SOFTWARE
Throughout my career in the software industry I've worked with teams of senior engineers to create innovative software that brings end users both productivity and joy. My role in the software creation process could be described as product visionary, product manager, product owner, or—in the case of consulting work—account manager. I talk with end users and observe their work. I study software that is already in the space. I create a vision for the product and work with engineers and designers to prioritize and implement the features that are most important to the end users. When the software is in the hands of users we go back to the beginning and make it better: observe, prioritize, improve, release, repeat.
I'm not a programmer myself, but I understand programming well enough to work closely with engineers and engage them in design and scheduling conversations that are respectful of what is and is not practical and possible.
I've worked on a wide range of software projects.
I was a member of the team that created Macintosh Common Lisp (Wikipedia entry), which Peter Norvig described as his "favorite IDE on the Macintosh platform for any language and... a serious rival to those on other platforms."
At Apple I led the effort to design Dylan, a new dynamic programming language (Wikipedia entry) In this role I led a team of senior engineers through the design process, I gave public talks, I created an industry/university consortium to support the design, and I wrote the Dylan Reference Manual. I also led the effort to build an integrated development environment for Dylan.
I founded Learning Touch and created best-selling educational iPhone games for pre-k and special needs children. Our apps were top sellers in their categories for several years and have over 5 million downloads, including tens of thousands at schools. We pioneered UI/UX designs for early reading skills that are now widely adopted by children's apps on touch screens.
At Steady Type I used the interface mechanisms from Learning Touch children's apps to create a smart phone keyboard for people suffering from hand tremors.
As a managing partner at Clozure Associates I worked with a very diverse range of clients who came to us for help with their advanced software development needs. Our teams helped build satellite antenna tracking systems, music composition software, airline reservation systems, and much more.