Ryan Burgett · Experience Engineer
The kitchen: work
I’m useful and have great ideas. I promise 😁
AI made writing software cheap. It didn’t make knowing what to build any easier: if anything the teams I work with are more unsure now, not less. That judgment is the job.
How I work
- Find the real problem first. It isn’t always the one you were handed.
- Settle disagreements early, while they’re still cheap, so the work moves cleanly.
- Prototype early and often, and build in small pieces where it fits.
- Stay kind and honest the whole way through.
The work
Chose the reusable primitive over the quick point solution
A telecoms provider was building a steady stream of multi-step customer journeys (sign-ups, plan changes, verifications) across a large application, each scaffolded from scratch with its own step navigation and state hand-off. I was asked to spike options for a better approach.
The fast path was a purpose-built flow for the journey in front of us. I argued instead for a generic flow container: one primitive that persists state across steps and pages and drops in anywhere in the app. It was more work up front and harder to defend against a single deadline, but it fit where the tech stack was heading and meant the next journey wouldn’t start from zero.
It became the standard pattern for the user journeys built after it. Later flows were assembled on the container instead of rebuilt, and state hand-off stopped being a per-team problem.
Rebuilt to the daily job, not the original brief
A retail bank asked Avanade to build an experience around a specific business function. We designed and built to the agreed brief, but at the demo the stakeholders saw it didn’t match how they actually worked day to day, and wanted significant changes.
Rather than route the changes through a formal change cycle or defend the original scope, I went straight to the stakeholders and worked through their real daily workflow with them directly. We reshaped the experience together, in the open, against what the business actually needed.
The reshaped experience fit their day-to-day operations, and handling the pivot transparently and early, instead of as a dispute, is what kept the client’s confidence in the delivery.
Knowing every inch of an AI-heavy MVP
I’m leading a team on a large greenfield MVP with a short timeline. It puts a lot of private data to work on a process that is still very manual today.
My focus is to understand every inch of the application and how it’s served: the database architecture, the design of the front end, and the different ways we use AI for the people using it. Leaning on AI lets us take on more, and it’s redefining what the software development life cycle means for us.
We’re very close to the MVP delivery date, then UAT. Launch is early next year.
Background
- Forward Deployed Engineer, my preferred title is Experience Engineer
- Associate Manager at Avanade
- About seven years, delivery-side on every engagement
- McGill, 2018, with a minor in music technology
How I deliver
- I keep the plan moving: decisions made, not deferred, even when nothing looks urgent.
- I keep stakeholders grounded in what’s real without closing off what’s possible.
- Every room I’ve delivered in has been different. Changing course quickly without dropping the plan is the job.
Contact
Bring me your mess. Email, no form: the quickest way to find out whether I’m the person you want in the room.
arburgett1@gmail.com
The living room: life
Coffee
A Niche Zero grinds the beans every morning, and a Breville Bambino pulls the shot without taking over the counter. Monday to Friday it’s an Americano: espresso with the crema carefully skimmed off, topped up with steamed filtered water. It’s divine and it makes me very happy. On weekends, sometimes a cappuccino as a treat.
Volleyball
I started playing about two years ago and it’s grown on me a lot. Mostly 4-2, with the occasional 5-1. I like setting and playing back middle, defence in general, and now and then I’m useful in the front row. I’m short, though.
Board games
I grew up on chess, and it shaped how I think.
Card games were always on the table too, and that’s where my love for cards started.
Strategy games are what I enjoy most, like Quarto and Stratego.
I also love Werewords and Blood on the Clocktower.
I’ve played too much Catan.
And I love trying new board games, so bring one I haven’t played.
Magic
Commander and Canadian Highlander. I’ll happily spend an evening trimming a deck down to its last hundred cards.
Who I am
Everything I’ve been through sticks with me, like stickers on a water bottle. Each one is a tip or a trick I carry into the next adventure, and together they’re a kind of armour that makes the new thing less scary. I don’t shy away. I’m very much a “the only way forward is through” person.
