Dan Weaver
Senior Consultant
TRADITIONAL BIO
Dan has over a decade of experience running, developing and managing quality assurance processes in the mobile and enterprise software applications space. His specialties include quality assurance test design/strategies, and technical support performance management and implementation.
Prior to joining Thought Ensemble, Dan was a co-founder and the Director of Quality Assurance and Technical Support at 2GO Software Solutions, a mobile software-as-a-service application company. Using his experience in quality assurance, Dan has consulted on several business application development projects, as well as assisted on many IT strategy development projects. Dan has also used his degree in Animation Art and Design to illustrate the problems and benefits of particular business practices, as well as design software UI and strategy materials.
In his spare time Dan enjoys watching movies, taking pictures of trees, and pretending he can fix things around the house.
Adaptability, Empathy, Input, Includer, Connectedness
Introversion, Intuition, Feeling, Perceiving (INFP)
THOUGHTFUL BIO
I’ve always had an interest in optimization and efficiency. Whether it’s creating a QA process that is both quick and effective or finding a better way to organize my desk so that I can get more work done more easily; I am always wondering, “Is there a better way to perform this task that can be done efficiently enough that the effects of the process are worth executing the process?” I’ve seen people spend 30 minutes trying to figure out a trick on their computer that will save them only 30 seconds of work. Now, if they end up going through this process 61 times then it was worth it, but any less than that and it may not have been. Technology is a wonderful thing that has in countless ways improved our lives, but when we lose focus of effectiveness and efficiency we can become burdened by the same technology and software that was meant to help us.
These are some of the big problems you find in many businesses today; processes aren’t effective or efficient and the technology is burdening people. If you don’t solve these problems, you aren’t maximizing your production, and therefore, you aren’t maximizing your profits. This is where I find myself loving IT strategy. To relieve people’s burdens and make the technology work for them, instead of against them, is a passion of mine, and being part of a team like Thought Ensemble only sweetens the deal.
Dan’s favorite work or projects include:
- Simplifying processes to optimize productivity
- Analyzing and perfecting technologies from both user and business perspectives
- Any project that can benefit from an artistic eye
Dan’s Thoughts
You’ll Get the Best Feedback If You Ask for It, Act on It, and Ask Again
Feedback is a critical part of self-improvement, whether it be in your personal, professional, or metaphysical life. It’s one of the key ways we learn and grow. But, it can also be incredibly detrimental if not given or received in the proper manner. This might...
The Six Infinity Stones of Business Transformation
[WARNING: Infinity War spoilers ahead] In the world of Marvel, having all six of the Infinity Stones (or Gems) can enable someone like Thanos to extinguish half of all life in the universe with a snap of his fingers. In the world of business transformation, having all...
It’s Official: You Can No Longer Avoid Digital Transformation
It’s official. You can no longer avoid digital transformation. It’s actually probably been official for some time now, but when two fast food restaurant chains who make their money selling tangible products produced in manufacturing facilities to customers inside of...
The Psychological Pitfalls of Transformational Change
If you want your business to prosper long-term, history (and evolution) have taught us that you must (at critical points in time) transform in order to survive or risk wasting away into the lowly dust that the newer, more adept empires will build themselves upon. In...
PowerPointers Episode 2 – Formatting
Last year, I wrote about why you shouldn't blame PowerPoint for your bad presentations. As part of my continued effort to help you make your presentations better, I've just finished Episode 2 of a ~6ish episode series I created with the intent of helping...
How to Remain Diligent with a Less-Than-Stellar Memory
I have never had a great memory. That is, except for a few random and pointless things that I can recall with great clarity for no particular reason. For example, I clearly remember when I was 12 my sister’s boyfriend telling me that smart people pressed “9-0” on the...
PowerPointers Episode 1 – Making Selections
Back in May I wrote about why you shouldn't blame PowerPoint for your bad presentations, so, in an effort to help you make your presentations better, I'm releasing Episode 1 of a ~6ish episode series I created with the intent of helping you unleash the power of...
Consulting Myths
“Oh, so you’re like the Bobs?” This is typically the first thing you hear from someone once you’ve told them you’re a consultant. Because even 18 years after “Office Space” debuted, that’s still the most culturally relevant image people have of consultants. And it’s a...
Stop Blaming PowerPoint for Your Crappy Presentation
People hate PowerPoint. A lot. You even say the word “PowerPoint” to any random group of 10 people and at least 6 of them will get triggered while the other 4 will have an expression like they just drank spoiled milk. But not me, I love PowerPoint. That’s right, I...
Does Technology Reduce Our Social Capital?
Are technology and social media reducing our social capital? Is our way of life in peril as our youth and culture become subservient specters to the soul-destroying harbinger of the social and biological apocalypse: the smartphone? Short answer: no. First, what is...
The Socioeconomic Implications of Artificial Intelligence and Other Advanced Technologies
As we continue to make advances in technology, we also continue to make shifts in the job market. A new advancement smolders an old product or process, and a new product or process rises like a phoenix from the ashes. So, when the Model T replaced horses as our...
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Hours
The demands of running any organization are undeniably arduous and at times seemingly (or actually) insurmountable. Even if you are taking consistent steps forward, the ground beneath your feet is ever pushing you back. Your task list is not unlike Greek...
Increased consumption = increased sales…. obviously
My brother-in-law called me the other day to tell me about a business principle called the "McIlhenny Principle". The story behind the principle is that someone in the Tabasco company made a deal/bet with one of the executives that if they could increase sales of...
How to prevent “Apple Picking”
Last month I wrote a blog titled, The Dumb Thing about Smartphones. The conclusion of the blog was that smartphones are great, but that they are also fragile and easy to steal. I wrote the blog after reading an article describing a rise in the occurrence...
A Game of Phones
As kids we all played the game of telephone. Whether it was because we lived in a day where we didn’t have actual cell phones and angry birds in our pockets, or that there had not yet been an injunction on the production of lead based toys, which caused us to believe...
The Dumb Thing about Smartphones
I love my iPhone. I love having just about everything I need at my fingertips (even if I only use about 10% of it 90% of the time). Thanks to some innovative programmers your phone is also a car key, a credit card, a music player, a map, a gaming console,...
We are our own Big Brother
I never read George Orwell’s novel “1984” and I’ve certainly never seen an episode of CBS’s “Big Brother”, but I do understand the Big Brother concept: a society under complete surveillance and control by their government. Since the writing of Orwell’s book any act,...
Moore’s Law and the Law of More
Moore's Law states that the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit (and thus processing power) will double every two years. In parallel with this is what I like to call the "Law of More", which states that the amount of patience we have as...
If Joshua Bell played the violin in a subway station and people were around to hear it would anybody listen?
Likely we have all read some version of the story of famed award-winning violinist Joshua Bell playing his instrument incognito in a Subway station. If you haven't, you can read a version of it here: http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/bell.asp The idea was to put an...
4 Keys to Successful Networking
I've never been great at networking. I understood the importance of it and often found it quite fun, but just never actively did it. More recently I've started to really push myself into the networking world and here are 4 things I've found to be of great...
Present Telepresence Robots Present
I do a lot of telecommuting for work, as many people do these days, and therefore am intrigued by any potential changes or advances in technology geared toward this type of thing. So, when I read a recent article on informationweek.com comparing telepresence robots, I...