I am a product design leader
While I have experience on many teams as a lead product designer, for the last several years I have been a manager of designers, dev teams, as well as offshore and other contractors, including creatives and engineers. I focus most of my efforts on DesignOps, building design systems, recruiting and outreach, career growth, continuing education, user research practices, new designer onboarding and general mentorship. I teach design principles and processes to students and fellow designers, and evangelize and defend those principles to engineers and executives. I also help lead product direction and strategy, based on business needs, customer feedback, product market fit, and innovation. I have been teaching online courses in design and design process for a few years. More recently I have been teaching workshops and courses on design principles and how they can be applied to dashboard and data story design. At Domo I run weekly workshops and critiques covering design skills like color theory, typography, layout, prototyping, basics of HTML/CSS/JS, information architecture, usability testing, and even tips and tricks for Figma, Sketch, XD, Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects, and anything that will help each designer uplevel their skills and further their career.
My strong design background is important to me, and I have always worked to connect stakeholders with their users through functional yet usable experiences that include modern interaction and visual design conventions and aesthetics. I try to empathize with customers and their needs and pain points, while at the same time balancing business needs and evolving product priorities. I have several philosophies that have brought me success.
- Uncover hidden pain points or areas for innovation by observing users and asking questions.
- Use visual design and cognitive principles, but still think outside the box.
- Test early and often. Validate your ideas before you get too far down the road… or budget.
- Be humble, you are most likely NOT the user, and have biased assumptions. Don’t get emotionally attached to your designs. Build the right thing based on research, testing, feedback and vision.
- If you can’t measure if your design is successful in solving the problem or job to be done, then you are wasting your time and money. Track usage, get feedback, and score success criteria.
I am a creator
I spent my youth learning how to manipulate nearly every visual medium (pencil, paint, clay, metal, etc.), and have extended that to the digital realm. On top of UX design, I love to create motion graphics, motion typography, 3D modeling/animation, various special effects, and storyboards. I delve into photography and cinematography, and have even been known to use woodworking, electrical systems, and even robotics to make my creations. I am also a musician and performer, singing mostly, but I have a slightly unhealthy affinity for stringed instruments.
I am a front-end engineer
Related to being a creator, I love to bring experiences to life with rapid prototypes on through to final front end code. I am well versed in HTML, CSS, JavaScript (ReactJS, AngularJS), and PHP. I have extensive experience in content platforms like WordPress, SquareSpace, or Drupal. In my free time I enjoy building apps to address specific productivity, creative, and business problems. As such I work extremely well with engineering teams.