Resume

For my resume in PDF format, please download it here.

Summary

UX/Design Researcher, Strategic Designer, and Foresight Strategist with 9 years of experience in various fields in design. Skilled in the ability to connect with and understand people, guide thinking processes and manage workflows, and identify links between seemingly unrelated subjects.

Professional Experience

Freelance Design Strategist/User Researcher

San Francisco, California, 9/20-Present

• Worked with Long Dash, supporting Google. Led strategic design and qualitative UX research projects on the UFO Flex team, focused on the development of an internal-facing tool for engineers to manage virtual resources for Cloud computing. Collaborated with Product Management, Design, and Engineering teams to develop and lead multiple product design workshops, conduct user research interviews, and create and present findings reports to the larger UFO team.

• Led the creation of the discovery research and innovation phase for a medical device client to identify new opportunities in Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) for patients living with Parkinson’s disease and related stakeholders. This involved designing the 6 month work plan for the design research, ideation, and validation/testing work streams, budget management, team training, client and vendor management, and design research/strategic design project execution.

• Conducted user research studies for consumer moving and storage company Clutter, including research project design and execution, budget management, team training, and findings presentation.

Senior User Researcher, Wells Fargo

San Francisco, California, 2/21-6/21

Based in the Authentication team within Experience Design Strategy, Digital Platform & Innovation. Worked across all Wells Fargo digital product lines to solve consumer-facing problems related to security, ID/authentication, and fraud prevention.

UX Researcher, Ridecell

San Francisco, California, 3/19-5/20

Led the process to structure and build the formal qualitative and quantitative UX research methodology at Ridecell. Designed research roadmaps and led multidisciplinary teams to conduct UX and other research projects across Ridecell's main divisions: carsharing, ridesharing, fleet operations, and autonomous vehicles.

Responsibilities included: contextual and remote research planning and execution; legacy system mapping (service blueprints and stakeholder journeys); analytics and usability testing; and research insights reporting for the launch, customer success, product, engineering, design, marketing, and client teams.

Selected Impacts:

• Created Ridecell's first formal UX research methodology. This included a guide of UX/design research methodologies, materials for internal UX research team training, procedures for working with UX research at Ridecell, and a structure for storing and accessing research findings.

• Headed the UX research work stream for the October 2019 public launch of the Penske Dash carsharing service in Washington DC and Arlington, Virginia.

• Saved Ridecell an estimated $107,000+ by implementing design thinking methods in the research, design, development, and client engagement process for the creation of an invoicing feature.

• Developed research roadmaps and the annual budget plan for UX research work at Ridecell. Consulted with individual departments to assess knowledge gaps and identify research priorities for the year.

• Led UX research projects for Ridecell clients both locally and internationally, for services and features currently under development.

Senior Design Strategist, BCG Digital Ventures

Los Angeles, California, 10/17-1/19

Worked to create new startup businesses and internal capabilities, processes, and products for clients. Ventures ranged from future visioning projects, physical and digital products, and services with the aim for internal implementation or market introduction within 3-5 years.

Responsibilities included: qualitative design research planning, implementation, and synthesis (including exploratory research, in-field ethnographic interviews, concept testing, A/B testing, interview video compilation, research project budget scoping, and managing and mentoring other strategic designers); ideation, validation, and features development exercise creation and facilitation; future visioning workshop design and management.

Selected Impacts:

• Conducted qualitative design research studies and led feature creation exercises for the design and engineering team of a social network/internal job board mobile app for staffing.

• Led In-field research design for fuel delivery supply chain optimization and prototype creation and testing for in-market customer-facing kiosks for an Asia-based oil and gas client.

• Ideated, researched, and tested carsharing concepts in development that were released in the US market early 2019.

• Drove multi-country ethnographic research design and execution, concept ideation, and testing of multiple concepts in the travel, tourism, and finance space.

• Co-led a future visioning venture to develop future capabilities, employees, and company structure for a client in the food and pet care space.

• Created and facilitated BCGDV futuring strategy workshops that are incorporated as part of the larger standard BCGDV knowledge base and used across a number of client projects and business development efforts.

