Welcome Aboard!

Hey there! Welcome to my spot. This is a place for me to post thoughts about work, mobile product development, personal & professional growth, leadership, advertising, creative technology, and more. I’ll also liberally sprinkle in musings on comic books and comic book art, cycling, traveling around the world with the US Navy, along with other assorted topics that have no impact on the world around us.

I’m not trying to cure rare, exotic diseases here, I’ll leave that to smarter more dedicated nerds. I’m just going to exploit my little corner of the web for fun and the experience of a side hustle that goes nowhere.

If any of the above interest you, then I’d invite you to pull up a chair and come along for the ride.

Kick back and enjoy the flight!

My Latest Blog Posts…

  • Remembering Fallen Shipmates on Memorial Day
    by Jeff
    I originally posted this on my first blog. In fact, it was THE reason I started blogging. I had an experience in my life that I never forgot, and I always thought, “you know, if I die, I’d really like to at least get that thought down on paper… or something”. So I started a blog on an old blogging platform (remember blogger?) and tried to put it into words. I wasn’t very good at it initially, and …

    Continue reading “Remembering Fallen Shipmates on Memorial Day”

  • 2024 – The Year of Product Management and Product Leadership
    by Jeff
    I’ve been building digital experiences for as long as there have been digital experiences and I’ve enjoyed evolving as the platforms & underlying technologies have evolved. I came to advertising in the ’90s from a background in technology, computers and computer science, so I began my career with “software development” as my frame of reference. In the early days of building out these brand-new digital capabilities for agencies that had no experience “building things that needed to DO …

    Continue reading “2024 – The Year of Product Management and Product Leadership”

  • J. Walter Thompson
    by Jeff
    Ran across this and chuckled a bit. I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for all things Walter and this design, commissioned from one of the “Archer” animators who were housed over on Williams Street at the time, is my all time favorites. We used this illustrated version of J. Walter in several Atlanta Office in-house efforts during the early 2010’s and it was a really fun identity to work under. With the demise of JWT, …

    Continue reading “J. Walter Thompson”

  • My Last Nirvana Show, 1991
    by Jeff
    In late 1991 I was back in Oak Harbor visiting shipmates and spent some time down in Seattle partying and catching as much live music as I could. A group of us lucked out and scored Halloween night tickets to Nirvana at the Paramount Theater. It was about a month or so after the release of “Nevermind” and the buzz was pretty intense. I distinctly remember we didn’t dress up (after much discussion about whether or not it …

    Continue reading “My Last Nirvana Show, 1991”

  • My Favorite Picture of 2023
    by Jeff
  • Building Transformative Muscle Memory for 2024
    by Jeff
    I have to admit, I had a pretty good 2023. At work, we’ve started down a path of internal movements that have begun to take shape around how we manage and offer Product Management services, and I’ve had a front-row seat. I may or may not exactly jibe with everything about how you pitch/offer, support, and strategize around the concept of product management, but that’s okay… this is a long road and we’re getting it done for sure. …

    Continue reading “Building Transformative Muscle Memory for 2024”

  • I Always Pause On This Day
    by Jeff
    I never forget about today. Of all the days of the year, this one in particular is a little more special than most and it goes all the way back, not to 1941 but to 1986. The story of how I joined the Navy isn’t that special. I wish I could tell you that sailing the world’s oceans working on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier was my life’s calling, but it really wasn’t. I grew up …

    Continue reading “I Always Pause On This Day”

  • Diamond Head, O’ahu
    by Jeff
    Puka shell necklace, bucket hat, Birdwell Beach Britches… quintessential late 80s/early 90s beach attire. I think that’s my Tag Huer I bought over in Hong Kong that I wore to death. Petty Officer Small… just a sailor doing sailor stuff.
  • Knock Knock…
    by Jeff
    I have no clue. There’s a door behind me over my right shoulder, I believe that’s my Aviation Ordnance Space (the Ordy Shack) on the USS Kitty Hawk. If memory serves, the Aviation Fire Control Techs (AQs, they work specifically on the radar systems) shared a space with the Aviation Electricians (AEs, they worked on all the OTHER electronic systems – except weapons systems – on the plane) so this was probably taken by my best friend at …

    Continue reading “Knock Knock…”

  • A Sailor’s Prayer
    by Jeff
    I randomly ran across this on the internet this morning. I’m about 99% certain I’m the sailor on the far right. The sailor on the far left is Greg “Soupy” Campbell, next to him on the right is Craig “The Boz” Bosley, and between us is an AD (engines/powerplants) whose name I can’t recall… but I’m about 99.99% certain I’m the one on the right, and this was taken in Hong Kong on my first cruise in the …

    Continue reading “A Sailor’s Prayer”

  • F/A 18 Super Hornet Arrested Landing
    by Jeff
    A few years ago I flew out to the U.S.S. Carl Vinson for an overnight. While we were out there I got to film some flight operations, even getting a chance to stand on deck during recoveries. I always enjoyed this bit of video.
  • The Greatest Final Paragraph Ever Written
    by Jeff
    “So in America when the sun goes down and I sit on the old broken-down river pier watching the long, long skies over New Jersey and sense all that raw land that rolls in one unbelievable huge bulge over to the West Coast, and all that road going, all the people dreaming in the immensity of it, and in Iowa I know by now the children must be crying in the land where they let the children cry, …

    Continue reading “The Greatest Final Paragraph Ever Written”

Who, What, Where, How, Why?

Hello, I’m Jeff Small, Director of Mobile Product Strategy at Perficient. I needed something to tinker with and give my brain & hands something to do, so I set this place up to try and create a channel of sorts.

I’m currently living in Atlanta, via a life spent in the Mid-Atlantic/Southern East Coast of the United States. Growing up in Richmond, Virginia and the Carolinas, The Fabulous Freebirds’ “Bad Street, Atlanta, GA” was my only peek into life in the big city of Atlanta… but I’ve been here now for over a decade since leaving the Carolina coast in 2012 and it’s not as rough as Michael Hayes made it out to be.

I moved over to the north-western outer Atlanta suburbs in the summer of 2020 and it’s been like moving to a whole new world. Hills and mountains and parks and lakes… great stuff!