Biography
Where I came from
I decided I wanted to be an art teacher when I was attending Somersworth High School, mainly due to my complete adoration of Mr. John Robak, the art teacher. I had an enormous crush on him, as did every other female art student at SHS. But I also had a sincere interest in art and thought it would be great to encourage children to express themselves artistically before they learned to color inside the lines. I thought I would be good at it, too.
So I did a little research at the UNH library and discovered what the job market for elementary school art teachers was like. Enough said.
I enrolled at the Art Institute of Philadelphia for two reasons. One, it was a two-year technical school at the time, which meant I would be more quickly employable and therefore self-sufficient. And two, I had a family member in the Philadelphia area for support. I didn't take into consideration that the lack of a Bachelor's degree might close doors for me. I actually believed at the time that I would soon be making so much money that it would be easy to go back to school at any time. Ah, youth!
Old School
At AIPH I was trained in traditional art preparation using tools like rubylithe, French curves and Rapidograph pens. All of these tools were nearly obsolete within two years of my graduation. I had one computer class using an Apple IIe and "Dazzle Draw" software. I can summarize what I learned in that course in one sentence: Computers are very, very slow.
After two years in Kentucky where I was not able to find a job even remotely related to my chosen field, I returned to Philadelphia to obtain my first job in my chosen field. However, in my absence, all of the jobs that I was qualified for had vaporized. Instead, everyone wanted me to work on a computer. I had major concerns about my ability to do this. I thought that in order to use a computer, you needed to be very proficient in mathematics, which I was not. Don't ask me where I got this idea, but I wasn't the only artist shaking in her Doc Martens when the industry turned towards the Mac. Fear of the unknown is what I was suffering from, and the only way to get over it was to make it known.
Oh my God, they hired me.
I took the first entry-level computer artist position I could find, which happened to be at a 35mm slide house in Jenkintown, PA. I wasn't using a Mac or a PC. Instead, I had to learn to operate a standalone system called the Tri-Master made by a company in Minneapolis called Management Graphics. The manual was a monstrous three-ring binder written by engineers, for engineers. I found it very difficult to work with. But I was so afraid of failure that I studied like I'd never studied in my entire life. And lo and behold, I mastered the Tri-Master.
After this initial success, I began to gravitate towards opportunities that intimidated me, realizing that they had the potential to turn into my most significant achievements and provide me with the most rewarding experiences. I learned the hard way that the 1950's work ethic handed down to me by my mother unfortunately no longer applied. It was no longer possible for a person to learn to do a particular job, stay with the same company forever, and retire with a gold watch. I realized I had to continually learn new skills to stay ahead of the curve, and accept that the odds were very good that I was going to work for many different companies, learning new skills at each of them.
The driving force in determining what job to take became the answer to the question "How scared am I to take this on?" The more it scared me, the more I knew I should give it a shot.
Rollin' With the Changes
The custom 35mm slide market died out with the widespread use of PowerPoint. Suddenly, anyone who could figure out how to apply a template thought they were a graphic artist (sigh). The technology was easy to use, but there are some really ugly presentations out there.
The challenge now was to take my newly acquired computer skills and find a new industry to which I could apply them while learning something new.
Lady Luck Steps In
While working as an independent contractor, one of my clients asked me to work on-site at their customer's facility. I began producing PowerPoint presentations for a company called Stuart Disease Management Services, Inc. which was a subsidiary of what was then ZENECA Pharmaceuticals (AstraZeneca). It turned out to be a great way to learn their business, which was providing savings to managed care organizations by designing and implementing disease management programs.
After working for SDMS in this capacity for about seven months, they made me an offer of full-time employment. It was the perfect job for me in that it scared me to death. They had no idea what they wanted me to do. They only knew that they thought I could do more for them than what I was doing. So I was told that my first task would be to hire an employee to take over the slide production. I didn't have the slightest idea what it would be like to work there. All I knew is that I wouldn't be doing anything that I have ever done before. It was like stepping off the edge of a cliff and somehow trusting you wouldn't fall.
