Scott McGregor

Current

• Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at XooXooX.com
• Chief Technology Officer & Managing Director at SWIFT Design Group

Past

• Chief Operating Officer at Light Crafts, Inc.
• Faculty Practitioner at University of Phoenix Online
• Sr Engineering Manager at Intuit

• Founder, CEO at ImmuNet
• VP Product Management at Mobile Everywhere
• Interim Product Marketing Executive at Tailwind Associates
• Vice President Product Development at SeeItFirst
• Vice President, Product Development at Data Digest
• Faculty Instructor at University of California, Berkeley (UCB), and Santa Cruz (UCSC) Extensions
• Sr. Product Manager / Program Manager / Designer at PlaceWare (now Microsoft)
• Sr. Project Manager /Designer /Art Director at Kairos Software
• Sr. R&D Project Manager at Teknowledge
• Director, Engineering Services at Sybase
• Founder and Chairman at Prescient Software
• General Manager, Ahead Software Division at Atherton Technology
• R&D Project Manager / Productivity Manager at Hewlett-Packard
• Author/Playwright, Kije! at Carnegie Mellon University Drama Organization (Self-employed)
• Founder, President at Graphic Magic (Self-employed)

see less...

15 more...

Education

• Stanford University
• Carnegie Mellon University - Tepper School of Business
• Carnegie Mellon University

• Haverford College

see less...

1 more...

Recommended

36 people have recommended Scott

Connections

500+ connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

• My Website
• My Company

Scott McGregor’s Summary

With over 25 years experience, I have been a CEO, COO, CTO, VP of Innovation, VP Engineering and VP Product Development/Management/Marketing at numerous VENTURE FUNDED INTERNET AND SOFTWARE START-UPS in SILICON VALLEY.

I also held technical leadership roles at established market leaders including HP, SYBASE and INTUIT. In these roles, I have built and led technical and product marketing teams who have created and introduced MANY AWARD WINNING INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES.

I am also active as an INNOVATION CONSULTANT, BOARD MEMBER, TECHNICAL ADVISER, EDUCATOR and INVITED SPEAKER.

I am a PAST PRESIDENT of the SILICON VALLEY CHAPTER of the ASSOCIATION FOR SOFTWARE DESIGN, and a FOUNDING MEMBER of the WORLD WIDE INSTITUTE OF SOFTWARE ARCHITECTS as well as the first president of its Silicon Valley chapter.

Throughout my career, MY PRIMARY FOCUS has been on the CONCEPTION, DEVELOPMENT AND INTRODUCTION OF DISRUPTIVE INNOVATIONS.

My product designs have frequently been praised for their INTUITIVE INTERFACES, EASE OF LEARNING AND EASE OF USE. I have codified the techniques I use to design such compelling user experiences in a design method known as the SWIFT NEW PRODUCT INNOVATION METHOD, which I have taught for several NATIONALLY KNOWN MBA PROGRAMS, COMPANIES, and PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS.

My most widely recognized accomplishment has been CONCEPTION and DEFINITION the widely praised USER EXPERIENCE for the "PLACEWARE WEB CONFERENCING CENTER" (today known as "MICROSOFT LIVE MEETING"), which enables OVER A MILLION SATISFIED USERS EACH DAY to have successful meetings over the web.

I help SOFTWARE AND INTERNET COMPANIES MAXIMIZE THEIR GROWTH by swiftly creating STRATEGIC, DISRUPTIVE, NEW PRODUCTS and SERVICES, through conversion of RAW BREAKTHROUGH TECHNOLOGIES into EASY TO USE, QUICK TO ADOPT, RELIABLE PRODUCTS with COMPELLING USER EXPERIENCES.

see http://www.smcgregor.com/ for more details.

Scott McGregor’s Specialties:

New Product and Innovation strategy, design and development.

Software engineering team building, mentoring and management,

New product marketing pioneering emerging markets.

Design for usability - products that WOW customers.

“Scott is a skilled designer, with a fine pedigree—academic and practical—both in software engineering and in design.” – Alan Cooper, “Father of Visual Basic”, Founder, Cooper Design, author of "The Inmates are Running the Asylum"

Scott McGregor’s Experience

• Chief Executive Officer (CEO)

  XooXooX.com

  (Internet industry)

  March 2008 — Present (7 months)

  Invented an innovative new method for generating personalized web ads by applying opt-in permission marketing techniques. wrote Patent applications, created engineering specifications. Developed business plan, elevator pitch, funding pitch, website, financial models. Recruited co-founders, developers and advisors. Developing viral marketing strategy build on social networking and leveraging charities donor networks.

• Chief Technology Officer & Managing Director

  SWIFT Design Group

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)

  1994 — Present (14 years)

  Innovative C-level Exec with over 25 years experience leading new product mgmt, strategy and development, in 12 start-ups including PlaceWare, as well as 3 established leaders: Hewlett-Packard, Sybase and Intuit.
  
