New York, October 24th, 2019

Change and disruption are key elements of Blue Fountain Media (BFM) ’s work. The agency based in New York uses technology to push businesses to the next level and behind most of that work is Dan Drapeau, the head of technology at BFM.

Drapeau and the rest of the team at BFM offer a wide arrange of technology services such as solutions architecture, website development, app development, e-commerce and content management systems, giving companies the best tools out there.

In an interview with TIA, Drapeau described the implications of his role and the way he organizes his work. At the same time, he gave insights on his strategy process and the kind of data he uses on his daily work.

What’s a typical workday for you?

When I’m not traveling, my day is normally composed of some combination of sales support, solutioning, partner collaboration, department management, as well as leadership and internal meetings.

Could you please describe your position and main responsibilities in a few words?

As executive leader of the technology group at BFM, I define the technology roadmap and strategy for the agency and focus on growing revenue through sales support (pitches, RFPs, proposals, solutioning) and overseeing global web development teams, particularly from an enablement perspective.

How do you organize and prioritize your workload between technology, strategy and finance?

Many aspects of my role involve these 3 disciplines so there’s nothing specific I need to do to incorporate each of these.

As far as organizing workload goes: For short-term work, I tend to get organized for the week either on Sunday night or early Monday and break it into buckets like Pre-Sales, Tech/Partnerships, and Client.

For longer-term planning, I setup checkpoints to check status against quarterly, annual, or 3-year plans.

Could you define your strategy process? Who (besides you) is involved, and what will you need to get started?

If the strategy is more technology discipline oriented, I define strategies independently and have my department execute on it. If the strategies are for our agency business, like a GTM for expanding into a new market/region, then I collaborate with our agency GM, Brian Byer first before executing.

What types of projects do you find particularly interesting?

I tend to find B2B eCommerce projects the most interesting as they present some unique challenges. Also, any projects with a more complex solution architecture that blend content and commerce solutions.

I enjoy projects with organizations that are unique in terms of their business model or are in a sector I haven’t worked in before.

Do you use data to improve the design, the development of the project or both?

In my role, I’m not involved too often in the design and development of a project unless it’s a new technology/platform/vendor for the agency.

If anything, I’d look at data reported from our regional development teams in a “Scrum of Scrums” style meeting to understand where there may be problems across all projects on a global level.

What tools do you work with? Do you count with one of your own at BFM? What are the metrics that you track on a daily basis?

Tools – Microsoft Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote, OneDrive, Teams, Salesforce.
Metrics – revenue, gross margin, utilization.

Could you share an example of a time you had to gather information from multiple sources?

An example may be gathering statistics or other data to help support thought leadership I may produce for PR purposes.

How do you keep up to date? What do you follow/read?

I rely on newsfeeds or official Twitter accounts I’ve followed over the last 10+ years to get local, national, and global news as well as industry trends, tech and business news, etc.

When you look around at the technological landscape today, what surprises you the most?

I’d say the rate of adoption of blockchain over the last few years has surprised me a bit.

Thanks Dan!

Learn more about Blue Fountain Media

Follow Dan Drapeau on social media:
LinkedIn
Twitter

Follow Blue Fountain Media on social media:
http://www.facebook.com/BFMweb
http://www.twitter.com/BFM_Agency
https://www.linkedin.com/company/blue-fountain-media

Blue Fountain MediaDan DrapeauInformation architectureNew YorkTechnology