Waylon Kenning

Master of Digital Business student Waylon Kenning likes to create “digital experiences that delight customers; by defining their interests and marrying them to technology”.

Originally from Taumarunui, he is now half-way through completing his MECom degree online, while continuing to work full-time as a product architect at Hexagon Safety & Infrastructure, a global IT firm in Wellington.

Since graduating from a Bachelor of Electronic Commerce in 2008, Waylon quickly found work as a business analyst, and his career has gone from strength to strength.

He now oversees a diverse team of developers, user experience designers and analysts at Hexagon, who are creating a new mobile app designed to help police officers do their jobs more easily by putting critical information at their fingertips. The goal is to reduce paperwork so that police officers can spend more time in the field investigating crimes.

Last year Waylon decided he wanted to “beef up” his academic credentials, be exposed to the latest ideas in e-commerce technologies, and gain an internationally-recognised master’s degree that offers a passport to working overseas.

“I thought about doing an MBA, but I really wanted a programme focused on how business and IT relate to each other, and the Master of Digital Business really fits the bill in that respect. I also liked the fact that the Professional stream was taught completely online, because most professionals can’t quit their jobs for an entire year.”

Waylon says his favourite paper was ‘MCOM502 - Managing Virtual Teams’, as it helped him understand how to communicate better with members of his own development team at Hexagon; some of whom are based in India and the United States.

For the professional field internship paper, MSYS519, Waylon spent 10 weeks working on a variety of small research projects for Contact Energy, his former employer.

“The internship is really designed to kick-start your career in e-commerce and help solidify your knowledge base, which is great for people who are new to this field.”

“If you’re already working in e-commerce, it gives you permission to research a topic in-depth that you’ve been thinking about for some time, because you have to write a 10,000 word report at the end of it.”