Why I Joined InVision as CTO
I may be a CTO, but people—even more than technology—are what excite me. I’ve been lucky enough to work at companies that touch nearly every corner of the world. At Microsoft, I was fortunate enough to help found major technological, team and product initiatives and see them through to rollout. These initiatives, from inception like Windows NT (1990), MSN (1993), the first Microsoft Internet Search service (1995), Natural User Interfaces (2001) and Microsoft Teams (2015), taught me that people and collaboration are the driving force behind successful product and tech design. At eBay (2015), I learned how to balance paying down decades of tech debt while innovating and advancing the state of platforms and AI, all while working across global multi-disciplinary teams as I led the technology stack’s evolution. Filling a tall order like that is only possible when designers, product managers, developers, and the c-suite are on the same page.
I have spent 30 years in this industry, so I have seen the evolution of engineering, product and development in major companies. Every person at nearly every company wants to put out a world-class digital experience. And yet, digital product and tech teams are struggling. I know the challenges they face. InVision has tapped something that is gold: A true innovative platform to speed innovation in digital product design and development.
As the CTO, I am excited about the technical innovations that we are shipping to our customers. We are producing a tool set that will be the end-to-end digital product design and development platform. InVision is changing the way industries within and outside enterprises, nonprofits, NGOs—really all types of organizations—create apps, websites and so much more. The work that InVision does touches everything.
We have brought a technologically-advanced lens to pulling together connected flows that help developers inspect designs with a cloud offering that expedites customer code from design specifications through delivery. And we have built all of this on a robust web end-to-end secure and performant architecture along with state-of-the-art performance and quality frameworks. There is so much in our technological treasure chest with much more to come that will surely delight our customers.
Within InVision, I am also stunned by the raw talent throughout all the ranks, how caring everyone is towards each other and our customers, and everyone’s willing and wanting to collaborate together and tackle roadblocks. InVision CEO Clark Valberg’s vision of a connected workflow is inspiring for us all. He identified this area 10 years ago, and was prescient enough to recognize the power of a fully distributed company well before that was commonplace. The rest of the executive leadership team are just as innovative, smart, and driven. I am especially pleased that Eleanor Morgan, our chief product officer, is here to be my partner in achieving our strategy and vision.
Individuals can be talented, but it takes a team to be successful. The right team—a team infused with the spirit of innovation, a team dedicated to developing and growing talent, a team that does not fear failure and challenges—can create the technologies that change how we interact with our screens, and the world. I am so excited to join this team, and to empower teams everywhere.
All in all, I believe I am truly lucky to have this opportunity! Now that I’m at InVision, I look forward to bringing to InVision increased focus on quality shipping, best-in-class product, and technical innovation. Having the right priorities clearly stated, agreed and committed is the essential starting point. We will continuously innovate and execute with precision, and we are on that journey already with the launch of the New Design System Manager last week, a platform that is already beloved and transformative for global-scale design and development teams. Our customers love it and their satisfaction is key. I’m thrilled to be here and to help take InVision to an entirely new level of innovation, technological rigor, and focus.