I build analytics products.
I work across analytics from the data layer all the way to the UI. I shape data models, build ETL pipelines, and create table schemas. I work with engineers to define metric calculations and the business logic behind them. I have strong opinions about data visualizations and will happily go deep into the weeds on UI.
At Open Architects, my focus is turning raw data into polished products that people who aren't analysts can open every day, understand quickly, and act on. I care about how the data is structured, how the metrics are defined, and how the final product looks and feels.
I'm a tinkerer by nature and an intense learner. If I'm not building something at work, I'm probably building something on a weekend just to learn how it works. Outside of that, you'll find me reading, spending time with my family, and cheering on the Arkansas Razorbacks.
I set product direction and help turn it into something the team can actually ship. That means deciding what to build, what to leave alone, how products should fit together, and how to respond to customer feedback and changes in the market. I work closely with engineers, designers, and leadership from the initial idea through release.
I work across the data stack, from table schemas and ETL pipelines to the models that power the product. I work with engineers to define how metrics are calculated and the business logic behind them. I'm comfortable getting into the SQL and data pipeline details when that's what it takes to make an analytics product work correctly.
I care a lot about design. I think carefully about chart choice, visual hierarchy, layout, interaction, and the small details that make an interface feel polished. I like getting deep into the UI and working through what belongs on screen, how it should be presented, and how the pieces fit together.
I spend a lot of time talking to customers and learning how they actually work. Those conversations help me understand the problems behind a request and figure out what the product should do. I'm happy to get deep into a domain before deciding how we should build for it.
Still hands-on in SQL, Python, BigQuery, and Power BI. My AI of choice varies depending on which model's clichés I've gotten sick of that week.
My digital commonplace book is a tool I built to store all my favorite quotes I find while reading.
A true revelation, it seems to me, will only emerge from stubborn concentration on a solitary problem. I am not in league with inventors or adventurers, nor with travelers to exotic destinations. The surest - also the quickest - way to awake the sense of wonder in ourselves is to look intently, undeterred at a single object. Suddenly, miraculously, it will reveal itself as something we have never seen before.
As when a great king has entered some large city and made his dwelling in one of the houses in it, such a city is certainly made worthy of high honor, and no longer does any enemy or bandit descend upon it, but it is rather reckoned worthy of all care because of the king's having taken residence in one of its houses; so also does it happen with the King of all.
You can take a perfectly sensible intervention, like, a glass of water and an exercise break, but add nonsense, make it sound more technical, and make yourself sound clever. This will enhance the placebo affect, but you might also wonder whether the primary goal is something more cynical and lucrative: to make common sense copyrightable, unique, and owned.
The mark of whether you are made for a task is not whether you love it but whether you can handle the pain of the task easier than most people.
Maybe the right silences are what keep a friendship green.
When we abandoned what made us good and embraced what made us comfortable and secure, we lost something essential, knew we lost it and yet chose to lose. Material bounty and freedom are so much stronger incentives than sacrifice and character.