The Tech Trek

What you’ll learn:

The power of being underestimated

Being one of few females as an IT Director in the Massachusetts technology public sector

Early exposure to technology had a very positive impact

From liberal arts degree to leader in Infrastructure

Get ahead by finding the work that nobody wants to do. Doing it. And doing it well.

Meet: Kendra Rozett McCormick is Manager of Infrastructure Engineering at HealthEdge, provider of the industry’s leading mission-critical claims processing, care management, and payment integrity technology assets for payers. Kendra has a unique background combining a liberal arts education with proven technology leadership, first in the public/local government sector for 11 years, and now in the Healthcare software space, with a passion for leadership and promotion of women in technology.

If you have any questions for Kendra, please feel free to reach out via:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kmccormick916/

I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn:

The widening scope of IT Service Management

Does ITSM need their own Service Management Officer?

ITSM buy-in and the why behind it

Meet: Carlis Ragland - Assistant VP Configuration Manager at Valley Bank - has over 25 years of IT experience, and 10 years of IT Information Library (ITIL) experience using IT Service Management (ITSM) platforms such as ServiceNow.

He was formally the Configuration Management Leader for Becton Dickinson, ITSM Solution architect for Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC), and ITSM System Integrator/Service Manager and Architect for CompuCom Inc. on the Public Service Electric & Gas (PSEG) of New Jersey account for over 10 years. In addition, he is a retired Air Force Reserve Officer with 33 years of military experience. Carlis holds a Master of Science Degree in Information Technology with a Business Intelligence specialization from Kaplan University. He is an Adjunct Professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University teaching Data Communications and Computer Networking courses.

His hands-on and leadership experience with configuration management databases, data integration, automation, process, and workflow management have shrunk timelines, matured processes, provided financial transparency to reduced cost, and reduced the number of unplanned IT outages.

If you have any questions for Carlis, please feel free to reach out via:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlisragland/

I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn:

Finding the right skill set mix in growing your analytics team

Interviewing tip: Trying to understand how a candidate’s problem-solving skills when there isn’t a clear cut outcome

Modern analytics driving further advanced skills

Meet: Krishna is a quantitative strategic leader with a focus on finding solutions to business problems through the use of big-data behavioral analytics and qualitative data. He places an emphasis on working directly and through his team with key stakeholders to translate both small and large data sets into actionable business solutions.

With a primary focus on developing and scaling nascent ideas, Krishna brings a pragmatic but rigorous empirical philosophy to decision making and team leadership. Using his background in big-data analytics, data strategy, marketing, operations, finance, consulting, and psychology, he has applied novel and effective solutions to challenging business problems across a variety of industries, clients, and circumstances. Most recently, he has been focused on scaling the distribution side of the insurance marketplace at EverQuote.

If you have any questions for Krishna, please feel free to reach out via:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/krishna-ramaswamy-analytics/

I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn:

Proactive vs reactive problem management

Managing the multiple touchpoints involved in a service incident

Balancing needs vs the squeaky wheel

Meet:  Kevin Recio is an Information Technology professional with 6+ years of experience across multiple companies and industries. His IT experience includes enterprise platform implementations, management of IT service operations roles, and development of SDLC processes. He is familiar with ITIL, IT Service Management, and ServiceNow.

If you have any questions for Kevin, please feel free to reach out via:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevin-recio-59a04621/

I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn:

Work fast and iterate very quickly

Try to think with a clear mind - communicate through writing over talking

Shorten time to ideation

Happiness of the customer as a measure of product quality

Meet: David Ting, Vice President of Nylas, has over 20 years of leadership experience in mobile development, scalable architecture, cloud infrastructure, big data, and machine learning.  At Nylas, he is currently running the Engineer, Product, and Support teams to power the productivity layer of the software stack.  David has served as the Head of Online Production for Blizzard Entertainment, the General Manager of IGN Entertainment, and the General Manager of NetEase North America. David holds 6 patents and has received 2 IBM Outstanding Achievement Awards and the AltaVista Employee of the Year Award.

If you have any questions for David, please feel free to reach out via:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dting

I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn:

Upskilling the data analyst role

Medical knowledge is doubling every 73 days; pushing the technical envelope to cope with the increase

Organizational maturity will drive the analytics hiring needs

Meet: Nana Somuah the Director for Data Analytics at Cityblock, responsible for Data Strategy and managing a team of data analysts. My main goal within the company is to improve our member health outcomes by utilizing the power of Data and Analytics.

If you have any questions for Nana, please feel free to reach out via:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nana-somuah-73a34417/

I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn:

Deeper partnership between platform and security engineering teams

Security by design

Focusing on a handful of problems that really matter

Meet: Aidan Anderson is a Security Engineering Manager at FloQast, where he is focused on building a best-in-class security program that delivers resilience, confidence, and trust in the solution.  Aidan has had the privilege of helping scale technology, people, and processes at FloQast, helping grow the organization from a seed round startup to a Series C company.  Aidan has a passion for lean product development, risk management, and security through automation and software development practices and has over 14 years of experience in Information Technology.

If you have any questions for Aidan, please feel free to reach out via:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/aidan-anderson-06b4b17b/

I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn:

Delivering analytics in a hypergrowth industry

Simplifying and pinpointing the direct analytic needs

Meet: Martin Corso is the Director of Measurement and Analytics for Surfside, a data-driven customer acquisition platform that specializes in activating and expanding 1st party data for marketing, insights, and measurement. Martin has diverse experience utilizing digital and offline datasets to build SaaS/DaaS products for hyper-growth tech startups.

If you have any questions for Martin, please feel free to reach out via:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/martinjcorso/

I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn:

Team health as a good barometer for team velocity

Tech debt is inevitable; keeping it at a sustainable rate

Balancing team size

Meet: Scott Persinger is the VP Engineering at Tatari. He previously managed alternative payments at Stripe and was Director of Platform Services at Heroku. Scott was a co-founder at Cloudconnect (acquired by Salesforce), and a co-founder at Remixation (acquired by Vevo).

If you have any questions for Scott, please feel free to reach out via:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottpersinger/

https://twitter.com/persingerscott

I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.

What you’ll learn:

Reasons why you should hire a data product manager

Data product manager roadmaps are typically longer

Being data-informed rather than being data-driven

Meet: Murali Bhogavalli has a proven track record of building data products that span the entire spectrum from raw data to self-serve analytics tools. Currently, he is a Group Product Manager at Tinder, leading, directing, and managing data and platform strategy, ensuring data and platform solutions are coordinated, integrated, and perform to the highest standards. Prior to Tinder, Murali worked at two startups building data products and got his roots in data/information management at Deloitte Consulting at the start of his career

If you have any questions for Murali, please feel free to reach out via:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/muralidharbhogavalli/

https://twitter.com/mbhoga

I hope you enjoyed the episode, the best place to connect with me is on Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirbormand (Amir Bormand). Please send me a message if you would like me to cover certain topics with future guests.