Eric A. Shank

(541) 399-2527, White Salmon, WA

OBJECTIVE

Senior leadership position in rapidly growing business with dynamic products, projects and teams. Drive best practices in Product Management and Product Development with focus on customer end user experience. Leverage experience creating over 50 shipped products and driving rapid revenue growth, building new business.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

{CURRENT EMPLOYER} April 2004 - Present, Bingen, WA. Product Manager
Responsible for all products and product development projects.  Supported by a 100 person engineering organization. Helped grow company from no products to a $400M buyout. Defined high technology aerial robotics products. Guided cross-disciplinary product development programs and projects to successful product launches and sustainment. Helped define AS9100 (ISO 9000) processes. Oversight of over 100 projects.

USER EXPERIENCE CONSULTANT Mar 2003 - April 2004, Sebastopol, CA
Strategic and tactical services in product management, design and development. Clients in e-commerce, aerospace, staffing, travel & medical informatics industries. Designed information architecture for retail micro-site and complex multi-brand global staffing organization.

AGILENT TECHNOLOGIES, January 2001- March 2003, Santa Rosa, CA
Human-Factors Engineer/Scientist (Systems Engineering Lead)

Facilitated multi-disciplinary teams of 4-12 people in user-centered product definition and design. Set group directions and process. Designed and implemented usability programs. Designed and maintained storyboards and prototypes.

Led systems engineering teams in requirements gathering and design for two major new product platforms

Recognized. by management for superior mentoring of junior staff

YELLOWGIANT CORPORATION, April 2000- October 2000, Oakland, CA Director of User Experience

Primary architect of user experience for web and wireless directory products and business-services applications. Defined product integrating end user goals and tasks with market opportunities and revenue models for this pre-venture startup.

AUSTIN-HAYNE / SUCCESSFACTORS.COM, May 1999-March 2000, San Mateo CA
Senior Product Manager & User Experience Architect

Responsible for "holding the vision" and defining requirements for SuccessFactors.com product suite. Bridged gap between engineering and marketing by introducing user-centered requirements gathering. Instrumental in the successful merger of the two companies by devising method to identify product line synergies

THE DIALOG CORPORATION, August 1998-May 1999 Product Architect & Sr. User Interface Designer

Research and development in library science and desktop news product user interfaces. Tactical leadership, web-based application architecture, interaction and graphic design, executive consulting, usability program development and requirements generation for new products. Redesigned web directory product resulting in 100% increase in product revenues in first quarter of release

STUDIO ARCHETYPE (formerly Clement Mok Designs, now Sapient) August 1996 - August 1998, San Francisco CA

User Experience Architect & Usability Engineer
Architect and design team leader in user research, interaction design and user experience. Designed and moderated usability test programs.

Architect for award winning E*TRADE.com and Nagano Olympics Official websites

Pioneered use of contextual inquiry, usability testing and user-interface prototyping in the company

Designed concept for Nintendo.com and innovative search engine for IBM.com

Director, User Research (Acting)
Founded the User-Centered Design program at Studio Archetype. Obtained funding from clients, created and staffed a new department within the studio. Developed strategic directions and research and design process. Successfully pitched usability investment to 3COM, UPS, E*TRADE and Compaq.

UCLA @ NASA DRYDEN FLIGHT RESEARCH CENTER Research Associate, 1994- 1995. Edwards AFB, CA

UCLA ANDERSON GRADUATE SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT Research Associate, 1992- 1993. Los Angeles, CA

EDUCATION

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES 1990-1996 Los Angeles, CA

M.S. and Ph.D. all-but-dissertation in Computer Science: Scientific Computing. Minor fields in Human-Computer Interaction and Database Management Systems

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Cambridge, MA

B.S. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering

HONORS AND BACKGROUND

• Key contributor to current employer’s rapid growth with numerous awards. Company ranked in fastest growing companies in North America by Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 and Inc Magazine
• US Patent 07061222 for test and measurement equipment user interfaces (Agilent)
• E*TRADE design (1998-99 website) awarded highest industry ratings and interactive awards
• Nagano Olympics Official Website design selected for Silver Medal in design awards
• Educational Counselor, MIT Admissions, since 2002
• Finalist, MIT $10,000 Entrepreneurship Contest, 1990
• Athletics: NCAA All-American, 35 lb. Weight Throw 1990
• United States Citizen