I thought I'd start off this blog by introducing myself – it’s nice to know who is talking at you right?
My name is Jenni A.M. Merrifield, though (as I'm sure you've guessed) I also go by “strawberryJAMM” here and about online. I work for Microsoft as a User Experience Program Manager (UX PM) for the Windows Core Security (WCS) group. I joined the WCS in Feb 2004 and was originally tasked with driving the user experience issues for the “TrustBridge” team federated identity management project. Unfortunately for me (‘cause I really liked working with them), the entire TrustBridge team was re-org’ed out of WCS and into the Active Directory (AD) group where the product was officially christened “Active Directory Federation Services” (ADFS). Hopefully they will stick to my original plan and the snapin will be both useful and at least somewhat usable.
Currently I’m on the Application Security (AppSec) team and am focused on issues around the user experience when running with a Least-Privilege User Account (LUA) versus an Administrator Account, and around the configuration and application of Software Restriction Policies (SRP) in both the Home and Enterprise environments.
I have a little over seven years of industry experience in the User Experience field for client/server applications and systems development. Prior to my recent move to the WCS group I was with the Content Management Server (CMS) team in the Windows Server System group for almost three years and I worked for NCompass Labs, Inc. (a small startup located in Vancouver, BC, Canada that developed “Resolution” – the web content management client/server application that became “Microsoft Content Management Server” after Microsoft acquired NCompass in May 2001) for the four years before that.
Prior to hooking up with NCompass Labs (June 1997) I did time at university (11 whole years of time) and completed two separate undergraduate degrees: a Bachelor of Arts (BA) with a major in Classical Studies (The art, history, architecture and archaeology of Ancient Rome and Greece) from the University of British Columbia followed by a Bachelor of Applied Science (BASc) with a major in Computer Engineering (and a personal focus on human-computer interaction, user experience and ergonomics) from Simon Fraser University.
As you may have guessed, I originally hail from “Lotus Land” – (that would be Vancouver, BC, Canada) – and “I am Canadian”. My family and I moved to the Redmond/Seattle, WA area from the Vancouver, BC area in August of 2001 (about four months after the Microsoft acquisition of NCompass labs). Since then, my husband Ron, son Nathan (He’ll be six on Sep. 21st) and I have lived just south of a small city called Mill Creek which is, in turn, North West of Seattle. We do, however, make a point of regularly visiting our friends and family who still live “North of the 49th”. I expect… No, I know I’ll move back someday, I love that area too much, and while the Seattle area is similar, it just isn’t the same (close, but not the same). Still, I’m quite happy where I am at the moment, both with my career and in my life, so I’m definitely here for the long haul.
On a more personal note, when I can actually eek out some spare time (admittedly not nearly as often as I’d like), I love to read (almost any genre, but with a definite preference for science fiction and fantasy), I regularly DM and play in tabletop fantasy Role Playing Games (mainly D&D 3e5 and d20), and dabble in digital artwork and web site design for fun and (occasional) profit.
And that's the scoop on who I am and what I'm about. Now it’s up to you to decide whether the words that pass from my fingers to my keyboard and onto the pages of this blog are worthy of your attention. J
