Please contact me for a more detailed resume or visit my Linked In profile.

Senior Technical Writer

Dec 2021 – Present | TS Imagine

TS Imagine is a fintech software development firm selling enterprise grade risk and margin analysis software to major financial institutions as well as trading software to clients such as hedge funds and other investment institutions.

  • Updated and created margin, risk management and securities trading documentation.
  • Spearheaded the initiative of using personas. This helped clarify who we were making features for and why, eliminating miscommunication and rework.
    Developed dozens of golden path processes in securities trading software for support and training consistency.
  • Wrote, storyboarded and produced training videos so that traders could get bite-sized training.
  • Recorded voice over narrations, including broadcast quality audio engineering.
  • Led the creation of new media assets including collateral, graphics and posters in house, at a lower cost than using external vendors.
  • Wrote documentation for new products and features. This improved feature and version uptake by customers.
  • Led the creation of new media assets including video, collateral, graphics and posters in house, at a lower cost than using external vendors.
  • Visualized securities purchases processes so that users, managers and technical audiences could understand order statuses through trading processes.
    Implemented operational views for products to better communicate quickly who and how systems operate.
  • Mentored juniors on technical writing best practices and tools including MadCap Flare, InDesign, Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, Audacity/Audition and other products.

Product Manager

October 2020 – Nov 2021 | Private

  • Wrote a 170-page business spec for an on-line retailer and logistics firm so that software development can take place efficiently, and that management can be confident that the delivered product will transform the company. As part of that effort, I documented current practices in the operations and customer service departments and ensured newly formed IT department scaled quickly to match the firm’s growth.

Consulting Product Manager and Business Analyst

August 2017 – 2021 | Consulting partnership

  • Wrote procedures and technical documentation for a telephone customer support department. This standardized processes and made training new agents faster. I also documented manufacturing processes so operational efficiencies were realized and training could be standardized.
  • Delivered HR services and HR policy manuals so employee expectations were clear.
  • Delivered a 40,000-word wiki for a US social media firm.
  • Oversaw responses to requests for proposals.
  • Management coaching.
  • Wrote gap analysis for engineering software to guide development.
  • Deployed customer relationship management systems to a variety of clients.
  • Wrote extensive procedures documentation for international logistics companies.

Senior Consulting Technical Writer 

2018 – June 2019 | Ayuda Media Systems

Ayuda Media Systems sells a leading digital and static advertising enterprise resource planner.

  • New 80,000- word knowledge base. Deliverables included an information portal, product communications and a company dictionary that standardized nomenclature.
  • I also delivered technical marketing, white papers, user personas and more than 100 golden paths. The impact was that multiple departments in offices around the world had a shared understanding of who the users were and how they interacted with each other. The value was that consistent best practices can be recommended by sales, support and account managers.
  • Prototyped user interfaces for new and updates to existing features. I worked with product owners and developers to ensure that feature portfolio goals were met and unintended impacts minimized.
  • Identified gaps in a poorly differentiated product by mapping customer business processes.

 

Product Manager

December 2015 – August 2017 | Asset Science

Asset Science is a leading designer and provider testing and diagnostic software tools for wireless mobile device production lines.

  • Led the creation of new role-based dashboards for executives, factory managers and team leaders, reports, and developed innovative industry metrics. The result was an expansive but practical product vision that improved investor confidence and reassured existing customers that the company had a coherent vision of the market, customer needs and the product’s future.
  • Authored and co-authored technical documentation that improved clarity, communication and processes; instituted a new CRM, oversaw the product team’s daily activities, created new marketing and branding for the re-energized company.

 

Senior Technical Writer

March 2015 – October 2015 |The Armored Group

  • Consulting mandate for documenting the retrofitting of armoured vehicles.

 

Product Manager

October 2014 – March 2015| Private Investment Firm

Product owner for a business startup for the US medical market.

  • I delivered extensive competitive intelligence to obtain transparency into competing and allied clinical entities; recommended patent/Intellectual property opportunities and proposed their revenue model.

From 2013 to 1995

Product Manger and Education Manager

June 2012 – April 2013|Freightopolis

Documentation for a SAAS firm offering international logistics freight services to carriers and manufacturers.

 

Senior Content Developer

January 2011 – January 2012 | Ryma Technology Solutions

Ryma provided product management consulting services and software to public companies. I authored their support documentation.

 

Senior Technical Writer

November 2008 – February 2010 | MEI CPG

MEI developed financial software for manufacturers and brokers in the consumer package goods industry for the UK, the United States and Canada. I started their middleware and API documentation from scratch.

 

Senior Technical Writer

February 2006 – July 2008 | Mecanica Solutions

Mecanica Solutions provides engineering services and product life cycle management software to automotive and aviation manufacturers, and Formula 1 racing in Europe and North America. My documentation included PLM products and aviation software.

 

Technical Writer and Creative Lead

July 2003 – February 2006 | Beginfinite

Beginfinite was a developer of anti-spam and anti-virus software for Novell, RIM and other messaging products. I documented their network level security and messaging products.

 

Freelance consultant

April 2001 – June 2003| Various

Created a wide range of exciting and interesting material for clients in diverse industries.

 

Editor and Policy Analyst

October 1998 – April 2001 | IC Axon

Developer of multimedia courseware, physician and pharmaceutical sales materials, and medical software in Europe and North America.

 

Reporter-Photographer

June1995 – October 1998 | Various

Journalist at regional weeklies in the Ottawa Valley, northern Ontario and Québec.

 

Education

  • A., Journalism and Philosophy, double major with a minor in the History of Science Concordia University.
  • E.C, Creative Arts Vanier College

Skills

  • Software: Microsoft Office, project management software such as MS Project and Basecamp, Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, DreamWeaver, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat), Lightroom/Nikon NX Capture, CRMs (Zoho, Hubspot, Salesforce) web server log analysis, the Atlassian suite of products, Madcap Flare/Robohelp, Captivate, Camtasia, wikis, WordPress, FrameMaker and teamshare systems such as Sharepoint/Confluence, MEI Troubadour, Salesforce, PLM360 product suite, bug/issue tracking software, feature planning/change request software (Jira/VersionOne), XML authoring tools, network security and monitoring software such as GWAVA and others, courseware systems such as Chalk and HotLava, vaulting and versioning products such as GIT and Subversion
  • Platforms: Macintosh, *nix, Windows
  • Product and industrial photography, portrait photography, news photography
  • Multimedia production, audio-visual script writing, storyboarding, narration, audio, post-processing audio and video transcoding
  • Pre-press including wide format printing
  • Photography
  • Illustration
  • Graphic design
  • Bilingual