Why I started this site
Keeping up with climbing online meant checking a dozen sites a day. So I built one place for the news, videos and comp coverage, and wrote it for eight years.
1990s · GeoCities
*** UNDER CONSTRUCTION *** Sign my guestbook!!! *** Now with MIDI *** Last updated: new moon ***
~*~ Welcome 2 Brian's Homepage ~*~
My first site went up sometime in the '90s, around when Chris Farley was on SNL. Tiled background, a guestbook, a <marquee> or three, more GIFs than words.
It taught me you could make a thing and put it on the internet.
2006–2015 · Frontend engineer
From user support to application development and frontend engineering. Table layouts giving way to CSS, AJAX, IE6 hacks, the arrival of jQuery. It's where I learned the craft, and how much the people using the software matter.
| Company | Role | Years |
|---|---|---|
| Associated Bag Company | User support → programmer analyst | 2006–2011 |
| Milwaukee Center for Independence | Applications developer team lead | 2011–2013 |
| Markit on Demand | Web developer | 2013–2015 |
- W3CXHTML 1.0
- W3CCSS valid
- RSSfeed
2007–2015 · ClimbingNarc
Climbing Narc
So obsessed with climbing it hurt.
On the mic for Louder Than 11
Covering competitions turned into calling them: live commentary for USA Climbing National Championships, Portland Boulder Rally and the Psicobloc Masters.
On the other side of the questions
Read the archive »1,332 posts · 9,574 reader comments
2015–2021 · Heroku
Heroku
Six years learning how a platform feels from the inside.
I started on the Heroku Dashboard, built a shared component library, and cut test run times by 90%. Later I led a 20+ person organization across Dashboard, CLI and oclif, helping teams build on shared developer tools.
brian-heroku / 2015–2021
Dyno formation
people-leader
night-ride● on under full moon
Latest activity
- brian scaled
brian-herokuto 0 · 2021 - brian changed
brian-herokuprocess type to people-leader · 2018 - brian scaled
brian-herokuto 1 · 2015
$ heroku lessons:show --app=brian-heroku
Where I learned good developer tools come from the people building them.
2021–now · HashiCorp
Open source
Putting design and engineering on the same team, in public.
I joined HashiCorp in 2021 to build and lead Helios: designers, engineers and accessibility specialists in one group responsible for the shared UI foundation, rather than two functions negotiating across a handoff. That group is now Frontend Experiences — nearly 40 people setting UI direction across Terraform, HCP and the rest of the product suite.
- Built and led the Helios team from its inception — design and engineering strategy developed together, not handed across a function boundary.
- Grew it into a nearly 40-person design engineering organization spanning frontend architecture, design systems, accessibility and developer experience.
- Recruited and backed the leader of HashiCorp’s accessibility function, who turned it into a company capability — stronger VPATs, better enterprise deal readiness.
- Now leading the incremental move from Helios to IBM Carbon: better alignment, without forcing rewrites or stalling product delivery.
Released publicly
Components, patterns and guidance, open to everyone since January 2023.
Moon mode off
- --token-color-foreground-action
- --token-color-foreground-strong
- --token-color-moon (unofficial)
Next · Moon: full
The next full moon is around Sunday, October 25.
Want to talk frontend platforms, design systems, or making software easier to use? Find me on LinkedIn or Twitter.
Still building websites around whatever I’m obsessed with. And still heading out when the moon is up. Probably Oct 25.