About Rick Stephens
About Rick Stephens
I tend to get pulled into work where there isn’t already a playbook.
My background is in clinical trials and statistical programming, but my work has rarely stayed in one narrow lane. I’ve led global teams, helped establish new approaches to clinical-data delivery, administered time-critical reporting environments, built governance and access processes, redesigned training and onboarding, and translated complicated technical and regulatory requirements into practical ways of working.
Sometimes the job is to build something that does not exist yet. Other times, it is to take something that already exists, figure out why it is not working well enough, and make it better. I’m usually most useful when the problem crosses technical, operational, regulatory, and people boundaries.
Through Good Gorilla, I continue that work independently—exploring practical applications of AI, knowledge tools, workflow design, games, and original products.
How I Work
- Start with the actual problem — not the technology someone wants to use
- Make complicated things usable — a solution only matters if people can understand and maintain it
- Be honest about what is proven — experiments, prototypes, and production systems are not the same thing
- Bring people along — good systems still fail when training, communication, and adoption are treated as afterthoughts
What Good Gorilla Is
Good Gorilla is my independent studio for practical ideas across regulated work, business systems, AI, and original products.
Some of the work is serious. Some of it is playful. The common thread is curiosity, problem-solving, and a preference for building something tangible rather than only talking about what might be possible.
Good Gorilla also gives me room to explore ideas that do not fit neatly into a job title—from regulated-workflow prototypes to board games, applications, and physical products.
Why Good Gorilla?
I chose the name Good Gorilla because it reflects how I try to approach the work: thoughtful, adaptable, collaborative, and willing to take on difficult problems. The “Good” matters too. Technology and innovation are not automatically useful just because they are new. The goal is to build things responsibly, solve a real problem, and leave people with something they can actually use.
Understand the problem.
Build something useful.
Learn from what happens next.
