As an XSL Developer for eBay's Catalogs and Attributes team, I am responsible for implementing the front-end layer of new features, and fixing production bugs as needed.

The projects I have worked on so far include the new Compare Items functionality, a partial UI redesign for Product Based Search, and several custom expansion boxes that appear at the bottom of search results pages with too few items, to allow the user to easily widen their search parameters. All of these features are built in a manner to allow automated translations into every language in which eBay is available. For an example, see Compare Items in French

Between the projects that I am assigned to work on, I am (not-so) secretly plotting to infect the Powers That Be at eBay with my own ideas on how to best leverage the potential of product based selling, address the needs of niche product markets, and provide a much more versatile suite of options for specialty business owners.
 

As a Search Quality Engineer, I assisted in assuring that Google's search results remained crisp and relevant, despite the best efforts of malicious search spammers.
 

As an Application Engineer at Informative, I played a key role in facilitating the daily and long term needs of our clients, producers and engineering department. Some of my responsibilities included:
 

Product Implementation - Built and deployed Dialogue Portals, Dialogue Surveys, and Discussion Portals for such clients as Hewlett-Packard, Proctor & Gamble, Pepsi, Mercedes, and Lego. This included integrating the feedback of producers, clients, and occasionally third party design teams to produce instances of our products that would properly represent each client's customer feedback goals. [HTML/JavaScript/Photoshop/Homesite/Dreamweaver]
 

Product Development - In the process of using our own tools, I was able to identify many aspects of the product that did not yet meet the clients needs, or that created an undue burden on our client services department, suggest solutions on how to correct these issues, and even assist the Engineering team in implementing several of my own suggestions. [JSP/Java]
 

Process Development/Tech Writing - As the company made the transition from a collection of purchased startups to a unified company, I helped to identify the areas where process was needed, analyze these issues, and come up with the tools, processes and documentation required to make the transition from a rag-tag collection of tools to a unified product suite. [PHP/MySQL/Tech Writing]
 

As one of the only web developers in this wireless web company, I was called on to handle most of the company's web-related needs.  Some of the projects I was responsible for were:
 

mobilePlanIt Conference Manager - Acted as a mediator between the Engineering and UI Design teams in creating the XML schemas and application logic to make this conference management tool (and the application-agnostic platform it rests upon) as powerful and efficient as possible, while also creating the XSL style sheets needed to translate that XML data into device-specific applications for various wireless devices. [Java/XML/XSL/Photoshop]
 

OpenGrid Marketplace - Acted as the lead web designer and front-end platform architect for the OpenGrid Marketplace, an application deployment platform that would port common business logic to both wired and wireless devices, and provide a simple administration UI to allow non-technical partners easy access to the system.  Also built in the functionality for the entire system to be automatically re-branded for new partners simply by passing an extra variable in the query string, for additional revenue opportunities. [PHP-variant/Photoshop]
 

Corporate Web Site - Coordinated with the marketing and graphic design departments to produce the opengrid.com web site, including functionality for collecting mailing list information from interested users. [PHP/MySQL/Photoshop]
 

Company Intranet - Created the infrastructure and online publishing strategy for the company's Intranet, including automated online tools for the employee contact list (synced to Palm PDAs), and tracking system for weekly employee progress reports.  As the company outgrew the in-house solution, I also evaluated various content management solutions to find the ideal functionality-to-price balance. [ASP/Access/Tech Writing/Photoshop]
 

Asset tracking System - Created a system for the IT department to keep track of all company assets (computers, software, cell phones, Palm PDAs, etc) that the company owned, who each was currently assigned to, and how many licenses were available for each (in the case of software).  This system was also linked to the employee contact list, to reduce redundant efforts. [ASP/Access]
 

As we made the transition from ambitious startup to industry leading corporation, I wore many hats in my tenure at WebTV Networks.  Some of the responsibilities I had were:
 

Web Development - Designed and built the CS Agents' Intranet tool, which consists of several database driven tools and several hundred pages worth of documentation, meeting the design goal of being able to get from any one document to any other document within three clicks.  Also assisted several other departments in creating and maintaining their inter-departmental web sites. [HTML/JavaScript/Photoshop]
 

Tech Writing - Led a team of three technical writers in developing consistent, reliable documentation of all actions a phone/email agent could need in order to resolve a customer inquiry.
 

Technical Training - Helped to train several waves of new customer service agents on how to use the product, CRM tools, and perform their daily duties, both in live training sessions and through the CS Agents' Intranet tool.
 

Quality Assurance - Participated in quality/functionality testing for several of our computer tools, the CS Agents site, and several features within the WebTV service.
 

Customer Service - Answered customer inquiries both over the phone and through emails, educating non-technical users in how to surf the web.  More than just tech support, this often bordered on teaching, since the product was often the user's first exposure to the internet.