Coaching and organizational consulting for user experience individuals and teams; service design thinking and ways of working for platform businesses (B2B, B2C, regulated industries), applying design strategy to measurable business outcomes, generative design research, practice management and career advancement coaching.

• MERGE (Innovation Consultancy), Boston, MA — As Freelance Director of Experience Strategy, directed formative research to understand the L&D employee experience for a global management consultancy. Developed recommendations for strategic planning to the client's leadership.• For a national online search services company: designed and conducted workshops (employee experience mapping, B2B customer archetypes and journeys) for the HR organization and cross-company customer experience teams to kick-start strategic alignment efforts for 2022.

• Directed and mentored up to 24 year-long capstone thesis projects at a time (research and development) • Managed 5-8 project teams per course, 3 courses per term, coaching research and design methods on 3-4 month-long projects (corporate-sponsored, original and student-developed topics), holding weekly check-ins, coordinating feedback and peer-support cohorts, writing performance reviews.• Coordinated the creation of curriculum assessments and led department-wide reviews for Middle-States accreditation • Served on college-level committees and collaborated on a vice chancellor’s task force that nationally bench-marked and recommended strategy for a university-wide innovation and entrepreneurship program.

• Designed and conducted user research in three US and two international markets for a pharmaceuticals client, recommending improvements to patient instructions and product development for a self-injection process.• For a national home improvement retailer: Conducted service design research, designed and facilitated strategic alignment workshops, and advising the consultancy's internal staff on service design business development.

• Developed and led workshops for senior executives across business units to introduce design thinking principles and practices as part of a company-wide Lean Innovation and change-management initiative. • Co-developed project planning, and coached process methods for a team of directors and managers on a 12-month innovation (incubator) project to meet cross-divisional goals.• Facilitated learning through immersion, inquiry, collaboration, and making. Tools and methods used: formative and generative research (contextual observation, empathy interviews, participatory design activities), analysis and synthesis of findings (personas & stakeholder modeling, journey/experience mapping, ecologies), modeling to evaluate and reframe the design space (service blueprinting, business model canvas, customized frameworks), ideation techniques, experience prototyping, and concept testing.

• Directed the administration of the first named Service Design BFA and MFA degree programs in North America, including curriculum development, program marketing and recruitment, faculty hiring, graduate coordination of admissions and thesis guidelines, student advising and job placement.• Taught undergraduate and graduate design students, managing semester-long project work on four courses simultaneously. Areas of instruction included: contextual and generative research methods, facilitating collaborative design, synthesis of findings to design concepts, information visualization, experience prototyping and testing, service management and marketing, diagramming (blueprinting) service processes and ecosystems, business design and planning, design for social impact.• Developed and managed sponsored projects with industry clients, including JCB, Microsoft, and Savannah Citizens for Environmental Justice.

• Introduced and advocated for service design methods as a means to encourage a holistic approach across the design organization.• Facilitated the use of service blueprinting with teams of product managers, designers, engineers, and user researchers to interpret findings from partner interviews and customer visits to holistically identify and prioritize pain points and opportunities.• Created a workshop plan for a four-day charrette to engage 30 designers and user researchers in a generative process with stakeholders and users to explore new design directions for several key areas of the eBay service experience. The resulting ideas were prototyped, tested, and presented to executives to inform the strategic redesign of key marketplaces.

Created and facilitated sessions introducing service design principles and methods to green businesses, introducing tools to help entrepreneurs develop and refine their business models and build values-driven marketing campaigns.

• Conducted contextual user research for a B2B/SaaS business and travel services platform. Synthesized findings to create user models (personas/scenarios) and conceptual frameworks for American Express Travel’s AXIOM. • Brought product managers and designers on field visits across the US, facilitating debriefs to analyze findings and inspirations. Developed recommendations based on findings, and presented “before” and “after” improvements to AmEx.• Collaborated on design and testing of early prototypes for the initial release of AXIOM mobile application, named to MobileBeat’s Top 30 Mobile applications of 2008.• Designed and moderated co-design workshops between frontline service representatives, the sale team, and product development to holistically generate, integrate, and prioritize product features.

UX and UI design for first-release network-based meeting applications: WebEx Connect and AOL AIMPro. Conducted formative research and creation of personas. Applied a scenario-based, iterative approach to design and testing. Collaborated on business and functional requirements with UX designers, product managers, and engineers. Introduced team members to the use of workflows and workflows and wireframing.