WOT Educational Services
Strategic Program & Product Management
Project Overview
From March through August 2025, I served as Program & Product Manager for WOT Educational Services, a workforce development organization managing multiple strategic initiatives simultaneously. WOT was scaling rapidly, launching new programs while maintaining existing partnerships, and needed operational infrastructure to support concurrent execution without chaos.
My role encompassed two major initiatives: managing product development for the Winspo NIL platform (connecting NFL/NBA athletes with educational pathways) and designing complete operational infrastructure for Talent Bridge (a Beacon Council Miami workforce development program). Additionally, I provided COO-level operational support to executive leadership, ensuring workload optimization and strategic alignment across the organization
Challenge
WOT faced the classic scaling organization challenge: ambitious vision meeting operational reality.
Concurrent High-Stakes Projects: The organization was managing multiple workforce development initiatives simultaneously—Winspo (high-profile sports industry partnerships), Talent Bridge (major nonprofit partnership with Beacon Council), and various other programs—without established operational frameworks to coordinate execution.
Product Development Without Process: The Winspo NIL platform was in active development but lacked structured product management. Stakeholder expectations (including high-profile athletes and sports industry partners) were high, but there were no clear development cycles, phase gates, or coordination systems.
Infrastructure Gaps: Talent Bridge was launching as a significant new program but had no operational foundation—no interview processes, no content workflows, no user journey mapping, no coordination frameworks. The program needed to scale quickly while maintaining quality.
Executive Workload Management: Leadership was stretched across multiple initiatives without clear prioritization frameworks or operational support, making strategic decision-making difficult and execution inconsistent.
Cross-Functional Coordination Challenges: Teams were working in silos without clear communication channels, shared timelines, or aligned objectives, creating bottlenecks and duplicated effort.
WOT needed someone who could build operational infrastructure while simultaneously managing active projects—creating systems without slowing down execution.
Strategic Approach
Product Management - Winspo NIL Platform
I took ownership of the Winspo product development cycle, implementing structured phase management that broke the ambitious platform into achievable milestones. I coordinated with high-profile stakeholders in the sports industry (NFL/NBA athlete representatives, educational partners, platform developers), managing expectations while maintaining development momentum.
I established clear phase gates, defining completion criteria for Phase 1 and Phase 2, coordinating cross-functional teams (developers, UX/UI designers, subject matter experts), and creating stakeholder communication cadences that kept everyone aligned without creating meeting overhead.
Operational Infrastructure Design - Talent Bridge
For Talent Bridge, I designed the complete operational foundation from the ground up. This included:
Interview Process Design: Created structured interview frameworks, question protocols, and evaluation criteria that ensured consistent candidate experience and quality assessment.
Content Workflow Systems: Built workflows for content creation, review, approval, and publication, ensuring that program materials met quality standards while moving efficiently through development.
User Journey Mapping: Designed complete user journeys for different stakeholder roles (candidates, employers, program staff), identifying touchpoints, pain points, and optimization opportunities at each stage.
Coordination Frameworks: Established cross-functional coordination systems that ensured teams stayed aligned on timelines, deliverables, and quality standards.
Program Management Frameworks
I built reusable program management infrastructure that could be applied across WOT's portfolio of initiatives. This included project intake processes, resource allocation frameworks, timeline management systems, and decision-making protocols.
Executive Operations Support
I served as operational partner to leadership, working directly with the VP-level team and Chief Data Officer to optimize executive workloads. This involved strategic prioritization (helping leadership decide where to focus energy), operational delegation (taking execution work off executive plates), and coordination facilitation (ensuring cross-functional teams could operate without constant executive intervention).
Strategic Translation
Throughout all initiatives, I translated high-level strategic vision into executable operational plans. Leadership could articulate what they wanted to achieve; I built the frameworks and systems that made achievement possible.
Impact
Product Development Success:
Advanced Winspo NIL platform through Phase 1 and Phase 2 completion with high-profile stakeholder satisfaction
Established product management processes that enabled continued development after my engagement ended
Coordinated complex stakeholder relationships across sports industry, education, and technology sectors
Operational Infrastructure:
Built complete operational foundation for Talent Bridge program, enabling immediate scaling
Created interview processes, content workflows, and user journey frameworks still in use
Designed coordination systems that reduced cross-functional bottlenecks and improved team efficiency
Executive Effectiveness:
Optimized leadership workloads through strategic prioritization and operational delegation
Enabled executives to focus on strategic decision-making rather than execution management
Improved cross-functional alignment through clear communication frameworks and coordination systems
Scalable Systems:
Developed program management frameworks applicable across WOT's initiative portfolio
Created templates and processes that reduced setup time for future programs
Established operational discipline that supported sustainable organizational growth
Services Provided
Business Direction | Systems Optimization | Project Execution