I've spent over 15 years building products at startups in EdTech, HealthTech, and B2B SaaS. I've been a Lead Product Designer, Lead UX Designer, Product Director, and Head of Growth. Now I'm looking for my next role leading product design.
Scoir showed counselors everything about a student except what that student needed to do next. Assignments fixed that. I argued for keeping task creation separate from assigning. It cost more up front, and it's why single tasks later grew into reusable Plans without a rewrite.
LifeLens had a wearable ECG and a government contract, but no product around it. I led design and defined what the suite should include: a mobile app, a command dashboard, and a shared design system. We shipped it, and it deployed with the U.S. Armed Forces.
Leadership wanted students to create a full Scoir account before they could use the free college application. I argued that the gate would block the students it was built for. We shipped a compromise: new students create a minimal account, just enough to apply. In year one, 65% of applicants were new to Scoir. By year two, 150,000 students had sent 500,000 applications.
We had a shrinking runway and one chance to prove the idea. I owned growth strategy and decided what shipped, focusing on activation, goal completion, and referrals. A scrappy scholarship database became a platform that millions of dollars moved through. Earnest acquired Going Merry in 2021.
I've led design at six early and growth-stage startups over 15 years. I was always the senior designer in the room, and often the product owner too. I set design direction at all six and managed and mentored designers at several. I do my best work when the product, the strategy, and the team are all still being figured out.
I'm most useful early: in research, in roadmap planning, and in deciding what to build at all. I've pushed back on leadership and been right. Apply with Scoir, above, is one example. I've also been wrong and changed course, and I think that matters more.
I treat design systems as something other teams build on. The ones I've shipped outlived the features they launched with and spread across the rest of the platform. I've run product strategy and design at the same time. I also spend a lot of time on how AI can make a product more useful without making it more confusing.
I've worked in EdTech, HealthTech, B2B SaaS, consumer tech, and market research. Three of the six companies were acquired. Next, I want to join a team where design has a say in what gets built.
I'm looking for Lead Product Design and Director of Product Design roles. I'm also open to advisory work and the occasional well-scoped consulting project. If your strategy is still taking shape and you want a designer involved, send me an email.