Ric Miskimmon

Program Manager

SportPesa Corporate

SportPesa is a truly international business with teams across Europe, Africa and UAE working as one to deliver the best sports betting, igaming and entertainment experiences.

As Program Manager I established a Global Agile PMO for our EMEA and Global operations. I worked with Senior Executives, Head of R&D, Internal Development and 3rd Party Providers to curate Strategic and Product Roadmaps

The Global Agile PMO streamlined, unified and prioritised project request, resource alignment and delivery process. To compliment the project delivery improvements, I worked with Internal Teams to iterate and adapt our Reporting, Communication, Training Protocols and materials.

• Established Global Agile PMO - lightweight, lean, with right balance of Governance and Agility
• Strategic Product Roadmap and Global Resource Alignment
• Executive PMO Reports & Corporate Communications
• Agile Delivery of Sports Betting Platform for regulated gaming markets in Kenya, Tanzania, South Africa and Isle of Man
• SportPesa iGaming Products (Casino, Numbers et al)
• ‘Mobile First’ Sports betting Native Android & iOS Apps delivered to key regulated markets
• 3rd Party Platform & Partner Management for UK and Italian Markets
• Launch of SportPesa Score 'live score' product
• Internal and Remote Team Management
• DevOps CI/CD
• Change Management & Service Delivery
• Third Party Product Integration with key vendors and partners
• Payment Integrations with key vendors across Africa, EU and Rest of World
• Google Analytics, Firebase & Data Science
• Corporate Branding & Digital Marketing
• Gambling Compliance and Regulation for EU & African Territories
• Defining KPI’s and Performance Metrics across IT and Technology Business
• Agile Coach - Scrum & Kanban Training

Technologies:

HTML 5, CSS, Bootstrap, JQuery, Javascript, Rest API’s, React, MongoDB, MySQL/NDB, PHP, Node.js, Kafka, Greenplum, Erlang, Elixir, Go, Firebase, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform, iOS objective C & Swift, Android Java & Kotlin

Tools & Pipeline:

JIRA & Confluence Cloud, Qmetry, Tempo, ProductPlan, MS Office 365, MS Teams, Slack, Balsamiq, Affinity Suite, Adobe Creative Cloud, Google Suite, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, GitLab, Kubernetes, ServiceNow, Docker, Ansible

Senior Project Manager

Stanleybet Corporate

Stanleybet are a giant of the European Sports betting and Gaming Industry with a huge presence in the Italian Retail sector. I joined Stanleybet to improve their Project / Program Management processes and introduce Agile, Scrum and Kanban methodologies.

• Digital and Retail gambling project delivery across Italy, Malta, Denmark, Belgium and Cyprus
• Rollout of new stanleybet.it gambing platform with Italian 3rd Party
• iGaming Casino integration via Playtech Platform
• Major Retail Gaming Platform (V Sports, Kino) rollout across Croatia
• Introduction of Agile Methods and training on SCRUM and KANBAN
• Company / Project Retrospectives to improve internal performance and process
• Introduction of JIRA & Confluence Cloud products to support digital delivery
• Product Backlog, User Story, Acceptance Criteria and Sign Off / Review Gates
• Projects tracked on physical standup boards and digital Project boards (JIRA
• CI/CD for key product line

Technologies:

HTML 5, CSS, Rest API’s, Javascript, JQuery, Angular, MySQL, PHP, NGNX, F5

Tools & Pipelines:

Jira Cloud & Confluence, MS Office, GitLab, Jenkins, Docker, Chef

Senior Project Manager

CDL Corporate

CDL was my first non video game role and it introduced me to digital platforms and web technologies in the FinTech / Insurtech sector.

As Digital Program Manager I was tasked with the delivery of CDL’s flagship insurance platform

I was responsible for coaching and facilitating 12+ SCRUM teams delivering high quality Releases for the CDL customer base. The role was also Customer facing, I was always available for face to face and virtual / telecoms updates and demonstrations.

• Planning & delivery of Digital B2B Program Roadmap for ‘blue chip’ Insurtech customers
• Scrum Development & ‘Prince2 Lite’ Release Model
• Facilitated 12+ dedicated Scrum teams deliver digital Releases via ‘Squads & Teams’ model
• Major Regulatory Compliance Platform Release & Service Delivery for multiple key customers
• Key member of Planning, Review, Release and CAB Boards
• Client Facing role with virtual and customer facing engagement
• Also responsible for delivery of 'Classic' product line
• PCI compliant Insurtech Company regulated by FCA
• ISO 27001 & 22301

Technologies:

HTML 5, CSS, Java, MySQL

Tools & Pipelines:

MS Project, MS Office, Maven, Puppet, Git

Senior Producer

Sony Interactive Entertainment

My last role in the Video Game Industry was working with the Driveclub Team to help migrate the ‘boxed’ product into a downloadable content (DLC) service.

This required team resource realignment and process update to allow us to ship regular high value DLC Releases under a subscription model.

Team focus was very much on Kaizen approach, continual product improvement and customer driven prioritisation.

