Kanav Dhawan

Strategic Program Manager

I bridge the gap between complex C-suite vision and ground-level execution.

The Mission

My mission is to solve the 'how' of complex delivery. I specialize in transforming high-ambiguity initiatives into governed successes by providing leaders with the strategic insights of the PgMBlog and the automated power of the AI PgM Sandbox—replacing manual overhead with high-stakes results.

Professional Experience

    • Reviewing and refining AI-generated outputs related to transformation program management, change leadership, process optimisation, and practical aspects of driving organisational changes.

    • Evaluating AI responses for business accuracy, practicality, and compliance with real-world transformation requirements.

    • Drafting realistic transformation scenarios based on direct professional experience and Creating scenario variations from different perspectives.

    • Identifying gaps, oversights, or weak reasoning in AI-generated business content.

  • Architecting the future of Agentic Program Management. Designing customized, production-ready AI "logic gates" that eliminate the manual cognitive load and administrative overhead traditionally managing complex tech portfolios.

    • RAG Status Critic: Engineered an automated validation system that analyzes raw program data to strip away institutional optimism bias, revealing hidden project risks before they impact timelines.

    • Strategic Drift Auditor: Designed a governance model comparing legacy business charters against current operational status reports to flag unapproved feature pivots and protect program ROI.

    Explore these live logic gates in the AI sandbox menu above.

    • Organizational Transformation: Spearheading the end-to-end implementation of formal Project and Program Management (PPM) frameworks for Europe’s largest cruise travel agency (£450M+ revenue).

    • Change Management: Establishing the inaugural Change Delivery Management practice, institutionalizing governance and standardized delivery lifecycles across the enterprise.

    • Commercial Growth: Orchestrating cross-functional IT initiatives to scale platform pricing capabilities and expand booking options, directly contributing to an uplift in Gross Margin Per Passenger.

    • Product Scaling: Leading complex technical workstreams to enhance the core Cruise Product, ensuring platform stability during rapid scaling and feature expansion.

  • Senior Program Manager | Mar 2023 – May 2025

    • Performance & Scale: Directed multi-team programs across Checkout Migration and Operational Excellence, reducing incidents by 36% and boosting platform performance by 43%.

    • Leadership: Built and scaled a distributed team of 34 from scratch, establishing RACIs and delivery rituals that drove an 89% retention rate.

    • Compliance: Acted as PCI, SOX, and Accessibility Champion, ensuring 100% regulatory compliance across all global Checkout platforms.

    Program Manager III | Jul 2018 – Mar 2023

    • Efficiency & Cost: Orchestrated micro-app migrations to PCI-secured clusters, enabling ~$40M in annual audit cost savings.

    • Transformation: Led the migration of Brand Expedia’s payment UI to a Progressive Web App (PWA) using GraphQL to enhance checkout performance.

    • Regulatory Leadership: Spearheaded Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) and NDFC initiatives, ensuring seamless compliance across EU/UK markets.

    Technical Product Management & Operations | May 2012 – Jun 2018

    • Optimization: Launched 250+ A/B tests over 18 months and integrated digital wallets (Apple Pay, PayPal, Klarna) to drive conversion.

    • Technical Foundation: Introduced Agile methodologies to Operations; built predictive monitoring systems and dashboards using Splunk, Python, and C++.

See Project Details & Endorsements