After getting a BA in Fine Arts and an MS in Comp Sci, I started my career at Bloomberg as a software developer. Through a series of mishaps I wasn't able to immediately enter the software training program and was instead assigned to a small team testing a new piece of hardware.  For two and a half months I made test phone calls on a small USB handset called the BFON and reported on call quality.  Needless to say, this was pretty boring after a while and in my spare time I decided to craft a 3 page critique of the device's form factor, ergonomics and style.  This report made its way to the management team overseeing the project then to the hardware engineering team, where I was called into a meeting.  It was explained that this was Mike Bloomberg's personal design I was trashing... but that I had many good points.  I soon found myself being consulted by the hardware team on the design of the BFON and other projects being developed.  I finally made it through the Bloomberg software developer training program and knew that working on the hardware team making "real stuff" would be far more rewarding then writing code all day.

 

I made a few calls and was soon... writing low level firmware drivers for the next generation VoIP enabled and biometric keyboard called the "Centerboard".  Although I was writing code most of the day, I was also learning about electronics; reading component data sheets, deciphering schematics and PCB layout artwork and poking boards with meters and scopes. 

 

The "Centerboard" contained a number of innovations; a biometric finger scanner to secure a user's account, a hardware based VoIP and full audio subsystem for enhanced voice communication over the Bloomberg network, and touch screen display to display alerts, messages and other status.  This was perhaps the most technologically advanced keyboard at the time.

 

Since Mike Bloomberg had moved on to being the Mayor of NYC, the new CEO, Lex Fenwick took a great interest in the brand positioning potential of the Bloomberg hardware suite and brought in an Industrial designer to work with us to further refine the product design so that it properly reflected the Bloomberg brand as it developed.  Consumer's expectations about hardware quality were also becoming more refined with the release of the iPod and other slick consumer electronics devices.

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Even early in my career I had the opportunity to sit down with ID, engineering and management and participate in design reviews and provide my personal input to the look and feel of the products as well as how they functioned under the hood.  My background in Art and Sculpture gave me a good eye for balance and composition and I was always aware that there is an audience, a user for these devices.  On the other hand my technical training in computer science gave me a strong understanding of the engineering aspects of creating a new product.  The New Bloomberg Monitor and Keyboard products were featured at the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum for best American Design.

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A couple of years later we added another software resource and I moved from working on firmware to focusing on the user experience, industrial design, mechanical design and manufacturing of the products.  We had electrical engineering and software resources on our team, who were better able to focus on their areas of expertise as I began to manage all of the engineering partners we worked with to give the Bloomberg products their form.  I quickly became versed in plastics and metal manufacturing processes and took classes in Design for Manufacturing and Assembly to supplement my on-hands experience.  Now, I was truly in charge of make the "real stuff" actually real.  I learned to be a digital sculptor in Solidworks to be able to communicate directly with the ME teams working on our products or create drawings to assist in defining PCB assemblies.  I purchased a 3D printer for our team in 2007 (well ahead of the 3D Printer boom) to build new product concept prototypes, assembly fixtures and test jigs.  

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In this period our team launched the first B-Unit device, a portable biometrically locked token, that allowed our users to access their Bloomberg accounts anywhere they had access to the internet.  It features an ingenious mechanism where a unique challenge is sent via a flashing box on the PC monitor to a light sensor on the device to add another factor of security to the system.  The B-Unit device was featured in "SAFE: Design Takes on Risk" at the Museum of Modern Art.

 

I have continued to work on the hardware team taking on the coordination of more vendors, suppliers, contract manufacturers and internal design teams to keep the product design lifecycle moving.  We have iterated through a number of versions of the B-Unit and keyboard, making improvements to cost, manufacturability, quality and user experience.  Between release cycles I have committed to researching new and upcoming technologies and assessing their potential use for Bloomberg terminal customers.  I will then build proof of concept prototypes with those technologies that seemed to have promise, and present them to the team or management for consideration.

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Today, I consider myself to be adept at managing all aspects of the product design process and product lifecycle, and communicating effectively between internal engineering resources, vendors and suppliers of all disciplines, to get a new product from concept to production.