Being a consultant meant I continually had to explain what I do and why my client should spend money on my skills.
It’s a tough thing to do. My work rarely fits into the buzzword labels used as shortcuts for invoice line-items. Because of that, most of my work spawned from word-of-mouth or clients leaving one organisation, starting at another and hiring our firm again.
Over the years I tried to make my work a lot more visible to give people a better understanding of what I do. That also helps me articulate it and make its benefits more recognisable to my clients.
To improve my LinkedIn profile and be ready for new opportunities, I had to think about why clients sometimes fought to keep me on their projects. It helps that I maintained a record of client feedback that I could draw on. I combined that with the language I developed over time (and continue to develop).
This is what I came up with for my LinkedIn ‘About’ section. Any feedback you could provide me would help a lot.
I am a design engineer with a diverse background: biomedical science, journalism and broadcasting, digital product design and development. My work focuses on how digital products impact the world; from the way they are constructed to the way they are used. Good products, built smartly can improve lives as well as profit margins.
Over the last few years I was in-demand as a product methodologies coach for delivery teams, their POs and stakeholders to ASX100 companies and some of Australia’s largest technology providers. I establish attitude changes through deliberate practice, resulting in teams achieving better results without requiring more investment.
As a vocal advocate for accessibility (a11y) practices in digital products, I consulted to teams from Wuhan to Recife. I helped them establish practices to build in accessibility from day one and how to educate colleagues and stakeholders about the benefits.