I support early-stage software startups in the social impact space build new products or improve existing products to get to their next big milestone. Send me a message if you're interested in working together.

Mentoring designers looking for their next job and entrepreneurs building new software products.Accepting new mentees here: https://mentorcruise.com/mentor/maryknight/

- Conducted a competitive analysis to understand the existing market- Read and synthesized over 200+ customer reviews and reddit posts to better understand the needs of the customer - Delivered 60+ page deck with findings and recommendations

- All work was done in connection with applying to a government grant in which the org received $2 Billion- Planned & facilitated a 3-day 10+ person Design Sprint- Conducted 12+ Customer Discovery Interviews with low-income households to better understand how to transition these households to electric appliances - Built a service ecology mapping the homeowner journey, all actors, partners, existing products, and products needed to be built. Then worked with my engineering counterpart to map the underlying services and integrations that would be needed.- Worked cross-functionality to scope out a pilot to validate working assumptions

- Facilitated workshops to gain clarity on short and long-term product & business goals - Hosted 1-on-1 road mapping sessions with entrepreneurs - Provided individual coaching sessions as needed- Hired and managed a team of contractors to support Branding and Product Design

- Supported underrepresented entrepreneurs in the development and creation of new software ventures- Facilitated a series of sessions, workshops, and research studies to answer the questions: What problem are we solving? Who are we solving this problem for? How might we solve this problem for this population?- Tested opportunities through a variety of experiments (ad funnels, landing pages, etc)- Facilitated a series of exercises to identify brand positioning, values, and purpose- Set up communication channels: social media accounts, ad creation, and email templates- Led Product Design - user experience, user interface design and visual design

When I joined Zero, they had proved product-market fit for a small niche customer but in order to continue, they needed to grow beyond this niche. I completed three qualitative research studies in an attempt to understand who this niche customer was and to validate possible adjacent users to go after next. After the qualitative research, I completed a quantitative research study to validate what I heard in qual. I was then able to share valuable insights with the marketing, growth, and business leaders in the organization which led to marketing experimentation, and informed strategy that was used to pitch to investors.Unfortunately, Zero was unable to raise the next round of funding that was needed and shut down in March 2022.

Acquired after 1.5 years, Employee #1At wellio, we are building an AI for food. Wellio is your partner for eating well using the latest machine learning algorithms to provide evidence-based personalized food and diet recommendations.I lead our team of Product Designers and I'm the Design Lead for our Growth Team. In this role, I have the following responsibilities: - Developing best practices and methodologies for the product design team- Providing mentorship, guidance, and support to the product design team- Act as a bridge between engineering, product, design, marketing, and business development- Represent the design discipline in the hiring of positions across the teamAchievements: - Partnering with engineering to develop our first design system- Imagining the future by leading our product and design team through a reexamination of our information architecture- Collaborating with PMs to revise our significant interactions to ensure we are meeting our team KRs - Partnered with an agency to rebrand Meal Hero our native app, and guide the design and development of a marketing website - Member of our growth team that increased first-month retention from 27% to 47% through rolling out messaging, setting high goals, and reaching them by being data-driven using both qualitative (implementing feedback software) and quantitative (relentless experimentation to understand the impact of new features) data

I lead our user research to discover our home chefs needs. I work with our PM to establish priorities and roadmaps for multiple project teams. Then I work with our engineers and data scientists to develop consumer-facing features - building flows, thinking through the user experience, designing the UI, and testing hypotheses. After implementation, I do more user research to validate our hypotheses, as well as look at our user data to measure the impact of newly developed features.Secondarily, I am also responsible for communicating who we are and what we do as a company. This comes in many forms, such as our web presence, supporting marketing and social efforts, and helping to establish and communicate the vision and mission of the company internally and externally.

Visual Design Consultant at Abl schoolsEarly-stage Stealth Startup in Health

Lead and supported contextual inquiries. Supported participatory design sessions with consumers and client workshops. Participated in synthesis for design research and then several rounds of concepting and idea generation around new solutions. Crafted visual user journeys and client readout decks. Used an established design system to create two new microsites. Worked with in house developers to create pixel perfect design and test the website.

Provided creative support, including creative client pitch deck creation, brainstorming and development for video and photography productions for Nike, Purina, and others. Organized photo assets after photo shoots and served as a photo retoucher. Contributed to internal logo development, and website visuals. I also served as art director and producer of a short film!

Developed and implemented a marketing plan that included updating the website, creating and maintaining a social media presence (Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter), created and drove consistent blog postings, designed, created and delivered regular monthly newsletters and became "The Voice" of the organization. I participated in and co-facilitated many focus groups to learn the work, create language for the work and to tell the story of the work. I streamlined a number of the functions within the office to enable file sharing, create consistent messaging from employees to the external world and create internal communication mechanisms. I drove many of the conversations about our internal process for defining our vision and mission.

I worked here for a period of 7 months in 2013 as a part-time Graphic Designer. I had the opportunity to work with architects, urban planners, geography students, and master students in this collaborative urban planning studio that solves community design issues in the Greater Cincinnati Area. I created all graphic collateral for the studio including their annual report, data visualization graphics, oversized print posters, infographics, brochures, and a variety of maps. Often times in time sensitive and high stress situations.

Collaborated with our start-up client, Yerdle, to update their brand and produce an iPhone app. Researched current mobile interface trends, and developed a playful tone for their brand. Concepted and sketched app screen functions, layouts and then created high definition Photoshop elements. Was able to see the project through to v.1 of the app, which launched and is available in the app store!

Primarily worked on Imagination Playground, a brand created by Rockwell Group. I contributed the exhibition panels and illustrative graphics for Play Work Build, an exhibition now open in Washington D.C.’s National Building Museum. Created several toy packages, manual book layouts, and an email newsletter for Imagination Playground. Met with clients and presented designs for feedback. Conversed with outside vendors to produce printed books, invitations, and other printed materials.

I was the sole Graphic Designer on staff for this non-profit that organizes volunteering events for High School Students. Most importantly this is where I discovered the importance of working with passionate people, who believe in making a difference. I was responsible for creating all graphics, including logos, handbooks, fliers, posters, event programs, tickets, web banners, trading cards, certificates, booklets, and t-shirts. I also worked with outside vendors to produce printed materials.