My work spans content design, UX strategy, management, and design leadership. Highlights and signature strengths are below; you can also take an in-depth look at some case studies. For more information, get in touch!
Systems thinking
I view user experience not as a series of linear user journeys, but as multiple collections of nodes in a broader contextual network. Put differently, I understand that no one experiences a tool, system, flow, or technology in a vacuum: multiple factors, from social pressures to personal experiences, shape individuals’ experiences.
Systems thinking shows up in my design work in several ways. I frequently encourage my teams to think beyond discrete touchpoints to keep in mind a more holistic view about how users will encounter what they are designing. Where is the user coming from? Where are they going? What assumptions or preconceived notions about the product or company might they bring to the table?
Moreover, as a voracious reader of social, cultural, and political trends (a legacy of my academic work), I keep an eye out for shifts or changes that might impact how users approach anything from entrepreneurship to online shopping. An example from my time at Wayfair: I conducted a multimodal study to unpack connections between anxieties about economic recession, online purchasing behavior, and visions of home, an analysis that shaped value props for Wayfair’s financial products at the time.
User onboarding and guidance
As a growth designer, user onboarding is at the core of much of what I do, whether through crafting explicit onboarding flows or through providing contextual guidance. When crafting an onboarding strategy, I pull from from my background in teaching and education as well as my experience in UX.
At Shopify, I’ve created, shaped, and optimized multiple user onboarding and setup guides for Shopify merchants and partners. Recent examples include:
A setup guide tailormade for merchants replatforming from another SaaS e-commerce provider to Shopify Plus
A Shopify partner onboarding guide that helps them both set up their accounts and learn the basics of revenue share
A guide that helps those merchants upgrading to Shopify Plus learn about and adopt new plan-exclusive features
Qualitative research
I’m an expert in conducting multidisciplinary qualitative research. Over the last 15+ years, I’ve honed skills in methods like textual analysis, critical media studies, moderated and unmoderated interviews, fieldwork, contextual inquiry, survey design, and more.
Moreover, as a trained interdisciplinary academic researcher, I have deep expertise in synthesizing insights from multiple data sources.
My experience as a researcher and educator has led me to teach undergraduate and graduate courses in user experience and research methods, among other topics.
I design my courses to include readings and assignments that emphasize creativity, critical thinking, asking tough questions, and reflecting upon power dynamics inherent in society and culture. I also assign projects that can be used as work samples or case studies.
Team craft growth
I’m an educator through and through. I spent the first decade of my career teaching at the high school and university level, and have brought that keen interest in education and growth to my work in UX.
As a manager, I work closely with my direct reports in helping them to reflect, brainstorm, and define learning and growth opportunities.
I’ve also led multiple organization-wide and company-wide presentations about topics like goal-setting, identifying one’s core values, challenging one’s self, and the cultural histories of race in America (as part of Wayfair’s “Allyship with the Black Community” series).
In other cases, I create longer-term learning and development programs, like the Content Strategy Development Program at Wayfair, shown here.
Product copy
As a content strategist and content designer (pick your poison), I’ve crafted zero-to-one content across a variety of product surfaces. My role at Shopify, for instance, has focused on on user signup flows, onboarding journeys, and a wide variety of core product flows, like user and permissions management and billing surfaces.
Before I joined Shopify, my bread and butter was overseeing UX and content strategy for Wayfair’s loyalty and fintech programs. In that role, I developed expertise in financial product copy (think credit card applications and payment method management) and lower funnel messaging, typically cart and checkout flows.
Fun fact: my favorite type of microcopy is the error message. A good error message can make or break an experience, and is the unsung hero of helping users get where they need to go.
Upper funnel content
Being part of a growth team at a product-centric company has enabled me to drive strategy and execution for content across truly end-to-end user journeys, including upper funnel content: landing pages, value props, and more.
I regularly collaborate with Growth Marketing, Product Marketing, and Revenue in shaping content that raises awareness and drives conversion.
When driving or influencing upper funnel content, I prioritize:
Customer education: I start every project by asking the question “What should the user walk away from this experience having learned?”
Simplicity: I avoid overburdening experiences with too much information or text, so users don’t feel overwhelmed
User-centricity: I speak directly to user benefits (ideally, immediate user benefits) afforded by converting