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.
AI automation & Agentic Processing Flows
Efficiency, Process Improvement, Forecasting, Scaling, Waste Elimination
Bootstrapping
Outcome: six core workflows moved from manual to agentic — intake, status reporting, and forecasting first — reclaiming 30+ hours of reporting 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
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 & tempermant
- 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
Results
Eighteen months, zero to operating practice. The numbers that matter:
- Planning-cycle time down ~50% — quarterly planning went 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.
- Six core processes moved from manual to agentic 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 — and to fractional or advisory engagements on AI adoption in product orgs.
Book 30 minutes with mePrefer email? rich@minotaurdesign.com · or see all the ways to reach me.