People Manager
My management experience is diverse, spanning local and remote teams, supporting college hires, interns, sr designers, and researchers alike. I’ve coordinated relocations and mentored team members through promotions, and have grown successfully grown teams for programs with high and low design maturity.
I've learned a lot over the years regarding the value in creating success through the development of others. As I've contributed to building teams, I've enjoyed seeing the ideas and solutions of my direct reports make quantifiable impact on a program or flagship project. It is a very different perspective than succeeding as a solo-designer, and far more rewarding at scale.
Design Instructor
One of the most rewarding point in my career to-date was teaching visual design at General Assembly. Not only was I able to teach15 classes and tutor more than150 students over a 5 year period, but I was recognized as a distinguished faculty among my peers.
This was one of the most formative role's I've held while transitioning to people management, my time with GA provided countless lessons in empathy, diversifying mentorship approaches, and developing techniques for teaching students as well as fellow instructors.
Team Builder
I’ve learned from my design mentors the importance of team building within design groups. I've helped lead fundamental aspects of a healthy design org, from facilitating critiques to building inspiration archives. Team events, celebrations, and immersive activities, are all integral sources of inspiration, and balance work with fun, while building camaraderies outside of project work.
Skill & Craft Coach
Throughout my career, I’ve mentored dozens of designers across all levels in design principles, trade-craft skills, prototyping, and presentation soft skills. I've focused on supporting peers and growing talent holistically, working to position design as project leads producing world-class solutions.
Design Strategist
One of my favorite design challenges is leading creative thinking workshops and sprints with executive leadership. Defining Northstar strategy and roadmaps to achieve a long term vision is one of the most rewarding aspects of being a design leader. I enjoy discussing strategy through executive presentations as well as demonstrating design impact across a project's lifecycle—from pitch to launch.
Process & Operations Pilot
Often an undervalued discipline in the design industry, I feel teams are most effective when success and expectations are clear, without sacrificing the time and creative space to think, explore, fail, and experiment.
I’ve built cross-team collaboration processes to structure design contributions within a broader program and organization, standardizing request intakes, prioritization criteria, and matching team member strengths and growth opportunities to resource assignments. I’ve worked with team members to establish design processes which accommodate a variety of work styles, and have been a stalwart for best practices such as design systems, scalable templates, documentation standards, and design libraries.