Who I am

I like the space between people and systems.

I’m Paige Cleary, a data platform manager, enthusiastic planner, and lifelong collector of complicated questions.

My work usually lives in the handoff between technical systems and the people expected to use them. I figure out what teams actually need, make the messy parts legible, and build structures that can survive beyond the first launch. Sometimes that means designing a data platform. Sometimes it means repairing a process, defining a metric, or asking enough questions to discover that the original request was only a symptom of the actual problem.

I care about whether systems function correctly, but I care just as much about whether people can understand and trust them. A technically sound system has limited value if everyone quietly constructs a parallel spreadsheet to avoid using it.

How I got here

I’m a first-generation college graduate with a background in political science, computer science, research methods, business intelligence, and analytics systems. I earned my bachelor’s degree from the University of Mississippi. I grew up in Southern California and now live in East Tennessee, near Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

In college, I gravitated toward research and data because I wanted a way to engage seriously with whatever questions captured my attention. Curiosity is useful, but methodology makes it actionable. Learning how to evaluate evidence, interrogate assumptions, and structure information gave me a way to move between subjects without sacrificing rigor.

Data felt like a skeleton key for a brain constantly jumping between interesting topics.

My career has since taken me through business systems, market research, survey reporting, analytics, automation, and data leadership. As the work became more technical, my questions became more human.

What gets measured? What remains invisible? Why do people trust one system and devise elaborate workarounds for another? Who inherits the burden when technology is confusing, inflexible, or built around faulty assumptions?

I do not have tidy answers to all of those questions. I remain interested in asking better questions, noticing the desire paths people create, and finding ways to pave them.

Outside the spreadsheet

For fun, I like to design and run long-form tabletop roleplaying campaigns. This requires research, systems design, narrative continuity, improvisation, audience awareness, and a frankly unreasonable volume of notes. It is a source of joy for me and one of the clearest places where my professional instincts follow me home.

I also volunteer with Young-Williams Animal Center and foster animals who need time outside the shelter. Fostering involves care plans, behavior support, adopter communication, and the occasional reorganization of an entire household around the preferences of a six-pound kitten.

Otherwise, I read an embarrassing number of Fantasy and Sci-Fi novels, cook unnecessarily elaborate meals for my loved ones, travel, and plan things with overkill but deeply satisfying precision. I have never encountered a sufficiently complicated project without wanting to turn it into a spreadsheet, a color-coded system, and a timeline. 

What this site is

This site is my home base for professional work, independent projects, writing, and anything else that catches my eye.

Some of what lives here is serious. Some of it is delightfully specific. Most of it involves making something complicated feel more navigable.