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Profile

User Experience (UX) Strategist, Researcher and Designer with over 15 years experience across the spectrum of research and design activities. Skilled in leading UX researchers and designers, as well as cross-functional teams, through iterative, incremental processes for gaining user empathy, identifying unique opportunities, and arriving at innovative solutions. Talent for guiding delivery of delightful end-to-end experiences that address integration of hardware, software and environments; convergence of devices and services; and continuity across platforms and media types. Expertise supported by consulting and corporate experience as well as PhD.

Professional Experience

Alaska Airlines – Seattle, WA : 2016-present
Seattle-based airline
Director, E-commerce User Experience
Lead team of user experience strategists, researchers and designers in delivering customer-facing digital experiences for Alaska Airline's $3 billion, multi-channel e-commerce business, including its website (www.alaskaair.com), mobile applications and kiosks.

Slalom – Seattle, WA : 2014-2016
Business and technology consulting firm
Experience Design Director
Led the Experience Design (XD) team in Slalom’s Seattle market. Provided guidance on a full spectrum of activities, including: design process/approach, product strategy, design facilitation, user research and insight, content strategy, information architecture, information visualization, interaction design, rapid prototyping and visual design.

• Set strategic direction for XD team. Defined and expanded key offerings, furthering credibility in the space. Developed XD team skills and supported project team delivery.
• Collaborated with leaders in software and platform development, business strategy and operations and business intelligence to deliver holistic solutions to complex problems and drive clients’ visions forward from a customer-centric lens. 
• Led and supported business development efforts from understanding client needs to crafting project approach, developing proposals and RFP responses, delivering pitches and aligning teams.
• Engaged with clients across industries, including communication, eCommerce, financial services, insurance, public sector, technology, and transportation. Partnered with clients to help define their product vision, roadmaps and end-to-end customer journeys. Created next-generation websites, portals, mobile products, big-data applications and connected devices. Clients included: Agilysys, Amazon, AT&T, City of Seattle, City of Kirkland, Group Health, Microsoft, Parametric, Safeco, T-mobile and Zonar.

First Data Corporation – Atlanta, GA : 2012-2013
Global payment processing company with 24,000 employees
Director of User Experience in Innovation Lab
Established and led the UX research and design team, applying design thinking to innovate in payments industry.

• Conceived First Data’s next generation B2B and B2C solutions to ensure company competitiveness against new entrants in a rapidly transforming industry. Provided cross-functional teams with leadership in user-centered and lean methodologies. Guided design research, information architecture, interaction design and visual design.
• ​Hired, lead and mentored research and design talent whose collective capabilities became a sought-after resource by colleagues company wide. When resource limitations prevented UX team from meeting all requests for project involvement outside assigned responsibility, created “if you teach a man to fish…” solutions. 
• Motivated company-wide shift from designing end-to-end solutions (including sales, pricing, contracts, out-of-the-box, set-up, customer support, value added services and end-of-life experiences) based on internal bias and assumptions to designing based on user empathy. Created and gave compelling, persuasive presentations (storytelling) to senior executives on customer insights gathered through design thinking activities, acting as a catalyst for the change. 

Independent User Experience Consultant – Atlanta, GA : 2007-2012
Allowed companies – creative agencies and technology startups – to bring in much needed expertise from single source rather than many. Engaged in experience strategy, design research and interaction design work and provided tactical deliverables on time, within budget, and of exceptional quality. 

Echo Visualization, LLC (EchoViz) – Atlanta, GA : 2003-2012
Boutique design firm focusing on interactive digital experiences
User Experience Strategist (2007-2012)
Provided specialized design services for clients in diverse industries, including mobile device, medical device, consumer product, industrial equipment, eCommerce and software as a service. Clients included: ADVA Optical Networking, Alltel Wireless, Dresser, GE, Guided Therapeutics, Hewlett Packard, LazyDays, MAKO Surgical, Nutro, Orkin, Sears Holdings Corporation, The Raymond Corporation, Toto and TurboChef.

