Key Competencies
Management • People Leadership • Remote Teams • Product Design • Design Process • Design Systems • UX/UI Design • Brand & Product Architecture • Service Design • Design Thinking • Visual Design • Agile Methodologies • Marketing • Mobile Applications • Responsive Web
Professional Experience
UX Design and Strategy Consultant
JGB Designs
2010 – Present
Provide a range of both strategic and hands-on design services, building upon deep experience designing products and leading teams.
Lead projects from concept through execution at every stage of the design lifecycle.
Build strong UX teams by defining organizational needs, shaping team cultures, and guiding teams to create delightful customer experiences.
Work with cross-functional teams to integrate design into agile processes, improve collaboration, and create efficiencies.
Variety of design work including interaction and visual design of mobile and web applications, design systems, websites, data visualization, journey maps, marketing materials, and branding.
Design Director, Commercial Card
Capital One
McLean, VA
2018 - 2019
Responsible for leading a twelve-member multidisciplinary design team, focused on designing end-to-end customer experiences for all Commercial Card products and services, including One Card and Virtual Card Relay product lines.
Established Design as part of the Commercial Card senior leadership team, enabling the team to advocate for insight-driven experiences that aligned with business goals.
Partnered with Product, Tech, Sales, Operations, Risk Management, and Marketing teams to incorporate the Design point of view into the holistic Commercial Card customer experience.
Developed relationships with stakeholders and executive leadership to promote Design capabilities and facilitate information sharing across the organization.
Identified untapped opportunities for service design, user research, and process optimization in Sales and Customer Service areas.
Improved team People Leadership Index by 21% within one quarter by cultivating an inclusive team culture, driving a new vision, and promoting cross-functional collaboration.
Enabled successful integration of the Customer Insights team by educating and advocating for their inclusion in all decisions and processes.
Guided development of direct reports to advance their careers and optimize their effectiveness as managers and designers.
Drove integration of Design into existing SAFE agile process, as well as exploring alternatives, by collaborating with Product and Tech teams.
Defined team, partnership, and organizational models that most efficiently supported the Commercial Card organization, leveraging matrixed Commercial resources as needed.
Design Director,
Travel Channel
Scripps Networks Interactive
Chevy Chase, MD
2013 – 2016
Responsible for the design of all Travel Channel digital properties, including TravelChannel.com, Apple News, TV Everywhere (live streaming iOS + Android apps, website), Cities iOS app, as well as connected television experiences on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Roku, and Chromecast. Partnered with Design, Engineering, Product, Editorial, Video, Marketing, and Ad Sales teams from HGTV, Food Network, and all other Scripps subsidiaries.
Developed and implemented a new design system and component library shared across all Scripps websites using a single codebase, resulting in a more streamlined, responsive development cycle and more cohesive user experience.
Collaborated with a global design team and front-end architects to drive theming and design UAT work streams for all brands.
Improved efficiency to meet critical, tight deadlines by developing a system for designers to code their work using the same tools and branches as the development team.
Championed mobile web optimization for content management system from Vignette to Adobe Experience Manager (AEM).
Served as a cross-discipline team lead to enhance and streamline internal processes.
Designed and coded Travel Channel Apple News app as an Apple Launch Partner before templates and preview tools were revealed.
Design Director
MicroStrategy
Tysons Corner, VA
2011 – 2013
Responsible for building and managing a multidisciplinary design team for a new company initiative focused on big data ecommerce, social intelligence, and mobile identity programs for consumer and enterprise. Created B2B, C2C and B2C social applications built on iOS, Android, Facebook, and web platforms, expanding a small suite of products to fifteen applications.
Set direction for consumer messaging, defined branding standards, and staffed and managed contractors, speciality freelancers, and agencies.
Established design patterns across programs to facilitate design and engineering efforts, creating efficiencies and ensuring a cohesive user experience.
Collaborated with both global and domestic engineering teams.
Successfully championed user experience design and design thinking by integrating Design into a process that was originally engineering-based.
Formed scalable, customizable white label ecommerce mobile platform for clients (Tilly’s, Guess, and FC Barcelona), and designed automated prototyping tool for Sales teams.
Determined team scalability needs, managed workload of designers, and forecast resource bandwidth.
Design Manager
Vaya Mobile (CACI International)
Chantilly, VA
2010 – 2011
Responsible for the design of the Virtual Interactive Processing System (VIPS) used by DoD to facilitate U.S. Armed Forces enlistment processes. VIPS replaced a manual two-year process with a more efficient and flexible system saving enlistees and the government time and money.
Integrated user experience design into overall process by helping establish workflows.
Designed both the internal (enterprise) interface and applicant (consumer) portal.
Conducted field research to gain insights on user needs.
Worked with multiple, independent teams in various disciplines and created third-party style guide.
Art Director, AIM Product Design
Aol
Dulles, VA
2008 – 2010
Responsible for managing the visual design team on strategy, design, and implementation for all AIM products, websites, branding and marketing, including AIM Windows, AIM Express, Lifestream, AIM Android, and AIM.com.
Achieved significant user engagement growth by launching redesigned and re-engineered family of AIM products.
Improved design integration during transition from waterfall to agile SDLC.
Ensured brand remained consistent across all AIM products, web entities and marketing, including style guide creation for internal teams and external partners.
Conceptualized monetization alternatives by collaborating with business development teams.
Consulted with multiple external teams to build AIM product extensions for Mac, iPhone, Windows Mobile, Expressions, AIM Connect, and OpenAIM.
Senior Designer, Aol and AIM Product Design
Aol
Dulles, VA
2005 – 2008
Responsible for the visual design of all flagship AIM Windows clients, AOL Mail, AOL OpenRide and Welcome Experiences for AOL Webmail, Client Mail, Pictures, Alerts, and Media Player.
Worked with UI designers to wireframe and ensure feasibility of interactions.
Collaborated closely with Product and Engineering teams.
Learned basics of proprietary Boxely language to help develop and design Toolkit.
Coded first instance of theming feature into AIM Windows client.
Product Designer, User Experience Design (MSX) Team
Microsoft
Redmond, WA
2004 – 2004
Responsible for the design, development and maintenance of the Vista OS Product Map website and communication materials, improving team workflow and enabling open internal communications.
Collaborated with MSX User Research to design and develop a variety of websites, infographics, e-newsletters, presentations, and promotional materials for team and panel customers.
Instituted chart and graphical style specifications to incorporate into future versions of Microsoft Excel.
Produced website and designed accompanying promotional materials for Design at Microsoft public website.
Additional Relevant Experience
Senior Designer
Premera Blue Cross, Mountlake Terrace, WA
Design Consultant
JGB Designs
Senior Designer
IDEV, Silver Spring, MD
Designer
Creative Strategy, Bethesda, MD
Projects
UXDC Conference 2017
Proposal Reviewer
October 2016
Modev.com, Interviewee/SME
5 Tips You Can Use to Build Developer and Designer Harmony
September 2015
MVP Conference 2015, Interactive Table Moderator
Designing Scalable Product Systems
May 2015
ModevUX Conference 2013, Speaker
Being Native-Only Can Hurt Your Social Life
May 2013
Mobile Monday DC, Panel Member
HTML5 vs. Native Apps
April 2013
Education & Affiliations
Bachelor of Arts, Visual Communications/Advertising Design
University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Honors Program, Independent Studies Program, French Minor, Alpha Chi Omega