Perficient colleagues within our award-winning Sitecore team bring years of experience and vast knowledge to the practice and our clients. We’re proud to announce that recently six of our colleagues have been named 2023 Sitecore MVPs.
Below is a deeper look into David San Filippo’s role as a principal on the Sitecore team and his fourth Sitecore MVP award. He shares his passions outside of work, how he’s grown while at Perficient, and the meaning behind his most recent Sitecore MVP award.
What is your role? Describe a typical day in the life.
My current role gives me the opportunity to wear many different hats. In delivery, I get to oversee some of our larger more complex projects, working with architects and delivery leads to make sure we’re meeting our commitments and doing right by our customers.
As a “pursuit lead” I get to work with our sales team and architects to estimate and propose work to our clients. There is nothing more satisfying that putting together a solution for a customer and having them agree and move forward with your proposal.
I am also responsible for the go to market approach for our business unit, leading thought leadership initiatives including our blogging program, figuring out how we position our services for Sitecore’s solutions, and creating offers and guides that support our sales and marketing efforts.
After this, if I happen to have any additional cycles, I’m usually working on prototypes with either XM Cloud or Sitecore’s CDP and Personalize. Having a solid understanding of the architecture and capabilities of products helps support everything I do.
How do you explain your job to family, friends, or children?
I usually say that I am a consultant that builds large websites for some of the biggest companies in the world.
Whether big or small, how do you make a difference for our clients, colleagues, communities, or teams?
I run our blogging initiative and encourage our team to share their expertise on Perficient’s blog. I also organize a monthly Sitecore community meeting which gives our folks the opportunity to present about technology trends or work they’re doing for clients.
What are you proudest accomplishments, personally and professionally? Any milestone moments at Perficient?
Professionally, I’m proud of my recent promotion to Principal. It’s given me the opportunity to own how we go to market and position our services at a time when the architecture and approach for Sitecore’s products has fundamentally changed.
What has your experience going through the MVP process taught you?
Consistency is key. After winning the award three years in a row, I was not awarded it in 2022. Although I was disappointed, it was justified. I had not consistently contributed to the Sitecore community throughout the previous year. It’s not something you can make the case for at the last second. Instead of making a big push during MVP season, I make it a point to do something every month, whether it’s a blog post, speaking opportunity, or something else.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to become an MVP?
Pick one of the new products, learn it, and share your learnings. There probably has never been a better time to pursue the MVP because everything is new. These new products that no one has extensive knowledge about leaves plenty of opportunities for digging in, coming up with novel approaches, and sharing what you find.
Why did you choose Perficient? What keeps you here?
I joined for many reasons. The flexibility with remote work and where I could live was a large driver. I had previously worked for a large company in their Northeast region. 6 months after joining Perficient I was able to move from New Jersey to Florida, and my entire quality of life feels better.
What keeps me here is that I truly feel like it’s my company. I’m able to assist setting the technical direction for our practice. I help pursue new clients and shape new solutions for existing clients. I help figure out the best way to do all of that and I get to stay technical.
Why are you #ProudlyPerficient?
Our entire Sitecore team rocks. Along with our six current MVPs, our entire team is out blogging and creating thought leadership. We’re embracing the future and growing our people. We’re building headless solutions on Next.js, doing personalization with Sitecore Personalize, and building integrations for Content Hub. It’s important to note that we’re also doing it globally with team members in India, Serbia, and Latin America.
What motivates you in your daily work?
Knowing that everything I’m doing is creating opportunities for others and how everything is connected. The blog posts I write can one day lead to a client conversation the next. A client conversation often leads to an opportunity that we estimate and propose a project for. This then leads to work that puts a new team together and gives them the opportunity to provide value for the work that they are doing and also to grow in their careers.
How have you grown your career at Perficient?
I’ve grown a lot in the past four years but I think the two biggest ways that stand out to me is in leadership and autonomy. I’m working with more people and dependent on more people to make an impact than ever in my career. With this, learning to let go and trust has been a journey.
I’m also at the point where I can’t depend on someone to direct my day-to-day. I have direction and goals but ultimately it’s up to me to figure out priorities, plan how to best achieve them, and keep myself accountable.
If you had to define yourself using one Perficient value, which would it be and why? (People, Pride, Clients, Innovation, Integrity, Collaboration?
I’d have to say people. At this stage in my career, it has been made very clear to me how little I can do on my own compared to the impact I can make by working with and depending on great people. Lucky for me, the people at Perficient have been excellent.
What are you passionate about outside of work?
My family. With seven children between the ages of 4 and 13, things get very busy all the time. Making sure I’m spending quality time with each of them whether playing basketball, soccer, or going to the park is very fulfilling. Also making time to be with my wife alone. I am also a big fan of audio books and have an extensive collection of Sci-Fi and Fantasy.
What’s something surprising people might not know about you or your background?
I am hearing impaired. I have been deaf in one ear for my entire life. It’s not impactful working remotely on calls, but when I’m in-person I have to be careful where I sit in a room and avoid places that are too noisy.
What goals do you have for personal and professional development?
Personally, I’m trying to pay more attention to my health. I feel like I’m getting older and need to pay more attention than I have in the past.
Professionally, I’m doubling down on Sitecore and their move toward headless architectures and XM Cloud. I’m trying to position our practice as the premiere headless implementation partner, building up our capabilities to deliver in our practice and show our thought leadership.
Perficient believes in a strong/work life balance. What is one way you accomplish this?
Working remotely has been so impactful. When I lived up north, it routinely took me over 1.5 hours each way to get to Manhattan. I had zero time for anything outside of work and I was just too tired. Now I’m home with my kids around and can be flexible when I need to be.
What’s one thing you wish your colleagues knew about you?
I want them to know I’m approachable. Being in a leadership role, sometimes I don’t realize how others perceive me because of that role. I want to help others grow and be part of their success as well as share my own successes. I want to understand where they’re coming from as well.
