Jack Skeels Email & Phone Number

Topanga, Ca, Us

Los Angeles, Ca, Us

We've found an answer to one of the most endemic problems in the agency world: how to quiet the craziness of the agency environment and in doing so, restore productivity, profitability...and fun! Our methods help the whole agency quickly learn a new cultural vocabulary, after which they quickly implement changes that enable teams and projects to speed effectively to success.Our methods are based on a proprietary culture-based team-empowerment model that draws techniques from traditional Software Agile (about 30% because Software Agile doesn't work well for agencies), bolstering and integrating them with a wide range of research-based techniques for improved organizational effectiveness and personal growth. All optimized for the special needs of agencies and their brand clients.Personally, this is the most rewarding job that I've ever had (I love agencies and the passionate, dedicated people they contain) and I get great joy from seeing teams and people grow over the course of our 3-4 day workshops.

Santa Monica, Ca, Us

Topanga, Ca, Us

I created Snoot! Nasal Cleanser as a solution to my lifelong chronic sinusitis -- a malady inherited from my mother who spent much of her life with antihistamines in her body and a Kleenex in her hand. A serendipitous spin-off from one of my KnowsJack business strategy projects, Sinox Pharma is partly owned by Frontier Pharmaceuticals, whose technology I leveraged. A side-project in our household for several years, it has recently achieved 6-figure sales numbers, and we're currently investing in product line extensions and a stronger GTM strategy regarding ENT docs and drugstore retail.Snoot! Nasal Cleanser is a highly-effective, drug-free over-the-counter nasal rinse that uses proprietary blend of chlorite salts to help people free themselves of thick or persistent mucus. Much of the misery attributed to chronic sinus conditions is really all about your body's reaction to the buildup of mucus and foreign particles including dust, allergens, mold, microbes, etc. Snoot! does just what it sounds like -- it helps you blast clear this mucus, freeing up your passageways and making life better and simpler.Originally named "Sinox", we offer Snoot! Nasal Cleanser for sale on our website (www.snootspray.com) and also on Amazon (rated 4+stars). We also sell a line of very high-quality nasal pumps under the same brand, and are in the top 100 sinus care products on Amazon. We have many happy customers. They are people whose lives, like mine, have been dramatically improved by a simple clearing of mucus in a way that no other product can.

Los Angeles, Ca, Us

Enticed by the opportunity to work at an agency again, I took a business development role with BLITZ agency. Not really a great fit, role-wise, but I did end up putting my account and project management hats back on and started to apply some of the insights that I developed post-Sapient in my KnowsJack days. Most notable was work that I led for our Microsoft Games (343 Studios) client, where I implemented team-empowered scoping and project management techniques that created amazing results.Once I saw this working -- and how much happier the team had become -- I knew that I was on to something. I needed to try it in the real world, and share the learnings. I remained as a contractor for several months, overseeing another successful project while piloting the techniques at two other agencies.

I formed this company shortly after leaving Sapient, when I decided that I wanted to make businesses better. It led to the invention of Snoot! and also several gigs (after BLITZ) with companies in software development, agile coaching (Digital Onion), aerospace manufacturing, interactive marketing (BLITZ Agency, Sensis, Cobalt), health care and OTC pharma, and international consulting services.Some of the core ideas behind AgencyAgile were developed in my first days -- I was going to write a book on how agencies SHOULD be managed, and spent 3-4 months reviving my organizational research chops, digging into dozens of great pieces of research to construct the early basis of AgencyAgile's Level I and II trainings.

Boston, Ma, Us

Though I had developed my first website back in 1996, this was really my first big interactive agency gig. It was a great eye-opener into all of the challenges and opportunities in a large agency office. Our team was 100+ people in a mix of Interactive Marketing and Consulting business with clients in the Consumer Electronics, Media and Entertainment, Beauty, Travel and Hospitality and Healthcare industries. It was where I learned that I didn't now how to manage well...and that that was also true for most people in our industry.Another key learning came from the opportunity to pilot Sapient's agile method, named Sapient Approach 3, for a large off-shore/on-shore integrated development project. What a mess it was, but we got it to work sort-of. It made very clear to me that Software Agile doesn't work very well with big complex agency-style projects.It was here that I first realized how awesome agencies can be. Great memories of amazing moments, and some friends for life. And seeing how quickly things could go from awesome to awful inspired me to figure out how to do better, and how to make the industry better.

