When I Excel
Identifying & Solving the most critical user experience problems
Vision work (but near future, must be grounded in reality)
High stake interactions (key points in flows for business)
Small teams
Research & Data driven
Pragmatic iterative approach to product building
Open and honest communication
Direct communication and transparency from leadership (aligned on goals)
Balancing business & creative goals
Consumer focused experiences
What I want to do next
Contribute to product strategy, vision and roadmap
Support a design team by helping them
Grow their skills
Collaborate smoothly across cross functional roles (PM, Eng, Research)
Connect person professional growth goals with business opportunities and needs
Establish a team culture that is supportive and healthy
Ship work we are all proud of
Continue to grow as a leader by
Building strong relationships across roles and teams within our company
Helping to establish best practices for employee reviews & career support, design systems, and workload planning & prioritization.
What I believe
Inspiration happens during the Process.
A healthy daily, weekly, quarterly process is critical to success (and sanity).
Great ideas come while you are doing the work.
Stability from a regular process can help a team stay grounded and productive.
Clear reliable process also reduces confusion and improves communication across the team.
Environment fosters growth (or decline)
& determines quality of shipped product.
Team relationships
Clear communication and expectations between roles (Eng, PM, Research & Design).
Understand and respect for differences in each role.
Build healthy collaboration & trust by finding overlap in goals (“we” instead of “us/them”).
Have hard conversations early.
Encouragement & appreciation across roles
Progress valued over perfection
Alignment with leadership is critical for success.
Clear prioritization and focus
Upfront communication
Have hard conversations quickly
Avoid wasted work & frustration
Designers must learn to build relationships and influence.
A design leader’s role is to understand and influence business direction.
A good idea is not enough, it must have XFN support.
Not everyone is thinking the same thing. Show visuals & interactions.
Give and take, trust is earned on both sides.
This is especially important as designers become more senior.
Setting people up for success is a manager’s most important job.
Clearly defined goals for team and individuals.
Personal buy-in from individuals.
Finding opportunity for people to grow in ways they care about.
Protecting from organizational chaos and noise.
Ensuring projects are set up to ship and succeed (time not wasted).
Ensuring design process is possible (iteration and optimization is essential)
empower by giving Clarity & Control
Demystify calibrations and career growth
Empower each individual to track and maintain their own success
Help keep personal and professional growth in mind, as ICs focus on the daily work.
There should be no surprises at review time.
Each person is an individual
Everyone has their own approach and goals.
Understand and treat each person individually.
Help each person connect their personal and professional growth with the available business opportunity and goals.