For over a decade, I have worked in a variety of design paradigms including research, service design, strategy, and design ops. More recently, I'm focused on business and people responsibilities.

About my design work

I've worked for many kinds of organizations — myself (read: the hardest boss), for startups, small companies, and large companies. I've contributed to a sum of work, I've been the founding designer and built a team, and I've led/grown existing teams on the inside of product companies as well as operating from the outside. 

I believe how we work and how we create our work — the path and the process — is crucial to get right because there’s nothing valiant in working unnecessarily and burning people out. This goes for others, this goes for me too. I’ve seen firsthand the cost of ambiguous expectations which often leads to needless overwork (which goes hand in hand with burnout, on and on). For these reasons and others, it is essential to unblock and guide others to be absolutely purposeful in their work.

Let's go a bit deeper.

As hinted above, I've worked in a wide variety of roles — contributing to a sum of work, I've been the founding designer and built a team, and I've led/grown existing teams on the inside of product companies as well as operating from the outside.

These days, I'm focusing on discovery work within multi-disciplinary teams, iterating on designops, managing people, and building the Americas teams at SoftServe.

From 2016 to 2020, I advised Shep — an early-stage travel startup in Austin, TX — on a range of product, user experience, and design matters. We're focused on helping companies, travel managers, and travel management companies keep employees safe and informed as they search for the right ways to travel for business. It was acquired by Flight Centre in 2020, one of a number of partners with whom we worked.

In Aug 2019, I joined thoughtbot as design director in San Francisco, CA moving from New York City to lead/grow design and strategy — along with mentoring, managing, and upskilling the team while leveraging storytelling, ideation, and technology to spur and maintain successful client engagements. Hand-in-hand with global management and local leadership, I advised on and sold client engagements to shared success — also rolling up my sleeves and working alongside designers and developers when additive. Especially proud of my efforts as a member of the diversity and inclusion council. The west coast location, unfortunately, shut down in May as a result of the effects of the global COVID-19 financial crisis.

Before I came to thoughtbot, I was leading and managing product design efforts at Sesame in Brooklyn, NY where we launched a two-sided healthcare marketplace. We rooted our design methodology and sprint cycles with biweekly instances of user interviews, guerilla testing, and A/B testing while keeping a close eye on a broad range of analytics and metrics. Everything was done in full collaboration with the product and engineering teams, local and remote in Austin and Berlin.

At Fjord NY, I worked as a senior visual designer. While there, I developed and pitched the idea for Design Voices, featuring diverse and inclusive conversations with other Fjordians around the globe — designers, managers, and strategists at a range of different levels. I was also one of the hosts of Fika, a podcast featuring conversations with thought leaders and key luminaries in technology and design. All in all, I learned a ton in the time I was there.

Before this, I was at Brabble, Mediabistro, and PBS FRONTLINE, all in New York City. And before that, I worked as a designer in a variety of ways for different groups and people in Austin, Texas — the self-proclaimed live music capital of the world.