establishment
- Partner Relations (Engineering, Marketing, Sales, Support, HR, Legal)
Senior PgM team creation
Staffing needs, hiring, onboarding, training, growth.
Building a Team
Outcome: a senior PgM team of 5 hired, onboarded, and embedded across the org's UX and digital-PM teams inside two quarters.
- Map staffing plan to address org needs
- Coordinate & confirm budget and role creation with Senior Leadership, HR & Finance
- Build Senior PgM job requirements, review with stakeholders & HR
- Post job listings (internal/external)
- Evaluate internal/external candidates for alignment with skills, knowledge & temperament
- Hire & Onboard chosen candidates
- Integrate Senior Program Managers into UX/PM teams
- Socialize team's existence, mission, comms channels
Policy & Process Documentation & Implementation
Alignment, Clarity, Process Improvement, Risk Mitigation
Building a Charter
Outcome: an operating charter and process library adopted org-wide, closing the highest-risk policy gaps first.
- Policy inventory
- Gap analysis
- Prioritize process gaps
- Conduct discovery w/ identified SMEs
- Draft new/revised process & review with stakeholders
- Socialize process changes, expectations for adoption
- Iterate with feedback loops
Strategic Planning & Implementation
Objectives, Goals, Strategies, Tactics, Prioritization
Building a Plan
Outcome: quarterly planning cut from six weeks to under three, with every initiative traceable to a company-level objective.
- Learn company-wide objectives & goals
- Cascade +2 & +1 level objectives & goals for self and direct reports
- Map out & plan requisite projects & workflows to support cascaded goals
- Socialize gaps, off-course initiatives for mitigation
- Iteratively review/update objectives IRT market conditions, changing priorities
Budget Management ($250M+)
Global Budgets: Vendors, Full-time & Contractor Staffing, Tools, Training
Building a Budget
Outcome: forecast variance on a $250M+ global budget cut roughly in half, with a defensible ROI story behind every line.
- Learning the ropes of multiple budgets for two types of expenses
- Learning the teams and practices of finance teams in EU and North America
- Coordinating budget task requirements (budget reductions) with stakeholders
- Forecasting budget needs & formally requesting budget
- Building & sharing the ROI story with stakeholders
Event Planning & Management
Event Programming, Scheduling, Facilities, Travel, Budget & Expenses
Building Relationships
Outcome: a recurring event cadence that put leaders, partners, and distributed teams in the same room and kept decisions moving between sessions.
- Planning event cadence, scope, location/format, attendance, & desired outcomes
- Review & selection of scheduling options with leadership
- Venue, travel & facilities coordination across regions and time zones
- Programming & agenda design tied to team objectives
- Budget & expense management for team events
People & Team Leadership / Resource Management
Touchpoints, Career Growth, Performance Management
Building Trust & Resilience
Outcome: zero regretted attrition through two reorgs, with every direct report on an active growth plan.
- Learning the goals, needs and preferences of each employee
- Mapping and maintaining status and motion on our objectives & goals
- Recurring touchpoints:
- one-off events
- growth and career planning
- 1:1 sessions
- group standup
- group sprint planning
AI automation & Agentic Processing Flows
Efficiency, Process Improvement, Forecasting, Scaling, Waste Elimination
Bootstrapping
Outcome: Several core workflows moved from manual to agentic, including status reporting, content development funnel, and demand forecasting, reclaiming many hours of effort per week.
- Discovery - AI tool & model availability, constraints & best practices
- Selection and adaptation of workflows for AI enablement
- Integration of AI into daily practice for self & direct reports
- Design, Test & Implementation of AI flows and agentic entry points
Results
Eighteen months, zero to operating practice. The numbers that matter:
- Planning-cycle time down ~50%: quarterly planning reduction from ~six weeks of scattered spreadsheets to under three weeks on a single intake and prioritization flow.
- 30+ status-reporting hours reclaimed per week across 13 teams: agentic flows draft the status, leaders review and send.
- Budget forecast variance roughly halved on a $250M+ global budget spanning North American and EU finance processes.
- Core processes moved from fully manual to agentic-driven flows: intake, status reporting, forecasting, meeting synthesis, risk flagging, and onboarding documentation.
- A senior PgM team of 5 hired and productive inside two quarters, embedded across 13 UX and digital-PM teams.
- One source of truth for the portfolio: every initiative visible, prioritized, and traceable to a company objective.
If your product org has outgrown its operating model (a dozen teams, a nine-figure budget, and no shared picture of the work), that's the situation I walked into at Ford Pro. I'm open to Director/VP roles in design management, design operations, or program management, as well as fractional or advisory engagements. If that's the kind of problem you're hiring for, let's book 30 minutes.
Ready to talk specifics?
Book 30 minutes with mePrefer email? rich@minotaurdesign.com · or see all the ways to reach me.