Through the right people focusing on the right things, we can, in time, get on top of a lot if not most of the problems of this world. And that’s what a number of us are trying to do. – Richard Branson
My work has been very collaborative to ensure effective and efficient efforts, and an approach that empower those whom I am working with to understand the approach, and participate in finding a solution. This approach results with a vetted solution that the team(s) know thoroughly by the time its finalized.
As a natural systems thinker, I enjoy organizing a lot of people, information, processes, and sometimes rules and regulations.
Consumer Segments/Personas v.001 for CSC ServiceWorks 2021
Qualitative Studies | Winter + Spring 2021
Conducted a divergent research effort as the Consumer Research Manager to establish an understanding of consumer perceptions that would set the foundation for convergent research and a draft of personas. I worked collaboratively with the Product Management team and leadership across the organization to understand questions about our consumers and understand the different facets of our industry and service to define surveys and follow-up interviews to probe our basic topics to establish consumer perceptions about - laundry, technology, and themselves to define consumer segments/draft personas. Presented to executives, leadership, and product team.
Project Breakdown coming soon
Research - Divergent | Generative | Personas | Internet of Things | Remote | Personas
Consumer Satisfaction Surveys for CSC ServiceWorks 2021
Usability and Qualitative Studies - International | Winter + Spring + Summer 2020
As the Consumer Research Manager I worked collaboratively with Product Management to design a baseline and benchmark satisfaction points of the consumer experience to move the organization to include consumer satisfaction as part of our overall success.
Project Breakdown coming soon
Research - Evaluative | Survey Design | Remote
I led research efforts working collaboratively with product managers to inform Agile Epics and set Sprint teams up for success.
Establish a central UX practice and a credible research program. Harnessed a combination of Lean and Formal Research efforts to establish a persona library and task flows to unify and strengthen the understanding of users across the company. Established a Usability Report Card for each product that was used to communicate every month the health of products with the board.
User Research: Teacher and Specialist User Needs + Dashboard Tasks | Summer + Fall 2015
User Research: District Admin User Needs + Dashboard Tasks | Fall 2015
User Research: Student + Parent Homework-Related Needs | Summer 2015
User Research: Teacher Student Assessment-related Tasks | 2015-2016
Baseline, Concept, and Usability Testing and Card Sorts: Teacher Dashboards | Summer – Fall 2015
Project Breakdowns coming soon
Research - Formative + Generative + Evaluative + Summative | Strategy | Card Sort | A/B Testing | Concept Testing | Usability Testing | Omni-Channel | Brand | Web | Mobile | Personas | Retention | Thought Leadership | Remote | Field Studies
Cisco took a refreshing turn to offer an enterprise dashboard that targeted a new, specific-type of customer that was slightly out of reach to increase their reach, while empowering those who have not had these types of tools and offering their latest security advancements.
Contracted to work collaboratively with the innovative product team to bring their ideas to fruition including leading iterative design and testing of the product concept to detail design.
Leadership | Strategy | Creative Direction | Project Management | Interaction Design | Data Visualization | Dashboard | Agile | Cloud | SAAS
Contract Interaction Design Manager | Aquent | 03.2014-11.2014
TIBCO Streambase LiveView Web
Contracted to lead the strategy, definition and design of a new disruptive product that defines a new product category – Using UX Methodologies.
My scope of work included product strategy and design; extrapolating business objectives, goals and success criteria, defining competitive vs disruptive features via meta-analysis and industry/competitive analysis; leading interaction design, defining and setting the pace and directing activities to ensure the vision remains groundbreaking and consistent; as well as account, project, and product management.
My responsibilities were expanded to include defining needed staffing and roles for 2015; mentoring and directing a remote intern and local Junior and Mid-Level Interaction and Visual Designers in the UX Methodology; and managing relationships with remote product team (without product manager).
Leadership | Strategy | Creative Direction | Project Management | Account Management | Enterprise Product Design | Interaction Design | Data Visualization | Dashboard | Real-Time Data | Mentoring | Workshop Design and Facilitation
UX Lead and Management Consultant | Toyota Financial Services | 01.2014 – 03.2014
www.ToyotaFinancial.com: login required/secure site (Release of Strategy + Design 11.2014 and over next year)
Contracted to redesign a secure-site feature, I expanded my contract within 1 week to include working with technical department to define User Experience within the organization, lead other redesign efforts in progress, and manage other UX contractors.
Worked with business, marketing and technical leadership to educate and empower them with an understanding of UX/UCD. Worked with leadership to integrate UX into existing processes.
