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Brice McPheeters, VP of product and planning at Nanolumens, joins Digital Signage Today to share an intimate look at his career, personal life and perspective on industry trends.
Image provided by NanoLumens.
Describe your current role:
My current role as VP of product and planning for Nanolumens is a mixture of product strategy, operational efficiency and long-term planning to ensure that as a business we are prepared to realize our clients’ visions. That can mean anything from finding solutions to reduce production time through a condensed supply strategy to developing the next evolution of our current product lines through emerging technologies and segments that may be two to three years out. Essentially, I spend a lot of time bringing the right people together at the right time to have creative discussions and utilize all of the expertise at the table to develop and enable a successful strategy for product development and distribution. It’s an exciting role that always presents new challenges where I constantly get to learn and work with very smart people.
What was your first-ever career role and what is one important lesson you learned from it?
Straight out of college I started as a technician on a certain high-profile magician’s tour. Within the first three days, we had a 240-plus-hour straight run of operating the show, packaging the show, and loading it for its trans-Atlantic shipment. That run served two purposes, in my opinion: It showed our team’s commitment to get the job done, and it demonstrated how each of us were prepared to operate in the face of adversity. No matter what transpired — and regardless of seniority, title, or any other factor — we were all in it together, with one goal: get the job done. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter how long you had been there, who you were, or what felt fair (or unfair), we were one team who could move mountains — or shows, in this case — when working collaboratively.
What do you enjoy most about your current role?
I’m a team player by nature, and nothing is more satisfying than hitting that stride as a team where you can say, “YES!” Every day I get to collaborate with each of our teams and form creative circles externally to shape where we’re headed with very few restrictions, making the possibilities endless. Nothing is more energizing than putting a team of creative, hyper-intelligent people together to innovate and then empowering these members to take ownership to drive those projects through to execution. A great example is with our newest product, NanoSuite, a software-based remote monitoring solution. While I would love to take credit for it, we empowered our service and field team members to shape the entire platform. On its debut, it won Most Innovative Digital Signage Product at InfoComm 2023 and in the following two months, the product has had overwhelming interest from partners and potential clients. There is nothing more gratifying than seeing our teams achieve that result.
Who is/was your mentor and what’s one important lesson you learned from them?
I can’t really say I’ve had just one — maybe I am lucky in that sense. I’ve had the pleasure of getting to work with a lot of very successful people throughout my career. Each of these people, who range from billionaire executives to restaurant managers, had their own way of doing things. But there was a constant thread in each of them. They stayed humble knowing that they needed support and a team to get the job done. They questioned the norm and didn’t accept the response, “We’ve always done it this way”. Finally, they didn’t give up. Failure wasn’t an option and they kept pushing through.
What industry trends do you think are currently over-hyped and why?
I’m going out on a limb here to say the “good enough” trend. Not in the way of pricing wars; that’s the nature of tech and it will always be how fast and how cheap. However, the general knowledge on the intricacies of dvLED displays of the AV community has grown significantly, yet there is a trend for some buyers to be satisfied with the minimum threshold that has been agreed to and the overall idea that it’s “good enough”. With that has come an element of generalizing the manufacturers around product specifications, which I believe will eventually come to the detriment of the buyer and reseller. The reality is that if someone produces a spec (barring patented tech), I’m confident in saying we can hit the spec at the same price point. But what about service and support? Or what if a design comes through and it’s slightly off, or it needs to be adjusted for something unforeseen? These are the nuances that make or break a project. It’s this level of care that gets lost in “good enough.”
If you weren’t working in your current field, what would you be doing instead?
That’s a tricky question. My immediate reaction is to do something in corporate finance. It’s in my blood. I love the strategy of it, I love the balance of it and I love math and numbers. My heart on the other hand keeps focused on one day being able to leverage the contacts and knowledge I have gained throughout the years to start a legit non-profit focused on kids in our communities.
Where did you grow up and how did your upbringing impact the person you are today?
I grew up in south Florida just north of Palm Beach with a family split between construction workers and finance. My family did a great job of exposing me to these various facets of business, like when my Dad would drag me to the construction site on a hot summer day to teach me what hard work really is, and that you don’t stop until the work is done. Then the other side exposing me to how hard it really is to make a business profitable and letting me ask dumb questions as I learned. Then there was this unrealized gain that while mixing with these various types of people, I was able to learn just how unique people are. Everyone has a talent; you just have to find out what it is.
What’s one interesting thing about you that even the people you work with every day probably don’t know?
In the aforementioned role for this un-named magician, my hard work and proving myself by helping until the last person left rewarded me with of the most prestigious positions on that tour — managing the live ducks. There’s nothing like being one of the first people up every morning after getting to sleep around midnight to ensure a bunch of quacking ducks are treated like royalty. That means in THEIR dressing room, making sure they are showered, dried, and fed, ready for the show. It’s fun to look back. I was humble and eager and at the end of the day it earned me a lot of funny stories to tell about “Brice McPheeters, Duck Wrangler.”
Is there anything else you would like to tell people about yourself or your company/organization?
Nanolumens is an excellent company both to work for and with and is really on a different wavelength all together. The company is curious at its core, which empowers our entire organization to be brilliant. We implement projects that scale from standard form factor, 1080p all-in-one, displays through some of the most unique and unimaginable custom designs which keeps every day interesting. We get to work hand in hand with some of the most creative partners on the planet, always pushing each other to be better. We are kind of like that friend that you love to collaborate with that you know is with you through thick and thin. We are a team aligned behind one vision: to be the most trusted LED brand. Reach out and see what the buzz is all about!
To learn more about Nanolumens click here.
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