Senior Foresight & Innovation Strategist, Toyota North America

Los Angeles, California, 12/15-10/17

Based in the Corporate Strategy & Planning department for Toyota North America. Focused on long-range trends, innovation techniques, design strategy and thinking, scenario planning, and worked with stakeholders to design the future of mobility. Work covered four key areas:

• Long Range Trends. Directed Toyota's proprietary long-range trends program. Sought out new innovative startups, products, and business structures to present to the company. Acted as the internal consultant and connector, working with leaders across departments to use long-range trends to guide their projects. Regularly presented to audiences from the analyst level to the C-suite.

• Innovation Workshops. Designed, produced, managed, and facilitated strategic design and innovation workshops for projects varying from new and current products, technology research directions, and future scenarios. Trained and consulted internal staff on how to structure and facilitate workshops. Continuously researched and learned new innovation methodologies, human-centered design and design thinking processes, scenario planning and foresight/futuring techniques, prototyping and testing skills, and workshop frameworks and best practices.

• Special Projects. Collaborated on projects focused on the future of mobility.

• Consumer Values, Attitudes, and Demographics Data. Managed research vendor accounts and provided data support to the executive staff and team members across the company.

Selected Impacts:

• Forged a new business vertical focused on digital, disruptive technology, and new business models to integrate within Toyota's main business structure.

• Created and led an expanded direction for Toyota's proprietary long-range STEEP trends program.

• Developed and implemented a standardized process to ideate major, minor, and full vehicle changes using design thinking methods for Toyota and Lexus’ North American vehicle lineup involving relevant multidisciplinary experts across the company. Used the process to develop ideas for in-vehicle apps, personalization software items, and user interface changes for a next generation vehicle.

• Collaborated with the Advanced Product Strategy team to use strategic design techniques to ideate, research, and pitch a future concept vehicle currently under development. The estimated cost of the project to develop the vehicle from idea stage to commercialization totals between $1-6 billion.

• Implemented a workshop for the Business Insights team to direct team priorities and goals, generate an internal communications plan, and determine a two-year work strategy.

Co-Founder and Partner, ORGE Innovation

New York, New York, 12/13-12/15

Worked in design-based innovation consulting, program design, project management, and business development. Company focused on six key areas: knowledge brokering, design strategies, leadership mentoring, innovation capacity building, project framing, and open innovation consortiums.

• Worked both internationally and locally in government, private company, humanitarian aid, education, non-profit, and startup sectors with organizations such as the United Nations, Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Amazonia, Mercy Corps, Hong Kong Institute for Design Knowledge, Phoenix TV China, PowerBridge NY, and Parsons the New School for Design.

• Helped clients develop innovation strategies, products, services, business models, and techniques for multidisciplinary expert co-design.

• Created and implemented short- and long-term business development strategy for the company. Directly involved in client acquisition, partnership formation, and projects from initiation to final analysis and presentation.

• Assembled, trained, and concurrently managed multiple international teams in numerous languages for projects based in various countries.

• Performed operations, marketing, and human resources tasks for the business setup and maintenance and project logistics.

Curriculum Designer, Stretch

New York, New York, 3/15-8/15

Collaborated with other team members to design Stretch, an educational program created for intrapreneurs looking to learn about the intersection between strategy, design, and technology. Working with software development, business, and innovation strategists from Thoughtworks and UNICEF, the program will teach human-centered design, ideation, lean, agile, MVP, narrative storytelling, and related methodologies in a multidisciplinary and collaborative project-based format.

Volunteer Experience

International Volunteer, Arusha Project

Arusha, Tanzania, 06/07-07/07

Performed in-field research surveys through an English-Swahili interpreter for the microfinance project, taught English to a group of 50 orphans, and assisted in planting a permaculture farm in the local village of Kwaiidi.

Special Interests

Innovation techniques, UX/UI design, design research, design strategy, emerging and developing markets, sustainable systems, infrastructure and architecture, new technology, Jugaad innovation, psychoanalysis, startups, urban design, service design, product design, business strategy, kayaking, traveling, new cultures, food, hiking, camping.

Education

University of Houston, Houston, Texas

Certificate in Foresight, 05/17

Parsons The New School For Design, New York, New York

B.B.A. Strategic Design and Management, 09/11-12/13

University of California, Irvine, Irvine, California

B.A. Quantitative Economics with Honors in Economics, 09/03-12/07

Additional Coursework

El Pasaje Language School, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 08/10-09/10

University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 07/10-08/10

Otis College of Art and Design, Los Angeles, California, 01/08-07/08

International Christian University, Tokyo, Japan, 07/04-07/05