Judson Drennan Email & Phone Number

Raleigh, North Carolina, United States

Raleigh, North Carolina, United States

Managed a team of product managers and analysts for the back-end content- and user-management system for a large ed-tech company.Responsibilities• Prepare roadmaps for my division, coordinating between the various teams• Lead meetings with internal stakeholders to gather input and communicate current roadmaps and changes• Meet with major publishing and institutional partners to gather requirements for new product initiatives• Responsible for the overall product direction, output, and performance of three product and engineering teams• Direct product management of the company's platform and API team, responsible for ensuring that our applications deliver at scale• Support two product managers and a product analyst who oversee our book ingestion and metadata platformsAccomplishments• Standardized how the company uses Jira to track work, business value, release notes, and roadmaps so that it's possible to pull reports or build roadmaps across teams

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

Lead product development for a content-management and back-end system that connects hundreds of publishers to more than 7,000 institutions globally, delivering educational materials to millions of learners.Responsibilities• Translated senior leadership’s vision into actionable software, laying out the product roadmap for the company’s back-end CMS• Worked with internal stakeholders to identify areas for operational efficiency• Provided daily leadership and direction to an Agile team of eight to 10 developers, QA and business analysts• Prepared and maintain the team backlog• Coordinated efforts with other product managers who depended upon my team’s system to provide a dependable, scalable back endAccomplishments• Increased total team output by more than 75 percent, while decreasing team size by 20-30, by applying principles of kaizen • Turned around an aging, buggy codebase: Once slated for replacement, the system is now vibrant, growing and scaling, saving millions of dollars in redevelopment costs• Reinvigorated a development team by connecting them to the company’s purpose and explaining how their work was important to our company’s success.• Lead design of four integrated software engines that have allowed our system to work at scale, reducing manual work and allowing expansion into international markets

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

Directed three teams working on a new Web content management system for the McClatchy Company that replaced an in-house-developed solution being phased out. I also served as product owner for a group of backend developers and an API development team. Responsibilities• Worked with end users and business stakeholders to identify new features and improvements• Outlined and communicate the product roadmap for McClatchy's digital publishing system and adjust priorities as business strategy changes• Prioritized ticket backlog• Worked with other project teams to coordinate timing of feature development and ensure compatibility among products• Worked directly with developers and communicate acceptance criteria• Lead training sessions with newsroom users, support staff and new hires about our products• Used Agile metrics to guide the team to increase their efficiency and output• Fostered a team culture based on quality, business value and accountability• Worked with vendors to integrate their services into our productsAccomplishments• Planned and executed our transition from our home-grown web CMS to a vendor-supplied one• Helped create a truly cross-functional team that handles our product from server to browser• Introduced the team to using kanban. Previously, McClatchy Interactive was a scrum-only shop; now there is only one scrum team left• Modernized our infrastructure, going from bare metal servers to virtualized ones• In six months, launched some of McClatchy's largest properties on our new system: miamiherald.com, sacbee.com, kansascity.com and star-telegram.com, as well as several smaller markets: kansas.com, elnuevoherald.com, modbee.com and mercedsunstar.com• Designed an SEO product that has made McClatchy’s properties competitive with other news organizations in their market

Raleigh, North Carolina

As senior product owner (and as a product owner before that) I was responsible for a home-grown web publishing system that, at that time, was being used by 30 McClatchy newspaper markets to power their online news sites.Responsibilities• Collaborated with end users and business stakeholders to identify new features and improvements• Prioritized ticket backlog• Led training sessions about our productsAccomplishments• Helped create a standardized set of web templates, which still power many of McClatchy’s websites• Under tight deadline, headed a project to semantically tag all story content on McClatchy’s websites

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

See Senior Product Owner, above

Chapel Hill, North Carolina

While working at McClatchy Interactive, I was asked to teach a couple of classes at the UNC School of Journalism.Classes taught• Information Graphics (JOMC-484) in Fall 2011• Introduction to Multimedia (JOMC-187) in Spring 2010

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

In this role, I created newsroom-facing innovations that improved storytelling and internal workflows. I also collaborated with the N&O’s internal development team to ensure what was developed would meet newsroom and reader needs.Responsibilities• Identified newsroom needs; design and implement workflows and products to meet those needs• Coordinated with web designers and programmers to present content more effectively online• Managed newsobserver.com for several hours each day, selecting, prioritizing and enhancing content• Edited breaking news stories filed by reporters; write original news items• Developed reusable interfaces for displaying unique content, such as elections data and large special projects• Trained reporters and editors about basic SEOAccomplishments• Developed a Javascript front-end to the CMS, which reduced the time required to publish stories by 80 percent• Worked with newsroom management to tighten integration between the newsroom and online CMS workflows

