This is Rohan Jayasekera’s website. I’m a Toronto-based independent consultant who helps an organization create or improve an Internet-based product – and by “product” I mean anything intended for use by people you don’t know. For instance, just about every website is a product. Products are wonderful things from the perspective of your wallet, because you get to create something once and then sell it over and over. Internet-based products are especially wonderful because the cost of providing them to additional customers is close to zero. But products can trip up even the smartest people, because to do them right involves taking care of things like flexibility (one product has to satisfy all its customers), ease of use, future expandability, and even just making sure that potential customers understand what the product does! And then there’s the small matter of actually getting the product developed and fully working: remember that it involves writing software, something that’s notorious for time and cost overruns…

So what I do is product definition and development for Internet-based products. (Because I love the Internet, and because products are a wonderful vehicle for making great things: spreading the cost over many customers justifies the expense.) There’s a bit of a sales pitch below.

I’m very interested in “Web 2.0”, “cloud computing”, etc., and write a blog on the subject: Rohan Jayasekera’s thoughts on the evolving use of computers -- and the resulting effects.

Rohan Jayasekera
E-mail
Twitter @RohanSJ
Phone +1 (416) 532-0696
47 Brock Avenue, Toronto, Canada M6K 2L3

I’ve been designing and developing online systems for many years. One notable role was co-founder of Sympatico, Canada’s largest Internet service (and most likely the world's first easy-to-use Internet service), and Sympatico.ca (now Sympatico.MSN.ca), Canada’s most popular Web portal (and most likely the world's first with a home page tailored to the user every time) – my email address is . Another was co-author of Deutsche Bank’s global risk control system, which monitors, authorizes and manages, in real time, over a trillion dollars of transactions each year for Europe’s largest bank – and is a key component in the protection of the global financial system. Recently I helped create a unique product, The Fitter, which will order a made-to-measure suit that usually fits perfectly with no alterations. (Yes, it’s Internet-based. All the computations are done by a website, the user interface is in Flash, and the order is emailed to the factory.)

On each project I’ve worked with both the big picture and the details. For Sympatico, for instance, the big picture included something as big as forecasting the future evolution of the Internet (quite accurately), while the details included things as meticulous as editing the user’s guide and debugging the PC software. If your situation calls for effective translation of your business objectives into both strategy and tactics, and if you don’t want anything to fall through the cracks, someone like me is indispensable. For a detailed résumé click here.