Roy Leban

Current

• Founder & CTO at Groupthink

Recommended

2 people have recommended Roy

Connections

254 connections

Industry

Computer Software

Roy Leban’s Summary

Throughout my career, my goal has been to design and build great software that makes a difference in people's lives by making computer and technology-based products more enabling, easier to use, more transparent, and more powerful. I am the most passionate about building products that solve significant problems for real users, particularly in the areas of increasing productivity and making software and computers easier to use. I excel at thought leadership and helping others think out of the box. I enjoy building and leading teams, especially when I can help others grow and achieve more than they thought they could -- when the team becomes greater than the sum of its parts.

Previously, Roy was Director of User Experience at Sampa, where he was designed Sampa v2, a new user interface for site owners, administrators, and contributors, which resulted in a doubling of engagement by site owners, and Sampa v3, a new, highly engaging user experience for site visitors, which will roll out in late 2008. Before Sampa, Roy was at DreamBox Learning, where he was instrumental in building an innovative educational content development and delivery platform from the ground up. Roy has shipped more than twenty commercial products and services, including groundbreaking products in desktop productivity, early tablet computers, and web publishing. Roy spent five years at Microsoft, where he worked on Microsoft Access, Microsoft Office, and the bCentral web service. Roy has played a leadership role in a half-dozen startup companies, including ones sold to Ashton-Tate and AT&T. He has three issued patents and fourteen patents pending. Roy's spare time is filled with photography, puzzle construction, pizza making, writing and blogging, plus his wife, two kids, and a Parakeet.

Roy has three blogs:
www.thisuser.com - design & usability
www.thisdev.com - development & execution
www.thistangent.com - musings & speculation

Roy Leban’s Specialties:

I'm one of the rare people who can work at both the strategic level and handle the nuts-and-bolts of shipping a product -- from understanding users and crafting enabling designs to designing and implementing sophisticated algorithms and systems. I enjoy breaking large abstract and complex problems into concrete pieces and coming up with implementable solutions. I've done everything from UI design to assembly code, in a wide range of domains from web services to productivity software.

Roy Leban’s Experience

• Founder & CTO

  Groupthink

  (Computer Software industry)

  September 2008 — Present (1 year 3 months)

Additional Information

Roy Leban’s Interests:

Crosswords and other puzzles, Puzzle construction (published in The New York Times; the Los Angeles Times; GAMES Magazine; and elsewhere), Photography, Ambigrams, Cooking, Writing