Us

GGL was essentially a full-service agency for the video-gaming industry. In my role leading interactive product development, I implemented an Agile-like project model to speed up the rather lethargic development of top-tier video game microsites. As the team's skills increased, we were able to produce multiple videogame websites in less than a month (four weeks). I had never really thought much of using Agile for website development, though I had done "modular" 2-week development projects back in the 1980's with great success. It was simple, and not quite Agile...more like "Scrummer-fall" but it kind of worked. It was here that I first saw how a better work process actually improved other parts of the client lifecycle.

This was a short experiment in frustration. A founder-led company bringing me in to help professionalize the very mom-and-pop nature of its business. Was able to help them move the needle, landing a very large client (Hyatt Hotels), but learned more about ownership and control...and the perils of trying to raise someone else's child.

Us

This was my first exposure to full-scale Agile techniques. We built a 30+ person technology and analytics group to implement the founder's novel ideas about how to value and manage intellectual property (IP), most notably, patents. Our team implemented a version of eXtreme Programming (XP) in order to blast out a huge code base in a short period. It was here that I got to see that Software Agile techniques can work really well in a software environment. The bigger challenge at PLX was that the "novel ideas" were wrong. After some initial modeling work on my part, I brought in a Rand research fellow to debunk their use of Black-Scholes option pricing models for valuing IP. Later, I enlisted one of the great thinkers in the field of Real Options to become part of our team in an effort (failed) to construct a usable replacement for that method.

Santa Monica, Ca, Us

Was hired originally to perform a study on organizational capability and marketing strategy for RAND itself. This was serious tooth-cutting for how to research a topic and a deep dive into organization theory and practice. It was in doing this work that I learned the principles behind how a knowledge worker organization needs to be managed. Years later, when researching my post-Sapient book, I would re-access this same research to better understand another class of KW organizations: agencies. I even went back to RAND in 2018-2019 to extend this work on organizational design.My findings and suggestions were greatly appreciated and I was asked to continue as part of the research staff during the rest of grad school and for two years following. I worked as an "MBA in residence" supporting research projects and working in startup projects inside the organization, including: methods for managing technological uncertainty, cyber-security, supply-chain technologies, e-marketplace business models, economics of power markets, and education and e-learning. Most notably, I developed business plan and core strategies for a next-generation enterprise network security product (PreventSys) that used complex data analysis and policy management techniques. After launch it was sold to McAfee (symbol: MFE).Probably the most amazing work experience of my life and a pure joy to work with literally hundreds of top-flight PhDs.

North Charleston, Sc, Us

My first successful startup. Starting in a garage in late 1988, we built this technology strategy consultancy up to 60+ staff and three offices. We made the Inc. 500 in my last two years there -- pretty cool.It was here that I learned about the "shark" that follows all entrepreneurs, and first got my taste of applied microeconomics when I began doing research in preparation for government grant proposals. My partners taught me how to develop teams and technologies using a novel iterative method, some parts of which we use in our AgencyAgile programs. We were all about methods, and our small team was largely the "founding fathers" for the key methodologies behind the ISO 10303 STEP data standards. Our clients included IBM, Autodesk, Merck & Co., Bechtel Corporation, E.I. DuPont, General Motors/EDS, and Boeing Aircraft Company. I sold my part of the company in 1997 (to go to grad school) and my partners eventually sold to www.modulant.com a few years later.

I only developed software for a brief period after college, and then quickly became a project manager. I didn't really want the job change, but it paid more (almost 50% more) and the hours were easier. My gigs included: a program manager / technology consultant for Northrop (on contract, 1986-1988), and clients of Digital Equipment Corp., including Douglas Aircraft, General Dynamics, and Hughes Satellite.

Mba (Honors), Finance And Entrepreneurship

Bs, Industrial Engineering / Computer Science

Certified Scrum Master