Tree roots

Now

Mostly focused on product design and strategy for a refreshed 3PL product.

Then

A brief history of my evolution from learning about how computers work, to falling in love with design and my current responsibilities.

October 2019

Product Owner / UX Specialist

Nebraska Book Company
My current role is a hybrid one with multiple responsibilities – leading development and implementation of products and projects, requirement gathering, project management, solution design, business analysis, testing, and documentation.

In January 2020, I took on additional responsibility of leading the development priorities for our distribution center and its Warehouse Management System (WMS). A significant project I led during this period was the redesign of our B2C outbound systems.

In early 2021, a 3PL (Third Party Logistics) project was started as a new line of business for the company. I initially became involved by testing new features and implementation, but quickly evolved into tracking and prioritizing work for both our WMS team, and internal product development team.

Additional projects of note:
• Mainframe Screen Design and Analysis
• Publisher Rentals
• C2B Sellback Website Design
• Mainframe Modernization Design

October 2019
February 2017

UX/UI Specialist

Nebraska Book Company
This position narrowed my focus slightly to the visual and overall interaction flows of our products. One significant project was designing dashboards for a new data visualization/business insight product. Another significant project was redesigning a 15 year old legacy website for ordering books in bulk.

I learned about the importance and challenges of working with color, accessibility and testing, and the how to work with unexpected data in your design. I also continued improving my research skills and collaborating with stakeholders and developers.

February 2017
August 2015

Business Analyst

Nebraska Book Company
In this position, I mainly worked on our Point of Sale and Mobile POS products. I learned a lot about research, writing requirements, backlog prioritization, product roadmaps, collaboration with developers, testing, and managing releases. I also designed wireframes, interaction flows, and conducted usability tests.

Significant projects:
Quick Menu and Made-to-Order POS features
Offline POS and UI redesign

August 2015
September 2009

Special Projects Consultant / Trainer

Nebraska Book Company
I led the effort to convert our customer website templates to responsively designed ones. I continued talking to users in training classes and conferences, and taking the feedback gathered to our development team. In addition, I gained significant experience in writing technical documentation, and spearheaded a project to create a standard documentation template and style guide.

September 2009
December 2007

Tech Support / Trainer

Nebraska Book Company
This is where I learned how to talk – and listen – to users. I also increased my experience with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript by customizing e-commerce websites.

December 2007
December 2005

IT Consultant

John Deere Information Systems
Here I learned about the complexity and inherent fragility of servers and networks. Making those systems robust and reliable required strong, formalized processes.

December 2005
June 2003

Nebraska Wesleyan University

Graduated with honors and a BA degree in Computer Science and Music. This is where I learned how computers really work, and began my love affair with building websites.

June 2003

Recent Work