I am a management professional with a knack for technology and a deep appreciation for the value of individuals and the teams they comprise.

Technology is only a tool. When used properly, it allows organizations to maximize the value of their individuals and teams. That happens directly, of course, when we automate monotonous tasks that require no critical thinking. Much more importantly, well-implemented technology improves individual productivity and satisfaction by maximizing the portion of each person’s work that taps into their unique skills and talents and meaningfully contributes to the organization.

Technology that is unintuitive, unpleasant to use, aggravating, intrusive, unreliable, poorly documented, not well supported, etc., antagonizes the very people it is supposed to be helping and drastically undercuts its own value.

That probably seems pretty obvious. So what?

My approach to technology infrastructure involves constantly evaluating actual risk against actual aggravation imposed by risk mitigation measures, constantly evaluating the cost of usability improvements against the value of people’s time, and constantly asking why:

  • Why do we need this new thing?
  • Why do we still need this old thing?
  • Why do I feel like I spend half my day typing passwords into login screens?
  • Why does the help desk tell me to ignore my browser’s dire warnings about the security of our internal websites?