Hire me!
I'm currently looking for a new full-time position! There are a couple different areas where I can bring a tremendous amount of value and experience to your organization...
CPACC, digital accessibility consultant
I recently acquired my CPACC credential to better position myself for a full-time role in accessibility consulting, as accessibility in digital media, aka Digital Inclusion, has been a passion of mine for many years. They sent me a badge!
For the last four years, in my most recent role as VP, Director of Creative Technology for a large ad agency network, I consulted on accessibility and ADA compliance daily for a wide array of digital projects: websites, emails, banner ads, social media posts, touchscreens, and (pharma-specific) interactive visual aids. This was in addition to my other duties in that role (see more below), but I'm very interested in doing this kind of accessibility consulting full-time, as it's become the area in digital media that I care most deeply about.
In that most recent role I audited creative layouts for accessbility best practices and ADA/WCAG compliance every day, as well as writing and presenting to internal teams on the topic of accessibility and the importance of creating our work in a way that meets our ethical responsibility to people with disabilities. I worked directly with dozens of creative teams from different partner agencies to make sure all of their digital work was compliant. I created a system of templates to efficiently mark up and explain accessibility issues in creative layouts. I participated in dozens of creative reviews per month. I also led a small internal team of studio designers, and I reviewed all of their work to ensure it was ADA-compliant.
Going forward, I'd be very happy to be a full-time member of a Digital Inclusion team, and I'm open to managing other accessibility consultants as well. I have a decade of experience managing devs and designers.
Tech director / digital best practices consultant
My most recent role was VP, Director of Creative Technology for a large network of ad agencies, specializing in the healthcare marketing space, aka pharma. My main duties included working with creative teams across this large network and consulting with them on digital best practices. I consulted on about $20 million worth of digital projects annually.
In that role I created a four-point system for reviewing creative for digital pieces: 1. Is it achievable as designed? 2. Is it ADA-compliant? 3. Does it follow best practices for engagement? 4. Is it designed in a way that will be fast/cheap/efficient for dev? I also created a set of templates to efficiently mark up and explain these four types of issues.
Maybe my favorite part of that role was presenting to clients and colleagues about digital best practices; I wrote a six-part presentation series — touching on websites, emails, banner ads, accessibility, etc — and I'd present different parts of it weekly to various teams depending on what they needed to brush up on. I'm currently rewriting that entire series from scratch, adding lots of new, up-to-date insights.
I like to think one of my greatest strengths is that I'm good at talking about digital media in a way that's clear and persuasive. I care deeply about helping people understand digital, and helping to guide them toward making good decisions. You can see from this site that I love writing about this stuff. I love talking to people about it even more.
As mentioned above, in my Creative Technology role I led a small internal team of studio designers; I reviewed all of their digital work, and I provided guidance to them about digital best practices. I also worked very closely with the studio's dev team, and I signed up to offer my services as a mentor to web developers; I've acted as a mentor to a few web developers over the years.
Prior to my Creative Technology role, I was the Technology Director for another agency in the same network. In that role I managed a team of devs and QA analysts. I also presented to clients and colleagues about digital best practices, participated in new business pitches, helped with scopes for large books of business, etc.
So all of this is to say I'd be very happy occupying a role like this once again; acting as a Creative Technology director, perhaps leading a team of designers and/or developers, reviewing and auditing tons of creative work, and doing lots of writing and presenting.
Before all of this, at the beginning of my career, I was a hands-on web designer/developer. And I guess I still am. :) I've been making websites and other digital media for over twenty years. I still really enjoy all of this; all the moving parts, all the processes.
More info
I've been working remotely since 2020, and I've found that this has been fantastic for my productivity. I believe in always being punctual, easy to reach, and camera-ready, and I always have my camera on (unless the vibe is that we turn 'em off). I'm also happy to travel occasionally for work as needed, for things like pitches, big client meetings, etc. For many years my career has involved tons of meetings every day, and (this might sound crazy) I actually love meetings. I really enjoy touching base with multiple teams per day, answering everyone's questions, checking out everyone's work, and keeping things moving.
You can read more about my professional philosophy as well as my personal projects on my About page.
Get in touch! manning@manningkrull.com I'm happy to send you my resume.
Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn.
– Manning
Questions/comments? Feel free to contact me at manning@manningkrull.com. I update these articles pretty frequently — best practices evolve over time as the world of digital quickly changes, and I always welcome insights from others.