(541) 386-3296, Hood River, OR
eric@eshank.com  

Summary

Proven leadership in driving best practices in Product Management, Product Development and Systems Engineering for new and growing companies. Facilitative and user-centered approach to creating innovative, insightful and high quality products. Over 35 shipped products.  Award-winning designer and patented inventor.

Professional Experience

PROFESSIONAL CONSULTANT

Product Development Consultant, Self Employed
Strategic and tactical services in product management, design and development.  Clients in e-commerce, aerospace, staffing, travel & medical informatics industries.

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 in Visual Basic, Macromedia Director and Visio.

• Led systems engineering teams in requirements gathering and design for two major new product platforms 
• Instigated & managed cross-project coordination of human-factors efforts
• Cited by management for superior mentoring of junior staff
• Primary inventor of highly successful patented Frequency Converter Application user interface

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.

• Refined product concept with rapid assimilation of domain knowledge & agile prototyping techniques
• Information architect for complex multivariate information model

AUSTIN-HAYNE / SUCCESSFACTORS.COM, May 1999-March 2000, San Mateo CA

Senior Product Manager
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

User Experience Architect
Researched user needs, modeled user workflow and created new product concepts and prototypes to expand the company's product offering. Generated product requirements in close partnership with marketing, led strategic planning for new products with the executive team.

• Generated potential new revenue streams with new product concepts; storyboarded and prototyped

THE DIALOG CORPORATION, August 1998-May 1999, Mountain View CA

Product Architect & Senior 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.

• Generated product concepts for strategic repositioning of company and brand
• Core member of Senior VP's strategic "turn-around" team
• 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.  Demonstrated value to executive team, obtained funding from clients, created and staffed a new department within the studio.  Developed strategic directions and research and design process.

• Established user research and usability testing as core disciplines and organizational competencies for the company
• Successfully pitched usability investment to 3COM, UPS, E*TRADE and Compaq
• Designed, assembled and deployed portable usability laboratory

NASA DRYDEN FLIGHT RESEARCH CENTER and UCLA 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 Los Angeles, CA

M.S. in Computer Science
Ph.D. all-but-dissertation, 6 years research experience

Scientific Computing (major field)
Human-Computer Interaction (minor field)
Database Management Systems (minor field)


MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Cambridge, MA

B.S. in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering

Additional Education

In-depth Trainings	Specialized Workshops & Seminars
Contextual Design, InContext Enterprises 1997 User Centered Interface Design, S. Joy Mountford, Apple/UCLA Extension Advanced Cockpit Displays and Controls Multimedia and Multimodal Interface Design Cognitive Task Analysis Teacher training for primary mathematics by Marilyn Burns, 1992	Human Computer Interaction in Complex Systems Implementation of Immersive Virtual Environments Business Visualization Graphics International Conference on Auditory Displays Virtual Interface Technology Generation of 3D Data for Computer Image Synthesis Generative Computer-Based Training	Java-Based User Interface Development Understanding Customers Requirements, Contextual Inquiry & Design Documenting User Interfaces Conceptual Design Visual Design for the Internet User Interface Design for the World Wide Web Strategic Usability Social and Natural Interfaces
Technical skills: HTML, Visual Basic, Visio, Powerpoint, Macromedia Director, Lingo, Javascript, Java script, XML, MS Office: Word, Powerpoint, Excel, Project, Access, Hypercard, Camtasia, Acrobat, Adobe Photoshop, Flash, Netmeeting, Webex, FrontPage, Premiere

Honors and Background

• US Patent 07061222 for test and measurement equipment user interfaces (Agilent)
• E*TRADE design (1998-99 website) selected for highest honors in several industry ratings and interactive awards
• Nagano Olympics Official Website design selected for Silver Medal in design awards
• UCLA Chancellor's task force for New Technologies in Science, 1994
• Educational Counselor, MIT Admissions, since 2002
• Finalist, MIT $10,000 Entrepreneurship Contest, 1990
• Athletics: NCAA All-American, Bronze Medal Division III National Championships 35 lb. Weight Throw 1990
• Music: UCLA Chamber Singers, MIT Symphony Orchestra, Fanfare Trumpeter for 1984 Olympic Games
• United States Citizen