Humma.AI

Developing an interactive story for marketing with creative team including Omar Francia and Tillavision .

Producer/Writer

Weirdbunch Entertainment

Co-Founder and Head of Technology for our multinational entertainment studio focused on all ages entertainment ranging from superheroes to mythological adventures.

Co-Founder

Marvel Entertainment

- Co-writer DAREDEVIL AND ECHO series premiered MAY 2023
- Co-writer DEADLY NEIGHBORHOOD SPIDER-MAN debuting SEPTEMBER 2022.
- Co-writer GHOST RIDER: KUSHALA (2021) series.
- Co-writer WEREWOLF BY NIGHT (2020) series.
- Co-writer MARVEL #1000 (2019)
- Co-writer MASTERS OF THE SUN (2017) graphic novel

Writer

Sudowrite

I have been producing and creating videos talking about how we can use the software in our creative writing and brainstorming endeavors.

Creative Producer

Lore Machine

Writer / Advisor

The Philosophical Research Society

I have been running workshops teaching Tarot as a storytelling tool used to better explore symbols and our connection to a universal journey.

Educator

Gaumont

Four projects in various stages of development and sale.

Executive Producer

Pithy Publishing

Co-founded Pithy Publishing, a publisher focusing on short form content, flash fiction, pulp stories, and genre fiction. Our tagline is “Books that get to the point.”

VentureBeat

Contributing Writer

SkyView Way

Founding partner with Taboo of Black Eyed Peas. SkyView Way Studios is focused on multi-cultural narratives, with a primary lens through the Native American and Meso-American experience. Four projects in development with Gaumont. One project in development with Cartoon Network. Directing the documentary BALISTYX, a story focused on when hip-hop first came to the Sunset Strip. Our slate is focused on the core concept "Mythology through Music" and ranges from pre-school to adult.

Partner

I have been working in the entertainment business for the past 20 years ranging from documentaries to graphic novels to feature films to community building. Currently I am writing for Marvel Comics while producing projects with my creative partner, Taboo, under our SkyView Way Studios banner. We have projects currently set up with Cartoon Network and Gaumont. 

I am also heavily involved in the blockchain space, using NFTs as storytelling nodes for both community and world-building. The current project I am running and creating is called Chiwawows (www.chiwawows.com) which is built on the Solana Blockchain. I have two other story-driven NFT projects in development called Realms of Avalon and Angryfoot.

My focus is to create multi-media experiences in entertainment using new and emerging technologies that engage communities into creative activity. 

Having founded the largest comic book club in LA in 2008 called COMIC BOOK SUNDAY! (CBS!), with members around the globe, my finger is on the pulse of what is trending across the board and my access to those creators is unparalleled. 

Specialties: Writing, Producing, Event Production, Community Building, Film/TV, Comic Books/Graphic Novels, VR Storytelling, Video Games, Film Editing, Product Management, Team Building, Web Content Development.

B. Earl

Super Crazy Social Corp

Training, facilitating research & strategy for; UX design, lifecycle management & development of various projects through "Business Model Innovation Sprints", "Startup Toolkit" & "UX workbook" through my proprietary mix of exercises, working with local and international startup rackets.

Venues covered to date going back to 2013 as an educator:
i360Accelerator, AngelHack Dubai, TURN8, CAC Dubai, Flat6Labs Cairo,
Plan9, Launchbox Lahore, Co-Wired, PUCIT, PWiC Lahore Chapter, UET Lahore, QPro, BNU , NSpire by NETSOL, Startup Weekend LUMS, IAC Lahore, and more coming soon.

Consultant and Trainer

Impacts Energy Pvt Ltd

This is another large scale product where I am working on the intersection of sustainability, industrial design and immersive IoT automation. With research towards inclusiveness and disability.

Advisor

Turbo Labz®

Partnerships and Design Consultant

Carmandee Official

Lead & train the team to build the region's first housewife-centric & female centric automotive marketplace. Redesign and streamline their online touchpoints with their offline touchpoints and stakeholders. Offline operations include creative direction, audit, redesign, and optimization of their internal and external apps/websites/dashboards; for automobile inspection, servicing, bank financing, dealer network, workforce operations & creative storytelling from a strategic design perspective. Filling in gaps missed by the competition in the monopoly industry sector, especially around financial and disability inclusion within the local Pakistan automotive sector.

User Experience Consultant

Obrotu

Manage and execute strategies for local retail giants on their UX, digital transformation projects. 

