Lisa with her senior rescue dog
As a Director in the Optimizely practice, Lisa Hunter is involved in delivery, mentoring, pursuits, and everything in between. Her ability to incorporate interests from her personal life within a career at Perficient, specifically in Optimizely, has enabled her to grow her career to new heights while simultaneously transforming our clients’ organizations.
The dedication of each colleague in our Optimizely practice recently led to Perficient being recognized as Optimizely’s Solution Partner of the Year, and receiving a joint award for the Most Customer-Centric Digital Experience at Opticon22. These awards showcase the team’s hard work and passion to deliver exceptional solutions using Optimizely offerings. Below, Lisa’s passion for Optimizely exudes through answering questions about her role and experiences at Perficient.
What is your role? Describe a typical day in the life.
As a director in the Optimizely business unit, I’ve worn many different hats and often split my time between presales and serving as a Delivery Director on projects. In doing this, I attend meetings with clients or internal teams to assist in successful delivery of projects or products. I also pursue, lead, and partner with sellers to ensure Perficient provides a homogeneous experience and solution through leveraging Optimizely products. I also co-lead the career growth committee within our Women in Technology employee resource group where I help lead our mentoring initiative.
READ MORE: Women in Tech Recognizes Global Excellence in Global Career Panel
How does your role within the Optimizely business unit support Perficient?
One thing that’s so exciting about the overall Optimizely footprint at Perficient is that it’s still young, so there’s a lot of opportunity. We have colleagues that are trained experts across the many different Optimizely solution areas. One role I play a part in is to help bridge our different business units in presenting a seamless go-to-market message.
What are your proudest accomplishments personally and professionally? Any milestone moments at Perficient?
When I initially joined Perficient through an acquisition, I was a sales leader in the business unit. This was a role that didn’t previously exist, so I’m proud that I took on a new role and built a net new team. This expansion was driven through building our organization, developing as individuals and professionals, and fully embracing Optimizely.
What has your experience at Perficient taught you?
My experience has taught me that when everyone shares the same mission and vision, you can grow incredibly quickly while achieving some pretty amazing things. I will admit that I was leery about joining such a large organization that combines so many different practices while also having to expand Optimizely’s overall footprint and hiring in high volumes. I wanted to ensure team members would remain passionate, and this was possible because our organization is full of mutual respect, and our company feels just as much like a family as the smaller company I came from.
Lisa’s two oldest children at college graduation
What advice would you give to colleagues who are starting their career with Perficient?
- Be a sponge. Learn, learn, and learn from everyone you encounter. Go into each interaction with an open mind and assume you know nothing. You will walk away with new knowledge and continue growing.
- Learn how to effectively communicate in the environment you’re entering. Communication differs within projects, teams, and business units, and the inability to tailor communication is a common obstacle. It’s a soft skill that can sometimes be difficult to learn and adjust in a technical organization.
- Don’t let imposter syndrome paralyze you. When you look around, everyone at Perficient seems brilliant, smart, energized, and ambitious – but so are you! You’re at Perficient for a reason. My advice is to do your homework, figure out what gaps you have, research, and be overprepared.
What motivates you in your daily role?
I love being a consultant and helping clients. I was jokingly referred to as the “office therapist” because I genuinely like listening to problems and helping people solve them. I’m a builder, and being able to help constantly build our Optimizely practice and rally a team around big goals really charges me up and motivates me.
Lisa’s daughter and youngest son
If you had to define yourself using one Perficient value, which would it be and why?
If I only had to choose one, I’d choose People. Our people make us who we are, and how we deliver products and treat our clients is what allows us to feel the Perficient pride. We value our people and spend significant time focusing on our colleagues and clients because they are the foundation of everything – we treat our colleagues well, and in turn, our clients are treated well. Ultimately, this helps grow business.
What are you passionate about outside of work?
My family first and foremost. I have a husband, three kids, and two dogs we love. I am also extremely close with my parents, and they actually live just up the street, so we have family dinners every weekend. I consider my dogs to be family members, and I’m passionate about supporting local shelters.
Aside from being with family and spending quality time with them, I also enjoy being active and playing tennis to connect with people outside of work.
Lisa’s oldest son with their dog
Why are you #ProudlyPerficient?
The simple answer to this is to read everything above. We live our core values day in and day out. This goes back to our people, our clients, and the trust our clients have within us, our leaders, and Perficient as an organization.
Aside from this, Perficient sees the value of growing from within. We actively promote Growth for Everyone and encourage colleagues to seek growth opportunities, which I think is really special.
At Perficient, we continually look for ways to champion and challenge our talented workforce with interesting projects for high-profile clients, encourage personal and professional growth through training and mentoring, and celebrate our people-oriented culture and the innovative ways they serve Perficient and the community.
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