My Work
(or, past projects and what they’ve taught me)
A small sample of (many) lessons learned
Lesson #1:
The best insights are found outside of your own office.
Field Study for a Federal Agency’s Intranet
By observing users where they are, you’ll learn so much more about the people you’re trying to serve than a survey will ever tell you.
Lesson #2: Stagnancy is not a state of being, it's a choice.
Design Thinking Workshops for an Agricultural Lending Firm
Traditional industries (finance, agriculture, etc) are often stereotyped as luddites, but many people in these spaces have innovative ideas, and just need a supportive environment to try them.
Lesson #3: Don't fall prey to the siren song of aesthetics.
Interaction Design & Strategy Fail for a Promising Live Events Startup
Pixel perfect mockups mean nothing if they don’t address core user needs. A UX “vision” isn’t just visual: it’s a sense of clarity in what to deliver.
But wait…
There’s more!
This portfolio is still being built as we speak.
There are more written case studies on the way, and a sneak peek if them can be found below!
These are all projects I’ve already completed, so if you’d like to chat about them, I’m happy to hop on a call.
Otherwise, I can notify you once I’ve finished my writeup of any of these past projects. Scroll down to see what’s on the way…
Coming soon…
Lesson #4:
Customer loyalty goes deeper than click-through rates.
How a Luxury Travel Company Cheapened Their Brand with By Over-Emphasizing Clickthrough Rates
Your analytics might tell you that people are clicking, but do people even like or want what they’re clicking? Better impact metrics tell you the true story about your customers’ experiences.
Lesson #5:
Successful implementation depends on setting clear, realistic goals.
How the Military Prepared Me to Radically Transform a Business Model from In-Person to Virtual in 3 Weeks
Comfort in ambiguity may be a hallmark of the UX field, but successful execution depends on having clarity in goals, roles, and expectations.
Lesson #6:
Spend few thousand for research, or a few million for a mistake.
How a $10K Service Design Project Prevented a Multi-Million Dollar Mistake
Wisdom always comes at a cost, but we get to decide when to pay (and generally, it’s cheaper to pay upfront, while you’re still planning a major design project).
Lesson #7:
Don't manage measurements, manage the results.
Design Operations Consulting for a Leader in Healthcare Innovation
Businesses often get lured into the trap of choosing a single high-priority metric to determine their success. However, doing so skews results and frequently backfires.
Lesson #8:
The people who have the answers are probably not in the room.
Leading Service Design Workshops for a Telecommunications Company
Designing a service in isolation is like trying to cook without necessary ingredients. You can do it, but it’s probably going to come out a little off, and you’ll wish you took the time to plan ahead.
Why list these as “lessons?”
Easy. Two reasons:
People are busy.
If someone doesn’t have time to read the entire portfolio, they can still get a sense of what I’ve learned over the years, and how that might affect the way I approach certain problems.Lessons are timeless.
Don’t get me wrong, portfolios are meant to showcase projects you’re proud to have done. In my view, success is the combination of commitment, intentionality, and opportunity. The thing is, the opportunity landscape is constantly changing. Benchmarks change. Industries evolve. What’s trending now might look old and goofy tomorrow. When you’re in this field for over a decade, you learn that you can’t rest on laurels because success ages poorly. Lessons, on the other hand, come from good and bad experiences alike, and stay with you as you grow.
Don’t see a project type you were hoping for?
It’s hard to feature every lesson I’ve learned in the last 12 years, but if you’d like to talk more about service design, UX research, management, strategy, coaching, or any other other areas not featured here, I’m happy to hop on a quick call to chat with you about my experiences, and hopefully we can find a way to work together.