- I’ve been around for 13 years, working on web-enabled applications – Canadian Tire eFlyer was the very first, way back in 1997
- I love sorting, and organizing, and managing content: documents, rich media, publishing – all of it.
- I love creating taxonomies, structuring data, and creating metadata models – someone has to enjoy this stuff!
- I specialize in managing requirements – it’s another notation for a type of content to manage: RUP, UML, use cases, traceability…I even navigated my way through early-Agile projects, and found a place for requirements and documentation
- I’ve lead teams on complex (+$5-million) enterprise-level projects, to start-ups
- My background is in the user-centred approach to information architecture: I created the role at Personus (formerly, Caught in the Web, RIP) in 1998, and was one of the early ones in Toronto to call myself “Information Architect” – and helped convince clients that the user experience wasn’t a “frill” they could ignore any longer
- I truly am a bridge between IT and business and users – I can understand all the sides, and translate back and forth; and negotiate scope / requirements / time between them
- I define my role as by what it’s not:
- the “order taker” for the business, hamstringing technology into ridiculous constraints, pushing out timelines, scope, and budgets
- the old-school systems person, shoe-horning user needs into a square, pre-defined box – making user adoption low, and unhappiness high
- I’m a realist, and practical: there is this delicate balance to maintain – the user / business / technology – and I can navigate it
- I’ve worked in multiple industries – I love digging into a new project, and seeing how to apply solutions (if I can) I know to new business problems
- Publishing
- Financial services
- Airline
- Telecom
- I can speak in front of anyone – C-level to call centre. In plain English. With a sense of humour about myself, and passion for the project. I love facilitating workshops, and getting people engaged.
- My favourite place is with a team of equally passionate people, in front of a whiteboard – thinking about a problem, bouncing ideas off each other, questioning the “truth” of an idea, and creating from the scribbles – viable, smart, strategic possibilities for solutions
Finally, I love being an analyst, it’s one of my favourite things to do in the world.
I love my family, friends, and dogs. I try not to analyze them, though, most of the time.