Bill Stewart, Architect,
Visionary
Bill Stewart is a world renowned
Software Architect and
Visionary, best known as an inventor who expanded the screensaver genre,
designed After Dark, and is the
vision behind new products to merge media, social networking and user
co-creation.
Bill enjoys working with companies to achieve their goals, having developed a skill set that lets
him comfortably switch gears between
business strategy, software architect, public speaker and engineering guru. He enjoys each of these roles and focusing
the team on the essential experience a product aims to deliver.
Bill particularly enjoys opportunities to flex his skill as a visionary. See his
approach below.
With 25 years
of proven experience and an ability to communicate effectively with partners,
dev teams and the media, Bill inspires trust and confidence leading teams in multimedia, web
browsers, gaming and social networking. His many
award winning world class products and high profile work for
Microsoft, AOL, and HP shows Bill's commitment to quality.
According to Bill
"I've achieved world class success repeatedly, but great success is built
upon learning from thousands of mistakes. I've done a prolific amount of work and made a prolific number of mistakes.
I've messed up strategy, design, hiring, engineering, tactics, you name it. Every mistake has made
me more sure-footed, agile, and ready to succeed. I like building value,
mountains of it actually. The more of my skills that clients and partners tap,
the more value I can help them build." Bill
can be reached at bill@dynamickarma.com
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Fun Anecdotes Bill has many interesting stories to share from his experiences in the tech world.
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My Design Approach There are two ideas that guide my approach to product strategy, creative convergence and inevitable invention. Knowledge that cuts across many disciplines allows me to see connections between seemingly separate things. Sometimes those connections allow me to wire 3 mundane "off the shelf" items together in a way that creates something new that unlocks high business value. However, to see where the highest value exists requires digging deep for the essence of a product or service, what it really means to people. When you understand WHAT people want, HOW that should look and feel starts to be easier to understand. When you understand WHY end-users care about the service overall and to what degree specific features are aligned, you start unlocking maximum value. Inevitable invention is the other big idea I coined to guide my approach. When you truly understand a specific market area and where the highest value exists for stakeholders and end-users, the shape of an ideal solution comes into focus. We've all encountered products that are serviceable and the occasional product that so perfectly fits its niche that nobody would think of approaching it a different way, what I call inevitable invention. When the true value in a market area is clarified, often an artful combination of existing items can hit the mark, but sometimes a truly new element needs to be built to bridge the pieces together. When I work on teams I always ask "what would the perfect way to do this look like?" It throws people who aren't used to aiming for excellence, but it isn't that hard to answer if you ask the question at all. An Example The Magic and After Dark screen savers show how my approach works. There didn't seem to be a market for screen savers in 1989, but my early test marketing and some thought about the direction of graphical interfaces indicated that a visual, fun, personal product with no cost of ownership and plausible usefulness could be the biggest hit possible. Magic and its sequel After Dark screensavers were the result. We did build some clever unique bits, but it was mostly creative reworking of standard technology with the right vision behind it. It's success as the world's #1 selling software with Flying Toasters featured everywhere was no accident. We planned and executed to make the perfect product for its niche, a true inevitable invention. It always starts with vision and commitment. |
Background (aka the boring
details)
Mr. Stewart's
background includes formal training in Controls Engineering and has spent his
career picking up skills he can apply to new ventures. As the definitive "out of the box" thinker,
he is always asking "Where's the
highest value? Why is a product or feature important? To Whom and When?" He has
expertise in strategy, public speaking, leading engineering teams and multimedia design, bringing knowledge and people skills to every new project.

Bill has worked throughout North
America and is currently a resident of
Victoria, BC, Canada. Sifu Bill Stewart trains in Wing Chun every day when not engaged in
Lindy Hop dancing, scuba diving, hang gliding or more dangerous pursuits with his
awesome wife and brilliant and creative kids.
"I design products to be loved, not merely used. Understand what
you are doing and why; Excellence will follow."
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