“Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought.” - Henri Bergson
About Real-Productivity
This blog is ultimately about being an effective technology leader. I have found that start-up environments force a distillation of process and technology to its simplest, purest form because neither time nor money is on your side. I’m also a productivity fanatic which has helped along the way so I’ll share what’s worked and what hasn’t since it’s easy to be “too organized” and less agile.
Topics I tend to cover span building unstoppable teams, development methodologies that work, leveraging analytics to maintain control, product, project and program management wisdom and finally personal productivity concepts such as GTD (Getting Things Done), mind mapping and the Pareto principle. I’ll also throw in tidbits I find that work regarding technology, managing expectations, fund raising, SEO, website operations, conversion (lead, shopping cart, etc.) and any trends I’m following.
Hope you find something helpful but if not… feel free to ask. At the end of the day, it’s about delivery.
About Alex Lange
A seasoned IT executive with a blend of technical expertise and business acumen. Background includes over 23 years of technology innovation. Particular expertise in building high-velocity, multi-disciplinary teams (Java, Microsoft, LAMP, Ruby) that thrive in pressured environments with aggressive time lines. Specializing in product development and operations in start-up environments with a vast arsenal of development, traffic acquisition, conversion and most importantly… leadership capabilities. Highlights includes:
- High Transaction / Availability – CTO during AllPoster/Art.com’s expansion from a single location, 40M dollar business to a multinational 120M company in three years. 2005/2006 measurements include: 6 locations worldwide, 400,000 products across 3 brands, sites serving 750M page-views per month, over 50,000 registered affiliates, 4M e-mail advertisements per month, 1.2M new customers in 2005 (4M since inception) and over 40,000 shipments per day during peak season.
- Strong Execution – Co-founded and launched Roost.com from inception to public launch in six months and winning the 2008 Inman “Most Innovative New Technology” award. Spearheaded the integration of two 50M companies (all systems, IT staff and processes) within 100 days after the AllPosters.com / Art.com merger.
- Leadership – Successfully built many IT organizations from high-velocity SWAT teams to larger departments with 50 internal and 20 offshore personnel. Average less than 2% turnover the last 4 years and at Art.com, had the highest employee satisfaction rating in the company.
- International – Strategic and technical contributor to Art.com’s international expansion including the acquisition of Poster.de, expansion of customer service into the EU and India, translation of the sites and products into five additional languages (FR,DE,ES,IT,JP) and fulfillment facility in Holland.
- Strategy and Business Alignment – Implemented new process to measure availability and overall system performance that immediately translates to top/bottom-line results. Designed and implemented enhanced forms of Agile methodologies (DSDM and SCRUM). Chaired committee to evaluate business prioritization and auditing of post deployment results (both business and technical objectives).
- Venture Fund Raising – Rose 12.5M for Roost.com and assisted in raising an additional 3.5M for companies where I’ve held advisory positions.
Start-up CTO (Technology Juggernaut, Product Visionary, SEO Expert and Venture Hunter) on LinkedIn.
