Defining the strategy for creating products and services that enable accomplished humanitarians to live more deliberately, accomplish more, and help more people.
Designed and led the program for User Experience Design & Research at White Ops, a cybersecurity company specializing in the detection and mitigation of sophisticated digital fraud.
Specializing in architecting research-based user experiences. Ability to simplify complex data-driven workflows into intuitive experiences based on information synthesized from stakeholders across departments. Creating powerful user Design Systems that streamline UI modularization to allow scaling without loss of integrity.
Requirements gathering through participatory workshops, focus groups, semi-structured interviews, user studies, surveys, and card sorting. Weekly UX research group sessions with Technical Account Managers (TAMs), Solution Engineers, and Developers to understand workflow issues, gather feedback on design solutions, and contextualize customer needs.
Conducting customer feedback sessions. Ethnographic methods such as participant observation, contextual inquiry, and analysis of artifacts. Photographing, audio recording, and video recording sessions. Micro-analysis of video records to understand user interaction, behavior, and communication.
Competitive analysis of other platforms to identify product landscape, feature sets, differentiators, and visual/language style.
Whiteboarding workflows, feature wireframes, and data structures. Rapid prototyping using wireframing, HTML/CSS, and photo manipulation techniques. Creating high fidelity designs in Figma or Sketch and prototyping using Figma, Invision, or HTML/CSS.
Documenting purpose, use cases, design rationale, findings, changes, and version history for each feature. Creating visual specifications and functional requirements for developers then translating into acceptance criteria for tickets.
Building design components in Figma and Sketch. Creating and managing design systems with Figma and Sketch + InVision (Craft). Translating design systems into code managed through React Storybook.
Collaborating directly with developers and data engineers to determine technical feasibility of features, scope features based on level of effort, and troubleshoot implementation issues during development.
Conducting remote user testing using video conferencing, screen recording, and screen control.
Usability testing for new features and validating acceptance criteria through User Acceptance Testing (UAT) on development or staging environments before releasing to production. Collaborating with developers on usability testing where design is focused on identifying workflow issues and development is focused on identifying bugs and performance issues. Documenting issues identified during UAT, prioritizing the fixes for developers, and creating tickets to scope the work.
User testing methods including simulation in high-fidelity environments, heuristic evaluation, scenario-based testing, cognitive walkthrough, think aloud protocol, and video review. Controlled experiments and survey design. Tagging, tracking, and analyzing product feature engagement.
Collaborating closely with Product Managers, Engineering Managers, & Customer Success to brainstorm, prioritize, and execute new product features. Collecting and analyzing feedback from multiple sources to strategize design solutions to address customer needs. Designing features that will scale and have the most impact, while also identifying design MVPs, scoping priorties (assigning P0, P1, P2, etc.), and planning longer-term feature development.
Implementing an integrated research & design process that works with agile development cycles. Collaborated with Engineering and Product Managers on creating and leading agile processes. Joint anchors include: sprint planning, retros, ticket refinement, ticket processes, midsprint standups, quarterly planning, and rotating sprint captains. Working together to triage incoming issues and feature requests.
Presenting works-in-progress and new features at R&D demos and company all hands. Participating in bi-weekly Product council with representatives from Product, Engineering, Customer Success, Sales, and Detection where we discuss releases, feedback, and cross-functional issues. Sending internal communications about new feature releases and timelines. Working with Customer Success on external communications to send to customers and to display within the product using Pendo.io. Creating and deploying new feature walkthroughs.
Servant leader, mentor, and collaborator perspective towards design team leadership. Creating opportunities to experiment with new techniques that we learn. Engaging in weekly sessions to discuss work challenges, life updates, and career aspirations. Encouraging attendance at UX related events. Ensuring continuous feedback yet protected time for deep work. Advocating for resources, cross-team buy-in, and new projects.
Weekly design review sessions focused on brainstorming new ideas, discussing design rationale, and walking through workflows. Preparing for research sessions and reviewing data to inform next design steps.
Dedicated to giving back to the UX community and helping other women and people from untapped communities. Guiding mentees on how to improve their porfolios, case studies, resumes, cover letters, and coursework. Meet virtually and in person with mentees located across the country. Advised several mentees on how to break into User Research, secure a new job, and making career changes to User Experience.
Serving as a mentor with the NYC UXPA Mentorship Program since 2018. Panelist at the 2019 mentorship program orientation.
Katrina de Haan, Design Researcher at Milwaukee Tool
Taylor Maynard, UX Researcher at Cityblock Health
Kevin Towner, Product Designer
Laura Forero, Service & UX Designer at Tesla
Actively recruiting at events such as WomenHack. Supporting other teams by conducting candidate interviews focused on company values fit or collaboration with UX for various roles. Levels include junior, mid-level, senior, manager, principal, and director.
Hiring manager for Product Designer roles. Collaborating closely with recruiters on role creation and the whole hiring experience. Creating success profiles, case study reviews, and interview questions. Engaging at UX focused forums and events such as those hosted by the NYC UXPA to support recruitment. Identifying and screening for quality candidates. Conducting portfolio and case study reviews.
Building an interview process that includes perspectives from Product Management, Engineering, and Customer Success, with one interview focused on values fit. Conducting Product Designer and UX Director candidate interviews. Checking references and following up after offer is made.
Contributing to quarterly/yearly planning, initiative identification, scoping, and estimation. Brainstorming cross-functional R&D initiatives and themes using participatory design workshop techniques.
Creating then tracking short-term and long-term Objectives and Key Results (OKRs). Advocating from the user perspective during planning and key decision making. Contributing to the R&D thought leadership from a product design perspective.