I lived to tell the tale. I learned what I had to learn in order to create and manage a production and creative services group responsible for the design, production, and distribution of SDMS' disease management components. These components included patient and physician educational materials, binders, forms, collateral, reports, proposals, and presentations. In this role, I learned what it is like to recruit, hire, train, and manage personnel. I also learned how to motivate, inspire, defend, and promote the good people I was lucky enough to find. I stayed with SDMS until they closed their doors late in 1998. I'm still in touch with many people that I had the good fortune to work with then.
Now what?
I sensed that I would have a very hard time earning the kind of money I was making at SDMS unless I could find another management position. But I wasn't really interested in doing that - I wanted to try something new. I wanted to be learning again.
The Promise of the New Economy
In 1998 it was pretty clear to me that the best direction for me to go in was the Internet. First of all, I knew very little about it which intimidated me. But Web Design seemed like a possible entry point given my training and professional experiences. So I took a few months off and taught myself HTML, CSS and a smattering of JavaScript. It wasn't difficult to pick up at all and it allowed me to make use of all of my design training and experience. I did one freelance job and then I began applying to Web Design positions with as much confidence as I could muster.
I got very lucky again. I was hired by Bluestone Software. I will be forever grateful to Terri Jo (TJ) Tatusko for giving me the opportunity to work at Bluestone.
Bluestone Software was the best experience of my professional life, hands-down. No other job has even come close. The caliber of the people I worked with was incredible. These were truly brilliant individuals with an entrepreneurial spirit like I had never seen before. It was simply impossible to be in their presence and not be motivated to achieve, improve, and create. The culture was amazing. People were given responsibility and accountability for their own actions. If you saw something that you believed would help the business, you did it. If it worked, great. If not, you learned something. We were each responsible for the company's success. Amazing!
The Reality of Hewlett-Packard
Not long after going public, Bluestone was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in January of 2001. The culture at HP is very different from that of Bluestone. They are a behemoth, and it has a very different feel. But I was still working with great people from Bluestone, and I had been given the opportunity to work in R&D for Neil Kenig, Dave Dyson, and Bruce Kratz, which were great experiences. I got some exposure to Java programming thanks to the architects and engineers on my team including Pete Petersen, Greg Pavlik, and Dave D'Orto. I learned a great deal, and thoroughly enjoyed the company of my teammates. But it was no Bluestone, and we were forced to sit and watch as our Bluestonian co-workers were laid off in round after round of cutbacks.
Onward and Upward
After surviving many rounds or layoffs over several years, I was finally politely asked to leave HP in November of 2003. It was as much of a relief as anything at that point. I really hadn't been happy there for a very long time. It was definitely time for a change.
After HP, I went briefly to McNeil Consumer and Specialty Pharmaceuticals through Alliance Consulting. The project was not long term and the fit wasn't a very good one for me. My title was User Interface Designer but the design work had already been done. I had to take existing CSS and markup and make it work in a BEA WebLogic Portal environment. The code I was given wasn't WSRP compliant, so it was a matter of retrofitting a ton of classes to the many CSS stylesheets used by WebLogic. I spent three months living between <div> tags. Thank God for Andrew Clifford, the developer on the project. If it hadn't been for his company, I don't know that I would have lasted the three months! When "Phase I" rolled out, so did I. I happily made the move to SAP Global Marketing and their Web Service Team under contract through TEK Systems.
I had wanted to be at SAP for a very long time. If you want to work in software marketing and you live in Philly, SAP comes to the top of a pretty short list. The people I work with are incredibly nice and the work is interesting. And look where I worked! It's an amazing building.
While at SAP I decided to try and start my own business on the side, and Lucid Interface was born. I'm lucky in that I've met a lot of people in software over the years, so I'm able to be pretty selective about the projects I take on.
Speaking of which...
Princeton Softech
Not long after launching the business, I received a call from Bruce Kratz who was working at a company called Princeton Softech. He had a project for me and I was all too happy to whip up a proposal. The project went well and not long afterward the phone began to ring and email began to arrive asking me if I'd like to come on board at Princeton Softech as their Usability Architect. Given that there were so many other former Bluestonians there I couldn't say no. The people are wonderful and the work is interesting and challenging. I hope to be there for many years to come.