Developed and maintained conversational UI experience (bots) for different client usecases.

Delivering productized service strategy across the board for ecommerce, retail and digital-driven touchpoints. as well as backoffice suggestions where needed.

Leading the in-house creative team to align retail in-store activations with digital touchpoints for various local festivals and new store launches.

UX & Growth Strategist

Punch Group

- Worked with team in multiple capacities as game producer, narrative design, level design and growth on two game titles
- Facilitate & mentor the UXR team on various clients (IoT, SaaS, Mobile, Social) using several user research activites, my favorite being mapping exercises..
- Prepared and collect findings during various research methodologies such as usability testing and user acceptance testing to revise products.
- Developed ResearchOps practices to train and align with the sales team & client development sprints while keeping budgets in check. seeing an increase in clients returning due to our customer insight achieved during the cycle.
- Developed the social media playbook and marketing funnel to work with the established sales funnel, resulting in automation of growth and design departments for better packages.
- Worked with budding startup clients on their service blueprints & their business models for various industries.

Growth Hacker / User Research Team Lead

NetSol Technologies Inc.

Combined responsibilities for in-house hyper casual F2P games.

Developed a chatbot for a client.

Led and revised story development, narrative design and publishing for apps and games (3 mobile games & VR projects) under the Itchy Fingerz Digital Studioz operating under NETSOL Technologies. Also refining game mechanics and playtesting for our games.
- Create strategies for in-game monitization and publishing. Facilitate art direction 
- Prepared and collected ongoing findings during product discovery, usability testing, and user acceptance testing to ensure timely updates.

Growth Hacker (Itchy Fingerz Digital Studios/ NFS Mobility)

- Developed the backstories and outline for the main mascots for the localized Urdu/English sticker addons, with new stickers every week.
- Define and mange product features, their roadmap  brand story.
- Sketch, concept, narrative and storyboarding for the main characters.
- Maintain design release to coincide with event-specific social media camping or increasing app user engagement. 
- Budget planning and management for day to day operations and design execution.   
- Team Lead for and chief ideation messenger for SVS a project incubated under NETSOL Technologies Pakistan.
- Product management from initial design to market penetration.
- Design and execution of the student ambassador program covering 10 universities in the Lahore gave us our initial organic growth which was later used by other NFS Mobility product divisions.
- Roadmap research based on user research-feedback from student focus groups keeping in mind the move from A2P SMS to OTT. (web-based messaging.
Test viability of each new design change or sticker addon through a user feedback loop and competitions.

Product Design Lead (Share Via SMS)

- It all starts with an idea! Throw-A-Thon is the latest hackathon in Pakistan to promote disruptors, innovators and non-techies around Tech.
- Use best practices and formats across leading MENA/ SV hackathons, develop the best format and workshop formats using a very hands-on service design approach.
- Derive the entire project from initial (startup) ecosystem research, develop hack-a-thon curriculum and follow through over execution.
- I am team lead for Throw-A-Thon, a 52 hour hackathon event that takes place during summers. The event focuses on all forms of tech, women empowerment and virtual reality.
- During the hackathon, mentor startups on the business model canvas using design thinking and LEGO Serious Play methodology.
- In 2015 the theme was generic tech and in 2016 the focus was towards VR keeping in-line with the developed of VR projects in-house.

Project Lead (Throw-A-Thon)

- Purely a category management role overseeing execution and social media strategy.
- Optimizing the operational workflow of the Megento based e-commerce business into an omni-channel business model. 
- Created and implemented a 3 tier keyword strategy targeting a defined audience in Pakistan.
- Developed business opportunities by acquiring vendors for the e-retail portal.
- Worked as a key account manager for social media properties on Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram,    Facebook and the Turbooz blog.
- Client and vendor liason including development and execution of content based marketing plans. 
- Hosted the 1st NetSol hackthon event called Throawthon which judged 23 startup ideas in 3 days.
- Provided mentorship on User Experience and business model design to hackathon teams after the   event for 3 months.
- Provided mentorship and evaluation of startup Share Via SMS on their design, UX and revenue models. Created a revenur model for first version of their app.

Learnings: Mangento Administration

Social Media Lead (Turbooz)

Tech Backpack

"We developed a game changing tech ahead of its time." Our solution is designed to streamline the news production process and increase the transparency of news. Its news publishing re-imagined. The aim is to introduce new innovation & digital transformation into traditional newsrooms. Built around the best practices and guidelines set forth by leading research associations promoting open data, transparency, ethical design, and inclusion. 

