Experience

Rock Central

• United States
• Information Technology & Services
• 200 - 300 Employee

• Sr. Director of Design Operations

  • May 2021 - Present

  Helping the Design team at Rocket Mortgage scale so we can do More Better Design Faster!



Best Buy

• Retail
• 700 & Above Employee

• Sr. Manager of Experience Design Operations

  • Dec 2017 - May 2021

  Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area Established and led the practice of Experience Design Operations at Best Buy. Responsible for a wide variety of initiatives such as: - Collaborating with VP CX to unite multiple design teams into one - Establishing a common skills framework and evaluation process across the entire design team - Transitioning core design tools to support broader collaboration - Improving the value and effectiveness of team-wide collaboration sessions - Transitioning core research tools… Show more Established and led the practice of Experience Design Operations at Best Buy. Responsible for a wide variety of initiatives such as: - Collaborating with VP CX to unite multiple design teams into one - Establishing a common skills framework and evaluation process across the entire design team - Transitioning core design tools to support broader collaboration - Improving the value and effectiveness of team-wide collaboration sessions - Transitioning core research tools to support the democratization of research - Establishing and governing a user research insights repository - Governing the consumer-facing design system - Improving, standardizing, and executing onboarding for designers and researchers - Organizing and running the annual internal design conference - Facilitating training sessions through external design speakers and workshops - Arranged sponsorship of various external design community events Show less



Nerdery

• United States
• IT Services and IT Consulting
• 100 - 200 Employee

• Director of User Experience Design

  • Aug 2015 - Oct 2017

  Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area Responsible for: - Setting the vision for design at The Nerdery - Leading and growing a team of passionate, dedicated designers toward realizing that vision - Building a culture of continual improvement, in which designers at all levels of practice can learn and grow - Ensuring smooth and delightful customer experiences - Growing the business by applying design methods to business problems - Fostering collaboration between design and the rest of the organization -… Show more Responsible for: - Setting the vision for design at The Nerdery - Leading and growing a team of passionate, dedicated designers toward realizing that vision - Building a culture of continual improvement, in which designers at all levels of practice can learn and grow - Ensuring smooth and delightful customer experiences - Growing the business by applying design methods to business problems - Fostering collaboration between design and the rest of the organization - Representing Nerdery Design within the business and design communities

• UX Apprenticeship Lead

  • Jun 2013 - Aug 2015

  Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area Designed, implemented and ran The Nerdery's User Experience Apprenticeship program. This involved: - Collaborating with leadership to craft a pragmatic program structure - Figuring out how to identify and hire great apprentices - Developing the pedagogy for the program and creating 13 separate workshops - Providing close mentorship of the apprentices, tracking their progress and helping them achieve goals - Evaluating opportunities for direct mentorship on specific design… Show more Designed, implemented and ran The Nerdery's User Experience Apprenticeship program. This involved: - Collaborating with leadership to craft a pragmatic program structure - Figuring out how to identify and hire great apprentices - Developing the pedagogy for the program and creating 13 separate workshops - Providing close mentorship of the apprentices, tracking their progress and helping them achieve goals - Evaluating opportunities for direct mentorship on specific design methods throughout the team - Working with two cohorts of four apprentices each When not actively working with a cohort, I adapted the infrastructure of the program to enable the rest of the design team to take advantage of opportunities for experiential learning, just like the apprentices. Instigated the Nerdery Education Committee, a working group tasked with keeping the company's various education efforts in alignment with strategic goals.

• User Experience Designer

  • Jun 2012 - Aug 2015

  Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area Conducted user experience strategy, research, and design projects for local and national clients including TPT (Sparticl.org), NAI Global, Stratasys, and Watchfire Signs. Collaborated closely with UX developers as well as front and back-end developers to help clients achieve their goals efficiently. Helped improve internal processes around customer experience, worked to redefine the role of Principal UX Designer, and led one of the five UX design teams. Worked hard to assign the members… Show more Conducted user experience strategy, research, and design projects for local and national clients including TPT (Sparticl.org), NAI Global, Stratasys, and Watchfire Signs. Collaborated closely with UX developers as well as front and back-end developers to help clients achieve their goals efficiently. Helped improve internal processes around customer experience, worked to redefine the role of Principal UX Designer, and led one of the five UX design teams. Worked hard to assign the members of my team to projects that were engaging to them and that would help them make progress on some of their long-term goals. Worked closely with the sales team to help convey the value of UX to potential clients as well as structure project estimates and approach.



Fathom Consulting

• United States
• Business Consulting and Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Lead User Experience Consultant

  • Aug 2005 - Jun 2012

  Led user research, information architecture, interaction design, usability testing, and business analysis efforts on projects for clients such as Medtronic, Regis Salons, UnitedHealth Group, 3M, National Marrow Donor Program, Thomson Reuters, and more. Developed the first Axure RP Pro training courses and helped clients integrate rapid prototyping and Axure into their software development processes. Frequently spoke at local & national conferences on the topics of prototyping, user… Show more Led user research, information architecture, interaction design, usability testing, and business analysis efforts on projects for clients such as Medtronic, Regis Salons, UnitedHealth Group, 3M, National Marrow Donor Program, Thomson Reuters, and more. Developed the first Axure RP Pro training courses and helped clients integrate rapid prototyping and Axure into their software development processes. Frequently spoke at local & national conferences on the topics of prototyping, user experience design process, and game mechanics for user experience design. Show less



RMG Connect

• United States
• Advertising Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Sr. Information Architect / Business Analyst

  • Jan 2005 - Jul 2005

  (Formerly Imaginet / Digital@JWT / connect@jwt) Led Information Architecture and Business Analysis activities for the UnitedHealth Group account. Performed Web Analytics services for the US Marine Corps.



J. Walter Thompson Worldwide

• United States
• Advertising Services
• 700 & Above Employee

• Sr. Information Architect / Business Analyst

  • Jan 2001 - Jan 2005

  (Formerly Imaginet, operated under the names Digital@JWT and connect@jwt between 2001 and 2005. Became RMG Connect in 2005) Led Information Architecture activities on projects for clients such as Ford of Britain, UnitedHealth Group, US Marine Corps, National Cable Communications, T. Rowe Price, and more. Performed Business Analysis and Web Analytics services for the US Marine Corps.



Imaginet

• Canada
• IT Services and IT Consulting
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Information Designer

  • May 2000 - Jan 2001

  (Imaginet was sold to J. Walter Thompson in 2001) Led Information Architecture activities on projects for clients such as RBC Dain Rauscher, Health Nexis, and Medtronic



Ancept, Inc.

• User Interface Designer

  • Jun 1999 - May 2000

  (Sold to Stellent in 2003) Wrote help text for a digital asset management application for the Gap. Designed the user interface for a complex client-server application for the printing industry.



University of Minnesota

• United States
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Usability Tester

  • Feb 1998 - Apr 1999

  Set up the Web Development shop's first usability testing lab. Tested early iterations of the OneStop application and iSEEK, an online job bank.