Friday Feature: Julie Turner

Microsoft

We are excited to introduce this week’s Friday Feature— @Julie Turner! Julie is a Principal Architect with Sympraxis Consulting. Although she made the switch to consulting in 2010, she’s seen herself as an internal IT consultant long before. As she shares, “[in] my mind, IT is a service organization to the company it serves and its goals should always be to empower the organization to be more efficient and profitable.” Check out her Q&A below where she discusses her story (starting with software development at age 8!), her perspective on SharePoint and more!

 

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Julie Turner

Job Title: Principal Architect

Company Name: Sympraxis Consulting

MVP Profile: https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/PublicProfile/5002534?fullName=Julie%20%20Turner

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliemturner/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jfj1997

 

  1. Tell us a little bit about where you work and your role in the organization.

Almost exactly one year ago I joined Sympraxis Consulting which at the time was an employer of one, fellow MVP, @Marc Anderson.  Marc and I had met before, but got to know each other better at a Developer Kitchen event hosted by the SharePoint product team in Redmond.  After returning home to Boston area we continued the discussions we started there and it quickly became obvious to both of us that we would really enjoy working together, so I joined him on May 9th, 2016.

 

My background is rooted in formal software development.  I started developing software at age 8, attended computer camps during the summer, and earned a BSEE from WPI, with a focus in microprocessor system design.  Marc also had a background in software development but had a lot of experience with management consulting and information architecture.  So, from that perspective we work well together, sharing the load on some projects where it makes sense and taking on others independently. But we’re always connected, and chat over our virtual “cube” walls all day long... thanks “Teams”!  This is great because I think it keeps us both more productive and better connected.  And then as a result all our clients really get both of our expertise.

 

  1. Can you elaborate on your transition into consulting? What skill set shifts did it require?

 

My transition to consulting happened in 2010.  I had spent many years working my way through the ranks of internal IT departments from software developer to manager to director.  I always, unlike many of my colleagues, tried to view my role in IT as a consultant.  To my mind, IT is a service organization to the company it serves and its goals should always be to empower the organization to be more efficient and profitable. To that end, I always tried to make the use of computers something that freed employees from tedious tasks and helped them stay organized. 

 

My view of the skillset needed to be a good consultant is:

  • Be a very good listener, you must hear what people need, not implement what you think would be best.  To that end many customers struggle to communicate what they want.
  • Be a good communicator, help make things simple and translate things from tech speak.
  • Be compassionate.  Not all people love computers and they won’t share your enthusiasm… they just want it to work with the least amount of friction
  • Develop good UI/UX skills, the users’ experience with your solution is key.
  • Understand that change is uncomfortable and change for change’s sake is not always the best thing
  • And finally, be honest and fair.

 

  1. What would you say is your most valuable skill? Why?

 

My ability to listen to the client and translate their vision of the “perfect process” into reality.  I don’t know, is this a skill?  Deconstructing a client's needs is hard, and so is figuring out how to build the best solution. To be a good consultant, I need to play many roles - business analyst, architect, project manager, developer, therapist… Because I came up through the ranks in an IT organization, I learned to wear many hats, and that pays off every day.

 

  1. When were you first introduced to SharePoint? When did you realize just how powerful the tool could be?

 

I’m not exactly sure where I first heard about SharePoint, probably a conference, but I was working for a contract medical device lab and SharePoint was in version 2007.  Right away I thought “wow, this thing could be the backbone of the entire organizational process.” I didn’t know enough about SharePoint to reach that vision, so in my position as de facto CIO, I hired KMA, which was a local Boston consulting firm, and got connected with Sadie Van Buren, who ironically now works for Microsoft.  She helped me work through the ins and outs of SharePoint and get it working for our organization.  Basically, we had a pipeline of scientific processes with the project “baton” passing from group to group.  It seemed so obvious that SharePoint could be the tool to help orchestrate this entire process.  I may have been a little premature in my vision and certainly lacked the budget, but I’m seeing that be the reality with many of my clients today.

 

  1. What’s the most rewarding part of rolling out SharePoint solutions for your client?

 

The wow factor.  The platform is just so powerful for business users.  And as a platform for customized business solutions, it’s unparalleled.  With some JavaScript I can pretty much build anything the client needs.  If you add in serverless computing with Azure you can almost be unstoppable.  That all said, the biggest challenge ironically is item level security, which often comes up… not that you can’t do it, but the management of it can be overwhelming and can easily get messed up.  Usually security by obscurity ends up being enough…. Not in a regulated environment obviously, but for most business processes it’s enough.

 

  1. Given the rapid pace of change in cloud technologies and product updates, how do you stay up to date? What resources do you lean on the most?

 

Honestly, I just don’t.  This is where partnering with Marc is just a huge bonus.  We both have our special interests and work very hard to keep each other as up to date as possible, but it’s like drinking from a fire hose and if you pay attention to everything you’d have no time to do anything else.  So, we do the best we can.  Some of my strategies are to follow fellow MVPs and Microsoft Product Managers on Twitter – and then in turn share the information that seems helpful, I listen to the Microsoft Cloud Show as often as I can – those guys do a nice job of summarizing the news in the Azure and Office 365 cloud products, and collaborate with Marc!

 

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1 Reply

Great Q&A, thanks for the insights on what it takes to do well in consultancy.