So What Do You Do? Here's My Real Answer
What Do You Actually Do?
It's a question I've been asked countless times at parties, networking events, and even by family members who nod politely while clearly having no idea what I'm talking about. For years, I'd fumble through some variation of my job title or rattle off a list of technologies I work with, watching eyes glaze over in real-time.
But recently, after fifteen years in tech, something clicked. The answer was there all along, hiding in plain sight across every role, every team, every project I've touched.
I enable productivity.
That's it. That's what I do.
The Pattern I Didn't See
Looking back, I can see it everywhere. At Stupid Cancer, I wasn't just managing systems—I was making it possible for a small team to punch way above their weight class. In commercial real estate tech, I wasn't just implementing solutions—I was translating complex systems into tools people could actually use. In every role, the through-line was the same: take something complicated and make it work for real people doing real work.
It turns out my strongest value add isn't any single technical skill. It's technological intuition—that ability to look at a complex system and understand not just how it works, but how to make it work for people. To see the gap between what technology can do and what end users need it to do, and then bridge that gap.
I've always been the person teams come to when something isn't clicking. When a new tool isn't being adopted. When processes feel harder than they should be. When there's a sense that "there has to be a better way to do this."
The AI Moment
Which brings me to where we are right now.
We're standing at the edge of the biggest productivity shift in a generation. AI isn't coming—it's here. But here's what I'm seeing: most teams are either paralyzed by uncertainty or rushing in without the right safeguards. They're stuck between "we need to do something with AI" and "we have no idea where to start" or worse, "we can't risk the security implications."
And this is exactly where fifteen years of making complex systems accessible becomes incredibly relevant.
I know how to help teams adopt transformative technology in a smart, secure way. I understand both the possibilities and the pitfalls. I can translate between the technical and the practical. I can help teams move from anxiety to execution, from complexity to clarity.
This is the next chapter of what I've been doing all along—just with stakes that are higher and possibilities that are bigger than ever before.
What This Actually Looks Like
In practice, this means I'm the person who:
Sees the bottleneck in a workflow that everyone else has accepted as "just how it is"
Knows when to implement a sophisticated solution and when a simple one will do
Can explain technical decisions in ways that make sense to non-technical stakeholders
Understands that the best technology is the one people will actually use
Stays ahead of what's coming so teams don't fall behind what's already here
It means I'm not just building or implementing—I'm enabling. Every past and present team I've been part of has been more productive because I was there. Not because I'm the smartest person in the room, but because I have this particular intuition for making technology serve people instead of the other way around.
Why This Work Matters to Me
Here's what makes this deeply satisfying: I've done this across wildly different sectors—nonprofit cancer advocacy, commercial real estate, e-commerce, startups—and the mission never mattered less because of it. In fact, it mattered more.
When I was at Stupid Cancer, making systems more efficient meant our small team could reach more young adults facing cancer. In commercial real estate, simplifying complex workflows meant professionals could focus on serving their clients instead of fighting their tools. Every time I've made technology more accessible, I've amplified someone's ability to do meaningful work.
That's what drives me. Not the technology itself, but what it enables people to accomplish.
Whether it's mission-driven work saving lives or mission-critical work driving business results, the satisfaction comes from the same place: watching teams go from frustrated to empowered, from bottlenecked to flowing, from "we can't" to "we did."
After fifteen years, I've realized this skill set—the combination of deep technical understanding, people-focused thinking, and the intuition to bridge the two—is exactly what organizations need but rarely find. And I'm lucky enough to find fulfillment in work that spans any industry, any mission, any team that needs to do more with what they have.
The Next Chapter
So when someone asks me what I do now, I have clarity: I enable productivity through technological intuition and by making complex systems accessible to the people who need to use them.
We're living through one of the most exciting moments in the history of work. AI is rewriting the rules of what's possible, and watching teams figure out how to harness that potential—thoughtfully, securely, effectively—is genuinely thrilling. The barriers that have slowed us down for years are starting to come down, and the possibilities for what teams can accomplish are expanding faster than ever.
After fifteen years of doing this work in different forms, I'm more energized than ever about what comes next. Not just for me, but for everyone who's willing to embrace the change and do the work to get it right.
