[0:44] What’s the oddest place you’ve ever seen a computer located?

I’m going to say in the kitchen. Growing up, we didn’t have a computer table, and they were such a new thing. So, we had our computer in the kitchen.

[2:10] What is the best, according to you, keyboard shortcut?

I would say Alt + F + 4. But for a Mac, it’s Command + Q. This is a saved shortcut to turn my computer on silent.

[5:00] Give us a synopsis regarding your previous positions.

My background is actually in biochemistry. I have a marketing degree from the University of Nevada, but I didn’t finish my MBA. A lot of Middle Eastern parents hope you’ll be a lawyer or a doctor. I realized I didn’t want that. I got a retail position at Apple and fell in love with technology and creating, and I started a multimedia company.

[11:20] What are your thoughts on digital transformation?

It’s navigating change. It’s a learning opportunity and will continue to be, depending on how big your business is, who your audience is, and how you adopt change within your organization.

[15:17] What could you share with the listeners who aren’t the most tolerant to change to help them?

Soliciting a conversation is where I’ve found success. I could easily be the villain in an organization—pushing policies and driving change without having a why. When I joined ZLINE, we were at 50-something hires. We are at 200+ now. Being new and trying to drive adoption of change came down to positioning myself as an ally.

[23:55] Projects seem to have been a big part of your career. Tell us about them.

You would think “oh, a kitchen appliance manufacturer. How much technology is really involved in that?” It’s literally everything from managing how we bring them into our four walls, how items get drop shipped to the customer’s address, communication with big retail partners, and the customer journey.

[26:51] So when do you call a project complete?

I live on Asana. Every project has 3 months after the live date for monitoring and troubleshooting. Most of the time when we launch a new system, I provide a sandbox environment in case people feel hesitant or worried they will break something. It’s an area they can play pretend without worrying so they can get familiar with the interface. Encouraging them to explore makes a difference.

[30:56] It sounds like creating the sandbox environment helps people feel more comfortable and increases buy-in.

Interestingly, a lot of IT support is playing therapist. Sometimes you don’t have the solution, but as long as you’re addressing how the person is feeling and giving them assurance, the conversation tends to end well. When I worked at Apple, this was their secret sauce—not necessarily the technical skills. It’s about how you talk to people and how you address the problem.

[36:33] Let’s take out the IT crystal ball. A lot of people are saying AI, but AI isn’t the future. It’s already here. So with that out of the mix, where do you see IT 5 years from now?

Universal API. The biggest pain in existence for me is having one system communicate to another system and creating a unique API endpoint for each individual system that will say the same thing. Due to business processes, I need to have four systems and communicate through each one at a time. I strongly believe there will be a universal API language.