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RESUME

Summary

 

● Flexible, insightful and capable thought leader and collaborator skilled in market/user research, consumer insight, innovation, project management, content management, planning/resourcing, and product/service delivery.
● Expertise in web, mobile, devices and digital product innovation and management, social and community software,  IT management software, video games/virtual worlds and digital/social media. 
● Visionary, nurturing and effective in project management roles and leadership of cross-disciplinary teams.
● Academic training as a socio-cultural anthropologist and media scholar with a range of experience in technology and market/user experience and design research methods and tools. 
● Excellent technical skills (web design and development, multimedia, social media) and creative point of view.
● Resourceful and effective in business networking and collaboration world-wide.  Fifteen years’ experience in project, team and account management.  Excellent communication prowess across channels.

Work

experience
 

Freelance Researcher/Strategist/Writer

1996 - present

Freelance ethnography (Intrepid, the Hartman Group) and multiple contract roles (Microsoft, Intel, NCSoft) responsible for designing and running user and field research studies related to the console video games, cloud computing software, state of the art mobile devices, touch/gestural computing, virtual worlds, food/beverage/CPG, and e-commerce.



Liaised with business/marketing leads, product development teams, designers, technical staff and writers to innovate products/services and improve user experiences. Managed research and concept/prototyping projects, designed and ran lab, field and remote studies, as well as analyzing and disseminating results and recommendations to research and development teams. Responsible for feeding research into product and services design, managing research communities/panels, architecting web/mobile applications, vendor management, project planning and execution.

In addition, games, virtual worlds and social media content development for JeffBullas.com, Terra Nova, Open Forum Radio, and Big Door Media.

Skills

Research

Ethnography

Moderation

Facilitation

User Research

Usability

Specialties

new media, market research, insight, ethnography, anthropology, web development, usability, user experience, collaboration, cooperation, facilitation, moderation, content, communities, video games, virtual worlds, social learning, education, collective intelligence, social media/computing/networking, personalization, product design and development, international, online learning, innovation, design research, user experience, futurism, analytics, strategy, cloud computing, mobile, devices, CPG, food/beverage

2010 - present

2010 - present

Education

The University of Waikato. Department of Screen and Media Studies (Post-graduate Games Research Lab)

2004-2010

Doctor of Philosophy


Dissertation: 5 year ethnography of online gamers (published as Spontaneous Communities of Learning: Cooperative Learning Ecosystems Surrounding Virtual Worlds)

California State University, Hayward

2000-2003

Master of Science, Education (option in Online Teaching and Learning)

Thesis: The future of online learning

The University of California at Berkeley

1990-1993

Bachelor of Arts, Socio-cultural Anthropology

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