Design & Research Consulting

Studio VO

December 2016 — Present

• Redesigned the entire platform (including starting their design system) for a job-finding and education focused startup. Conducted research to understand their three primary user groups

• Redesigned internal employee application for healthcare company which resulted in more efficient workflow and fewer errors leading to an extra $10,000,000 in annual revenue

• Established the UX and Design practices, Design System, and hired the design team of an Entertainment company in the Blockchain/Crypto space. Redesigned the entire platform prior to its public launch

• Conducted generative research for search engine company to understand how customers use their array of products and how those products might be integrated to better serve everyone

• Guided materials client—a mycelium-based leather replacement—to create a current- and future-state service blueprints to align all departments around how prospects become customers and how each department can best support that journey

• Created a product strategy for a Healthcare AI Startup to focus their efforts across departments which increased efficiency and time-to-market

• Conducted research and usability testing for healthcare company’s DNA testing product to align process and outcomes to customer expectations

• Ask about the Smart Toilet research!

Director of Product Design

Pluralsight

March 2023 — March 2024

• Laid off March 2024

• Created new Career Ladder/Lattice for Product Designers, Researchers, and Content Strategists

• Defined the vision and strategy for learning experiences in partnership with Product and Engineering

• Directed a team of 27 designers toward re-envisioning Pluralsight’s core application, Skills.

• Course-corrected the team from working in silos to working collaboratively with Product, Engineering, and each other—stopping about half the team from quitting as things were very bleak when I joined

• Guided the Design System team toward better process and governance practices

• Trained designers to do research properly

• Guided the creation of a rigorous research practice across the Design organization

• Instituted a 4-day work week for the team which led to happier designers getting more work done, faster

• Guided multiple Discovery efforts to get the Design teams working less reactively and more focused on definable problems and opportunities

Professional Sabbatical

July 2016 — December 2016

Director of User Experience

Vadio, Inc.

February 2015 — July 2016

• Created and managed UX and CX practices and systems

• Researched needs of B2B customers

• Designed the B2B platform

• Redesigned B2C platform

Director of Product, Design, and Research

nGen Works

January 2012 — December 2014

• Built and managed cross-functional team of 30 to deliver web and native applications for nGen's B2B and B2C clients

• Defined product strategy

• Provided UX Research & Design expertise to all stages of projects

Principal Product Manager

Blackbaud 

October 2010 — January 2012

• Led discovery, design, and development for the integration of Blackbaud's Internet Solutions and Enterprise CRM products for nonprofit organizations (primarily Higher Ed and Family & Human Services). 

• Reduced time spent managing web transactions (high-volume donations, donor information, event registrations) by combining two distinct systems into one more useful and usable system. 

Personal Sabbatical

June 2009 — October 2010

Sr User Experience Designer & Researcher

The MathWorks

July 2006 – June 2009

• Provided UX design and user research for the company's website and MATLAB Central, the MathWorks user community site. 

• Projects included designing web applications for customer-facing bug tracking, e-commerce, file sharing, and product support. 

Founding Partner

Business Logs

Feb 2004 – Feb 2007

• Business Logs was the first full-service agency focused on helping companies engage with their customers in the world of blogs and other social media. 

• I focused on corporate blogging strategy and policy in order to help companies better understand how they should best be engaging with their customers. Blogs used to be a thing! 

• The company was acquired in 2007.

Information Risk Team Lead​

State Farm

Aug 2003 – Aug 2004

• Lead a group of project and program risk analysts and coordinators in strategy, planning, research, assessment, and cross-effort communication in order to make Risk Management more effective and efficient. 

• Area of focus was on Information Risk Management (IRM).

Sr User Experience Designer & Researcher

State Farm

July 1999 – June 2006

• Research and design for web applications for insurance, financial services, and internal business processing as well as in-office (physical — Service Design before Service Design) experiences for office staff and customers. 

• Designed the Enterprise Customer Relationship Management app (the primary application Agents’ offices use to serve customers),

• Moved the call center from green-screens to the web

• Designed most of the first iteration of State Farm Bank’s web applications.

Freelance​ ​Technical​ ​Writer

May 1995 - July 1999

• Focused on writing manuals for software as well as in-app Help content.

• This type of work is now called UX Writing, but I’m not sure why. It didn’t need a new name. But you probably aren’t reading this sentence. 5 extra points to you if you did!