I’ve been in technology for over 20 years, and have had an extremely varied career. From running my own consulting company to running NASA’s website, I’ve worked at big companies and small. I’ve created products and managed very complex projects throughout.
Background
Starting out as a video editor and production assistant, I traveled the world shooting travel videos for cruise lines, commercials for car companies and even working live events such as the America’s Cup. This taught me the workflow of a creative project from start to finish. I’ve used this same experience even in technical projects, as many of the requirements are the same.
From there I branched out into more technical roles, but never lost that creative spark that motivated me to go into video production in the first place. I view everything I do with a product mindset, regardless of who the end user is. Just like weaving together a coherent story in a video, I am constantly asking how a user would interact with my systems, and using that as a guide.
Creating products is a core part of my being. I’ve done that since as early as I can remember, from physical products to digital and services. I naturally think in terms of the entire view of the product, from the 50k foot view down to the daily tasks and procedures. I can make connections between totally disparate industries and see connections between things that others don’t.
I have the ability to put myself into most anyone’s shoes, and look at things through their eyes. I can ask questions and come up with objections that are not always obvious.
Current Role
As Senior Director of Technology at Placewse, I am in charge of several projects:
- API development -> building the new API and CMS system for our new platform
- Email platform -> integrating and migrating our current in-house built system to new one
- Core infrastructure -> managing and improving our production systems
- Data analysis -> analyzing our traffic patterns for performance and security
- Web platform -> building a completely new datacenter environment
The API in our world is the center of our data universe. Within it lies all of our customer interactions, profile data and mailing lists. Our analytics platform is the most complex project I have. With over 800 websites and 10+ million monthly visitors, I’m tasked with taking our mobile audience, doing location analysis, and targeting content delivery based on location as well as integrating real-time consumer data to change the offers based on their purchase data.
Past Experience
At Instant Access Media I designed a complete private digital broadcast network, from basic direction of main features into a deployed and operational system across the top media markets in the U.S. with over 350 locations. Initally told by ‘experts’ that a system such as that would take a team of 15 to schedule and manage, my system took 2 1/2. I ran the creative team as well, and developed the process and methodology for all content delivery.
You wouldn’t be able to tell that if you looked at my resume, but if I told you the amount of notebooks I’ve sketched my ideas in over the years you’d probably understand. I look at the world around me and see new products all the time. From home automation to gadgets to tools, from new platforms and technologies, from services to products. On the work front I’ve been a product lead most of my career. From creating whole new platforms to revamping broken ones, I look at the entire ecosystem of a product rather than just the individual pieces.
I’ve built mobile apps and API’s, membership sites and ecommerce sites. I have a keen interest in everything from marketing to sales to technology to process and procedures. I am constantly looking at tools around me and how I can use them to improve what I’m doing and the team I have around me. I was a beta user of Slack and Gmail, and am constantly looking at new advances.
Closing Thoughts
I live, breathe and dream this stuff. I take responsibility for what I do, and I know what it means to build and work well within a team.