Doing business as Vicarious Partners

It is with tremendous excitement and huge dreams for the future that I am finally ready to announce that I have formally changed the name of my company to Vicarious Partners™.

This new name much better reflects my mission to help organizations build deeper connections amongst colleagues and customers in an effort to deliver the best possible experiences for both.

vi·car·i·ous
adjective

1. Experienced or realized through imaginative or sympathetic participation in the experience of another
2. Performed, exercised, received, or suffered in place of another
3. Taking the place of another person or thing; acting or serving as a substitute

part·ners
noun

1. A person who shares in an undertaking with another
2. Either of two people dancing together or playing a game or sport on the same side

verb

1. To serve as the partner of

I am continuing to offer best-in-class user experience consulting, providing services in user research, product strategy and interaction design.
My expanded focus is to integrate these practices into corporate strategy and policy, cultivating a culture of empathy at the highest level of the organization.

This work can’t be endeavored alone. I partner with other practitioners as needed while remaining the primary client partner on every project. Together we aim to forge partnerships between senior leadership and staff while demonstrating how to engage customers as partners in success.

The Backstory

On August 3, 2005, eight months into my first full-time job, I established an LLC for the freelance gigs I was doing on the side to make ends meet. I called the company Wet Pavement Productions from a childhood fascination with inscriptions sealed into the sidewalks of NYC. I’ve always been enamoured with the publicness of something so intimate. When I was in the 8th grade and the Internet was young, I wanted to start a website where kids could publish their creative writing. “Make your mark” was my imaginary tagline. The site never materialized and I put the name on the shelf where it sat idle for a decade.

When I went independent in August 2008, I continued to use the LLC as my business entity, but chose not to publicize the name Wet Pavement or brand it in any way. I don’t even have it on my business cards. The only place I mention it at all is in my LinkedIn profile, and that has confused quite a lot of recruiters into believing I’m employed and available for hire. When I started out, I wanted to approach things very casually and informally, and felt that being the principal of XYZ Company would not only be inauthentic, but it would make things more complicated than they needed to be. Over the last almost-four years (holy cow!), I’ve come to realize that having a branded company is an asset, an individual in its own right capable of achievement and growth, and a means for me to create more of an emotional barrier between the professional and personal.

As I tackle increasingly complex problems and focus on a new target, the name no longer fits. So I set out to find something that would immediately convey my greater purpose and attract the kinds of clients I want to be in partnership with. I hope I’ve achieved that.

Vicarious Partners LLC was established on March 9, 2012 in the State of New York. I look forward to helping it thrive, helping it serve the world, and hopefully one day helping it stand for something that exists entirely beyond me.

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