Brad Becker Redmond, WA resume@scarynoises.com Group Product Manager Leadership in strategy and product planning. SUMMARY * Lead cross-group product planning and strategy in highly competitive markets. * Lead product design and program management for commercial shrink-wrapped products. * Proven leadership of a multidisciplinary team of programmers, graphic designers, technical writers, and usability engineers responsible for envisioning and building sophisticated applications within constraints of time, budget, and technological limitations. * Over 13 years of professional experience in full-lifecycle software engineering * Bachelor of Science in Computer Science * Expertise in Techniques, Tools, and Technologies for: User Experience Design Application Development for Web & Windows Rapid Prototyping User Interface Design Team Development, Mentorship, and Leadership * Coordination of Technical, Creative, and Business groups * Public Speaking and Performance EXPERIENCE Microsoft 2007 - present Group Product Manager Responsible for strategy and product planning for various next generation Microsoft platforms and technologies. 2005 - 2007 Senior Product Manager Responsible for launching the Expression family of tools as well as designer interests in various next generation Microsoft platforms and technologies such as WPF and Silverlight. Macromedia 2005 Senior User Experience Consultant Responsible for designing solutions to client problems using Macromedia technologies such as Flash and Flex. Performed onsite end-user observation and interviews, business analysis, application design, prototyping, and preparation of reports and presentations of analysis and design results. Evaluated solutions through user testing and demonstrated solutions to clients. Projects included work for Avaya, Sherwin Williams, Dorado, Yahoo, Standard & Poor's, and the Dept. of Defense of Japan. 2002-2005 Senior Product Designer Responsible for user experience in products including workflows, functionality, collateral, and the entire user interface. Member of team leadership--involved in planning, scheduling, quality review, and other tactical decision-making for the products. Coordinated design and implementation of features from initial conception to shipping. Coordinated all usability tests with the Usability team. All feature specs required my review and sign-off. Speaker for user groups, conference focus groups, developer Q&A panels * FlexBuilder: Sole product designer for the Flex IDE. Created solutions for all major issues discovered in usability testing and UI audit. One of three core team members involved in all customer visits as part of synchronous development initiative. http://macromedia.com/software/flex/flexbuilder/ * Flash: Sole product designer for Flash MX 2004. Successfully performed the first full UI audit of Flash. Introduced formal use case methodology to the engineering team. Created a database application for modeling and storing detailed use cases and other user requirements. Coordinated large reskinning of the Flash application with the Flash engineering and QA teams, other Studio product teams, internal design standards group, and external design agencies. Wrote specs for Start Page and worked with engineers, QA, and multiple product teams to get it implemented in all of the MM Studio products. * Cross-Product UI Team: One of four key members of the cross-product user interface board at Macromedia making user interface and application design decisions for the entire Studio product line. NDCHealth 2000 - present Team Lead for UI Design, Development, & Usability * User Experience Team: Recognized need for a User Experience team at NDCHealth. Conceptualized team and solicited management approval. Created job descriptions, interviewed and hired candidates consisting of programmers, designers, usability designers, and technical writers. Established, documented, and mentored graphic design procedures, best practices for coding, and user-oriented prototyping/design methodologies. * Usage Tool: Created a database application for modeling and storing use cases, user profiles, and interaction contexts. * eHospital: Responsible for the design and implementation of the presentation layer of a large suite of web-based B2B applications for the healthcare industry. Responsibilities included: prototyping, architecture, graphic design, usability analysis, design and coding of all UI elements. Created complex yet lightweight web-enabled business applications using Flash, ActionScript, XML, COM, and ASP. The first application is entering beta on time and under budget, receiving positive feedback from beta testers. * Participated in the entire development cycle from contextual inquiry, use cases, and requirements to usability testing, software development, and testing. * Coordinated external graphic design agency, internal DBA's and software engineers, customers, and product management. http://ndchealth.com/products_services/hospital/has_products/epremis.htm 1997-2000 MIS Project Manager/Software Engineer Saw a need in the company for a simplification in some of the core business processes. Performed extensive business analysis and solicited user requirements. Pitched concepts to upper management and received approval for the project. Created multiple applications. * PayerServicesIS: Created a mission-critical internal application, tying together approximately 50 users from several different corporate departments. Significantly reduced the number and effort of related processes. Significantly reduced use of paper document processing and storage. Has been successfully used on a daily basis since completion. * Assign and Release: Created an application in VB, Access, ODBC, and Oracle RDB to enable fast, automated creation of Electronic Product Distribution releases to over a thousand clients. Application doubled the reliability and speed of the Assign and Release processes by automating much of the operator manual processes and eliminating many possibilities for operator error. Still in use each week. * ASPPBuilder: Created a groupware utility used by multiple departments to track projects and tasks online and generate required monthly reports automatically. Consisted of a VB application located on each employees desktop and an ASP-based web site for real-time project/task status for managers. 1995-1997 SQA Analyst - Special Projects Responsible for all special projects for SQA including planning and implementation of a testing lab. Performed formal software quality assurance and usability testing. 1992-1995 Software Engineer Worked on a large team of developers creating a Windows application for the healthcare industry. Sole responsibility for one of the four major feature areas of the product. Development was in C. The most recent version of this product is in use at over 1000 hospitals. ScaryNoises.com 2000-present Multimedia Designer, Programmer, Information Architect Worked on several web and multimedia projects for various e-commerce and traditional business clients including several record companies (Mojo, Universal, Arista) and their bands. Created logos, branding, original audio soundtrack compositions, multimedia presentations, cross-browser/cross-platform web sites, multimedia e-cards. Online Portfolio - http://www.scarynoises.com The Softworks Group 1993-1995 Principle/Software Developer Created a UI-intensive software application that allowed users to track and record information into a database, model probabilities, "play-test", and analyze data through quantitative graphs. The product was developed in C/C++, MFC, Access, VBA, ODBC, and Photoshop. Set up an all-electronic sales and distribution model, selling and uploading direct to clients all around the world via Compuserve and a credit card order processing company. Admiral Twin 1990-2002 Professional Performing/Recording Artist Secured a record deal with Mojo/Universal Records. Recorded and released a nationally distributed album. Toured across North America as the opening act for a platinum-selling group, playing to approximately half a million people. Wrote a song used in a Warner Bros major motion picture. Own and operate a project recording studio for audio/video production. http://www.admiraltwin.com | http://www.allmusic.com SKILLS Analytical/Process: Business Analysis, Contextual Inquiry, Requirements Gathering, Usage Centered Design, Microsoft Solution Framework Design/Production: Interaction Design, Graphic Design, Multimedia Design, Software Quality Assurance, Navigation Design, Audio Production Programming: SQL, VB/VBA, C/C++/C#, MFC, Flash Actionscript, ASP, Javascript, XML, HTML, CSS Software: Flash, Visual Studio, Office, Visual SourceSafe, Access, Project, Photoshop, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, SQL Server, SoundForge, Acid, Vegas Video, ProTools, Swift3D Communication: Public Speaking, Public Performance, Documentation of User Requirements, Specifications, and Design MEMBERSHIPS National Honor Society ACM SIG-CHI (Computer-Human Interaction) EDUCATION Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, ORU, 1991. Graduated cum laude.