Welcome!
Leading Software Maniacs™ (LSM) is a small creative, tech-savvy consultancy in the Pacific Northwest (USA). OK, it is really just me, Ken Whitaker. In the past, I have focused on tech executive coaching, cross-platform app development, and hosting agile leadership workshops.
For over 10 years, I have developed a passion for courseware design, technical writing/editing and book design/layout (specifically, user guides, long documents, and interactive books), and DigitaLetterpress vintage poster art.
Products and Services
Leadership Coaching
As a long-time software development executive, author, and agile workshop presenter, we can coach managers and potential leaders to be successful.
Spresso Apps
You don’t have to use Git to version backup your digital project work. We’re building Windows and macOS apps designed for creative professionals.
Editing and Design
As an experienced technical editor and writer, we can complement text with professional drawings, screen captures, and place in a variety of publication formats.
The Nerd Herd Game
The Nerd Herd Game is a gamification app. Questions and tasks are customized by the client. Yet everyone plays with real game pieces on a real game board.
Courseware Development
We design and create video instruction for eLearning and blended learning courseware. This includes demos, slideshows, quizzes, download packages, and workbooks.
Supper’s Ready
Remember the original Genesis masterpiece called Supper’s Ready? Soon, we’ll be crowdsourcing the creation of an illustrated comix based on the song’s lyrics.
“There is no one quite like Ken! We were looking for technical writers to help our product teams with their documentation when we met Ken through Upwork.
He’s been working with our team for almost two years at this point, helping to standardized our processes and produce world-class documentation for our team.
Ken is fun, he's one of the smartest people I think I’ve ever met and he GETS STUFF DONE. Lightning fast. I really can’t say enough good things about Ken and the value he has added to our organization.”
— Annie G.
Ken Whitaker
managing director
Domain expertise in tech leadership and agile project management
From a programmer, tester, and a VP for techie companies, Ken has turned hard-fought lessons into material designed to help anyone become successful at leading tech teams.
… and an author
Ken Whitaker has written books on agile project leadership, graphics, and publishing—with most not self-published.
(I guess this means that publishers were somehow convinced that it must have been worth the risk, especially from a self-proclaimed “enlightened Southerner.” I don’t get it either.)
Click/tap to learn about other books I have written here.
Managing Software Maniacs (J. Wiley & Sons)
A diversity of products and services
LSM’s Four Pillars
More about what I do
Turning complex topics into usable stories is what I like the most: courseware, user documentation, and organizational improvement processes. The combination of experience and responsiveness to customer needs can take all sorts of routes: PowerPoints, video shorts, text, and so on.
This short, introductory video short was created showing how creating digital training can be accomplished in a D-I-Y home studio environment. The merging of software and hardware technologies demonstrates the power of video-based presentations that can augment written material.
Click (tap) on the thumbnail below to view a 2-minute video to see what I can do as a freelancer for your business. (It has my voice but the facial expressions are all animated with the audio track. Kinda creepy but fun to create.
Profile video posted on Upwork