Engaged multi-discipline team members in UX/UCD methodologies to mentor and empower them within the context of the secure site redesign. Directed and mentored contract interactive designer in redesign of desktop and mobile experiences.
Defined, recruited and interviewed candidates for UX Lead and Visual Designer/Developer positions, defined requirements and criteria for testing and supplementary design and testing vendor(s).
Produced UX Strategy, and completed detailed design for desktop and mobile site and apps. short-term updates to experiences.
Leadership | Strategy | Creative Direction | Interaction Design | Participatory Design | Mobile App + Site | Desktop | Retention
Contract User Experience Lead | Elavon for POSSIBLE Cincinnati | 10.2013 – 01.2014
Lead the UX Strategy to establish a unified vision of what needs to be built and how they will be used to ensure the iterative redesign is cohesive no matter what the time period of the B2B site targeting all size businesses. The approach and the strategy inspired the client to add two small projects including a new B2B Customer Portal for Small Business Owners. Also designed a new section for .Com – Mobile, Tablet, and Desktop.
Leadership | UX Strategy | Creative Direction | UX Architecture | Interaction Design | Content Strategy | Participatory Design | Responsive | Mobile | Desktop | Tablet | Remote Work | Business Development | Acquisition
National Practice Director, User Experience | Neudesic, LLC | 05.2013 – 10.2013
Hired into a newly created role in a fairly new business unit. With just an intent defined, I worked to integrate the new role into a changing organization, and initiated collaborative efforts to ensure the realization of business goals and help integrate my role and the UX discipline within the organization.
My responsibilities included monitoring and managing the realization of business unit success criteria; focusing on the west coast to increase sales, identify appropriate UX activities and deliverables to satisfy client goals within budget, timeframes and considerations, increase the understanding of UX within the organization, and improve the project environment to improve the quality of UX work. Worked with Account Managers to craft UX account strategies; defined activities, resources, deliverables, and hours; and wrote proposals and SOWs. Laid-off in reorganization.
Leadership | Strategy | Account Management | Business Development | Enterprise Systems + Applications | Remote Work
Contract Associate User Experience Director | Fortune 50 – Regulated Industry | 09.2010 – 12.2012
Management Consultant to industry-regulated client providing strategic solutions for phases of foundational enterprise CMS and design system implementation. Managed relationships with 3 clients and provided UX Direction for 12 projects. Created efficient and effective user experience strategy for franchise sites (produced concepts and presentation). Identified positioning to harness known usage and current successes, brand relationships and behaviors to meet business drivers for a more competitive product. Facilitated concept and design sessions.
Leadership | Strategy | Account Management | Systems + Applications | CMS
Director of Information Architecture | George Washington University | 11.2010 – 08.2011
Responsible for the usability & usefulness of sites; direction for site projects; directed staff and contractors; and established relationships with stakeholders. Successes included:
Project Breakdowns – CMS Selection | Design System
Leadership | Strategy | Project Management | Information Architecture | User Research | Usability Testing | Design Thinking | Creative Direction | Systems + Applications | CMS | Mobile | Mentoring | Team Management | Client Management | Interaction Design | Visual Design | Participatory Design
User Experience + Management Consultant | Golf Central for Golf Channel | 12.2009 – 10.2010
Worked collaboratively across teams to establish UX Strategy, direction, requirements and design for internal and B2B inventory/sales systems (GolfCentral). Designed and conducted UX/UCD analysis and testing activities to inform and vet a mobile product features and design (GolfNow). Worked with leadership (SVPs) to refine internal processes to break down silo’s to increase team satisfaction and quality of work. Defined and recruited for a Senior UX Staff position.
Project Breakdown - Design | User Research + Product Validation + Usability Testing
Leadership | Strategy | Account Management | Information Architecture | Participatory Design | Usability Testing | User Research | Interaction Design | Systems + Applications | Data Visualization | Dashboard | Real-Time Data | Retention
Functional Lead/Project Manager | EPA’s CDX for CGI Federal | 04.2009-12.2009
Led a facet of a government contract transition of help desk operations, and establishing supporting processes and staffing. Managed 3 client relationships and relationships with other contracting firms, facilitated daily control calls to ensure a cohesive effort, and budget review sessions throughout transition, monitored burn rates of staff and contractors and scope of work. Led the definition of processes for tier-3 help desk calls. Responsibilities were expanded the oversight of contract implementation across multiple contracting firms. Left at the end of the contract transition to return to creative environment.
