The Power of People Skills: Shad Durfee’s 22-Year Career at SmartSafety Software

In 2004, Shad Durfee was transitioning out of a five-year career as a youth minister and looking for a way to stay in Boise, Idaho. A friend named Josh Evarts, who owned a local software company, asked Shad to send over his resume.

Shad sent his resume on Thursday, and Josh called him the next day with a blunt assessment: it was the worst resume he had ever seen. Shad didn’t have the technical skills Josh was looking for because he had only ever been a youth minister. However, the following Monday, Josh called back and asked Shad to come in for an interview.

Shad arrived at an unmarked building with a locked front door. He walked around the back of the building and found Josh with founders Brett Murrell, Steve Carlson, and Jim Obenchain. That's where he interviewed and was hired on the spot. The company had nine employees, all of whom were developers. They didn't need more code writers. They needed someone to answer phones, manage trade shows, talk to the customers regularly, and build relationships. That was right in Shad's wheelhouse.

Twenty-two years later, that decision has become part of a much larger story.

As Trancite, now known as SmartSafety Software, celebrates its 30th anniversary in 2026, Shad is celebrating his 22nd year with the company. He has worked in technical support, sales, form design, and project management. He has helped shape products, spent countless hours talking with customers, and become one of the people who remembers the stories behind the people and products that built the company.

But when Shad looks back on those 22 years, the technology isn't necessarily what stands out most. It's the people.

He Didn't Come to SmartSafety Knowing Software

Shad's first role was simple on paper: take care of the customers.

In practice, that meant learning the software one conversation at a time. He became a one-man technical support department, helping users troubleshoot problems over the phone. He didn't arrive with years of programming experience or a technical background. He learned because customers needed answers.

That became a recurring theme throughout his career. As the company grew, Shad's role grew with it. When co-founder Jim Obenchain developed an add-on for Easy Street Draw that allowed users to create custom forms, Shad took over the form design process. That work eventually expanded into the ATTAC project, where he trained and managed a team of employees responsible for building the specialized forms customers relied on.

He also spent time serving as the company's sales manager. Through every role, Shad relied on the exact trait the founders hired him for: the ability to communicate clearly and build genuine relationships with the people using the product.

His background in youth ministry had given him years of experience listening, communicating, and working with different personalities. Those skills turned out to be just as useful in software as they had been anywhere else. Shad didn't have to know everything on day one. He knew how to listen. And he knew how to connect people.

The Kentucky State Police and the Birth of "Mullet Man"

Some of Shad's favorite memories are also reminders of how closely the SmartSafety team has always worked with its customers.

One of those memories involves the Kentucky State Police.

Early in the company's history, the Kentucky State Police (KSP) had a significant influence on product direction. A KSP representative named Captain Carrico noted that while Easy Street Draw was highly effective for traffic accidents, law enforcement needed a dedicated tool for crime scenes. That feedback led directly to the creation and release of ScenePD. 

During a subsequent trade show, another KSP representative named Shane Bates was reviewing the software. He joked that the standard "Bubble Man" icon used in the program was great, but the software really needed a "redneck" version.

That night in his hotel room, Shad opened the software and used his symbol-drawing skills to modify the icon. He added cut-off blue jeans, a tank top, and a mullet. The next day, he presented the updated symbol at the booth. Bates immediately coined the character "Mullet Man."

It started as a joke. But Shad remembers moments like that because they capture something he has seen throughout his career: the best ideas don't always come from a meeting room. Sometimes they come from listening to a customer, taking a joke seriously enough to try something, and seeing where it goes.

A Culture Built on 72 Names and a Deck of Cards 

SmartSafety Software operates with a highly unique internal culture. Shad notes that the founders led the company with a genuine, caring approach that prioritized the well-being of the employees above standard corporate metrics.

This perspective became highly visible during a period of company downsizing. Contracts had ended, and the leadership team was forced to let several employees go. Feeling sentimental about the changes, Shad took a "Don't Mess with Texas" deck of playing cards he had acquired at a trade show that were used for the teams' Ping Pong Tournaments. On the cards were written the names of employees who had worked at the company.

During that difficult period, Shad sat down and read every name. There were 72 of them. He brought the cards to Jim Obenchain and expressed how difficult it was to see people leave. Jim looked at the cards differently. Rather than focusing only on the people who were no longer there, he reminded Shad what those 72 names represented: 72 people the company had been able to employ and support during different chapters of its history.

For Shad, that moment stayed with him. Because for all the software, products, customers, and corporate changes that have come and gone over the years, the people have always been at the center of the story.

The Ping Pong Grand Prix

SmartSafety has navigated multiple corporate acquisitions over the years, moving from AT Solutions to its current ownership under Harris.

During the AT Solutions era, the founder gifted the Boise office a 2008 Olympic-quality ping pong table. Shad immediately turned it into something much bigger than a break-room game. He organized a weekly tournament complete with point systems, whiteboard brackets, and randomized doubles pairings. The tournament forced employees from different departments to interact, breaking down professional barriers and building a cohesive team.

The tournament wasn't really about ping pong. It was about getting people who might not otherwise interact to work together, laugh together, and learn who their teammates were outside of their job titles. That same sense of connection has carried through multiple acquisitions and changes in ownership.

Shad believes one of the reasons the team has remained so close is its willingness to communicate directly. If something isn't working, people talk about it. If someone needs help, people step in. And if someone is going through a difficult time outside of work, the team notices.

"We don't want to let the team down." That mindset is part of what has kept the group together through years of change.

22 Years Later, White Water Rafting, & Barbershop Singing

Outside of SmartSafety, Shad's life is just as full. This July, he and his wife, Jenny, celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary. Their two sons are now 25 and 26.

He enjoys white water rafting, barbershop singing, and cheering on the Boise State Broncos. Those parts of his life have grown and changed alongside his career. And yet, 22 years after answering that first phone call, Shad still doesn't see himself looking for the next place to go.

He came to SmartSafety without technical experience, but stayed because he found people worth working with. Over the years, he's learned the software, helped shape products, worked with customers, managed teams, designed forms, organized ping-pong tournaments, and became part of the company's institutional memory.

But his original strength never changed. He knows people, how to listen, and knows that good work is rarely accomplished alone.

As SmartSafety Software celebrates 30 years, Shad's 22-year story is a reminder that technology may be what a company builds, but people are what keep it moving forward.

And for Shad, that's been the best part of the job all along.