Consulting

After college I got a systems analyst job and enjoyed that for a few years. I wound up back in school (Master of Science from the University of Michigan School of Information). As I left grad school, I got into project-based work and consulting. Never looked back.

I spent about 9 years as an independent technical consultant with emphasis on using UX methods to increase the value of working software—my “changesets for dollars” era. Eventually I got tired of working on projects that didn’t make a dent in my clients’ organizations. If you’ve ever had software foisted upon you that only made things worse or slower, let me tell you, it’s no fun being on the other end of that exchange either.

I got into management consulting and learned everything I could about applying lean and continuous improvement methods to larger organizations. For the next 5 years, I worked alongside clients in the public and nonprofit sectors, using and mutating continuous improvement methods to directly benefit the public. Finally, over the most recent 5 years, I’ve developed additional skills, including approaches to organizational development and linking strategy to measurement.

What I enjoy most about this work is helping people uncover mutually beneficial—often surprising—solutions to big problems. These solutions often originate from lower status employees; I celebrate when their insights are acknowledged and realized. I establish coordination and consensus across hierarchies. Which ways of communicating and planning take the usual bullshit, turn it upside down, and use it as fertile soil to grow something new?

As of this writing, I’ve completed 77 consulting engagements for ~40 individual clients across nearly 20 years. This consulting practice has been one long “apprenticeship to the truth”, as Emerson put it. The school of hard knocks. I try many different approaches. I discard the ones that don’t work. I keep and refine the ones that do. All this in order to get the most meaningful and durable results for my clients.