Mark DeHate
Product Manager - UX Designer - Problem Solver
Product Manager - UX Designer - Problem Solver
My professional career thus far is full of b2b employers, so as a result, I'm unable to disclose most of my day-to-day work on a public website. So here are a few interesting things that I can show you, more around my hobbies and how I spend my free time.
Hi! I'm Mark DeHate - currently I work as a Product Manager. Each of my past careers (even as a DJ!) has provided me invaluable experience on the way. All in all I get immense satisfaction out of helping other people do amazing things, and my career journey so far highlights that as a common thread.
My professional career started as a "full-stack" system administrator and computer technician, managing a Mac OS X Server and countless desktops and laptops at a K-12 school district. Later I moved on as a true developer - first on the back end, working on COBOL and Java, and gradually working towards the front end, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
In addition to a deep appreciation of well-organized network racks, the main takeaway I have from this experience is how technology serves people, and not the other way around.
My front-end development experience led me to a decade of work as a UX Designer, all in the enterprise space. Most of my time as a designer has been with a small supporting team, so I've had the opportunity to experience the whole gamut of UX - from product discovery to usability studies to high fidelity mockups. The enterprise space has a ton of really crunchy problems to gnaw on that are super satisfying to take on.
As a UX Designer (particularly in the enterprise), I've learned a lot about balancing business and user needs, and the role of UX being a facilitator to get the whole team on the same page.
As a UX Designer, I loved the ability to remove barriers for other people's success. I get the same feeling as a Product Manager, just with way more immediate results! This role has me diving into understanding users in a similar way as a UX Designer, but adding in a slightly different spin when thinking about priorities for the product, and the business.
As my career has moved into the Product space, I've really honed my skills at focusing what's critical - for the user AND the business - and what's just noise.
