Designing Your Own Future: A Day in the Life of a Sr Principal Strategic Technology Consultant at UKG

With over a decade of experience at UKG, Toby B. has navigated a diverse career path that spans engineering, customer support, and product strategy. His current focus is on harnessing the power of Generative AI (GenAI) to solve complex business problems and make this transformative technology accessible to all U Krewers. A typical day involves collaborating with data scientists, engaging with internal teams to address their unique challenges, and leading initiatives that drive continuous innovation. Join us as Toby shares insights into his daily responsibilities, the projects he’s passionate about, and the skills that are essential for success in this ever-evolving field.

Tell us about your career journey at UKG?

I am currently a Sr Principal Strategic Technology Consultant - AI Pillar Product Management; it’s a mouthful. I have worked at UKG since 2012. 

I have held various roles throughout my career, starting in engineering where I focused on quality assurance, served as a scrum master, and worked as a developer. I then transitioned into customer-facing roles in escalation management, where I was on call 24/7 for our largest customers. Following that, I moved into product strategy with an emphasis on product supportability. Eventually, I returned to engineering, where I tackled near- and future-horizon business problems, adapting to various roles based on the specific challenges and team needs.

My current focus on AI started when I was part of a project that leveraged Google’s AI Platform, which inspired me to continue pursuing learning and AI experience outside of work. Other small strategic projects built my skills with new technology vendors in a way that enabled me to build proof of concepts with potential partners very quickly. 

Eventually, I sought more hands-on work associated with continuous innovation when I had the opportunity to help with a GenAI focused Hackathon in 2023. This set me on a trajectory of tackling the question, “How do we make AI more accessible to everyone at UKG?”

Describe a typical day in your role.

I review the trends in the industry and announcements that are made by major AI providers. I experiment with new releases and share relevant news with our team. I have a daily standup with a team of three data scientists to review the work in progress, and I meet with internal business teams to discuss their specific use case, business problems, and GenAI solutions.  

I review and validate any work that is waiting for review or acceptance from our team. I write user stories or design new features. I host office hours in which I share updates and answer questions from U Krewers who are working with GenAI technology. I host internal customer demos about the technology, tools, and resources we provide to UKG. I meet with the broader AI product and engineering team to stay informed and consider opportunities in which we can solve problems together. I review and triage the backlog of business requests to prioritize and plan future work. 

What problems are you solving?

I help solve a wide variety of problems across UKG given the generic context of what GenAI technology is good at versus not good at. The general problem I am solving is how to make GenAI technology accessible to everyone at UKG, so they can understand and leverage it to build their own business solutions. 

What have you already built and what’s next?

I built the Innovation Playground at UKG, which is a community and technology landscape where our U Krew can experiment and innovate with GenAI technology. I built an internal GenAI solution along with our team of data scientists to enable every employee to learn, experiment, and build their own GenAI solutions. We are ambitiously looking to solve the major internal data management challenges of UKG to maximize the benefits we can realize from GenAI solutions. 

What is your favorite part of your job?

My favorite part of my job is helping make dreams come true with GenAI solutions. 

What project are you most proud of working on?

It’s hard for me to associate a sense of credit or pride for some of the most inspired work I have done because the effort was low, the inspiration was high. The value and impact happened to be very high with the launch of our meeting summarizer and internal UKG-GPT. Those have evolved and continued to mature beyond initial inspirations.

The work that I am most proud of that was both difficult and learning-intensive, was the product design work for our Tax Business dashboards that required learning new business domains and new technologies to solve complex problems. 

What three skills are essential to your role at UKG?

The skills that are essential to my role are adaptability, learning, and creativity. 

How has UKG helped you develop as an employee?

UKG has helped me develop a personal sense of responsibility for my own destiny. No one else is responsible for my success but me, and my success is dependent on the value I deliver to others. I am focused and all in to help UKG be better than it was the day before.

Where have you found inspiration and motivation?

A while back when I was most frustrated with my career, amid being on call 24/7, I read and began practicing the exercises recommended in a book called Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans. I journaled and reflected on the activities that energized me, and those that drained me. 

This awareness led me to more fulfilling experiences and enabled me to invest in myself and extend effort that was not sustainable otherwise. It also helped me understand and realize the power of inspiration versus becoming disengaged. Inspiration that comes from being in the flow and leaning into ideas to change or disrupt the status quo. The inspiration became a source of energy, that when delivered, returned dividends due to the value that was delivered and personal fulfillment gained. 

I continue to practice those disciplines of reflecting on what activities energize me versus drain me and actively choose to invest in those activities that energize me, and either delegate or find other ways to accomplish the tasks and work that drain me. 

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