Michael Collins Email & Phone Number

I've taken the road less traveled into product management. I received my Bachelors in Social Work (BSW) from U.C. Berkeley, on my way to my MSW and LCSW and a family practice--or so I thought. I wanted 2 years of field work before starting my masters. I ended up working with Severely Emotionally Disturbed (SED) Children for about 10 years. California's DSS rated us a level 14 facility. That's the highest possible level of care outside of a locked psychiatric ward. We provided services for children from several other states because those states didn't have the facilities to deal with that level of disturbance. I managed a group home with a staff of 10 for which I was responsible for training, hiring, and discipline. We worked with therapists, psychologists and psychiatrists to develop and implement individualized treatment plans for each of the children. I loved working with children and training staff. However, it eventually dawned on me that despite my passion for this work, buying a home in the Bay Area would be very difficult on that or similar salaries. I have a strong math aptitude and when the internet revolution came around (remember Mosaic?) I decided to try my hand in this new frontier. I tend toward self teaching. I began with simple HTML. From there I branched into CGI--Perl and PHP. This eventually led me to database development and web server administration. My sole proprietorship became an LLC when several friends/colleagues joined my venture. That company then merged with a financial services consulting firm. For about 11 years we built custom web applications primarily for private equity and venture capital firms. During this time we also redesigned/rebuilt U.C. Berkeley's online graduation admissions application. People often comment that I had a quite a switch in careers. My view is that my background in mental health has served me very well in my transition into product management. My past work in mental health and behavior modification makes me quite effective in considering the needs of end users. Those children often couldn't tell me why they were angry or frustrated. It was my job to help figure that out. Those children usually had little to no trust. It was my job to earn trust, build relationships, and develop effective communication. Productive engagement with end users and effective management of staff and teams requires good communication. Bad communication can mean that quality development gets derailed. Good communication can push mediocre development over the finishing line.

Listed skills include E Commerce, Web Analytics, Digital Strategy, User Experience, and 17 others.