Cimplifi Conversations | Featuring Nate Pulver

We know the importance of building a company and culture that empowers people to thrive. We offer an environment where you can make an impact, grow, and be recognized for the value you deliver.

Welcome to our series, Cimplifi Conversations, where we recognize a team member honoring our company values – courageous, reliable, inventive, and adaptable. At Cimplifi, we believe in empowering our people and providing opportunities for professional and personal growth.  

Recently, Amy Hinzmann, president of Cimplifi, sat down to chat with Nate Pulver, director, technical services. Nate joined the Cimplifi team as a project manager in December 2018. He now manages our technical services team and operates as the escalation point for all eDiscovery-specific technical issues at Cimplifi. We hope you enjoy learning more about Nate and seeing what makes the employee experience at Cimplifi special to him.

A: Hello, Nate. Thanks for chatting with me today about your experience at Cimplifi. Let’s kick things off by telling us a little bit about you and how you found your way to Cimplifi.

N: I am number 9 of 10 kids. I grew up in Chino, CA, and went to school at UCSC in Santa Cruz. I started as an eDiscovery analyst about 10 years after graduating from college. Ever since then I have been striving to increase my knowledge of eDiscovery and computer forensics. After about eight years of working in the industry on the more technical side of eDiscovery analysis, I reached out to Cimplifi for an open project manager opportunity. I took the opportunity with Cimplifi to challenge myself to become more client-facing and develop my ability to manage eDiscovery projects at a higher level.

A: Wow, 9 of 10 kids! This would explain why you are so well-suited for managing a team and resolving conflicts. What’s a day in the life like at Cimplifi for you?

Every day is something new! 😊 My day usually consists of at least a couple of hours of internal team calls where we discuss outstanding service tickets, upcoming and current initiatives, and any ‘task blockers’ we may have. I frequently spend a couple of hours a day on Zoom meeting with projects managers and members of the data operations team looking into specific client workflow questions or issues. It is extremely common for me to encounter an error or a process that I am not familiar with and need to learn about, so every single day I spend time on Google and the Relativity Help and Community sites learning new things about how Relativity and its related applications work. I try to spend the downtime I have on updating documentation or filling gaps in workflows.

A: Tell me, can you describe yourself in one sentence?

N: Hard-working husband and father of two.

A: I love that! It all comes down to family at the end of the day, doesn’t it? What was the defining factor that made you want to work at Cimplifi?

N: The people and the team. The company culture at Cimplifi is extremely welcoming and I truly feel like this is a second family. I am most impressed with our leadership by the creation of a top-down work ethic that trickles through our company. I never feel as if I am the hardest working or smartest person in the room because of the depth of knowledge within our teams and the nonstop dedication of every employee who works here.

A: I agree. We have an incredible team – not just with talent, but some wonderful people that are all working toward our common goal. Tell me a little more about how Cimplifi helped you in your career development.

N: I am constantly challenged with new client projects and allowed to have input on the processes and workflows. My managers have also inspired and encouraged me to receive additional expert certifications.

A: This is a common theme I hear from our employees, and I love that is what makes Cimplifi stand out for so many! Are there other values or personality traits you have that enable you to excel at your position?

N: I am patient, diligent, and love to learn new skills and tools.

A: Those are great qualities that pair well together when you are a life-long learner. And I’m sure they serve you very well as a manager and a father too. What motivates you to go above and beyond in your life?

N: My kids.

A: Easy answer, right? Mine would be the same. I think I can guess your proudest personal accomplishment (being a father!) so tell me about your proudest professional accomplishment.

N: I successfully managed and consulted on a large second request eDiscovery project for Cimplifi in 2019. This project had extremely tight deadlines and followed a very particular production protocol which required tens of hours of analysis and preparation on a weekly basis. This project included a series of large forensic collections with hard copy, server, computer, and mobile device collections across multiple states. We delivered all milestones for our client on time and under budget and the Cimplifi team was alongside me the entire way to support and ensure the success of our project.

A: On time and under budget on a challenging project, that’s great. I can see why you’re so proud of that. What do you foresee being the next major milestone in your career?

N: Acquiring additional certifications and skills related to new eDiscovery tools, contract analytics, and Relativity infrastructure/back-end management.

A: It’s so important to keep fresh and be open to new technologies and skills in this ever-changing industry. Speaking of change, tell me about a situation when Cimplifi went through big changes. How did you adjust?

N: Cimplifi is an ever-changing and adaptive company that is relatively software agnostic.  We have implemented many new software tools and workflow processes to fulfill growing client needs and the rollout of these new tools and/or processes can often be challenging in terms of training and adoption.  I have always found that open communication, hard work, and team collaboration have allowed us to tackle any new challenge here at Cimplifi.

A: I really love that you embrace learning, improving, and working together as those are pillars of our values here at Cimplifi.  Is there an area you would like to grow in that you currently find challenging?

N: I would like to learn more about Relativity scripting and Relativity infrastructure/back-end management because it would allow me to be able to solve some front-end issues our clients can experience, which usually stem from these back-end processes. Much of my experience in Relativity and eDiscovery relates to collections, source data, processing, analysis, and production. All these processes work with unstructured data or data constructed in a specific load file format; however, I do not have a lot of experience working with structured databases themselves. Learning more about the back-end infrastructure of Relativity will allow me to better support all types of projects which deal with structured data or databases, regardless of the source platform.

A: That’s great – and I agree, our clients definitely know when things aren’t right behind the scenes, and it’s important to be able to problem-solve around these issues. And what long-term goals do you have any why?

N: I want to become a Relativity Master which would reflect my proficiency in this platform which is important to me, my colleagues, and our potential clients. The two specific Relativity tracks I am excited to start are the Relativity Analytics specialist and the Relativity Infrastructure specialist tracks.

I think of most client concerns from a very technical perspective; I want to better understand non-technical stakeholder perspectives.  Having the ability to influence client outcomes with new tools or solutions – especially tools and solutions that leverage automation and AI –  will allow me to could solve more challenging client issues.

A: That’s wonderful, and I’m excited to support you in those goals! After such a tremendous year of growth, what do you think lies ahead for Cimplifi?

N: Growth and opportunity. I feel extremely grateful to be a part of this team and look forward to whatever challenges Cimplifi presents to me and intend to fully apply myself in my role.

We are always looking for knowledgeable and passionate people to join our team. Explore our job board to learn more.  Attorneys, data experts, project managers, sales pros, and IT whizzes: this is your opportunity to thrive!

Until then, we look forward to introducing you to more of our talented team members that shine and bring dedication and creativity to their role at Cimplifi.