• Created project visions and maintained the holistic view in resolving detail-oriented challenges of consistency, simplicity and elegance, resulting in successful end-to-end solutions that delight users.
• Managed teams and produced deliverables across design research, information architecture, information visualization, interaction design, visual design and programming activities. Exceeded client expectations while balancing resources, scope, and timeline.
• Appropriately integrated physical and digital interfaces in designing solutions ranging from surgical robots, to kitchen appliances and forklifts, leveraging industrial design background and knowledge of human factors and ergonomics.
• Developed and executed design research protocols, including contextual inquiry, stakeholder interviews, expert reviews, card sorts, prototype evaluations and usability tests, bringing user-centered practices to organizations and projects typically driven by business goals and concerns and/or technology capabilities and initiatives.
• Developed new business, by creating successful project proposals and pitches and increasing EchoViz’s visibility and reputation through presenting at local, national and international conferences and networking events.

Interaction Designer (2003-2007)
Delivered solutions with consistent brand language and management, by establishing conventions for interacting with content across multiple channels and transitioning traditional media into digital formats.

Shepherd Center – Atlanta, GA : 2002-2007
Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for Wireless Technologies
Research Project Coordinator
As mediator between people with disabilities and the wireless industry, gathered information from individuals with disabilities on their needs and desires associated with mobile devices – planned and led contextual inquiry, designed and evaluated prototypes, managed programmers who helped develop prototypes, and conducted usability testing of existing devices – and leveraged output in developing and delivering design training for the wireless industry.

Georgia Tech, School of Industrial Design – Atlanta, GA : 2002-2007
Instructor / developer of curriculum for product interface design coursework

Design Science – Philadelphia, PA : 2000-2001
Design consultancy focused on fitting products to people
Interaction Designer
Created interaction design deliverables for virtual learning and medical equipment projects, considering client and user needs as well as clinical testing requirements

Talisman Creative – Atlanta, GA : 2000
Interactive marketing startup
Interaction Designer
Promoted and applied 3-dimensional approach and expertise in concept development for and design of interactive marketing tools.

Education

PhD : Georgia Tech, College of Design - Atlanta, Georgia
​Dissertation : Designing for Diverse Users - a case study on touchscreen smartphone customization.

​Areas of Focus:

• Mobile device design and technology
• Human-computer interaction
• User-centered design
• User experience strategy
• User experience design
• Business processes
• Design research methods
• Interactive media
• Inclusive/universal design
• Assistive Technology

​Coursework and Research completed in association with the following groups

• School of Industrial Design
• School of Interactive Computing
• Digital Media Program
• ACME Lab
• Wireless RERC - Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center for Wireless Technologies
• Shepherd Center - Hospital specializing in medical treatment, research and rehabilitation for people with spinal cord injury and brain injury
• CATEA - Center for Assistive Technology and Environmental Access

BS in Industrial Design : Georgia Tech, School of Industrial Design - Atlanta, Georgia

• High honors/magna cum laude
• Co-op participant

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Customer Focused Innovation Executive Education : Stanford Graduate School of Business - Palo Alto, California
One week program combining the d.school's Design Thinking Boot Camp with classroom dialogue on strategic frameworks for developing innovative solutions and building a customer-centric culture. Highlights included:

• Participating in hands-on, real-world exercises to learn through doing.
• Gaining insights into how to build a customer-centric culture that supports innovation.
• Continuing to hone skills as a design thinking educator and facilitator.

Professional Activities

Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) : 2011 - 2012
Human Interaction Section Vice Chair

Georgia Tech Business Network (GTBN) : 2007 - 2010
Elected Board Member, Secretary (2008-2009)

Patent Pending.
US 2010/0179844, “Information Reporting System for Managing a Fleet of Industrial Vehicles,” Vicki Haberman and others.