Customer Centered Design Teams at KAYAK

September 8, 2011
3pm - 4:15 pm
Nelson Auditorium, Anderson Hall

Abstract

Paul will talk a bit about the founding of KAYAK, and how he recruited a top team of software engineers, and how that team works together to build mass-market consumer software. Paul will discuss the role of customers in the product design process, including how KAYAK does usability tests and the unique methods of customer service used at the company.

Paul English is Chief Technology Officer and cofounder. Before starting KAYAK, Paul was a lifelong technology entrepreneur. He co- founded Boston Light Software, a small business e-commerce platform that was sold to Intuit. At Intuit, Paul became Vice President of technology and led small business Internet and product strategy, company-wide innovation process, and tech recruiting.

Paul was briefly an entrepreneur in-residence at Greylock, a co- founder and Director of Intermute, the founder of the World Xiangqi League, cofounder and Chairman of Mancala, Inc., Senior Vice President of Engineering and Product Management at Interleaf. He also did contract programming for the US Air Force, operations research programming for Data General, programming for a medical device company, and even some video game software and sound-effect development.

Paul is involved in nearly every aspect of Kayak, but he spends most of his time leading product strategy and design, customer support and recruiting. Paul is obsessed with customer feedback. (He hates bad customer service so much that he launched the www.gethuman.com initiative to help consumers fight back against bad phone systems.)

Paul received a BS and MS in computer science from University of Massachusetts. Paul regularly lectures on entrepreneurship topics at Boston-area universities, and was named Chief Technology Officer of the year by Mass Technology Leadership Council in 2009. He's also a Director at Partners-In-Health and Village Health Works, and is an advisor to JoinAfrica, FanSnap, Roost, LinkedIn, and Pixable.