About
Making
to know
Design has always been about making to know, experimenting to understand possibilities and constraints. Rapid prototyping isn't new; it's just gotten faster. Product design has always been a messy team sport where we collectively find the best path forward given the constraints, place a bet, learn together.
The tools change. The game doesn't.
Expertise
Management & Leadership
Team Building
Hiring and coaching designers and researchers who are outcome-oriented and excel at driving decisions. I have over a decade of experience scaling and leading multidisciplinary teams ranging from 3–30, including product designers, anthropologists, cognitive psychologists, content strategists, and front-end-obsessed engineers.
Product Discovery
Answering "what should we build?" through research, prototyping, and the discipline to commit. I've led discovery for multiple 0-to-1 launches, product-market fit moments, and enterprise overhauls. I lead teams that turn open-ended briefs into shippable bets.
Research Practice
I started in tech as a UX researcher and have been building research teams ever since. Especially in the AI era, UXRs are crucial; they find truth and make it unavoidable, map how users actually think and behave, go deep with data, and do the strategic analysis and storytelling that PMs are rarely given time for.
AI-Forward Practice
I'm treating the AI moment the way I treat any unfamiliar problem: lean into the work, experiment, keep what works, learn from others who are further ahead, and stay optimistic. I don't pretend to have all the answers. They'd change next month anyway. But that challenge (evolving with rapid change) is central to my practice.
Experience
Early-stage product development
Design, research, and product management have spent decades building silos around their territory. I've spent twenty years building bridges between them.
I started in Innovation Consulting, helping organizations integrate research and design thinking into product development. That training still shapes how I approach problems and facilitate teams through conflict. Over the last decade, I've worked mostly with startups and organizations low on design maturity, raising the bar for both craft and speed of delivery. I often partner closely with Go-to-Market teams, helping shape the narratives, customer segmentations, and marketectures that define new products.
Ideas
Speaking engagements
- Communicating Product Vision, Wharton Innovation Club. 2022
- Prototyping for Product Managers, Wharton Innovation Club. 2022
- Keep talent in Research roles, Advancing Research. 2021
- Designing Consumer Platforms, Amazon Conflux. 2017
- Slide Design for Non-Designers 101, Dropbox. 2017
- Designing Products for Everyone, EvolveUX. 2016
- From UI to UX, Ethnographic Praxis in Industry Conference. 2015
Philosophy
The skills to frame problems, create options, build alignment, and navigate a path forward are more important than ever.