Mark
Metcalfe
76 Groton Street
Pepperell, MA 01463
(978) 877-9419 • [email protected]
www.linkedin.com/in/markmetcalfe
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Executive Summary |
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§
Motivational
manager hired to unify a global staff of 20 technical writers, modernize its
deliverables by developing multimedia, develop leadership within the group,
and change the delivery model under
aggressive deadlines and scarce resources to give early adopters what they
need, followed by added-value online content after release. §
Degree
in computer science; experience in the electronic design automation and
commercial software industries on Windows/Linux/UNIX and a variety authoring
tools. §
Consistent
track record of generating award-winning best-in-class documentation. |
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Experience and Achievements |
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Cadence
Design Systems, Chelmsford, MA
1995-2008 At Cadence Design Systems, experienced in
three electronic design automation divisions. Guiding themes: Clarity,
Opportunity, Relevance, Essentials (CORE). Director of Publications, Cadence Custom IC Division
2006-2008 §
Directed a 20-person, world-wide documentation
organization (UK, India, USA); delivered 25K pages in release; improved error
messages in over 100 applications. §
Developed leadership and mentored writers by placing
in charge of strategic initiatives (multimedia, Cadence Help transition,
content management, best practice, error message initiatives). Trained and
mentored a new manager in charge of a staff of 8. §
Instituted multimedia content development at Cadence
to enhance customer understanding of product use; trained staff, developed
quality standards. §
Kept project teams informed by replacing static
specifications with dynamic, wiki-based project plans, resulting in
concurrent communication. §
Developed consensus on best practices using
SharePoint to collaborate. §
Tagged content to help customers find data based on
design flow. § Worked towards
implementing an XML/DITA/topic-based
solution for our enterprise documentation at Cadence. Developed and
standardized content types. Senior Manager, Cadence Printed Circuit Board
Division 1999-2006 §
Improved customer perception of PCB documentation
within 2 years of managing the group by cultivating customer relations at
conferences; polled for release-to-release continuous improvement initiative.
Won awards from EETimes and from
Cadence for significantly improving the usefulness of the documentation. §
Initiated multimedia development at Cadence by
winning upper management support of training the writing staff to use Adobe Captivate.
§ Co-designed a
tabbed HTML online help interface with cascading style sheets (.css) to
organize better access to product information. §
Navigated merger issues between Cadence and OrCAD;
identified, addressed, and accommodated differences in enterprise and
shrink-wrap products. Senior Technical Writer, Cadence Printed Circuit Board
Division 1997-1999 § Developed
an interactive design flow chart enabling customers to navigate content based
on their place in the design cycle. § Created
help files with RoboHelp and FrameMaker for Cadence’s integrated circuit
package designer on Windows, UNIX, and Linux. § Selected
for time-critical assignments because of my reputation for ease with technology,
can-do attitude, and writing skills. Promoted to manager in 1999. Senior Technical Writer, Cadence Functional Verification
Division 1995-1997 § Co-designed
and maintained the Cadence Technical Publications web site using HTML. § Structured
and updated 2000 pages of industry-leading Verilog-XL documentation. § Designed
from scratch marketing brochures, online manuals, online tutorials,
references, and context-sensitive help, resulting in customers easily
accessing information at the point of need. Digital
Equipment Corporation, Nashua, NH Senior Technical Writer, Operating Systems
1992-1995 § Designed
a maintainable project from a complex 1200-page mess of conditional mark-up
code by simplifying and standardizing the organization of the content. § Reorganized
and reduced a system resource monitoring manual from 175 pages to 80,
significantly reducing production costs. § Analyzed
and recommended changes to user interface design by testing the software,
resulting in more intuitive software products. Digital
Equipment Corporation, Nashua, NH Senior Technical Writer, CASE Tools 1988-1992 § Innovated
a graphic overview of software menus, saving pages and production costs. The
menu map became the standard at Digital. § Award of Distinction, Society
of Technical Communicators, Guide to
DEC/Test Manager. Digital
Equipment Corporation, Nashua, NH Senior Technical Writer, Mark-up Languages
1986-1988 § Created
the Standard Digital Mark-up Language
Tag Designer’s Guide – for developers to create HTML-like tags that
format content – employed low-level programming concepts about syntax and
string parsing, flow-charting, and graphic design. §
Created new documentation in 4 weeks (8 weeks
allotted) for the Digital Programmer’s
Hierarchical Interactive Graphics System, a library of functions to
create three-dimensional graphic images. Wang
Laboratories Inc., Lowell, MA Technical Writer, VS Operating System
1984-1986 §
Automated and facilitated many online editing tasks,
including a set of indexing tools by writing screen macros resulting in
increased productivity and operating efficiency. § Invented an
online procedure for automatically merging screen images with text resulting
in streamlined documentation delivery and production.
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Software tools |
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Skilled with…
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Education |
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Bachelor
of Arts, Computer Science
Concentration in business
administration; liberal arts. |
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Employment History |
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Cadence Design Systems, Inc., 1995-2008 Director
of Publications, Custom IC Division, 2006-2008 Senior
Tech Pubs Manager, Printed Circuit Board Division, 2002-2006 Tech
Pubs Manager, Printed Circuit Board Division, 1999-2002 Senior Writer, Printed Circuit Board Division,
1997-1999 Senior Writer, Functional Verification
Division, 1995-1997 Digital Equipment Corporation, 1986-1995 Senior Writer, VMS Operating System, 1992-1995 Senior Writer, Computer-Aided Software
Engineering (CASE) Tools, 1988-1992 Technical Writer, Standard Digital
Mark-up Language (SDML), 1986-1988 Wang Laboratories, Inc., 1984-1986 Technical Writer, Wang VS Operating
System |
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