Design Lead for cross-functional teams, delivering strategic consulting, digital products, and technology modernization for State and Federal government agencies. Manager for 6 direct reports.PROGRAM STRATEGY AND LEADERSHIP: Sets the program’s strategic direction and roadmap in collaboration with government stakeholders, product managers, engineers, and project managers. Regularly participates in program planning meetings to scope, prioritize, and adjust upcoming design work based on evolving requirements.TEAM MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT: Leads, mentors, and supports a team of mid-level to senior-level designers, ensuring they have the skills necessary for effective team management and design delivery. Conducts performance evaluations and offers constructive feedback. Guides growth and professional development through goal setting and targeted training. Approves leave, timesheets, and expenses in accordance with company policy.DESIGN OPERATIONS: Establishes efficient program and design operations that enable smooth cross-functional collaboration and high-quality design within agile development cycles. Onboards and trains new team members, manages design tools, and streamlines research practices. Builds a community of practice among design leads, focused on supporting design leads and improving delivery outcomes.DESIGN DELIVERY: Oversees the delivery of design artifacts, including research reports, wireframes, mockups, and system diagrams.RISK MITIGATION AND QUALITY ASSURANCE: Identifies and manages potential delivery risks to ensure timely, high-quality outcomes. Balances workloads across the team to prevent burnout. Proactively mitigates risks by coordinating resources across workstreams and organizing backup plans for high-impact deadlines. TEAM HEALTH AND WELL-BEING: Facilitates team health checks and team-building activities to assess the employee experience, strengthen engagement and ensure high-quality outcomes.

Provided strategic or tactical resources for corporate and non-profit clients in order to uncover meaningful insights and spark innovative thinking around the future of a product or service.SAMPLE PROJECTS:MIT Sloan Management Review (information architecture): Provided recommendations based on usability testing, card sorting, and competitive analysis to enhance site structure, keep readers engaged, and align the site experience with business goals.Ametek Spectro FieldLab (expert review): Identified and documented usability problems, leading to actionable design recommendations that improve user efficiency and accuracy.Toast (discovery research): Identified ways to boost customer confidence during remote installations that, once implemented, would enable more self-serve setups and expand market reach by reducing the need for on-site support.Gradifi Student Loan Paydown Program (usability testing): Recommended design improvements to simplify the program management experience and create a smoother setup process.iThrive Games and EdTogether (participatory design): Developed ‘Game Design Studio’, an after-school program empowering teens to design perspective-taking games that foster engagement, critical thinking, and empathy.

PROGRAM MANAGEMENT: Built a pioneering online Bachelor of Science degree program in Design for User Experience that entailed defining program outcomes, hiring and training faculty, marketing the program to prospective students, monitoring student engagement, and continually improving the student experience.CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT: Designed and taught courses in user research, information architecture, design thinking, user experience design, and sketching for interactive design. Developed a journey mapping curriculum which was used to inform Lesley’s academic advising and administration on existing transfer student experiences and to advocate for improved systems and processes.

Responsible for mapping overarching program goals and course objectives for a new online BS in Design for User Experience. Also responsible for creating 3 new online courses and for coordinating and staffing the design of 12 additional high-priority online courses to roll out the new Design for User Experience major.

Taught junior level, undergraduate "Design Systems" course examining the use of systems in design, including how design reflects existing systems and structures in the world and how visual systems themselves can be used as organizing features in our environment.

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Taught sophomore level, undergraduate course on user-oriented, collaborative design processes for creating of authentic new products and services. Students observe and engage people to develop a deep understanding of their values and work collaboratively in a studio environment to create a unique product or service to meet the needs of their people group. Topics covered include design thinking, ethnographic methods, concept development and interaction design.Course: User Oriented Collaborative Design, Spring 2015

Managed the user experience strategy, design, and research efforts for the design customization portion of the Vistaprint online experience. Developed and implemented a co-design methodology to gain insights into the ‘high expectations’ customer segment, uncovering actionable product opportunities.

KEY PROJECTS:Global site redesign: Conducted and iteratively evaluated the redesign of the Vistaprint design customization experience. Following roll-out across 50+ products and 25 locales, conversion rates and revenue increased, as shown by multivariate testing.Site optimization: Designed new “Build Your Own Premium Business Card” experience for customers who wanted a unique design with their logo or photo. The new path saw a 2.8% increase in bookings per session, resulting in the retirement of the old design.

Co-Founder for a platform dedicated to women entrepreneurs needing to connect, share experiences, promote ventures, and tap into valuable resources to help them build successful lifestyle businesses.Awarded third place in the 2012 Merrimack Valley Sandbox’s Winners Showdown Pitch Contest:http://patch.com/massachusetts/lexington/they-are-rebel-women

Redesigned a B2B platform for cell carriers, streamlining coverage expansion and improving procurement efficiency.

Led the UX research, strategy, and visual design initiatives for all of CAST’s online teaching tools, websites, and learning environments; Developed agile design processes in collaboration with program management, engineering and instructional design teams; Mentored junior designers and design interns.

Led the design process for multiple NetBenefits projects with coinciding deadlines; Managed visual design, prototyping, editorial, and usability resources; Conducted design review sessions with project stakeholders.

Demonstrated how to intuitively integrate new services into the Fidelity.com web site; Observed customers interacting with working prototypes and suggested design modifications; Developed screen flow diagrams, Photoshop mock-ups, and HTML prototypes.

Worked with clients, including Kodak, Microsoft, and Motorola, to plan and conduct usability evaluations of their web, software, or mobile device interfaces; Authored reports covering usability testing results and interface recommendations.

Administered usability tests of a new Human Resource’s intranet website, analyzed data, and reported design recommendations to designers and content managers.