FAQs
A few questions I get asked often — answered honestly.
Some are about my work and availability. A few are about the credentials behind it. One is just about who I am when I close the laptop.
Why does a design leader have a FAQ page?
Fair question. Most portfolio sites are designed to look impressive and say as little as possible. I’d rather be direct about who I am, how I work, and what I’m available for — so that when someone reaches out, we’re already starting from a shared understanding. If this page helps the right person decide to get in touch, or helps the wrong fit realize we’re not aligned before either of us wastes time, it’s done its job. Design is about clarity. I try to apply the same principle to how I present myself.
Are you available for full-time roles?
My primary focus right now is consulting and speaking engagements. I’m selectively available to organizations looking for senior design leadership on a consulting basis—whether that’s helping a company mature its design practice, leading a platform strategy initiative, or providing interim design leadership during a transition. If you’re exploring a full-time role and the fit is genuinely right, I’m open to that conversation.
What does your consulting work look like in practice?
I don’t come in with a pre-packaged playbook. My approach is to start from the ground up—talking to the people inside the company, understanding the real problems and the ones nobody’s named yet, and building a picture of what’s actually happening before recommending anything. That means early time is invested in listening—to designers, to product and engineering partners, and to customers if possible. From there, I work with leaders to define the highest-leverage interventions, whether that’s platform strategy, design ops maturity, team structure, or something else entirely.
What does your first 90 days typically look like when you engage with a new organization?
I start by learning, not prescribing. That means sitting down with designers, product managers, engineers, and customer-facing teams before forming any opinions about what needs to change. I want to understand what’s working, what everyone privately knows isn’t working, and what the team has already tried. I look at the product with fresh eyes, review existing research, and map the real decision-making dynamics. Only after that immersion do I start forming a point of view—and even then, I develop it collaboratively rather than arriving with a finished answer.
What kinds of organizations do you do your best work with?
I’m most energized by organizations that are at an inflection point — where the product has found real traction but the design practice hasn’t kept pace, or where multiple products need to be unified under a shared platform and experience vision. I’ve done this in PLG SaaS, construction tech, healthcare AI, government digital services, and market research. Domain complexity doesn’t intimidate me; if anything, I find that the harder the problem space, the more meaningful the design work tends to be.
What topics do you speak on?
I’ve given over 100 talks across my career, from intimate internal company events to large public conferences. My most-requested topics include:
- Design for Outcomes — how to orient teams around business and customer impact rather than output
- AI Design Principles — practical frameworks for designing with and around AI responsibly and effectively
- Product Development Lifecycle — how design, product, and engineering can operate as true equals
- Service Design — mapping and improving end-to-end experiences across complex, multi-touchpoint systems
Past venues include Creative Mornings Philadelphia, UX Burlington, WordCamp USA, Abstractions IO, and Leading Design by Clearleft, among others.
How do I invite you to speak at an event?
The best way is to reach out directly via my contact page with a brief description of your event, audience, and the topic you have in mind. I’m open to keynotes, panels, workshops, and internal company events. I tailor every talk to the specific audience and context — I don’t deliver the same deck twice.
What certifications and credentials do you hold?
Beyond two decades of practice, I hold several formal credentials that inform how I work:
- PMP — Project Management Professional, Project Management Institute
- CPACC — Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies, IAAP
- ITIL v4 Foundation — Axelos
- DiSC Certified Facilitator — for team dynamics, communication, and leadership development work
- Product-Led MBA Certified Practitioner — grounding my design leadership in PLG strategy and growth frameworks
These aren’t decorative — each one shows up in how I actually work. Accessibility shapes how I build and evaluate design systems. PLG grounds how I connect design to conversion and retention. DiSC informs how I run workshops and help teams navigate conflict and alignment.
How do you approach accessibility in your work?
Accessibility is not a compliance checklist for me — it’s a quality standard. Holding a CPACC certification means I understand WCAG standards, assistive technology behavior, and how to build accessibility into a design system from the component level up rather than retrofitting it at the end. At NIC Pennsylvania, I helped lead the Commonwealth’s first accessibility program and played a role in establishing the conditions that led to hiring the state’s first Chief Accessibility Officer. I believe the most usable products are almost always the most accessible ones, and I bring that lens into every engagement.
How do you think about AI in design today?
I’ve been working with AI in product design since 2014, when algorithmic machine learning models were powering what we’d now recognize as early AI marketing and behavioral tools. Today I think about AI in design at two levels. The first is as a capability inside products: how to design experiences that incorporate AI features responsibly, usefully, and in ways customers can understand and trust. The second is as a tool inside the design process itself: I currently lead teams using tools like Figma automation, code assistants, and pattern generators to prototype and iterate faster, cutting early exploration cycles from weeks to days. I’m neither an AI maximalist nor a skeptic — I try to apply it where it creates genuine leverage and stay honest about where it doesn’t.
What do you do when you’re not thinking about design?
Honestly, I try to do things that have nothing to do with screens. I spend a lot of time gardening and landscaping around my house—there’s something genuinely satisfying about working with your hands, watching things grow, and solving problems that don’t require a Figma file.
I’m also a dedicated tabletop role-playing game player. Pathfinder is my game of choice, though I have deep respect for the system that started it all. What I love about TTRPGs isn’t the escapism—it’s the collaborative storytelling. A good session requires everyone at the table to listen carefully, build on each other’s ideas, stay present, and make decisions with incomplete information under pressure. If that sounds familiar, it’s because it’s basically what good cross-functional product work feels like too. I’ve never said that in a job interview, but it’s true.
The people who know me well would tell you I’m a lot less serious in person than a professional bio suggests. I laugh easily, I ask a lot of questions, and I’m genuinely curious about people—which probably explains both why I ended up in design leadership and why I keep rolling dice with friends on weekends.