About Me
http://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeswelsh
Summary
Head Shot
Responsibility for product development and release management of the expensewatch.com service. Designed and directed various aspects of the product life-cycle, customer research and usability, market segmentation and analysis, competitive intelligence as well as release management and research and development of new features and product expansion. Lead in efforts to expand and enhance product at all levels including but not limited to the products’ user experience, scalability, marketability and feature completeness.
Developed and implemented design methodology to enable most efficient use of resources.
Completed high-level use cases, facilitated business and functional requirements sessions as well as all aspects of experience design process.
Completed customer focus groups and product reviews with internal and external
clients.
Worked with marketing, development and sales on all areas of product development and support.
Mike Welsh’s Specialties:
Brand Marketing, User Experience, information design and architecture, graphic design, identity, advertising, search engine optimization, search marketing, product development marketing management.
Mike Welsh’s Experience
Sr. Director, Experience StrategyEdit
TrueAction
Public Company; GSIC; Information Technology and Services industry
December 2009 – Present (1 year)
Play an integral role in setting strategic direction for brand communications, developing consumer insights, garnering learnings from our usability lab and working collaboratively with other departments in presenting perspectives and direction to our large roster of clients.
This is the foundation role for the Strategy practice in our organization. The ideal candidate will take all the learning and intelligence harvested by our internal talent and organize, develop and express client and agency principles in our dynamic industry.
Identify and leverage market and customer insights into meaningful brand ideas, commerce insights and insights into off and online behaviors.
Work closely with account management and creative teams to become a valued strategic partner both internally and externally
Create a “workshop” style environment dialogue that inspires creative thinking among diverse groups of people
Lead teams in developing compelling, single-minded strategies and briefs that inspire great creative
Provide an agency perspective on market research planning, execution and translation.
Participate in New Business efforts’conducting market research, writing the creative brief, and presenting key insights to the prospective client.
The right candidate will have the skills and personality to take a leadership role in developing and inspiring brand-building and commerce-building ideas and communication strategies.
Perform detailed evaluation of client business environment including customer needs, capabilities/assets, and competitive realities to identify unique market opportunities and threats
Lead the design of insight driven digital strategies from opportunity identification through to experience definition. Structure and present recommendations to senior client leadership for approval
Ability to thrive in an agency style environment and is willing to betray the norm.
- Public Company; GSIC; Information Technology and Services industry
- December 2009 – Present
- Play an integral role in setting strategic direction for brand communications, developing consumer insights, garnering learnings from our usability lab and working collaboratively with other departments in presenting perspectives and direction to our large roster of clients.
- This is the foundation role for the Strategy practice in our organization. The ideal candidate will take all the learning and intelligence harvested by our internal talent and organize, develop and express client and agency principles in our dynamic industry.
- Identify and leverage market and customer insights into meaningful brand ideas, commerce insights and insights into off and online behaviors.
- Work closely with account management and creative teams to become a valued strategic partner both internally and externally
- Create a “workshop” style environment dialogue that inspires creative thinking among diverse groups of people
- Lead teams in developing compelling, single-minded strategies and briefs that inspire great creative
- Provide an agency perspective on market research planning, execution and translation.
- Participate in New Business efforts’conducting market research, writing the creative brief, and presenting key insights to the prospective client.
- The right candidate will have the skills and personality to take a leadership role in developing and inspiring brand-building and commerce-building ideas and communication strategies.
- Perform detailed evaluation of client business environment including customer needs, capabilities/assets, and competitive realities to identify unique market opportunities and threats
- Lead the design of insight driven digital strategies from opportunity identification through to experience definition. Structure and present recommendations to senior client leadership for approval
- Ability to thrive in an agency style environment and is willing to betray the norm.
Sr. Director, Experience Strategy, TrueAction
-
EVP Product Strategy and Management
expensewatch.com
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Financial Services industry)
July 2006 — Present (3 years 3 months)
Responsibility for product development and release management of the expensewatch.com service. Designed and directed various aspects of the product life-cycle, customer research and usability, market segmentation and analysis, competitive intelligence as well as release management and research and development of new features and product expansion. Lead in efforts to expand and enhance product at all levels including but not limited to the products’ user experience, scalability, marketability and feature completeness.
Developed and implemented design methodology to enable most efficient use of resources.
Completed high-level use cases, facilitated business and functional requirements sessions as well as all aspects of experience design process.
Completed customer focus groups and product reviews with internal and external
clients.Worked with marketing, development and sales on all areas of product development and support.
-
VP Marketing + User Experience
Expensewatch.com
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Information Technology and Services industry)
January 2004 — June 2006 (2 years 6 months)
Responsible for all aspects of brand management, lead generation, search engine optimization, application interfaces, design and development of all external and internal facing materials.
Developed programs and promotions to deliver maximum quality leads for lowest cost.
Utilized design experience and marketing skills to deliver high quality well designed materials to create a balanced set of brand-managed business building solutions and experiences.
Developed Webcast/Podcast strategies to deliver demand with in house production and hosting of all activities.
SEO/SEM Techniques to improve organic results and effectively managed paid campaigns.
Managed trade show attendance and participated in many panels and speaking engagements.
Directed design, writing and PR teams in planning and execution of marketing activities.
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Adjunct Faculty
Katharine Gibbs School
(Information Technology and Services industry)
2003 — 2004 (1 year)
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Sr. Design Manager Institutional Web Services
Vanguard Group
(Privately Held; 10,001 or more employees; Design industry)
January 2001 — January 2004 (3 years 1 month)
Sr. Design Manager,
Managed info designers and info architects as well as writers to complete various large scale web applications for institutional lines of business including; web trading, retirement plan management as well as internal application migration to the web. Both current and future design process development and interdisciplinary team environment. -
Creative Director + User Experience
ActivityOne.com
(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Consumer Services industry)
January 2000 — December 2001 (2 years)
Build The ActivityOne brand. Concept communication strategies and materials for: the web site, venture presentations; consumer product reviews; event marketing and business development.
Product design; UI design; user experience; information architecture; transaction logic and reporting. Assisted in marketing/sales planning efforts. Manage all creative properties including co-branding and marketing research. Implement design of site content. Develop working product within 60 days.
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Art Director
Universal Health Services
(Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; UHS; Hospital & Health Care industry)
1996 — 2000 (4 years)
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Under Grad Design Student
Drexel University
(Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Higher Education industry)
September 1988 — June 1992 (3 years 10 months)
Undergraduate Graphic Design Program.
Mike Welsh’s Education
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Drexel University, BS ‘92
Additional Information
Mike Welsh’s Websites:
Mike Welsh’s Interests:
Juggling Inline Hockey Crayons
Mike Welsh’s Honors:
CoDiE Award Finalist; Expensewatch.com Best Financial Software Solution 2005
SiiA Selected Company to Watch, 2006 Industry Summit.
Kasina’s 2002 Institutional Plan Sponor Best Practices
Kasina’s 2003 Institutional Investors Sites Top 10 for Vanguard.com
Bronze Medal 1995
‘Center Stage’ logo
International Brand
Packaging Awards
(Hanson)
–
Published Work
Engine 46 restaurant identity Restaurant Graphics II
Rockport Publishing, Co.
(Hanson)
Gold Winner 1998
Brochure Series, Auburn Regional Medical Center, Auburn, WA
National Healthcare Marketing Report (UHS)