I have been fortunate to learn, grow, and lead various initiatives and product design teams throughout my career. I'm grateful to be in a position where I can help the next wave of user experience designers by teaching a fantastic course at UCLA Extension:User Experience III: Applied.Students apply what they have learned to real-world case studies and UX design challenges in this course. Topics include research and observational techniques, the art of information gathering, prototyping, scope definition, journey mapping, and empathy maps. Students complete team projects and 360 reviews and practice remote working techniques, collaboration, and balancing multiple projects.https://ux.uclaextension.edu

Reporting to the Director of Corporate Applications - I assembled and led a product design team of user experience and visual designers embedded in projects across Activision, Blizzard, and King studios. I established a comprehensive design program that was pivotal in maturing our design team and fulfilling commitments to improve efficiency and deliver impactful products for the organization and its employees. As part of the leadership team, my responsibilities extended beyond managing and nurturing the design team to collaborating with various business stakeholders directly. I worked to understand their departmental needs and developed strategic solutions to address them.

Reporting to the Chief Product Officer (CPO) - Managing both the Digital Product and Learning Experience teams, I supported diverse consumer and business projects. My responsibilities included setting the strategy for customer experiences across padi.com, online store, and mobile applications. Additionally, I guided UX research efforts, conducted data analysis, usability studies, and A/B testing. I also provided direction for instructional design efforts related to our learning products, overseeing authoring, publishing, and translation efforts.

Reporting to the VP of Marketing and Digital Sales - I was responsible and accountable for shaping the digital experiences across 8 brands within the Just Energy Group, spanning worldwide. I led user experience initiatives, which encompassed user research, analysis, and capturing the voice of our customers. Additionally, I sourced and hired a multi-faceted design team that significantly enhanced overall conversions across our websites and other services.

Reporting to the Chief Product Officer (CPO) - I led the site experience and campaign marketing for the US eCommerce division. I spearheaded multidisciplinary teams focused on user experience, visual design, and digital content management/marketing. My collaborative efforts extended to other departments, including Sales, CRM, and IT, while closely working with the Executive Team.

Reporting to the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) - I held accountability for the company’s website, including international websites, an online shop, and digital marketing initiatives. My role involved steering a multifaceted department comprising User Experience, Development, Content, and Production teams. I crafted the online sales strategy and executed tactical plans to achieve business objectives while championing the vision for our customer's web experiences.

Developed and executed UX initiatives for the company's websites, including the online store. Worked with various teams to form a UX Strategy and Vision making sure they aligned with the business goals and ensuring customers have a great experience.Several accomplishments included developing the wish list feature, which converted over 6 digits in sales in its first week of being online. Redesigned the visual hierarchy of the product purchase page, which decreased drop-off rates. Another project was designing up-sell mechanisms, which converted into thousands of dollars in purchases at pre-cart checkout screens.Interesting Highlight: Key role (UI/UX) on the team that developed the world's first consumer 4KHD media player (REDRAY) and its mobile companion.Brief Responsibilities:• Develop and execute strategic plans and vision for User Experience initiatives for local andinternational websites + online shop.• Analysis of data to help drive key decisions in wireframe development.• Develop wireframes, prototypes, and functional specifications.• Conduct usability studies and develop findings reports and presentations to various teams.• Presentations to c-level executives.• Lead projects from beginning to end, which include collaborating with development, content, and design teams.• Interim-Lead a team to maintain the website and produce new content and features. The team is also accountable for branding, and marketing online.Tools: Axure, Visio, Morae, SurveyMonkey, OptimalSort

Collaboratively worked with producers, developers, visual designers, and other various people on a common goal, which was - to develop usable, fun, and ensure a great user experience in our products! I have worked on many enterprise level projects from Content Management Systems, a Learning Management System, and Customer Relationship Management systems.Being part of a great cross-functional team, I led many projects to successful launches. Several projects helped save the company hundreds of thousands by being able to offer alternative solutions to choose from.Brief Responsibilities:• Develop wireframes, process flows, and site maps.• Analyze technical, business and usability requirements to produce timely, effective solutions.• Conduct field studies, contextual inqueries, and usability lab testing of applications and websites.• Work closely with User Research Analysts to develop usability lab testing plans on specific projects.• Prototyping.• Review and guide User Interface designs created by Graphic Designers and Software Engineers.Tools: Axure, Visio, Microsoft Blend, Morae, OptimalSort

