The odd bunch who run this blog

Amritanshu Thakur (Amrit) is the youngest addition to Innovation Lab’s group of software engineers. He graduated with a degree in CS and decided to work for the ilab. Coming from a technology consulting background, he is just having too much fun working on cool innovative stuff at the lab. Being an open source junkie, he enjoys coding in java (and its extensions), c++ and a few other web scripting languages for different flavors of linux distributions and databases. He also knows a few proprietary languages but does not talk too much about them! When he is not working, he likes to read some non-fiction, do screenwriting for ‘bollywood’ movies which fail to launch, learn thai, chinese and indian styles of cooking from extremely unreliable sources, watch indies and of course… party!

Anna Simmons is the designer for the team, she loves anything to do with improving your experience online, from screen flow to feelings to colors.
She is a new mom, a runner, loves to travel and eat great food, and is currently obsessed with taking pictures and playing with them on flickr.

Artie Correa is one of the software engineers here at Intuit’s Innovation Lab, and in the past year he’s worked on a number of projects including myTipOcean and Thumbstrips. He has
experience coding in a variety of environments and languages including Linux, Windows, C#, Java, C++, and some PHP. When he’s not coding for the iLab he likes to go to Disney World (frequently) with his family, work out, or relax while watching football, hockey, and Mythbusters.

Dante Cassanego loves to build products that solve people’s problems. On weekends he enjoys cycling, hiking, or just about anything that gets him outdoors.

Holly Scatamacchia is a product manager in the iLab, helping guide ideas through research and development to get them out into your hands. So far she has visited nearly 100 businesses and customers all over the country, learning something new from every one. She dabbles in blogging and editing, but spends way more time knitting and following her local sports teams.

Jenny Spadafora is our semi-resident (she mostly works from home) web geek, which means she’s the point person for social software and community stuff. She’s also part of the user experience team. That’s the jargon-included way of saying she’s committed to using the power of the web to help people. She’s a blogger, a photographer, and book nerd who spends crazy amounts of time online.

Jonathan Mandell is a Product Manager in the group and a TV aficionado. He is working on ThumbStrips and intuitlabs (this site!). Being a social butterfly with an analytic mind, he is interested in understanding how we can harness efficiencies in the social aspect of the web; first and foremost, in using our own site to effectively learn from and interact with you, our customers.

Matt Hart is the iLab architect. That means he knows a little about a lot but not a lot about anything. He’s been around since the beginning and has visited hundreds of businesses and individuals, usually filing several patents during each project. He posted the first roughcuts on the site. He blogs a bit, plays bass and throws wrenches into the works whenever he can.

Scott Williamson is one of our software engineers here at Intuit’s Innovation Lab. He’s been with the iLab for a year and has helped develop and launch ThumbStrips and echominder . Scott works with a variety of languages and technologies some of which are PHP , HTML, JavaScript, CSS, XUL, and MySQL . When he isn’t busy cranking out code for the iLab he enjoys working out, eating, sleeping, watching cartoons with his daughter, and spending time with his family. His favorite YouTube video is the “Evolution of Dance”.

Tad Milbourn is a product manager focused on improving the way organizations innovate. He’s passionate about teaching others and communicating clearly. It probably has to do with the fact that everyone in his family is a teacher or a journalist.

Tara L. Tarapata is the Group Manager for the iLab. She has the undeniably enviable task of guiding and supporting this eclectic, creative, funky, passionate team. Tara’s background is in research and marketing but she landed here 5 years ago in the very beginning and just won’t leave. She’s apparently having a good time chasing customer problems all over the country. As a result of her years in the iLab, she has great stories about the customers she’s visited and the wacky folks she “manages”. It’s a toss up whether it’s easier to manage the team or her two fabulous kids, they both keep her on her toes.