Blog

Projects

The end of 2011 was a very busy time for Five Star Development. In addition to the hustle and bustle of the holidays, we worked on several projects including:

• Customer service training for a new product roll-out
• Upgrades and enhancements to a financial services global publications system
• Compliance training for a utility company
• On-boarding orientation for HR employees for a global manufacturer and distributor
• Implementation training for a  global LMS
• Point-of-Sale Simulation for a quick food restaurant chain
• Training assessment for a convenience store chain

We look forward to continuing to collaborate with our clients in 2012 to meet their training and programming needs.    

Five Star Cares

Five Star conducted its annual all-team strategic planning off-site at the Urban Mountain Gathering Place (www.umgp.org) in early February. Pictured is one of three action teams who used the Crazy Thinking method to brainstorm ways to increase team productivity measures.  

 At the White House

On January 18, Lou Camerlengo, Five Star President and Co-Founder, (far right) and members of the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania delegation met at the White House with Rosie Rios, Treasurer of the United States (3rd from left), and other senior Obama Administration officials to discuss strategies to spur the economy and create job growth.  

Fat Tuesday

During his professional career, Rob Schultz has experienced large corporations and small businesses. He has experience working for good bosses, not so good bosses, and even knows what it is like to be his own boss. In 2002, Rob Schultz worked as a Five Star programming intern. A decade later, Rob has returned to Five Star as the Director of Production Services.

Rob’s professional journey began when he was 14 years old. Before many large companies had a presence on the web, Rob wondered why. Always a hard worker, Rob and a few of his friends started their first website development company when he was 17 years old. That summer, after working construction for his father’s company, it became clear to Rob that joining in the family business was not for him. After graduating high school, Rob attended Duquesne University where he graduated early with a degree in Business Administration and Information Systems. He was the first member of his family to finish college.

Like most soon-to-be college graduates, Rob began thinking about his next steps. In his final semester, Rob took an internship with Five Star, which turned out to be a great decision. “Five Star Development acted as the springboard to my professional career.” Rob explains, “As an intern, I was provided with numerous opportunities to get my hands dirty in a number of areas, including .NET development, multimedia, and technical support. More importantly, I was exposed to a culture that fostered respect, teamwork, and leadership by example. That experience left a lasting impression, and as I embarked on new professional challenges, Five Star would forever be the bar by which all other organizations were measured.”

After completing his internship, Rob took a job with a much larger company. Even as his career continued, he remained in contact with his former supervisor at Five Star, Director of Research & Technology, Cory Seaman. (Cory is Five Star’s first employee and has been with us for our entire 15 years). This past fall, Rob rejoined the Five Star team; “After 10 years of exciting professional experiences, including consulting around the world, client account management, and organizational leadership, I was ecstatic to have the opportunity to come back to where it all started, returning to Five Star as the Director of Production Services.”

In addition to his broad range of experiences, Rob brings with him an enthusiasm and energy that are contagious. “My goal is to provide others with the same opportunities that were afforded to me, equipping each team member with the tools and experience necessary to continue to provide the outstanding value and service that we are known for.” Rob says that after working in several different companies in various parts of the world and reporting to many different types of leaders, he knows Five Star is where he is supposed to be. Welcome back, Rob!

Five Star’s mission is to enable clients to execute strategy through the design and development of custom training programs and software applications. At the core of the Five Star mission are the concepts of Agility, Speed, and Value. We are pleased to announce the implementation of Axure (ack-shur), a rapid prototyping tool that encompasses all three of these core concepts.
Axure’s intuitive interface allows us to create wire frame prototypes quickly. Historically when working on software applications, we created a comprehensive description of a program in a requirements document. Despite the level of detail, some clients found it difficult to visualize the final product based on what they read, or simply did not have the time to read it. We also provided wireframes, which were a visual interpretation of the proposed solution, but we found that wireframes do not fully articulate the functionality of the application or its screen design.
Using Axure, we can create a working mock up for our clients in a matter of days, including actual screen layouts, user interactions, and the path(s) in which information flows throughout the application. Axure adds value by allowing us to create pixel perfect prototypes in functioning HTML pages. Depending on the project, we can add different levels of detail as needed. In addition, Axure is able to simulate interactions so that our clients can experience how the final product will function before we write a single line of code.
Projects move from idea to concept faster by reducing the need for several stages of review and revision. This method has enabled us to eliminate potential rework by allowing our clients to get into the application and use it.
Rapid prototyping is not only beneficial to our clients, but it is beneficial to our team members as well. Our development team uses the prototype alongside the business requirements to understand the client’s requests and to ensure that we deliver a fully functioning product that exceeds expectations with Agility, Speed, and Value.

