Kimberly Fuhrman
“Welcome to Autodesk!” Those three words are still sinking into my brain! I have recently joined Autodesk as the new Revit Community Manager after well over a quarter of a century in the architectural and civil drafting fields.
My first “real job” was board drafting (yes, with pens and mylar) for a mechanical engineer. I can still smell the ammonia from the blueprint machine! I managed to get started on AutoCAD release 10 and continued my career taking a detour into civil drafting and design. This was in the days of Land Development Desktop! When the economy dropped in 2007, I was lucky enough to find a job back in architecture. I remember seeing a program called “Revit” on my computer, but everyone else in my office was using AutoCAD Architecture. I started to explore this mystery program and discovered that I could do some awesome renderings. I continued to champion for Revit use with that company and then expanded into Building Information Modeling (BIM) at my next firm.
Around the time of that transition, I also became a Content Manager for AUGI. This led to membership in the Autodesk Developer Network followed by invitations to the AUGI board of directors, Inside the Factory, Expert Elite, and connecting with so many in the Autodesk realm. The next logical career step for me is coming to work for Autodesk. I am very excited to be working as the Revit Community Manager. I am looking forward to sorting through the thousands of Revit Ideas (really!) and Preview Release threads to assist in channeling feedback to our product teams. This will also make Revit Ideas easier for our users to find topics and add kudos rather than duplicating efforts. There is strength in numbers, and we will be combining similar topics along with their kudos!
Revit is an intriguing design software that has certainly come a long way since its early days. Just think about how far we have come in our industries with technology just in the last 10-15 years. Technology progress continues to move at the speed of light, and our product teams are working very hard to stay ahead of the game. New advancements are constantly being implemented, and being behind the scenes now, I can tell you it is quite the process!
The one thing I want you to know is that your voices are being heard, and that we truly value your feedback. I value your feedback. Part of Autodesk’s response to the Revit Open Letter was to create the Revit Community Manager role, and I am truly honored to be here. As one who has come from the trenches of architectural design as a lowly drafter, I can tell you that our product teams are listening to YOU! It is absolutely possible for you, our customers, to improve the value of the software that you use every day. You do not have to take the same route I did.
Check out the Revit Public Roadmap and the Revit Ideas forum pages today. If you are interested, you can also join the Revit Preview Release project. Feel free to reach out to me at revitfeedback@autodesk.com. I look forward to serving you as Autodesk’s Revit Community Manager.
Cheers!
Kimberly