Erik Schmidt Email & Phone Number

Santa Cruz, California, United States

London, England, Gb

Monks is a global digital marketing and technology consultancy that acquired TheoremOne in 2022.Leading two teams in implementation of a mission-critical internal Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) initiative that encompasses discovery, product, business process, and change management across multiple geographic regions and entities. This involves close collaboration with corporate finance leadership and regional finance teams, as well as coordination with other internal technology teams and multiple vendors. Worked with one of the largest title insurance companies in America to vet and hone their concept for a game-changing new team structure and workflow process. Under a tight timeline, our team took their initial idea, conducted rapid discovery, and framed a solution that paired custom software with new ways of managing people and information.Stood up a team of developers, designers, and agile coaches to turn that concept into a production-ready system in record time. Provided strategic goals, conveyed business constraints, and managed business development and contract negotiation as the project progressed. This required a a balance of providing expert guidance and building fruitful relationships with a range of stakeholders, while staying laser-focused on underlying business needs. Key stakeholders expressed their astonishment that the team was able to deliver such high-quality results in such a short time frame. Several members of this innovation team went on to design and engineering leadership positions in Monks.

Woodland Hills, Ca, Us

TheoremOne was a virtual-first, global software development consultancy, which was acquired by Monks in 2022.Led two separate lean product discovery projects for a Fortune 500 title insurance and escrow services company. This entailed quickly gathering context about the market in which the client operated, the competitive landscape, and the core needs motivating the client. From there research findings were distilled, storytelling and visual design were used to translate findings into a tangible high-level plan for consumption by key stakeholders, and business development was given everything they needed to create follow-on development contracts.The first project led to a full-scale public API development project that was successfully implemented by another TheoremOne team. The second project led to the innovation project noted above.

Woodland Hills, Ca, Us

Managed a team of developers and designers that developed custom retail experience software used globally by one of the world's largest technology companies. Our product was one of several that worked in concert, and close coordination was required across hardware, software, and operations teams. Tight collaboration with client stakeholders was also required to solidify business goals, establish technical and user experience trade-offs, prioritize functionality, manage on-site discovery and testing, and coordinate releases.During this period the team completely overhauled the original product and rolled it out to production, and much of this occurred during the darkest days of the pandemic. This team did exemplary work on a very high-profile engagement for one of Theorem's biggest clients, and multiple developers and designers from the team moved to leadership positions in the course of and after this project.

Recruited by an IoT startup in the home water space, originally to manage software implementation. Was given the hardware lead role after planned staffing fell through. With no prior experience in prototyping and manufacturing hardware, the learning curve was steep. The Buoy device monitored home water usage and provided home owners insights into how they were wasting water. It also alerted users to leaks and provided a remote water shutoff capability to radically reduce the damage from water-related problems. Managed bill of materials, prototype sourcing and quality control, documentation and coordination with legal for trademark and patents applications, contractor relationships. Shipped product ahead of two key competitors, providing first-to-market market advantage that ultimately led to the company being acquired.

Encino, California, Us

Citrusbyte was a remote-first software consultancy focused on creating custom solutions for Fortune 500 clients.Managed development of a communications application used by the project management organization (PMO) of one of the world’s largest technology companies. Led user experience development and managed the implementation team. This project was challenging in that we took over from another vendor and had to make modifications to make the production system usable, even as we were building a completely new replacement system from scratch. The new system was lauded by users as a major improvement over its predecessor in UX and reliability.Led discovery, UX development and prototyping for Cast & Crew, the dominant payroll technology company for the entertainment industry. They needed to build a mobile application to bring the industry into the 21st Century, and after this initial discovery project, Citrusbyte was contracted to build out what came to be known as Start+.

Subtraction was a three-person strategic consultancy I formed with a developer and a designer. We delivered a prototyped product strategy to ITHAKA, the organization behind the enormous JSTOR online knowledge repository, so it could improve its mobile experience and provide greater value to end users.

Narrative Technologies was a small startup formed with the goal of revolutionizing ebooks. As the leader of the product team, I took an original idea for creating nonlinear narratives, and took it into production as Lithomobilus—an ecosystem consisting of a content writing and editing app, a mobile reader app, and a system for managing in-app purchases. The web-based multi-user authoring and publishing tool that allowed for the nonlinear linking of story elements that could be read in the iOS app. When reading the Lithomobilus version of Alice in Wonderland, a reader could instantly switch between Alice's perspective in a scene, and the Cheshire Cat's, for example. The system also provided the ability for authors to create in-app purchases. So again the case of Alice and Wonderland, that night take the form of the Mad Hatter's perspective, or authors notes.While Lithomobilus didn't take off in the market, it provided a fusion of easy multi-user content production, an elegant user experience for interwoven narratives, and a unique revenue model for authors.

Santa Cruz, California, Us

Cofounded a custom software development consultancy that worked with startups and Fortune 500 clients. Managed a variety of product projects, delivered marketing support for clients, and consulted with the CEO on client management. Delivered API integration projects for Alcatel-Lucent and AT&T. Managed the process of converting a proprietary API platform into apiGrove, an Apache-licensed project.

Expanded the reach of Yahoo Developer Network by facilitating platform integrations with OMGPop, Zynga, and OAuth providersCoordinated with other Yahoo teams to align use of YDN capabilities in a variety of internal services

Produced FastPencil Marketplace, a publishing services marketplace that increased revenue opportunities for the company

Santa Cruz, California, Us

Cofounded a software development company focused on custom web application development for clients ranging from startups to Global 500 companies

Advised clients on web strategy and managed web development projects

Led the successful implementation of web products for a variety of clients, including Agitar, Audible Magic, Encentuate, and others

Built and nurtured a development team and managed all website and web application projects for clients including ActivCard, Cisco Systems, DuPont Pharma, Meridian Data, Quantum, and others

Washington, Dc, Us

Grew the CNCS website from 20 pages to over 1,200 and increased pageviews from 20k to 1M/month

Designed public web presence, provided technical support, and advised on web technology for projects at the DARPA Information Systems Office

Arlington, Va, Us

Coordinated membership activities for a 15,000-member nationwide organization

Coordinated fundraising, tutoring, mentoring, and governance for over 200 staff and volunteer participants

Arlington, Virginia, Us

Rifle Company Executive Officer: Managed logistics and acted as second in command of a 120-soldier organization while deployed to Somalia's Lower Jubba Valley for Operation Restore HopeRifle Platoon Leader: Training deployments to REFORGER, the Jungle Operations Training Center, the National Training Center, and other locations

J.D., Law

Ba, International Relations