The idea of coming up with ways to do things faster and better has always appealed to performance consultant Steph Walker. “I started thinking about efficiency when I was a kid and first read the book ‘Cheaper by the Dozen.’” The book, which focuses on efficiency experts Frank and Lillian Gilbreth and their twelve children, spoke to Steph. “Time is the most important currency,” Steph explains, “It’s really all any of us have, and each of us has the same amount of time each day as everybody else.”

Steph began her professional career as a French and Spanish teacher, but her interest in efficiency and her love of teaching eventually led her to training. Steph spent a large part of her career at US Airways in various training capacities. After the 9/11 attacks caused the airline industry to downsize, Steph joined the Five Star team as an instructional designer and performance consultant.

During her 10-year tenure with Five Star, Steph has collaborated with subject matter experts in the convenience store, healthcare, higher education, financial, and manufacturing industries just to name a few. She says she enjoys working at Five Star because of the wonderful people and interesting work. “At other places it is always the same, but here it’s always something different.”

In her role, Steph works with internal and external clients to create and implement performance improvement solutions that add value and get measurable results. Her designs have been delivered in a variety of instructional media from instructor-led to e-learning to blended approaches. She understands that what works for one client may not be the same for another and adjusts her recommendations accordingly. “Ultimately,” she says, “I want to help people be less stressed by giving them a clear understanding of what is expected of them,[by showing them] how they can do or perform what is expected, and making sure they have the tools, environment, and coaching needed to do what is expected.”

Even in her personal life, Steph says she often sees the performance consultant coming through. “I count and time things,” she says. “I can’t help myself. I time how long it takes to do tasks and try to figure out ways to do things faster and better.” Although she admits this habit sometimes annoys her kids and husband, it has helped her create recipes like “Unstuffed Cabbage” (same ingredients but no stuffing required) and “Shotgun Wedding Soup” (the meat and spices are added directly to the soup instead of rolled into meatballs).

Whether she is concocting new recipes, sharing her faith, or designing a training solution for a client, one theme runs throughout Steph’s life: “No matter where and what I’m doing, I want to help people improve their lives, expand their brains, and gain new perspectives and mental models of the world.”

Five Star is pleased to welcome the following staff members to our team!

Rob Schultz – Director of Production Services

Ryan Walsh – Project Manager

Sara O’Connor – Project Manager

Lou DeCroo – Technical Developer

Karyna Kerin – Technical Developer

Nicolette Telech – Office Administrator

Five Star was recognized as One of the 2011 Top Places to Work in Western Pennsylvania by the Pittsburgh Business Times. Five Star’s ranking was based on the feedback gathered from online employee satisfaction surveys. Survey areas include leadership effectiveness, company values, team atmosphere, and attitude about the company’s future.

Lou Camerlengo, President/Co-founder, Five Star and Dave Pistner, Western Hub Director, ShaleNET will be presenting “ShaleNET: A Framework for Large Scale Talent Selection and Training.” Conference information can be found at www.salt.org/fl/orlandoP.asp.

Lou Camerlengo, President/Co-founder, Five Star will be participating in an invitation-only business forum on jobs and the economy and ways the Obama Administration and the Northeast Business Community can work together. Since April 2011, the White House Business Council has held over 500 meetings with business and civic leaders in all 50 states, Washington DC and Puerto Rico. The purpose has been two-fold: 1) to get feedback on what the Obama Administration can be doing more of – or less of – to support job creation; and 2) to ensure that local business leaders are aware of the Administration programs and resources that can help them grow and succeed. The feedback from these sessions has directly informed Administration policy and the President’s plan to create jobs.