When did you join Forrester?

In November, I started as the newest member of Forrester’s infrastructure and operations (I&O) research team. As a senior analyst at Forrester, I aspire to live by our company values of being bold at work. Throughout my career, I have focused on IT service management (ITSM), research, consulting, and speaking — and I am excited to bring those experiences to Forrester. The I&O team has many talented analysts and researchers, and I am honored to join such an amazing team.

Where did you work prior to Forrester?

I served as an industry expert and public speaker specializing in ITSM and knowledge management. As a practitioner, I worked for various companies including Delta Dental, the National Institutes of Health, and NASA. I am the co-author of the knowledge management practice guidance in ITIL and authored The Help Desk Audit, a governance framework for assessing the maturity of the incident management and service desk practice areas.

I am a military brat — I have lived all over the world and experienced many different cultures and work environments. Those diverse experiences have developed into strengths in my professional career. I am always eager to jump into new challenges and work collaboratively with others to develop working solutions. I am fortunate to have continued my travels by speaking at ITSM events and sharing my knowledge and expertise with others. I feel intense gratitude to be afforded the amazing opportunities I have had in my life and journey.

How did you get involved in ITSM?

I started out as a programmer but quickly realized that spending long times in isolation was not the right career for me. I understood the need to bridge the gap between I&O organizations and the businesses they support and focused my attention on understanding business requirements for IT. Early in my career, this meant writing about technical concepts for the novice, working in service and support, and later, it led me to IT service management.

A focus in ITSM gave me the opportunity to bring my practical and consulting experiences together to help others. As a practitioner in the insurance, healthcare, government, and managed services vertical markets, I know firsthand the struggles that I&O organizations face when dealing with the demands of innovation, agility, and resilience. As a consultant, I have helped I&O organizations understand current challenges, develop practical solutions, improve maturity, and develop a continuous improvement roadmap. Now as an analyst, I want to help I&O organizations continue to navigate the best path forward through research and analysis.

Where will you initially focus your research?

My focus is on effectuating the needs of the business (innovation, agility, adaptability, resilience) through the sustainable use of frameworks, methodologies, and operating models (DevOps, ITSM, KCS™, COBIT). I believe everything we do in I&O should be powered by knowledge and insights and delivered in a continuous improvement model.

The iterative innovation cycle and demands placed upon IT organizations on some days seem impossible. My initial research has focused on knowledge capacity building, helping I&O organizations develop an effective knowledge capacity strategy to drive innovation and improve operational performance. What is knowledge capacity building? Coming soon in my next blog!

I want to focus on research to help IT executives and practitioners answer the tough questions they are facing in real-world situations today while also helping them plan for the future of where they need to be. As a practitioner, I have lived in and faced these challenges. As a consultant, I have helped organizations overcome those challenges. Now, through writing, I hope to add a strong foundation in research to help our clients succeed.

Any interesting hobbies?

On Saturdays, you will catch me either watching football (football is life), streaming British mysteries, or working outside with my many power tools to build something new. I have completed a full-house renovation, one room at a time. For me, it isn’t about the final reveal but all the creativity, planning, and detailed work to get to the final product. The long list of DIY projects never ends, and that is truly my happy place.

Let’s Connect

Have questions? That’s fantastic. Let’s connect and continue the conversation! Please reach out to me through social media or request a guidance session. Follow my blogs and research at Forrester.com.