Tarryn Pietersen

After graduating a developer I sort of fell into the job of Business Analyst and worked as one for 8 plus years, mostly in the financial sector. The earlier projects weren't particularly interesting, mostly maintenance of existing software, but I did gain a deep understanding of how organisations operates and I learnt how to manage stakeholders, manage risks, manage projects and facilitate workshops and relationships.

The most stimulating project I had the pleasure of working on as a Business Analyst, was the Old Mutual Money Account project. Not only was it exhilarating to be developing a new product and supporting systems, but I was also able to spread my tentacles to design the front end of the banking platform and all customer communications.

I then worked on a business transformation programme where I first got to work with UX designers in an agile team and it so happened that I was assigned to develop a CX metrics framework to measure how well the organisation was meeting customer expectations.This is when I really fell in love with user centred design.

In my first 4 years as a UX Designer I played an integral role in building the UX practice, and wore many hats, including that of a Product Owner, to achieve lofty goals. Within 2 years our team overhauled the multi-channel, digital landscape of an organisation, giving it  a new look and feel and many major improvements. I also led the effort to develop our multi-disciplined, cross-functional teams' ways of working in an Agile environment.

As a Service Designer my objective was to enhance and improve the overall experience of my clients' services, from the perspective of both the client, their staff and their customers. I worked on multiple client projects in financial services, healthcare and telecommunications. Service Design brought my my two worlds together and then some. 

In developing my businesses, I've poured most of my time and energy into operations, IT, networking and course development. I have taken on a few clients for whom I have built websites with a strategic approach. As a small business owner targeting small business owners with my service, I'm learning about my customer by infiltrating their world. It is merely the MVP of my business. It will grow incrementally as I grow in my corporate role. I want to take what I have learned and teach others how to apply it, to ¨teach a man to fish.¨, and pay it forward.

I received a National Diploma in Information Technology in 2006 from Cape Peninsula University of Technology. In 2010 I received another Diploma in Business Analysis from the Faculty Training Institute. 6 years later I would become a certified usability analyst (CUA) and 5 years thereafter, a certified user experience analyst. My career path split but seemed to marry again in Service Design. I graduated top 10 in my class from the Interaction Design Foundation with practical skills in designing integrated service experiences. I studied a few other things in-between but not relevant to this application. I have become a serial course-taker.