  Created vision, managed over 20 new products, from conception to launch, in diverse application areas.
  
  Designed products generating exponential sales growth; Within just 2 years, transformed Xerox PARC "software toolkit" into the PlaceWare Web Conferencing Center (now Microsoft Live Meeting™), increasing sales from $500K to $10M, and establishing a new market category with PlaceWare as the market leader and facilitating their IPO.
  
  Provided organization-wide leadership and direction for multiple teams, departments as large as 50, geographically distributed departments, and offshore teams.
  
  Effective at presenting to lay audiences as large as 2000. Developed stage and booth presentations for DEMO 2004.
  
  Designed 7 innovative new products, wrote and filed patents.

• Chief Operating Officer

  Light Crafts, Inc.

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)

  2007 — 2008 (1 year)

  Recruited Mktg team, introduced promotions, created Customer Advisory Board & evangelism networks that increased positive word of mouth coverage of the company's products in the blogosphere -- doubling monthly sales in first 3 months in this role. Developing international distribution and strategic partnerships.
  
  Redesigned website to clearly convey our value proposition in dramatic, visual before & after fashion, demonstrating remarkable improvements in photo quality with just a click.
  
  Designed new "one-click" style rollovers -- true WYSIWIG.
  
  Recruited team of exceptional engineers with rare specialized image processing algorithm development experience, yielding a sustainable competitive advantage.
  
  Led design of disruptively innovative consumer digital photography product line and internet services including architecture, positioning, product marketing and introduction plans.

• Faculty Practitioner

  University of Phoenix Online

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; APOL; Higher Education industry)

  2000 — 2007 (7 years)

  University of Phoenix Online
  Faculty Practitioner, Technical MBA program classes including Management of Innovation and R&D.

• Sr Engineering Manager

  Intuit

  (Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; INTU; Computer Software industry)

  2004 — 2005 (1 year)

  Consumer Tax Division (TurboTax, SnapTax, ProSeries) San Diego, CA
  
  Led new team creating new Runtime platform and Tools for Tax Developers, expected to greatly increase productivity of tax developers authoring TurboTax, SnapTax and other tax products.
  
  Inspired radical improvements in usability and accuracy for both developers and end users. Investigated leading edge technologies that might be suitable for use in future product, such as automated derivation of English text explanations from tax rules.
  
  Introduced and brought prior experience with Lean Agile Slice and Extreme Programming Methods to team, dramatically reducing release times.
  
  Developed innovative Tax Insurance strategies, working directly for company founder.

• Founder, CEO

  ImmuNet

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)

  2003 — 2004 (1 year)

  Network Security
  
  ImmuNet was a network security start-up with a "network effect twist".
  
  Founded company, developed business plans, product plans and product designs, sought funding.
  
  Wrote and filed for patents on new products.
  
  Recruited executive team, plus world class board of directors and advisors.
  
  Identified firm in a related space and developed a joint venture/ merger-acquisition plan.
  
  Transitioned firm to new management.

• VP Product Management

  Mobile Everywhere

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)

  2004 — 2004 (less than a year)

  Mobile Networking Internet Service
  
  Co-founded company, developed business plans, product plans and product designs.
  
  Recruited key executives: including VP of Sales/Business Development and VP of Engineering.
  Developed Innovative Service Business Model aimed at Small to Medium size businesses
  
  Led company name selection, Corporate ID, and positioning efforts; developed marketing materials.
  
  Developed initial product plans, led development of demo (debuted at Mobile Showcase 2004).

• Interim Product Marketing Executive

  Tailwind Associates

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)

  2004 — 2004 (less than a year)

  Mobile Document Compliance Management
  
  Developed product demonstration, accompanying video and stage script for debut of product at DEMO 2004.
  
  Developed recommendations for next generation product designs and implemented the SWIFT design process.
  
  Researched target industry (Pharmaceuticals) and developed bottoms up forecasts of the Total Available Market.

• Vice President Product Development

  SeeItFirst

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)

  2002 — 2003 (1 year)

  Vice President Product Development Streaming Video Applications
  
  Reporting directly to the Chief Executive Officer.
  Managed engineering teams, product marketing, and program management.
  
  Developed business and product plans, pricing, collateral and presentations
  
  Designed an innovative mobile video field collaboration product that can work over cellular bandwidth.

• Vice President, Product Development

  Data Digest

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Computer Software industry)

  2000 — 2002 (2 years)

  Vice President Product Development Business Analytics for Non-Statisticians
  
  Grew team from 4 to 15 engineers (including many Sr. Algorithm developers from Stanford and LNLL) in less than six months and completed development of first product on schedule in twelve months.
  
  Developed business and product plans, pricing, collateral and presentations, and supported strategic partnerships.

