As the Design Director at Neo, Michelle is responsible for the strategic direction across projects as well as the evolution of internal design theories and practise.Michelle leads the design team and talks regularly at design and business events, advocating for a more objective practise toward the decision making behind product, service and system design.

I worked directly with University leadership to audit, assess and reimagine the student experience across various touch points and mediums. The idea was to understand how existing experience was contributing to business outcomes and how interventions would result in positive changes. This included infield research across six countries.

As the Program Director of Train, I work with partners to create custom programs to suit their capability needs and organisational objectives.

Michelle is working to merge Behavior-Centered Design (BCD) tools and techniques into the City College Masters of Public Administration Program. The aim is to understand how public policy can utilise a BCD process to ensure more effective, accurate and human outcomes. Michelle teaches the project based module of the program, including running experiments to prove/disprove policy hypotheses in the field.Recent press release:The MPA Program implemented a new approach to capstone projects in which students focused on public health issues affecting community districts in New York, rather than working with a single organization. Students received guidance from the MPA Program's new practitioner-in-residence, Michelle Gilmore, founder of the service design firm Neoteny. Gilmore taught the students Behavior-Centered Design (BCD) investigation techniques, which “enabled the students to access objective qualitative insight from the people most impacted by policy,” she said.The Lower East Side, Crown Heights, Elmhurst, Corona, Mott Haven, and Central Harlem are among the neighborhoods where three-person teams of students conducted interviews, met with local stakeholders, and used the BCD methodology to propose policy solutions to problems such as asthma, obesity, and access to prenatal care.The BCD approach provides valuable exposure to the policy environment. “This method quickly turns theoretical knowledge into lived experience, and that’s a very powerful transition,” said Gilmore.“We need to empower the new generation of changemakers who demand evidence-led decision-making and are able to prove or disprove various interventions,” she added. Students say the project enhanced their research skills. "This experience taught me how to be a good listener when interviewing and to prompt people to go deeper instead of having surface level conversations," said Eden Mulate, whose team addressed high asthma rates on the Lower East Side.

Working as a Senior Experience Architect at Digital Eskimo from 2007 - 2009, Michelle lead teams of designers and developers in the collaborative design of large scale interactive services and products, driving user experience and overseeing production.Responsibilities included:Analysing and synthesising project information into user experience strategies and scoping documents Participating in internal brainstorms, client workshops and meetings Contributing to conceptual and creative development of projects Developing designs for information architecture, user experiences and wireframe development and interaction design/GUI design Taking business requirements and converting these into creative and technical specifications Give requirement briefs in technical and non technical language Producing documentation and templates - sitemaps, wireframes, functional specs, etc… Leading and/or line managing projects as required Producing and maintaining work timelines, deadlines and budgets / cost estimations Manage and develop client relationships Manage developers and creative teams to to ensure all contracted services are delivered as agreed as a minimum, but focused on delivering successful projects Facilitating client and team workshopsDeveloping design strategies

Intecture is a multi-disciplinary Malaysian based design firm, specialising in exhibition, web and graphic design. In 2004 Intecture was commissioned to run the Bauhaus project within South East Asia. This multi-layered project spanning across exhibitions, architecture, construction technology and modern design philosophy required several professionals from various design disciplines to work together as a team to achieve pre-determined goals.Key achievements and experience:• Primarily responsible for the research and design of a 45 minute documentary feature charting the evolution of Bauhaus in an Asian and oriental context. • Screenplay storyboarding and scripting.• Presentation to clients with the marketing and PR team.• Exhibition research, planning and design.• Web based research and design.• Graphic, layout and spatial design for different aspects of the projects.

Whilst on a design exchange scholarship, Michelle worked alongside senior staff of the university to introduce sustainable design into the university.Key achievements and experience:• Responsible for the research, planning and implementation of a sustainability program to educate all industrial design students on the merits of sustainable design practice.