Macmillan Learning Employee Spotlight: Alex Britez

[kate_geraghty]

“At Macmillan Learning, there are 800+ highly professional, passionate, altruistic individuals that want to give back to humanity. Being a part of this team is a privilege,” said CEO Ken Michaels in a recent interview for our Introducing Macmillan Learning video.

Over the past several months, I have heard so many colleagues echo similar comments about how remarkable the people and creative energy is at Macmillan Learning. We want to celebrate that!

Today we are launching a series to introduce and celebrate the talented people that make up Macmillan Learning. They are smart, creative, collaborative, and fun! Most importantly, they contribute to the content, tools, and services we create for education. Every day, they live our mission of improving lives through learning!

So get to know us - and the people who make up this incredible team!

First up, Director of Digital Innovation, Alex Britez.

Alex Britez Director of Digital Innovation
At Macmillan Learning, I work on… guiding our organization through a product design process that places our customer in the forefront.  With my team, we validate problems though customer interviews and test solutions with rapid prototypes in the pursuit of quick learning, iteration, and the reduction of risk.
The thing I like best about my role at Macmillan Learning is… curiosity; curiosity about our customers, curiosity about their problems, curiosity about technology, curiosity about the future.  Curiosity leads to questions, and questions lead to learning. This has been an integral part of my growth, both as a developer, designer and just about every other aspect of my life.
My role contributes to learning and education by… creating products that balance customer desirability, business value and pedagogical impact.  It is crucial that all three be a focus on all the products that we design for customers.
I am most excited about the future because…areas such as personalization, quantified self, wearable technology  and mobile learning, will allow us to tailor individualized experiences where they are both cognitively and physically.
When I am not working, I am… either mentoring middle school kids in social impact project based learning competitions and coaching a couple elementary school robotics teams.
One little known fact about me is… I could solve a rubik’s cube in a little over a minute.
The coolest thing I have seen recently is… how much immersive experiences, such as virtual reality, augmented reality have gain immense traction over the last few years. Not only can we see virtual worlds, but we could also interact with them using our hands and voice.
I would tell people to join Macmillan Learning because of the… mission. With so much disposable media that we are all exposed to on a daily bases, educational technology is in the unique situation where the learning that happens during a student’s experience sticks with them for a life time.