My Tech Work History

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I have been working in technology in one form or another for 35 years, which means I’ve seen enough of the software world to think about it more holistically than many do when following the latest trends in tech.


Product experience

I am a product-focused engineer. Or an engineering-focused product manager.

2013-2022: Boarddocs Policy - For most of the last decade, I was building a Policy Management solution for the K-12 market. I started more on the 'engineer' side of the fence, but grew to be almost 100% on the 'product' side, acting as product owner for the last couple years of this role.
I coded the initial idea into an MVP in 3 weeks, then spent a year travelling the country, meeting with potential customers, and extending the feature set until we had a product that met most needs of most customers.
We then rolled in a steady state for a few years - adding features, enhancing UX, growing until we were acquired and integrated into a larger company.
I left, but after a while was asked to return and continued to evolve the product, guiding a new dev team to replatform the product to a new stack and integrate with the larger business.

2022 - 2024: Topcoder - in 2022, I moved to Topcoder and built a new SaaS product intended to bring their competitive software model into enterprise organizations. I coded the initial MVP, worked to expand the product and worked as we built a team who ran with it, with a few hundred organizations signing up over the course of the next year.
It didn't land well enough to continue as-is, and further efforts and pivots have not found the right market either. While all but one of the leaders has had good intent... this was mostly a big swing and a miss.

Next? - I'm probably going to take time off and do my own creative work for a while. I anticipate wanting work again in mid 2025. But anyone who has read this far should feel free to reach out to me at hikingdave @ gmail.com if you think I may be able to help you out.

Coding experience

I coded. 20+ years of it. I'm done with that now, barring extreme circumstances or opportunities.
It included multiple startups, both successful and not, as well as being a key member of internal enterprise IT organizations.
I worked at various times as an individual team member, tech lead, founder, and independent consultant.

Consulting Experience

My consulting projects over the years have included:

  • Platform Migrations and Upgrades.
  • Business Intelligence Dashboards
  • Planning Domino Decommission/Migration projects including application portfolio analysis and target platform recommendations.
  • SCADA, data gathering, and reporting system for a renewable energy startup.
  • Development manager for startups.
  • Individual Career Coaching

Industry experience

I have worked in: Research Labs, Technology Consulting, Enterprise IT, Public Sector, Education, Healthcare, Content Management, Manufacturing, Real Estate, Shipping, Banking, Oil / Gas, Government, Transportation, and Analytics.

 

Product Philosophy

  • I reject the assumption that building software products means “startups”. I believe that good software is driven by a deliberate approach to solving problems. Business success comes from solving those problems, and I prioritize work accordingly. I focus on working slowly and correctly in order to decrease risk, build the correct solutions, enjoy the work of building software, while still finding sufficient business success to operate a sustainable organization with enough financial success to satisfy organization stakeholders.
  • My approach complements company growth. Good software is a foundation upon which a company can thrive in its own market. Sales and marketing is not my area of expertise, but I trust experts on those areas to fulfill those roles, and deliver to them a solid product to work with.
  • Every product and team is unique. Prior experience can help guide a team, but I beleive in listening to the team to define how we work moreso than following standard processes and playbooks.