TB Primetime will save print media with an easy transition to online media and will help broadcast media understand public sentiment better and faster.

Building the first social media plugin for AP's ENPS NRCS at the time.

Tech Backpack strives on the mission to help storytellers step into the shoes of the news industry professional & improve the way content is produced, spread & managed. Our mission is to simplify the way news is spread across web 2.0 through our expanding eco-system of web portal, dashboard, mobile apps, and finance integration. Integrating with NCRS of major news organizations.

Learnings: Product design, product lifecycle management, Service blueprinting, IT project deliverable reviews, SaaS design, Newsroom workflow design, and implementation.

COMMUNITY MANAGER AT FREELANCE
 I have been covering events, conferences and live events on social media.
Achieved a 400 tweets per 8-hour benchmark (usual conference length) using my well defined social media strategies for the MICE and retail sector.

COWORKING/ MEETUP/ COMMUNITY MANAGEMENT
Facilitating, execution & management of the leading coworking space in Dubai, I learned the ropes and management of several key leading hackathon events & space administration. With exposure & building & understanding of MENA & learned how to deliver LEGO Serious Play, service design blueprinting & design thinking workshop with pitching startups as their mentor. Final farewell 16th Nov'22 to the IP, a very, very emotional moment.

Founder & Chief Executive Backpacker

Arabian Gazette

Reporter writing features and photography on the following beats:
New business ventures in the Gulf
New products in the Gulf
Technology

Ideation contribution:
- Assist CEO with drafting revenue model 
- Conducted community management, & delivered content curation and blogging strategy
- Pin down & redid initial UI & news site navigation and article layout

Freelance writer/Blogger

Socialize

Hands-on with customer experience strategies for mall activations coupled with social media campaigns for several leading brands. Responsible for community management (7 days a week planning, drafting, monitoring) of retailing sector clients within 5 MENA markets. Other roles include:
Mall competition rules & play design, online Customer Relations, competitions, social media strategy, social media monitoring & live Tweeting.

Community Manager (AFTER HOURS)

"Mission to build break-through experiences like no other."

Welcome to my LinkedIn profile. Thank you for your visit.
I facilitate & drive immersive product (-zation) experiences.

I thrive in creative environments. A 3rd culture child who's lived in:
Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Malaysia & UAE 
with work experience covering clients in 
Egypt, GCC, USA & Pakistan, mixing creativity & business.

I'm a trend forecaster. Flexible & adaptable design thinking practitioner & research-led UX professional from being a thought leader in journalism to communications, to all facets of the product & it management in an agency & corporate culture setting.

In doing so, I've spent over 14 years working on timely delivered projects within (both non-) digital experience design; their management, strategies, entrepreneurship models & extensions for both online (enterprise) & traditional human-centric consumer projects. I aim to build lasting brand loyalty & immersion. In turn, developing analytics/KPIs, as a design extension. 

Over the course of my vertical transition of transferable skills, I've gained experience & understanding of the supply chains & operations for ecommerce/last-mile, retail overall, garments & fashion, broadcasting, automotive leasing, print & gaming industries.

Constantly testing new apps, games, entertainment, tech, retail & hospitality. Research focused always, I thrive when it comes to mixed-methods approach in creative problem-solving regardless of industry. I'm a quick learner, traveling & meeting people.

My exposure to various industries & personal challenges have increased my sensitivity to accessibility, ergonomics, inclusion and ethics in all work I do.

My passion for product discovery, has helped me build a sound knowledge of startup ecosystems (mgmt & research) in Cairo, Dubai, Beirut, Amman & Lahore ecosystems from service/business design, systems thinking perspectives since Tech Backpack.

What I have learned to love, is working with new innovative ways to enrich experiences derived from my interests using document focused process.

Specialties:
Dyslexic-thinking
Creative Problem Solving
Product design 
Service design facilitation
Ideation & gamification
Game design & mechanics
UX mapping exercises
New product research
Strategic UX Design
ResearchOps
DesignOps & Design Systems
Customer identification
Community management
Ambassador programs
Startup ecosystems
Innovation strategy 
Entrepreneurial journalism 
Digital media planning
Product Management
Business modelling
Entrepreneurial mentorship
Trauma Informed Design
SaaS design

taplio

The Battle

B. Earl

Usman Naeem K.

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