DESIGN STRATEGY

How to make lovable products

How can we create products and services that are not only intuitive, but that people love and want to engage with? Make sure your design process is guided by what real humans want, need, and care about.

RESEARCH

STRATEGY

DESIGN

My Approach

At the earliest stages of the design process I lay the foundation for how a design team will create experiences that real people will love.

I use a variety of methodologies to work on ambiguous, messy problems. Each challenge requires a unique approach. I draw frequently from user-centered design and Design Thinking which helps to: 

  • Find new opportunities spaces beyond current product offerings
  • Dig deep to find out what motivates the audience and discover what their real needs and drivers are
  • Align stakeholders who are all coming with diverse ideas about product direction (product management, executive leadership, engineering, customer service)

Design Research

I create research programs to discover user needs, motivations, and mental models. Listening to people and observing behavior in their native environment shows how users are influenced by culture and what new cultural trends may be emerging.

This process helps bring to light opportunities that may not have been considered and provides a reliable framework to align teams and drive the innovation process.

Design Research activities include:

  • Ethnographic studies and in-depth interviews
  • Usability studies
  • Surveys and quantitative analysis
  • Website metrics analysis
  • Audience definition and persona development

User Experience Strategy

When planning a new product or service I lead teams through a process to create best-in-class experiences at each touchpoint of a user’s journey.

I take the time to gather information from key stakeholders, analyze where the current points of friction are, and find new ways to deliver on strategic goals. 

Typical deliverables for a UX Strategy phase include:

  • Insights and Opportunities
  • User Journey Maps
  • Experience Principles
  • Trends analysis
  • Content strategy
  • Wireframes
  • Product and service design concepts  

“The fundamental idea of design is to make the world a better place.”
– Bruce Mau

Who I work with

Having working in the digital space since the late 90s, I’ve had the pleasure of working on a wide range of products and services, including shippable software, websites, mobile apps, call center, and service design experiences.
 
Design Firms:
AKQA
McKinsey & Company
Method
Ziba Design
Experience Lab
Experience Dynamics
Bolt | Peters UX
Gotomedia
 
Clients (partial list):
Dell Technologies
Nike
Verily
Rhode Island Department of Public Health
Schmidt Futures
Signal Messenger
NewsDeeply
Elsevier
Canary
The Hartford
FedEx
UCSF Medical Center
The Washington Post
Esurance
Symantec
CNET
Parallax Press
Intranets.com