Consulting
When technology problems are really system problems.
Sideways Thought helps organizations make hard decisions about learning technology, AI, accessibility, courseware, web systems, and the governance needed to keep them working after launch.
I work where the usual categories stop helping.
Some problems are not only technical. They are instructional, operational, political, legal, cultural, and human at the same time.
That is the kind of work I am best suited to support: helping organizations turn scattered requirements, anxious stakeholders, legacy systems, new tools, and unclear governance into decisions people can understand, defend, and maintain.
The premium problem
You need more than advice. You need judgment.
The expensive mistakes happen when a decision is made in one lane and paid for in another: a platform choice that creates support debt, an AI policy nobody can apply, an accessibility standard without production practice, a courseware plan with no maintenance model.
I bring an unusual combination of governance, instructional design, production, service management, accessibility, web development, and institutional technology experience. That mix helps surface tradeoffs early, before they become harder and more expensive to unwind.
Where I can be most useful: complex decisions with real consequences.
- High-stakes technology adoption
- Instructional or accessibility production systems
- AI governance and adoption
- Service models that cross organizational boundaries
Service Areas
These are the overlapping domains where I can help you move from unclear pressure to practical action.
AI Strategy and Governance
Generative AI literacy, policy, tool evaluation, classroom guidance, operational adoption, risk framing, and training that respects both possibility and institutional reality.
Learning Technology and Digital Education
Canvas, D2L Brightspace, media platforms, external tools, support models, LMS migrations, documentation, governance, and the digital learning environments around them.
Instructional Design and Courseware Development
Course design, learning objectives, assessment alignment, online and hybrid builds, reusable materials, educational media, H5P, SCORM, and courseware strategy.
Accessibility, Universal Design, and Inclusive Production
Accessibility governance, Universal Design for Learning, WCAG-informed review, accessible course materials, document and media accessibility, QA, standards, and remediation workflows.
Service Operations and Technical Translation
Governance, change management, requirements clarification, support workflows, knowledge management, stakeholder alignment, and communication between technical and non-technical groups.
Web Systems and Practical Implementation
WordPress, web architecture, plugin and theme work, content structure, forms, hosting choices, responsive design, accessibility remediation, and practical technical delivery.
What the work requires
Pattern recognition.
Three decades of seeing how educational technology, web systems, accessibility, support, policy, and production succeed, stall, or fail in the real world.
Operational judgment.
Experience with migrations, governance groups, support models, production standards, and change processes where the work has to survive daily use.
Clear translation.
Practice explaining technical, instructional, accessibility, policy, and organizational tradeoffs in language different stakeholders can act on.
Common Engagements
- Advisory sessions to clarify a decision before money, time, or political capital gets spent.
- Audits and reviews of systems, courses, workflows, policies, websites, or accessibility practices.
- Strategy memos and roadmaps that make tradeoffs, risks, owners, and next steps explicit.
- Training and workshops on AI, learning technology, accessibility, course design, web operations, or production practice.
- Implementation support for WordPress, documentation, courseware, accessibility remediation, LMS workflows, and adoption planning.
- Governance support for standards, review processes, decision models, communication plans, and service ownership.
Good Fit
- You know something is not working, but the problem is hard to name.
- A new tool, policy, or platform is creating pressure.
- Technical decisions are getting stuck in organizational reality.
- You need translation between leadership, IT, instructors, staff, vendors, and users.
- You want practical recommendations, not theater.
Not the Right Fit
- You need full-time managed IT or emergency break-fix support.
- You want a platform salesperson.
- You need guaranteed legal, medical, or compliance advice.
- You want hype-first AI transformation language.
Institutional Proof
My background includes university-level LMS and digital learning environment administration, cross-division governance, accessibility and ADA committee work, system-wide WordPress and learning technology development, courseware production, AI literacy work, and institutional migration leadership.
For public context, see my UWM profile or LinkedIn profile.
You do not need a polished scope before reaching out. Send the situation, the decision you are facing, or the thing that keeps getting stuck.