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

After joining he N&O graphics department in 2004, I was promoted to assistant editor (2006) and then editor (2007). I transitioned the department from a print-focused shop to a modern multimedia department producing video, interactive graphics and audio slide shows.Responsibilities• Managed allocation of department resources to maximize impact of visual storytelling, balancing journalistic value against production time and staff resources.• Worked with reporters and editors to identify story elements best presented as graphics and then with page designers and online producers to create more effective visual displays with those graphics. • Represented graphic department interests in inter-departmental meetings• Reported and created A1-display, special-project and interactive graphicsAccomplishments• Co-won McClatchy President’s Award for “Mental Disorder” (2008), “Pounding the Pavement” (2005) and “N.C. Water: Safe to Drink?” (2006)• Won four N.C. Press Association awards for information graphics (2007), illustration (2007), and for graphics portfolio (2004 and 2006). • Part of a team that relaunched newsobserver.com’s website, modernizing the site’s user experience, information architecture and content strategy; personally responsible for ensuring the final web product met newsroom needs• Trained artists in Flash ActionScript, helping the team develop interactive graphics

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

While Graphic Editor, I was pulled into a year-long special assignment to help the paper adopt CCI Newsgate, a news-focused CMS. During this time, I handed off much of my day-to-day duties to other department members. Adopting this CMS was part of a shift in strategy by McClatchy corporate to standardize newsroom CMSs across the enterprise.Accomplishments• Helped implement the CCI CMS at the N&O• Trained entire newsroom staff in series of two-week classes• Oversaw integration of CCI and McClatchy’s online CMS

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

See Graphics Editor, above

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

See Graphics Editor, above

Beaufort, S.C.

The Chancellor of USCB asked me to be her public information officer to help communicate her mission to convert USCB from a backwoods university branch offering associate degrees to a vibrant four-year-degree-granting institution. Along the way, I became involved in a partnership with an impoverished local school district that needed their story better told to help them secure external funding and support a comprehensive school reform project, preempting a state takeover.Responsibilities• Advised senior leadership on how to respond to public criticism of the university• Wrote press releases and internal communications • Represented the university in interviews with the press• Served as the university’s content webmasterAccomplishments• Improved local media relations, doubling university-related news articles• Redesigned university's web site, adding new sections, content and functionality• Compiled, edited and designed university's first student handbook, with input from faculty and staff• Launched a student newspaper in collaboration with Student Services• Named Beaufort County United Way Volunteer of the Year (2002) for putting together a partnership with the University and redesigning the United Way web site and donor portal

Beaufort, S.C.

At a small paper, editors wear many hats. My unofficial duties included things like pulling CAT5 cable through the ceiling and, when it crashed, rebooting the ancient Mac that fed AP news wires into the system. But, mostly, I made information graphics.Responsibilities• Reported and designed infographics for daily stories, as well as long-form investigations• Led special project teams of reporters, editors and photographers for breaking news, elections and in-depth news features• Designed section fronts for several weekend sections and special tab publications• Toned photographs for printAccomplishments• Redesigned newspaper to a cleaner, more contemporary look, headed team to reduce paper width and trained production staff in redesigned workflows• Established coordination among circulation and news departments, increasing single-copy sales about 20 percent year over year• Created workflow system to reproduce color accurately from screen to proof to newsprint• Won eight S.C. Press Association awards for graphics and page design

Beaufort, S.C.

Fresh out of college, I joined The Beaufort Gazette, a McClatchy paper, as a reporter. I was excited to have landed a writing job and ready to start changing the world. However, my time as a staff writer would be short. Quickly, I discovered a love for telling stories with data, leading to more visual forms of storytelling.Responsibilities• Wrote seven to 12 articles per week covering local education and community issues, including the weekend cops reportAccomplishments• Won two first-place S.C. Press Association awards

Bachelor'S Degree, Journalism, 3.4 Gpa

Activities and Societies: Editor in Chief of senior practicum paper, designer in student services publication office Student by day.

Mass Communication/Media Studies

Activities and Societies: Editor in Chief of the Second Sun student newspaper, pep band, jazz ensemble While at FMU, I helped relaunch.