I teach innovation, design and product thinking, and diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. Poynter was a defining influence in my journalism career and I am excited to be able to share that with others now.

Present
As a product director, my role is to align customer needs (internal and external) with the business goals of the company to create compelling products, grow revenue and increase engagement. It was once my belief product was nothing more than technology and coding. I’ve learned it’s about communication, connecting with people, understanding the workflows and making sense of how everything works together. It’s now my belief, for journalism to survive, every organization needs to bring product-thinking into the highest level of strategy. We have to align the needs of our customers and the business to succeed.

2017-2022

The joke in innovation, is no one can explain what innovation really is. It’s a catch-all word for jobs-to-be-done that don’t fall nicely into existing categories. Innovation can be about creating and building new products, tools and stories. It can be about inspiring other to do the same through design-thinking and change management. It’s about defining, developing, testing and implementing solutions to existing and new problems, workflows and strategy.

I like to think innovation is building bridges between all the units of your business. In media, that’s especially important in a legacy industry that’s been historically siloed.

In my role as an innovator I use my expertise in leadership, strategy, project management, journalism and design to create products and experiences that add value to the bottom line as well as our experiment with new storytelling methods, platforms and emerging technology.

I’ve had the experience of working with a multitude of customers — internal executives, regional news and advertising properties, readers, vendors and partners. The needs of each end-user is varied, as is my approach to them. I excel at understanding their needs and adjusting the product accordingly.

The goal is to solve for desirability, feasibility and viability and deliver products, services and storytelling experience that add value to the customer’s life.

2014 - 2017

I helped lead the newsroom’s reporters, editors, designers, photographers and copy editors who consistently played out of their league.

We produced high-level journalism that won Pulitzer prizes (yes, multiple) while still covering news that our community cared about. Our newsroom strived to create journalism that had impact, engaged with our readers, delivered outstanding experiences and continues to be the voice of the community.

During my time there I helped transform the editorial process from a traditional model to one focused on delivering journalism with impact for our readers. Click here for some of the projects I managed.

January 2006 - 2014

I joined the Herald-Tribune as a feature designer focused on entertainment and weekend guides. It was during this time I honed my design, communication and process skills. I learned that the best tool in my toolkit was simply crossing the room and talking to stakeholders.

I cultivated relationships with pre-press, advertising, production, news and distribution that would give me a 360-view of the news ecosphere. I still carry these skills with me today. News does not operate in a vacuum and it’s important to understand every part of the process to help my staff and the company as a whole be successful.