The big picture &
what’s next…
For settings that center human insights to create impactful experiences, products and services, I’m ready to put my best foot forward.
Open to experience design, design research and product owner roles. I tend to be most valuable on work that already has a strong grasp on visual design systems, but needs help working with engineering and executives to find insights and widen opportunity spaces. I tend to shine in 0-1 opportunities and internal innovation projects.
The path to the present…
Fresh out of undergrad I set out to pursue a passion for people and visual storytelling by working on a feature documentary about caregiving and disability. Here I discovered two things about myself and how I wanted to work. Real people and experiences are more important than the stories we tell about them. When systems fail to deliver it’s because they’re poorly designed.
I pivoted to product manager and experience design roles in mobile apps at the birth of the smartphone and tablet era. Here I discovered two more things about myself and how I wanted to work. Innovating for entertainment purposes is less interesting than innovating for more serious human needs.
In graduate school I developed subject matter expertise in participatory media with a masters degree in media studies. Next I focused on design research and strategic design with an MFA from Parsons. Outside of my coursework I worked on digital products & design research.
Parsons was a great place to experiment and network. There I trained in the developing field of service design and the emerging field of speculative design and futuring. Our projects always engaged a partner and physical setting to ground our work. I still rely on this approach to ground projects that are increasingly digital and process oriented.
Graduate school was also a place to focus on the public sector, a promising field at the time. After graduation, government investment in process innovation was strong. This afforded me opportunities to bridge a few different interests while working for the public good, including participatory placemaking with neighborhood youth, bottom up innovation for smart city technology, and participatory design for public safety.
A call from Madison Ave. pulled me into a market shaping contract for a new medical device. I introduced the agency to design probes as an approach to market activation. A simultaneous contract had me running design thinking workshops for women entrepreneurs around the world.
Most recently a new design research center at RISD opened up. I jumped in to offer strategic design upskilling and process innovation for the school’s largest partner. Here I sharpened my workshop facilitation skills to a fine point.