After I parted ways with Adobe, I reached out to my former colleagues with an oft-burdensome request to recommend me on LinkedIn. Very graciously, many responded. Thank you!
In thinking about where I want to go next, I've also been thinking about the best ways to describe what I do. I've worn many hats over the years, and no one hat seems to satisfy me enough. Engineer, architect , product manager, business development... But I'm beginning to see some themes that connect the hats I like best.
Reviewing the recommendations I've received, a common term used to describe me is "passionate". In the context of business, I've channeled my passion into building great products. The way that this passion is manifest is two-fold. First, I'm passionate about understanding customer needs. And second, I'm passionate about defining experiences that satisfy those needs.
After returning to college to earn a Business/Marketing degree a few years ago, I got the rare opportunity to learn a new product development methodology called SyncDev. SyncDev is a process that involves changing the fundamental order of new product development. A typical order is "design, build, sell", but in SyncDev, the order becomes "sell, design, build".
Part of what makes SyncDev so great is the iterative nature it brings to all aspects of product development: market segmentation, market requirements, product requirements, promotion, and engineering. In SyncDev, you're constantly testing your theories about each of these aspects against real customer feedback, to ensure that the final result is worth doing and very successful.
It seems like an obvious optimization, but its also amazing how many companies build before they sell, provide answers before they've asked the questions. Now that I've experienced the SyncDev process, I won't build another product without practicing SyncDev along the way. And I will be providing coaching services to help companies incorporate SyncDev into their DNAs. For those interested, I highly recommend you check out their site at SyncDev.com
After the customer, problems, and features start to come into focus thru SyncDev, I love the challenge of designing experiences that are efficient and delightful. I've worked on almost a dozen consumer products over the last two decades. TouchBase was one of the first highly successful address book apps for Mac, which we sold to Aldus. Photo Deluxe put task-based UIs on top of the power of Photoshop. PuppetTime brought automated 3D animation to screenwriters, which we sold to Cycore. Contribute enabled easy web page editing before blogs and wikis. And Adobe Media Player tackled the business and technical challenges of a completely on-demand television experience.
In each case, I've used the latest and greatest frameworks and technologies. Early on, I realized that while user interfaces can be broken down into building blocks, user experiences cannot. Great experiences are often defined by the little details that most users don't consciously see or feel, and by the complexity of the solutions that they hide. They make the user feel more efficient, and bring delight repeatedly.I'm currently working with some colleagues on a wine journal app for iPhone, using SyncDev to better understands the wants and needs of wine drinkers, and defining and designing experiences that will, we hope, help wine drinkers move from casual to connoisseur.
I'm looking forward to sharing more with you soon... In the meantime, what are you passionate about?
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