• Migration of ‘boxed’ product to online service model
• Customer driven prioritisation
• Customer facing public DLC Roadmap
• Kaizen product enhancements across Art, Design, Technology and Core Experience
• Product Team realignment and focus on short high value commercial releases
• CI/CDD, Test Driven Development
• Usability (UX) and Customer Experience (CX)

Technologies:

Proprietary PS4 Engine (C++)

Tools & Pipelines:

Autodesk Maya, Adobe Creative Suite, JIRA (standalone) Hansoft, Perforce, Jenkins, Office365

Senior Art Producer

Sony Interactive Entertainment

As an Art Producer on DriveClub my primary role was planning resourcing and delivering all Art content to consistently high quality on an aggressive immutable schedule.

Producers serve and facilitate the needs of multiple internal teams - Vehicle Team, World Environment Team, Prop Team, Visual Effects Team, Character Team, Animation Team plus Creative Services and Audio Teams. Each team required Roadmap, Key Dates, Asset Backlog and regular planning, review, retrospective and demonstration sessions.

Outsource Management was a major requirement for this role. Team Leads and I worked to provide clear process and communication protocols with approved Vendors in Far East and Asia. Establishing clear goals and schedule we were able to deliver quality, scope within the budget.

This role introduced me to formal UX process and theory Sony promoted Nielson Norman Group Usability and User Study methods help to drive engagement and customer experience

• Content Roadmap, Planning and Delivery Schedule
• Leading & Managing Cross Discipline Teams
• Generation and Management of Product Backlog, User Stories, Acceptance Criteria
• Team Workshops, Dailies, Stakeholder Reviews and Product Retrospective Chair
• Scrum / Kanban / Agile Development
• CI/CD for complex and heavy bandwidth PS4 Builds
• Quality Control and Sign Off Process
• Outsource Management with key Remote / Offshore Vendors and Partners
• Video Production for Product Trailers, Sizzle Reels, and Announcements
• Scrum / Kanban / Agile Development
• UI / UX - adoption of formalised UX process and theory via Nielson Norman Group
• Continual improvement to internal project / process management

Technologies:

Proprietary PS4 Engine (C++)

Tools & Pipelines:

Autodesk Maya, Adobe Creative Suite, JIRA (standalone) Hansoft, Perforce, Jenkins, Office365

Principal Artist

Sony Interactive Entertainment

In my last ‘hands on’ role I had many exciting products and projects to work on for Sony and Evolution Studios. I was heavily involved in planning, hands on creation and delivery of 3D Stereoscopic movies, Game Pitch & Promotions and supporting products throughout Sony EU.

We were also heavily involved in the prototype PS4 hardware and preparing to work on key launch titles to support platform launch.

• Stereoscopic 3D Video Production & Promotional Material
• Concept Work and Pre Visualisation on multiple PS3 titles
• Video Trailer and Sizzle Reels to support game pitch / launches
• Certified Scrum Master and Certified Product Owner
• Stakeholder Management
• Internal & Remote / Offshore Team Management
• Creative Briefs, Planning and Sign Off Criteria for wide range of digital and creative productions

Technologies:

Proprietary Engines, Tools and Systems

Tools & Pipelines:

Autodesk Maya, Max & Softimage. Adobe Creative Suite, Houdini, Perforce, Hansoft, MS Office Suite

Creative Producer

Electronic Arts

Moved away from the Creative side of game development to learn Game Production and Project Management. A Producer role encompases Product Management, Design, Project Planning / Delivery with a heavy emphasis on quality.

• Game Design, Planning, Development, and Delivery Process
• Kaizen & Quality
• Traditional Management Framework (Prince2/Waterfall)
• Creative Briefs, User Stories and Acceptance Criteria
• Stakeholder Management
• Internal and ‘Insource’ Team Management

Technologies:

Proprietary Engines, Tools and Systems

Tools & Pipelines:

Autodesk Maya, Max & Softimage. Adobe Creative Suite, AlienBrain, Perforce, Hansoft, MS Office Suite

Lead Artist

Electronic Arts

Early in my career I was lucky enough to join Electronic Arts during one of its many ‘peaks’. As a fledgling Artists I learned many new techniques, skills and processes from some of the best in the Industry.

During my time at EA I contributed to some of their most successful titles and worked in offices across the UK, EU and Canada.

• Realtime 3D Art, Animation and VFX
• Pre Visualisation and Post Production techniques
• User Interface and Design
• Team / Task planning
• Daily Standup and Quality Review Process
• Mentoring and Training

Technologies:

Proprietary Engines, Tools and Systems

Tools & Pipelines:

Autodesk Maya, Max & Softimage. Adobe Creative Suite, AlienBrain, Perforce, MS Office Suite

World Artist

Ubisoft Reflections

In my first professional Post Graduate role I was tasked with delivering 3D game world and objects for my first video game ‘Stuntman’ published in 2002.

• 3D World Building
• Project Planning and Asset Review / Quality Gates
• Testing and Optimisation
• Mentoring and Training for Junior Staff

Technologies:

Proprietary Engines, Tools and Systems

Tools & Pipelines:

3D Max & Softimage. Adobe Creative Suite, Perforce, MS Office Suite

National Centre for Computer Animation

NCCA Bournemouth University

First Class Honours

• 3D Animation & Rendering
• Art, Design and Film Theory
• Mathematics (3D Vectors, Matrics, Surfaces and Polygonal / Geometric Surfaces)
• Computer Generated Imagery technology - lighting, materials & shading, image rendering
• Computer Programming C/C++/Python
• UNIX systems for distributed rendering and file management
• Computer Systems & Networks
• Video Editing & Compositing
• HTML, CSS and Web Development