Samples are not available due to contract NDA
Leadership | Strategy | Account Management | Business Process Refinement | Client Management | Budget Management | Team Management
Contract User Experience Architect | USPS for AKQA | 09.2008 – 04.2009
Six-month contract collaborating with internal stakeholders, other contractors, and creative team to refine requirements, establish experience vision, and defined user experiences for B2B and B2C applications, systems, and portal. Established new Information Architecture/Content Strategy for USPS B2B site. Produced wireframes, site architecture and user task flows and user requirements. Facilitated cognitive walk-throughs.
Samples are not available due to contract NDA
Leadership | Strategy | Information Architecture | Interaction Design | Enterprise Systems + Applications | Government/Regulation | Cognitive Walk-throughs
Manager of User Experience & Product Management | Kadoo, Inc. | 12.2007 – 09.2008
Recruited to establish product management, I successfully organized product management and development teams in just 3 days. Consequently my responsibilities were expanded to include managing the DC-based technical teams and project management in less than 1 week.
Established and managed UX team, project plan, processes, activities, and product definition and direction with limited budgets, staff and time. Recognized internal expertise and potential, and entrusted to manage, direct, and mentor external contractors, engineers, visual designers, and junior user experience analysts. Reviewed conference and marketing materials to ensure alignment to product and brand. Laid-off with code freeze.
Worked with executives to understand their vision and goals for the product and company to inform product priorities and project management. Managed relationships between executives.
Established a vision for the holistic vision for the system and each subsystem to unify the team’s vision and effort by building upon the original ideas and high-level requirement.
Refined 18 subsystems in 6 weeks using UCD methodology working iteratively to establish design patterns, vetting system and features’ usefulness and usability with baseline usability testing, user profile surveys, paper prototype testing with users, and defining user groups and scenarios of use for each – under budget.
Project Breakdown coming soon
Leadership | Strategy | Account Management | Product Management | Participatory Design | Usability Testing | Interaction Design | Project Management | User Research | Social Media | Mentoring | Team Management | Acquisition + Retention
Creative Lead | NDAR/NIH for Sapient Government Services | 08.2007 – 12.2007
Hired for a systems project that lost its funding on my second day, I was reassigned to a new project as a trainer/instructional designer for the NDAR portal (which had critical usability issues).
Successes included significantly improving the relationship with the client’s client by redesigning the training program approach by using User-Centered Design methodologies, and defining a national training strategy for its roll-out.
Activities included interviewing the target audience to understand user needs, mental models, and tasks; researching, and then applying training and instructional design heuristics; and facilitating initial training sessions. I designed a Self-Guided Training Workbook structured to align to the targeted users’ tasks. Then I designed a classroom session that aligned and used the self-guided workbook. I defined a national training strategy that would include video, webcast and classroom sessions. Happily recruited away by Kadoo for more relevant work.
Project Breakdown coming soon
Leadership | Strategy | Client Management | User Task Analysis | Print Design
Senior Subject Matter Expert/Staff Augmentation | SSA for Lockheed Martin Information Technologies | 05.2002 – 03.2006
Taking a step back in my career for the opportunity to learn UCD formally, I worked in a supporting role my first year learning the business process behind the SSA Disability Program, how to maneuver a federal agency, and UCD methodologies.
After a year, my responsibilities were expanded to include leading projects, in addition to supporting design teams assigned in the effort to modernize the SSA Disability Program – browser-based enterprise system, as well as smaller application projects – both inter- and intranet products.
UCD work included: Research, design, and testing activities to establish, refine and/or validate requirements and designs.
Championed UCD methodologies throughout the agency to better support system and application design/refinement.
Mentored and directed college graduates in their first year on contract.
Design Thinking projects included defining requirements for GOTS products, business process refinements, and policy definition.
Special projects included: exploring the usability and usefulness of our documentation using UCD methodologies.
Samples are not available due to contract NDA
Leadership | Strategy | Mentoring | Participatory Design | Usability Testing | Interaction Design | User Research | Design Thinking | Heuristic Evaluation | Dashboards | Applications + Enterprise Systems | Usability | Government/Regulation
Web Manager | MedStar Health | 09.2001 – 05.2002
Directed enterprise projects including CMS and Payment system for the hospitals’ and corporate websites, and ongoing efforts to drive overall corporate success. Ensured consistency and coordinated Cross-Channel marketing efforts. Developed internal relationships to improve the brand consistency and the quality of hospital sites, as well as reducing the costs of common support services. Established and managed vendor relationships to ensure on time/specification delivery of all tasks and achievement of all organizational needs. Redesigned Harbor Hospital Site working collaboratively with the hospital’s PR team and Visual Designer. Recruited away by LMIT.
Leadership | Information Architecture | Vendor Management | CMS | Cross-Channel | Acquisition + Retention | eCommerce | Regulated Industry | Mentoring | User Task Analysis | Client Management