• Faculty Instructor

  University of California, Berkeley (UCB), and Santa Cruz (UCSC) Extensions

  (Educational Institution; 10,001 or more employees; Higher Education industry)

  1992 — 2002 (10 years)

  Faculty Instructor, Technical and Management classes. R&D Project Management, Design for Usability, New Product Development and Product Marketing.

• Sr. Product Manager / Program Manager / Designer

  PlaceWare (now Microsoft)

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Computer Software industry)

  1998 — 2000 (2 years)

  Working directly with the CEO, led design of the company's Conference Center now Microsoft Live Office.
  
  Ensured a satisfying whole product experience for all stakeholders in customer organizations.
  
  Participated on staffs of Engineering, Marketing and Sales; developed customer profiles and scenarios of use, sales and marketing presentations, marketing collateral, specifications for new product features and user interface requirements.
  
  Developed a strategy for a new sales channel, involving partnerships with telecom companies
  
  Changed sales model from standalone perpetual product sales to annual hosting service.
  
  Divided original generic product into 2 targeted products that had faster start-up, quicker learning time, and were more targeted to specific tasks performed.
  
  Designed enhancement that cut initial slide load time over a 28.8 modem from 7 minutes to 4 seconds.
  
  Developed key marketing, product and business sections for S1 and IPO road show presentations.

• Sr. Project Manager /Designer /Art Director

  Kairos Software

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)

  1997 — 1998 (1 year)

  Sr. Project Manager /Designer /Art Director Sales Training & Presentation Applications
  
  Recruited talented software engineers to the company.
  
  Project managed the first customer release, tracking new development tasks and bug fixes, developing specifications documents, etc. Led the Quality Assurance team. Led redesign of the company's product.
  
  Managed the Creative Services Team, which developed the graphics and textual material that is used in the product, as well as created methodology based content.
  
  Led development of the first content title, Life Cycle Selling, based upon Geoffrey Moore's books: Crossing the Chasm, and Inside the Tornado, and Rick Brown's seminars: Life Cycle Sales.

• Sr. R&D Project Manager

  Teknowledge

  (Public Company; 11-50 employees; TEKC; Computer Software industry)

  1995 — 1996 (1 year)

  Sr. R&D Project Manager Artificial Intelligence support for Presentations and Sales Assistance
  
  Recruited a team, designed and developed a speech recognition powered Web based Briefing Associate system for DARPA for in person and remote, live and delayed, multimedia crisis action briefings.
  
  Developed a Sales Associate that acts as an unattended sales assistant for Web based Sales transactions.
  
  Initial system included an on-line wine retail system with a database of over 750 selections that advised customers on selections based upon meal preferences.

• Director, Engineering Services

  Sybase

  (Public Company; 1001-5000 employees; SY; Computer Software industry)

  1994 — 1995 (1 year)

  Director, Engineering Services Standardizing Engineering Processes across the company
  
  Directed the newly formed 30+ member team with $3M+ annual budget.
  
  Responsible for centrally managing engineering tools, training, help desk, process consulting, interoperability and compatibility testing, and product release management functions across multiple divisions.

• Founder and Chairman

  Prescient Software

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)

  1992 — 1994 (2 years)

  Founder and CEO Software Configuration Management Tools
  
  I founded this company as a spin out from Atherton Technologies in 1992. The company manufactures and sells one product, MergeRight, a tool used to compare and merge multiple versions of a file. Most of our sales are technology licenses to vendors of Version Control and Software Configuration Management products, such as Lucent.
  
  Secured re-sellers, recruited executives and engineering staff, negotiated contracts, developed business plans and participated in raising investment capital. Provided customer support services.
  
  In addition to software sales and manufacturing, Prescient Software is the parent company for the SWIFT Design Group. This consulting group, offers product design, product design education, and management consulting services, especially for software products. Clients include: Tandem, Real Communities and SocialNet.

• General Manager, Ahead Software Division

  Atherton Technology

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Computer Software industry)

  1990 — 1992 (2 years)

  General Manager, Ahead Software Division CASE, Object Oriented Database Repository
  
  Managed the creation of a new applications division; spun out to create Prescient Software.
  
  Reported directly to board of directors. Responsibilities included profit and loss. $1M annual budget.
  
  Developed key product in one quarter using SWIFT method.

• R&D Project Manager / Productivity Manager

  Hewlett-Packard

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; HPQ; Computer Software industry)

  1980 — 1990 (10 years)

  R&D Project Manager, Information Systems Division CASE applications.
  
  Managed 14 engineers developing Computer Aided Software Engineering (CASE) applications, with a $1.5M budget.
  
  Developed Prescient Agents, receiving technical and press recognition.
  
  Productivity Manager, Corporate Computing Center Palo Alto, CA Wide Area Network Applications
  
  Led several interdisciplinary and interdivisional technical teams, developing a high performance computer environment, including supercomputers, linked by a high-speed worldwide network, the HP Internet.

