Partners for the Project:
Problem
ElectroPower Milwaukee lacked a digital presence that accurately represented their services and converted visitors into customers. Their existing web experience was not user-centered, had no clear call-to-action hierarchy, and failed to reflect the business's expertise: creating a gap between their brand value and their online visibility.
Goals
Design and deliver a fully functional, user-centered website for ElectroPower Milwaukee that clearly communicates their services, drives qualified leads, and aligns with their business objectives, all within an 8-sprint agile delivery cycle.
Audience
Residential and commercial customers in the Milwaukee area seeking reliable electrical services, as well as ElectroPower's internal business and analytics stakeholders who needed visibility into product direction and delivery progress throughout the project.
Timeline
8-week sprint cycle across Spring 2026 beginning with Sprint 0 foundation work (team charter, Lean UX canvas, backlog creation) through Sprints 1–7 of iterative design and build, concluding with a final stakeholder presentation and MVP delivery during exam week.
ElectroPower Milwaukee lacked a digital presence that accurately reflected their expertise and business goals. Their existing web experience was not user-centered, did not surface key service offerings clearly, and failed to convert visitors into customers. The challenge was not just a design problem, it was a product delivery challenge requiring clear prioritization, stakeholder alignment, and disciplined sprint execution.
Delivered Website MVP:
A fully functional, user-centered website for ElectroPower Milwaukee built across 8 sprints with consistent stakeholder alignment and on-time delivery.
Refined Product Backlog:
A continuously maintained backlog of user stories with acceptance criteria, definitions of done, and story point estimates. Ensuring the team always entered sprint planning with clearly scoped, prioritized work.
Sprint Artifacts:
Documented sprint plans, retrospectives, and velocity data across 7 sprints, capturing team improvements and delivery progress throughout the product lifecycle.
Cross-Functional Coordination:
Zero sprint delays caused by inter-team blockers. Successfully managing dependencies with the ElectroPower analytics team across the full delivery cycle.
Demonstrated how Agile product ownership and disciplined backlog management can bridge the gap between business stakeholder needs and team execution.
Delivering a business-driven, user-centered digital product within a structured sprint cycle.
Program Management:
Jira, Confluence, Kanban board, Lean UX Canvas
Design & Prototyping:
Figma
Collaboration:
Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace
Backlog Creation & Prioritization:
Defining a structured product backlog of user stories with clear acceptance criteria, definitions of done, and story point estimates to ensure every sprint had scoped, business-aligned work ready for delivery.
Stakeholder Alignment & Communication:
Facilitating bi-weekly sprint demos with ElectroPower stakeholders to gather structured feedback, maintain decision transparency, and ensure product direction continuously reflected real business needs.
Cross-Functional Coordination:
Managing delivery dependencies between the product & marketing team and the ElectroPower analytics team to keep both tracks aligned, unblocked, and progressing in parallel throughout the sprint cycle.
Sprint Planning & Retrospectives:
Leading sprint planning, reviews, and retrospectives each cycle. Setting clear sprint goals, tracking velocity, and translating team feedback into concrete process improvements sprint over sprint.
User-Centered Product Strategy:
Anchoring every backlog decision and sprint priority in user research, persona insights, and UX best practices to ensure the final website served both ElectroPower's business goals and their customers' needs.
Documented product vision, business assumptions, user outcomes, and success metrics. Used as a living reference throughout all 8 sprints.
Documented sprint goals, team commitments, and completed MVP demos for each sprint, including stakeholder feedback and retrospective action items.
▌Stakeholder & Cross-Functional Management
My product & marketing team and the cross-functional analytics team, was one of the most complex and rewarding parts of this project.
MY PRODUCT & MARKETING TEAM (INTERNAL)
▸ Facilitated daily standups to surface blockers early and maintain sprint momentum across the 6-person team
▸ Translated ambiguous client requests into clearly scoped, actionable user stories with defined acceptance criteria
▸ Held the team accountable to sprint commitments while protecting against unplanned scope additions mid-sprint
ELECTROPOWER STAKEHOLDERS (CLIENT)
▸ Ran bi-weekly sprint demo sessions, presenting MVP increments and gathering structured stakeholder feedback
▸ Maintained a decision log documenting key client choices, open questions, and resolved items to ensure full transparency and accountability
▸ Translated business feedback into specific backlog updates- never letting vague feedback sit unresolved
ANALYTICS TEAM (CROSS-FUNCTIONAL)
▸ Coordinated delivery dependencies between our team and the ElectroPower analytics team to ensure data-driven page sections were completed in the correct sequence
▸ Communicated our sprint schedule proactively so the analytics team could plan their deliverables in parallel without blocking our sprint progress
▸ Escalated and resolved integration blockers quickly, preventing downstream sprint delays
We followed a Scrum framework adapted for an academic product team, running 8 structured sprints across the semester. Each sprint followed a consistent cadence designed to maximize learning, feedback, and delivery velocity.
Sprint 0: Foundation
Created Scrum team charter, defined roles & responsibilities, built the Lean UX canvas, established our Kanban board, and scoped the full product backlog. Set sprint 1 goals and estimated story points.
Sprints 1–2: Discovery & Architecture
Conducted stakeholder discovery sessions with ElectroPower.
Sprints 3–5: Core Design & Build
Designed and built primary page templates: Homepage, Services, About, and Contact. Ensuring consistent CTA hierarchy and brand alignment.
Sprints 6–7: Refinement & Integration
Incorporated feedback from ElectroPower stakeholders and analytics team. Resolved cross-team dependencies, iterated on content and UX, and validated accessibility across key pages.
Sprint 8: Final Delivery
Completed final MVP, conducted stakeholder presentation, documented velocity and retrospective findings, and delivered all artifacts: backlog, Lean UX canvas, and sprint history.
WHAT I LEARNED AS A PRODUCT OWNER
This project gave me hands-on experience with every core responsibility of a Product Owner — from writing user stories and managing stakeholder relationships to facilitating sprint ceremonies and driving continuous improvement. The most significant growth was learning to hold the line on scope: clearly communicating what is and isn't in a sprint, and why, without losing stakeholder trust.
WHAT I'D DO DIFFERENTLY
▸ Invest more time in Sprint 0 stakeholder discovery to surface hidden requirements earlier in the backlog
▸ Establish a formal dependency tracking document earlier to make cross-team coordination more visible and proactive
▸ Introduce story point re-estimation checkpoints mid-sprint to catch scope creep before it impacts velocity
CONNECTION TO PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
The skills I built in this role — stakeholder management, backlog ownership, sprint facilitation, cross-functional coordination, and risk tracking — directly parallel the competencies I applied during my Program Manager Internship at Northwestern Mutual. This project reinforced that strong product management is fundamentally about communication, clarity, and consistent follow-through.