I am a front-end Web Developer with experience spanning product training, project management, and business analysis. I have experience as a Scrum Master running Agile ceremonies, providing individual feedback to team members and managers, and taking ownership of sprint work. As a developer I care about building things that are well-crafted and solving problems that actually matter to the people using them. When managing projects or work I focus on breaking down requirements for clean, fast websites with a focus on usability and accessability. My hybid skillset brings a developer's view to management and analytics, and allows me to devlop with a product and business lens in mind.
Currently available for new opportunities.
I grew up in Delaware, Ohio before getting my Bachelors degree in Computer Science from DePauw University. Moving back to the Columbus area, my first job was opening a new Apple Store at Polaris Fashion Place. I had always admired Apple's user experience focus, and quickly applied myself to move from sales, to mobile technician, to Apple Genius. I've always had an affinity for technology and finding ways to bridge the communication gap between new tech and the people that use it, and so one of my favorite experiences while at the Apple Store was becoming an In Store Trainer. This opportunity allowed me to train the incoming employees on every job role and aspect of the Apple culture, from inventory control to sales and from computer repair to customer training.
Newly found drive to educate in hand, I took a position as Application Specialist at Highlights for Children. Highlights, however, was not an Apple shop and instead needed me to communicate to the company how to use Office 365, as well as maintain the newly migrated intranet in SharePoint. Having a diverse computer background, I quickly brought myself up to speed on the material and was leading company wide Lunch and Learns within weeks. Soon after I was producing and updating the intranet with How To videos based on the most asked questions that I encountered. As the company became more comfortable with the cloud, I transitioned to leading tech projects, like implementing Workfront. The largest project that I led was the PCI-DSS compliance effort, which involved becoming intimately knowledgeable of the standards, mapping out the entire company's risk levels, and working alongside a third party compliance auditor. I then used my ability to understand and break down projects in different ways to become the Business Analyst for the Web Development team, taking ownership of the backlog of work, refining requirements, and making sure the highest priority work made it to the sprint. Working alongside the development team made me realize how much I missed development, and so I tasked myself with reaquainting myself with HTML, JavaScript, PHP, and MySQL. When a new possition opened and I was accepted, I then had to take a crash course in Drupal and Magento 2 while figuring out how to work remotely as this was at the start of 2020. After a few years of being a productive member of the web team, I was given the oportunity to use my knowledge of Agile workflows and backlog management to become the Scrum Master for more than a year, where I ran Agile ceremonies and took ownership of the sprint work alongside continuing to develop.
Worked on the front-end of Highlights.com, an ecommerce site for Highlights Magazines, Books, and Merchandise.
Visit site →Worked on the architecture and front-end development and maintence of classroom.highlights.com, a site for Highlights's teachers rewards program. The site included a management site for the business to update reward programs and offerings multiple times per year, as well as the front end that the teachers would log in to to manage student orders and get rewards for their classroom.
Worked on the front-end of Zaner-Bloser.com, a subsidiary to Highlights that focuses on selling curriculum directly to teachers and schools. The catalog includes a mixture of print and digital for K-6, encompassing reading, writing, and math.
Visit site →Led an organization-wide initiative to achieve PCI-DSS compliance, coordinating across engineering, finance, and operations teams.
Served as the sole business analyst on the redesign and modernisation of a mail-in rewards program for teachers. Analyzed and helped shape a teacher incentive program that rewarded classrooms with supplies and materials when students signed up for magazine subscriptions — similar in structure to the Scholastic Book Fair model.
Open to front-end development, project management, and business analysis, as well as hybrid roles. Feel free to reach out.
jessemgardner@gmail.com