• Author/Playwright, Kije!

  Carnegie Mellon University Drama Organization (Self-employed)

  (Self-Employed; 11-50 employees; Writing and Editing industry)

  September 1979 — May 1980 (9 months)

  I wrote the book for the musical comedy, Kije!, recruited a lyricist and a composer. The play was submitted to an annual competition for new musicals at Carnegie Mellon University, where it won and was produced in 1980.

• Founder, President

  Graphic Magic (Self-employed)

  (Self-Employed; 1-10 employees; Computer Software industry)

  September 1976 — May 1978 (1 year 9 months)

  Founded and operated a graphic design and printing organization that supported graphic needs of Haverford and Bryn Mawr colleges. Sold company for a profit.

Scott McGregor’s Education

• Stanford University

  Non degree graduate courses, Computer Science, VLSI Design, May 1982 — May 1986

  I pursued continuing education classes over several years in various areas of computer science including Artificial Intelligence, Compilers, Operating Systems, Data Structures, Language Design, as well as introductory classes in Electrical Engineering such as VLSI Design.

  Activities and Societies:

  Continuing education graduate level courses in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering.

• Carnegie Mellon University - Tepper School of Business

  MSIA (MBA), Management Science, Information Systems, Entrepreneurship, Business Law, 1978 — 1980

  Technical MBA degree program, concentrations in Management Science, Operations Research, Entrepreneuring, Information Systems and Business Law. President of management simulation team. Chief Computer Consultant.

• Carnegie Mellon University

  MSIA (MBA), Graduate Business, September 1978 — May 1980

  In addition to my Academic studies at CMU I wrote a full length musical comedy, "Kije!" that won a competition and was performed as the annual CMU spring musical in 1980. This program has produced first products of a number of other notable musicals, including Stephen Swartz' "Pippin".

  Activities and Societies:

  Technical MBA degree program, concentrations in Management Science, Operations Research, Entrepreneuring, Information Systems and Business Law. President of management simulation team. Chief Computer Consultant.

• Haverford College

  BA, Philosophy (Logic and Language), September 1974 — May 1980

  I pursued a general liberal arts course of study in order to get exposure to as many different discipline's problems and terminologies. I was already working as a computer programmer and was interested in knowing more about different application areas, especially in the hard sciences and social sciences. My Senior Thesis focussed on an analytical approach to understanding category mistakes and metaphor.

  Activities and Societies:

  President of Haverford College Chess Club, and Haverford-Bryn Mawr Printer's Guild.

Additional Information

Scott McGregor’s Websites:

• My Website
• My Company

Scott McGregor’s Interests:

Consumer and B2B products and services, mobile networking, web conferencing, internet applications, streaming video, business analytics, social networking and group productivity applications, collaboration and coordination tools, email, GUI, CASE, and SCM. • SWIFT New product development for nascent and emerging software and internet markets. • Customer-Centered, User-Centered and Experience-Oriented Product Design. • High Performance Cross Functional Teams. • End to End, Awareness to Obsolescence Product Design. • Revolutionary Customer Driven Invention (Scott Cook). • Disruptive Innovation in Growth Markets (Clayton Christensen). • Technology Adoption Life Cycle (Geoffrey Moore). • Lean Agile and Extreme Programming Methods.

Scott McGregor’s Groups:

IEEE, ACM, SIGCHI, BayCHI, SVASE, SDFORUM, ASD, WWISA, SIGGraph, TSC, Promatch, Friends of Promatch, HP Alumni Association, ACSAA, LinkedIn Hub

•    HP Alumni Association
•    BayCHI
•    Executive Suite
•    FountainBlue
•    Intuit Alumni Community
•    Startups
•    University of California-Santa Cruz Alumni (UCSC)
•    Microsoft - Current and Former Employees

Scott McGregor’s Honors:

COVER NOTICE in SunWorld:

"One thing impressive about Merge Ahead is that is so simple to use. ...This product could easily pay for itself in productivity boosts within hours of installation. -- Dave Taylor, SunWorld Reviews editor.

EDITORIAL in Unix World:"Smarter Programming Brings Smarter Computers":

"Scott McGregor...thinks smarter computers are the next step beyond the ease of use we get from GUIs... [P]rescient user interfaces promise to teach our computers to learn from what we have done and serve as an active helper... If programmers are beginning to recognize the needs of naive users, we are likely to see improvements in how computers work for all of us." -- Dave Flack, Unix World Editor.

Practical Programmer (Communications of the ACM):

"Scott McGregor... uses storyboarding techniques to model the flow of an interface and tries to pace the interaction to make the experience satisfying for the person using the tool..."

Scott McGregor’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• new ventures
• job inquiries
• expertise requests
• business deals
• reference requests
• getting back in touch