Alan McGinnis

The pattern was always the same: clients would install this digital experience platform and then struggle to get their teams using it effectively. Developers needed help with technical implementation, marketing teams couldn't find the data they needed, and executives weren't seeing the ROI they expected. I spent time with each group, translating between technical requirements and business needs, and helping them build workflows that actually worked for their team.

New clients would sign up for the platform but then get stuck on implementation. My job was figuring out what they were trying to accomplish, what their team could realistically handle, and building a roadmap that got them to early wins quickly. I'd write documentation that their marketing and business teams could actually understand, and create guides that didn't require a developer in every conversation.

We were running client projects on homegrown deployment systems that worked most of the time, but when they broke, it meant hours of downtime and frustrated clients. I needed to migrate us to more reliable infrastructure while keeping current projects on track and staying involved in client communication about technical decisions. I hired three developers and gradually moved our workflow to standardized deployment processes.

My role was building modern web applications that worked well across all devices and browsers, but I also spent time helping junior developers learn what actually worked and writing technical specifications for potential client projects. The challenge was balancing hands-on development work with mentorship and business development support.