Accelerating Time

Re-imagining SaaS learning tools to achieve an ambitious vision in an impossible timeframe

In program management, the goal is often to deliver “on time and on budget.” But it’s more than just sticking to a schedule. Smart program management is about coaching teams to make the right decisions, quickly, to deliver exceptional experiences.

This approach proved essential when a new VP of Education at MongoDB envisioned a full overhaul of our learning experience.

In fall 2021 a new VP of Education joined MongoDB. His vision was a wholesale overhaul of the learning experience, ready to launch at the London product event in November, just 10 months later. Now, this was more than a redesign. We were imagining an entirely new way to deliver content: curated evergreen curriculum designed for multi-modal learning, newly-built brand-compliant video studio, complex internal and external platform engineering, 14 vendor integrations, hands-on labs, job task analyses for 8 personas, certification proctoring, and a unique user experience—all aligned to a single, ambitious release.

The VP was eager for a lean and nimble approach, but hesitant to include program management. Fresh from a company where the perception of program managers was more hindrance than help, he decided to manage the initiative himself. Early momentum was slow and fragmented. Key leaders struggled to align on priorities. Functional dependencies were unknown. People weren’t sure what to do, or what needed to happen. A new team was stood up to deliver on the project, and no one was familiar with “how to get things done” at this particular organization. The CEO demanded progress on this multi-million-dollar investment. What started as an ambitious 10-month project now had only six months remaining.

I stepped in to bring clarity, speed, and alignment.

• Defined Ownership: Established clear roles across tracks, ensuring swift, informed decisions from accountable leads.
• Unified Cross-Functional Teams: Brought together leaders from nine project tracks, shifting the mindset from independent workstreams to a unified team aligned on shared outcomes.
• Articulated and Aligned Vision: Translated the VP’s goals into a central document, creating a single source of truth that focused team efforts.
• Facilitated Collaborative Planning: Hosted a strategic planning session to align on dependencies, resources, and achievable milestones, driving decisions that had been stalled for months.
• Guided Key Decisions with Data: Pushed the team to leverage data and practical insights to prompt decisions and overcome impasses.
• Established Milestones and Accountability: Defined ambitious yet attainable milestones, providing regular C-suite updates that showcased progress and strengthened buy-in.
• Created a Clear Communications Plan: Developed a structured communications strategy to manage expectations, outline next steps, and ensure transparency across all teams.

Crucially, I fostered consensus among senior stakeholders with varying priorities, building alignment through data-driven conversations, clear ownership, and coaching to address challenges head-on. My approach enabled us to achieve a shared understanding of project goals and break down complex perspectives into a cohesive strategy.

Of course, we faced challenges: the team was in the earliest forming stages with low trust and little understanding of how to collaborate; our platform vendor couldn’t accommodate the design system; too few available subject matter experts caused bottlenecks; content production was delayed; resource gaps impacted video production; integrations and procurement were stuck in legal. But we adapted, we kept moving, and we delivered.

In November 2022, just in time for the event, we launched the new MongoDB University. This success marked a turning point for the team: Education became a champion of program management, investing in additional resources to sustain the momentum. Since then, MongoDB University has completed four major releases, with continuous updates that bring new content and formats to users worldwide. Today, the University team leads projects with a new level of trust and cross-functional collaboration, embodying the same agile, mission-driven approach that helped us succeed.