Hi there!
Wondering who's behind this site? Here's my story.
My background
I've been working in technology and architecture roles for more than two decades. Much of that time was in retail, spanning the industry's digital transformation and shift toward micro-services.
For the last ten years, I worked as an enterprise architect, seven of them aligned to Corporate Systems – the wonderful hodgepodge of things that don’t fit neatly anywhere else.
This included Finance, which is an absolutely fabulous area to support. Why? Because everything – everything – that happens in a company eventually flows to Finance. Plus, Finance teams are eager to innovate while ensuring compliance, making them wonderful partners. Finance people are the BEST!
How I approach problems
I love learning, pivoting and brainstorming bold ideas – but I'm also likely to say, “These really hard problems still exist. We should fix those.” Perpetual coexistence is the WORST. Dragging anchors through "temporary" patches that spawn baby anchors creates even more drag on innovation. Cut. Them. Loose.
I am a leadership-philosophy nerd, contentedly listening to Brené Brown and Simon Sinek while gardening, cooking, or crocheting, always seeking tools to understand myself and others better.
How I work
I am analytical and creative, learning quickly, connecting dots, and creating visual “art” to drive decisions. Colleagues call me “prolific.” A co-worker once joked that I think, and diagrams just appear overnight, ready for collaboration.
I once created a tool visualizing data evolution across a value stream, grouped by "centers of data gravity." Zoomed out, someone remarked that it looked like sheet music. It became the sheet-music diagram after that. I love that – I’m composing music!
All of this is useful because I'm a facilitator, co-creator, and coach for making big, ambiguous ideas happen – whether it's assigned or something I identify as essential to making progress possible.
Mark-itecture matters
When scaling architecture decisions, I’m the go-to person for learning materials, decision guides, and “in a nutshell” videos. I call this "mark-itecture" – never discount the importance of marketing the architecture!
What drives me
I delight in helping others do amazing things – and we will have fun doing it. Enterprise architecture can be daunting, but everyone plays a role. I’ll meet you where you are so we can get there together.
I hope this site gives you a taste of how I think about enterprise architecture – the mindsets, concepts, practices, and tools I find most useful, presented in a way that’s approachable for everyone.
Let's make amazing things happen together.
Janine Mechelke
For resume-style details, visit my LinkedIn profile.