About

So why is it called “Tech Herding”?

I spent five years at the Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, Washington — managing technical cats, and trying to get them to give me learning content that I could share out with our customers.

Internally, this kind of work was called “cat-herding” — to indicate both the degree of difficulty involved and how scratched you could get in the process.  (I won’t mention the other type of injury, which involves fluid and lifted kitty legs.)

When I started my blog, I decided that combining the two concepts would make a good name, and now I’m stuck with it.  I guess it’s better than “the Dick that your mother married”, which is how my wife’s ex refers to me.

Nowadays, I live in sunny South Carolina and no longer work for the company that brought you Microsoft Bob.  I am the owner, creative director, janitor and morale director.

What that means is that I manage learning projects as a contractor — bringing in other contractors or using a client’s internal resources — and make sure that they get amazing results.  This starts with having very clear learning objectives, and ends with assessing whether or not anyone actually learned anything from the experience.  (Don’t laugh — these two very simple points are missing in 90% of the training I see.)

If you like what you read here, you may be my “perfect client”.  Let me know. You can call me at 803-542-6114 or email me at dick at TechHerding dot com.  If you’re old-school, and want to look at my resume, go for it.  I’m awesome.  Amazing.  “Walks on water, rarely gets feet wet.”

Knock yourself out.

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