Bob Owen

I recently posted this to Facebook, but I wanted archive it here:

I’m leaving my employer, Silverpop, at the end of May and starting in June I will begin studying with an intense, 3 month, 70hr/week, code accelerator program in San Francisco called Hack Reactor.

This has been a tough decision for a number of reasons. First, Silverpop has been great to me. In the six years I’ve been with the company I’ve really grown with them and helped them to grow as well. When I started the product was largely focused on email sending, the company had around 100 employees, and I was single. In the course of my six year tenure I’ve shepherded the majority of the UX projects in the product for it to become a full-scale marketing automation suite. The company grew to over 500 employees worldwide. And I grew to having an amazing wife and beautiful daughter.

I’m taking this career leap because I believe it’s time. My family and I are ready for a new challenge and a new adventure. If I look at the market and my career options from here I can see there is a lot to be gained by combining my user experience design and testing experience with the ability to realize those designs in software. Having that combination is likely to make me a strong addition to the kinds of highly-skilled cross-functional teams that are building the amazing products we’ve all come to love.

Making the decision to leave Silverpop and spend my savings was difficult. However, the hardest part was knowing that I’ll largely be apart from my wife and child for the three months of this program. But this is the right choice for all of us. As Marie and I have discussed, there’s never going to be a better time to try something of this magnitude than right now. We know that pursuing a dream like this can make me a better father, example to my child, and provider for our family.

Now that the decision has been made and the deposit paid, the hard work has only just begun. The program requires completing an extensive pre-work project prior to be start of classes. I’m highly motivated because there’s a lot riding on this, not just for me, but for Marie and Rosalie as well.

Thanks to everyone who has given of their time and consideration to support me getting to this point. I beg your continued patience as I focus on this next major career / life change.

To continue my whirlwind week, we travelled to Disney World for two awesome reasons:

• My wife ran in the Disney Princess Half Marathon (her 2nd half marathon. And she shaved 1/2 hour offer her previous time!)
• To celebrate Rosie’s first birthday!

Here’s a picture of the kiddo and me on the big day:

First birthday. Celebrating in the Magic Kingdom!

First time with life-fire practice with sketchnoting. I had a blast!

These are my notes from the 2013 An Event Apart in Atlanta, GA.

Boardwalk Morning, a photo by Bob Owen on Flickr.

Good morning from Disney’s Boardwalk. A panorama taken from my phone.

This is what happens when I have a little too much time on my hands during the bus ride between Disney parks.

Cereal Box Ready, a photo by Bob Owen on Flickr.

Rosey is ready to take Mikey’s place for Life cereal.

Mmmmmm, a photo by Bob Owen on Flickr.

Rosey enjoys pears for the first time.

Giraffes Necking, a photo by Bob Owen on Flickr.

A couple of giraffes pose together at Zoo Atlanta.