Developed and architected many software solutions which helped productivity of personnel in teams throughout the organization for local and global use. Some responsibilities and systems I developed:• Key developer in the development of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application, which currently (2013) is used by thousands of customer support representatives around the world. This application supports games such as StarCraft II, World of Warcraft, billing related activities, online store and is fully localized.• Developed web and client based applications for various departments, which solved strategic problems.• Developed a web application to interact with Active Directory which displays employee information. Internal website also displays employee photos and interactive maps (seating locations).• Developed a system which queries Billing Oracle servers to help the Fraud Team investigate account activities and to notify customers of Credit Card statuses.• Specialized as the User Interface (UI) designer for the department. Heavy use of tools such as Photoshop, Visio, and various design methodologies.• Resident specialist for the company’s MOSS 2007/2010 portal. Deployed, maintained and also developed for the SharePoint site.Programming Languages: C#, ASP.NET, JAVA, C++Databases: MS SQL, ORACLE, MYSQL

An early goal achieved by becoming a Software Engineer - I was quickly on loan to the team who were developing the support systems of a yet to be AAA video game title. I was also the first employee in a newly created department put together to develop software which was not game specific. Some responsibilities and systems I developed:• Helped kick off the development of a ticketing system for our In-Game Customer Service department. This led to the development of the CRM application which supported the help system of World Of Warcraft.• Separate from the CRM application mentioned above, I developed and designed a suite of n-tiered CRM applications such as Phone, Email, Knowledgebase and Statistic clients. All applications supported hundreds of concurrent users.• Architected localization system so that all tools and web applications were usable by other service centers located in France and Korea.• Point of contact for International Customer Service Programming Teams.• Refactored the public support site to support the launch of a new title (World Of Wacraft) which supported several thousands of customers.Programming Languages: C#, ASP.NET, C++Databases: MS SQL, ORACLE

The company's first official non-game programmer! As I worked with various teams and developed a few key software solutions for the Customer Service department, I was able to transition into and pursue a software engineering career. One impactful task upon me was to replace the third-party call center system, which saved the company several of thousands of dollars each year in costs. Some responsibilities and systems I developed:• Developed and designed a phone client for technicians to log calls (ticketing system).• Implemented an internal knowledgebase of solutions to customer issues and a front end for technicians to access the data.• Redesigned and developed the public support site. This also consisted of analyzing data from the current website and gathering feedback from our end-users to develop a better user experience for customers seeking help.• Developed a System Information gathering application to report computer settings and error logs which shipped with Warcraft III.• In charge of all programming related projects for the Customer Service Department.• Mentored assistant programmer.Programming Languages: C#, ASP, VB6, C++Databases: MS SQL

There was a prediction made this year by fellow peers that providing customer service through the telephone would go away and everything would be handled via email. At this point in my career, I was promoted to the online services team where posting on forums and providing technical support via email was a new and exciting field/experience. Similar to the previous two years, I continued in my customer service role while taking on new development projects:• Offered solutions to customer issues via Email and Web Forums, toward Blizzard Entertainment products.• Developed and designed various internal websites used by the customer service department and entire company.• Developed and designed applications to automate tasks, which were done manually by customer service personnel such as categorizing emails.• Responsible for maintaining the company’s public-facing customer service site.Programming Languages: ASP, VB6, C++Databases: MS SQL

The company under the Blizzard Entertainment name was only several years old when I joined. I was one of the small handful of people in the customer service department - where our main day to day tasks involved taking calls but also were called on to wear other hats. Some responsibilities and systems I developed:• Offered solutions to customer issues via the telephone, toward Blizzard Entertainment products.• Worked with management to determine which tasks could be automated and implemented them.• Co-developed an automated system to detect player abuse for StarCraft’s (online multiplayer game) Ladder games - this was the system which ran 24-7 to automatically catch and respond to players who took an unfair advantage while playing on Battle.net.• Developed an internal web community page where co-workers used to share information regarding solutions to customers.• Redesigned an internal helpdesk site which was used as a knowledgebase for customer support representatives.Programming Languages: ASP, VB6, PERL