Word Nerd. Wordsmith. I love the written word. And it doesn’t matter where those words are written–in video scripts, on websites, in mobile apps, in PowerPoint decks or direct mailers…You get the picture!

It’s cliché but true, words have the power to change minds, capture imaginations, win hearts, seal deals, unlock understanding, start revolutions, and unite nations. What’s not to love?

The work shared here is a small sample of the business writing that I’ve produced while I was an entrepreneur leading a design firm, as creative director and copywriter at ad agencies, and in multiple executive role throughout a career spanning more than 20 years.

Over the years, I’ve written statements of work, business contracts, partnership agreements, memoranda of understanding, user stories, app instructions, books, and more.

If you’re ever at a loss for words, call me.

TECHNICAL WRITING

Technical writing is descriptive writing that attempts to simplify complex subjects like the use of technology or production processes, usually via policies, manuals, online and offline instructional guides.

The Work

Employee Handbook. I authored this handbook for a growing nonprofit organization that provided healthcare, social services, and life planning resources for young adults who age out of the foster care and require, like all young people do, the help of supportive adults.

BE-EE-handbook101507

Patient Education Microsite. A leading cryogenics company needed to help prospective clients understand the science behind and the benefits of cord blood stem cells. The microsite was designed as an in-office or post-office visit patient education tool to help expectant parents understand and make decisions about saving their newborn’s cord blood. The site was made available the doctor’s office via tablets or at home via responsive website.

Guided Financial Product Selection. A leading financial services firm wanted to grow the value of its relationships with its clients by helping then to select the appropriate tools for their financial services needs. I designed the tool to make it simple for accounting and finance teams to identify, compare, and select cards and business services. Much of what I designed is there today.

Making Search Advertising Simple for Small Business Owners. I wrote the first 68 emails that went out to the search giant’s 2M small and mid-sized business customers. The goal of the series was to demystify what seemed like a complicated black box of algorithms, unfamiliar metrics, and scary costs so that these important customers could compete and grow while growing my client’s revenue from its flagship product.

Debt Collection Industry Transparency Act. I drafted a bill that I hoped would be adopted as a supplement to the Credit CARD Act of 2009. The CARD Act was incomplete in that it did not fully address the egregious practices of the largely unregulated debt collection companies. Annually, there are 100,000 consumer complaints about threats of violence, racist and lewd comments, false claims, and inappropriate use of data. I sent the bill to senators and representatives who’d sponsored the previous bill but was unsuccessful in securing adoption.

Debt-Collection-Industry-Transparency-Act

Quick-Start Guide for Pilot Participants. I led an engineering team to design and test a corporate wellness app that leveraged APIs from leading fitness tracker companies and custom APIs. The tool was built from scratch and required a simple guide to help users with low-medium tech proficiency use the app for an 8-week pilot.

User Flows for Low-Tech Clients With High Expectations. I was the technology lead during an internal consulting engagement with a Human Resources team that sought to help their employer’s 70,000 employees find “stretch” assignments that helped them grow and be more fulfilled in their careers. These were not the typical user flows or user stories; I intentionally designed them to ensure my clients feel fully empowered and informed as they made design and build decisions so they would be satisfied with their final product.

Stretch-Assignment-flows

501c(3) Bylaws. I founded a nonprofit research and innovation lab to advance the research and inventions of black scientists, post-doc researchers, and entrepreneurs. To found the organization, I drafted all of the required state and federal documentation.

Harvest-Row-Labs-Bylaws-with-dissolution-

Mergers & Acquisitions Learning Module for HR Professionals. I was commissioned by the Society for Human Resources Management to write a learning module about the role of Human Resources professionals in mergers and acquisitions. The module became part of SHRM’s Senior Professional of Human Resources (SPHR) certification.

HRandMA_module_first10

Demo Guide for Senior Executives. The CEO of one of the country’s largest healthcare organizations requested a platform via which he, his 30 directs, and the top 2000 executives across the company could manage his 10-year moonshot initiatives. I identified the platform, built the MVP and most of the initial customizations (with support from Meta’s Workplace product and research teams). I also developed the demo guide that was provided to all executive users, IT, and Compliance.

Workplace_demo_cheatsheet1_redacted