Nate Koechley’s Resume

Objective

Contribute technical and organizational insight and leadership to passionate and high-performance teams of designers, engineers, and product strategists for consumer facing web technology projects.

Summary

Web professional with deep frontend engineering expertise and a global perspective skilled in user experience design and product strategy. Successful team leader, manager, and executive. Sought after speaker, writer, and trainer.

Specialties

HTML, CSS, JavaScript, (including YUI and jQuery), DOM, interaction design, performance optimization, accessibility, internationalization, user-centered design, design management, pattern and library creation, and technical communications and training.

Experience

1. Freelance

   November 2009 — present

   1. Mobile and JavaScript Developer A stealth startup

      • Worked with co-founding designer and engineer to create the alpha version of a consumer web site using HTML5, CSS3, YUI3, jQuery and Mustache in three months
      • Helped build the associated HTML5/CSS3 mobile web app for iOS and Android

   2. Invited Presenter, "Taxonomy of Touch" YUI Conference 2010

      • Provided technology and design guidance on leveraging the emergence of touch and gestures across iOS devices, Android, webOS and WP7 platforms
      • Demonstrated coding techniques for engineering a unified code that can serve multiple I/O models (touch vs. mouse)
      • Reported on touch and gesture event models being standardized by the W3C’s Web Events working group

   3. Business Analyst Consultant Fortune 500 Company

      • Helped the global web team create a prioritized roadmap for the upcoming eight quarters
      • Led cross-disciplinary workshops for project scoping and resourcing
      • Developed strategic language for mapping corporate priorities to implementation plans
      • Provided strategic insight to roll out a new design across global regions on disparate infrastructure

   4. Frontend Engineer Yahoo! Inc.

      • Helped the team integrate their product into native and toolbar environments
      • Bug fixing and coordination
      • Development of mobile instance of widget

2. Outspark, Inc.

   April 2009 — November 2009 (8 months)

   1. VP, Interactive Services

      • Directed interaction designers, visual and production designers, and web developers across San Francisco and Seoul, Korea offices
      • Increased New User conversion rates by 75%
      • Integrated design process into Agile-based development methodology while balancing multiple large-scale product development cycles with concurrent daily production demands
      • Developed corporate strategies with executive team
      • Coordinated third-party implementations with Meebo, multiple payment gateways, and CDNs

3. Yahoo!, Inc.

   November 2001 — March 2009 (7 years, 5 months)

   1. Technical Evangelist, YUI Library Platform Engineering & Yahoo! Developer Network

      February 2006 — March 2009 (3 years 1 month)

      • Traveled the globe meeting with engineers, designers, and product people; presented and taught at more than 40 design and development events
      • Trained employees on "Professional Frontend Engineering," "High Performance Web Sites," "The YUI CSS Foundation" and more
      • Edited and developed YUI Blog and managed social media strategy
      • Provided cross-company technical leadership, guidance and internal and external consulting
      • Helped organize, lead, and judge Yahoo! Hack Days in California and London
      • Planned and hosted YUI developer meet-ups and events

   2. Senior Frontend Engineer, YUI Library Platform Engineering Group

      July 2005 — March 2009 (3 years, 8 months)

      • Helped design, build, deploy, promote, and support the creation and ongoing development of the widely-respected and adopted Yahoo! User Interface (YUI) Library
      • Coordinated development of the related Yahoo! Design Patterns Library
      • Created and promoted the widely-cited Graded Browser Support methodology and published publicly-available quarterly updates
      • Bridged Design and Engineering constituencies across the company
      • Facilitated usability research of interface controls and design patterns
      • Organized Yahoo! Accessibility strategy

   3. Sabbatical Backpacking across Asia

      May 2005 — July 2005 (3 months)

      • China, Central Asia, the Himalayas, India, Japan, and Thailand

   4. Senior Web Developer Design Technologist, Platform Design Group

      April 2004 — April 2005 (1 year)

      • Codified and developed centralized libraries of modular design patterns and code
      • Researched and developed core typography and grid-based design standards and templates deployed globally
      • Led multiple extended sessions at Yahoo! Global Design events in London and Hong Kong
      • Embedded with external design agencies for long-range design exploration projects

   5. Web Development Manager Search & Marketplace Division, User Experience & Design Group

      September 2002 — April 2004 (1 years, 7 months)

      • Hired and helped grow the Web Development group from 3 to 60 members
      • Developed and coordinated training programs for Yahoo! staff across Asia, Europe, and Latin America
      • Provided frontend guidance for key redesign of Yahoo! Search and Yahoo! Maps
      • Provided Design Management support across Yahoo! Search, Local, Maps, Autos, Shopping, Travel, Real Estate, Auctions, Classifieds, and related properties

   6. Web Developer Commerce Division, User Experience & Design Group

      November 2001 — August 2002 (10 months)

      • One of the first web developers hired at Yahoo!
      • Pioneered and drove adoption of Web Standards across the global company
      • Authored Yahoo!’s first CSS code base
      • Contributed ti Yahoo!’s Homepage, Shopping, Travel, Autos, Real Estate, Auctions, Classifieds, and related properties
      • Invited stakeholder for key Yahoo! Mail projects
      • Received a patent for early work improving typography across web browsers

Additional Activities

• Recent book contributions include "High Performance Web Sites" (O’Reilly, 2008), "Modular Web Design" (New Riders Press, 2009), and "Developing Large Web Applications" (O’Reilly, 2010), and "Microformats" (friends of ED, 2007).
• Consulted for a wide range of companies including the New York Times Digital, Netflix, PayPal, eBay, TiVo, Walmart, Ticketmaster/Live Nation, Oracle, Adobe, and Microsoft.
• Presented about the intersection of design and technology at National Taiwan University (Taiwan), South by Southwest (Austin), @Media (London), Ajax Experience (Boston), IceWeb (Iceland), Kings of Code (Amsterdam), Web Visions (Portland), Web Design World (Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco), CSUN (Los Angeles), and dozens more.
• Consulted with Microsoft’s IE team during the development of IE7 and IE8.
• Delivered bespoke training sessions for Microsoft (MIX), Adobe (MAX), and Yahoo!.
• First US Patent granted in late 2009.

Education

• University of Wisconsin, Madison
  1995—1998

Contact

• Phone: (415) 935-0877
• Email: nate at koechley dot com