The Client: the World Health Organization

Founded in 1948, WHO is the United Nations agency that connects nations, partners, and people to promote health, keep the world safe and serve the vulnerable – so everyone, everywhere can attain the highest level of health.

Dedicated to the well-being of all people and guided by science, the World Health Organization leads and champions global efforts to give everyone, everywhere an equal chance to live a healthy life.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

The Mission: Interim Product Manager

We joined to support and assist the WHO Health Emergencies Program team and strengthen the delivery process of the WHO Partners Platform, a virtual tool for readiness and planning during health emergencies, supporting governments in managing their pandemic response. The Partners Platform enables governments, UN Agencies, and other partners to work together to identify funding gaps and meet demands for strengthening emergency response and essential health services.

During the mission, we strengthened the delivery process and also helped deliver several additional features that support governments with their pandemic response.

How We Helped

Onboarded Very Fast

The Lead Product Manager, who brought us in, was wearing 2 hats, being a Product Manager for the Partners Platform and a Technical Officer for several tools within the Health Emergencies Program. We jumped straight in and took over the Product Manager position. Within 2 weeks, we were managing the backlog and running the development process independently.

Partners Platform

Strengthened the Development Process

When we first joined, the Scrum rituals were mixed and the meetings often lacked purpose. We started by refocusing the rituals:

After straightening out the rituals, we tackled work item quality: