Leading the global product design team at Sequoia (US and India). Building AI-first, agentic experiences for our clients and internal teams that help them make the most of their total people spend – while keeping humans in the loop for critical decisions. Also leading our design system team.

A lot of my focus right now is on how design teams can provide the most impact and ROI in an AI-native world — bringing tools like v0, Figma Make, and custom GPTs into our workflows, and rebuilding our design process around speed, creativity, and collaboration, all while raising the bar on craft and quality.

About Sequoia: We are a tech-enabled consulting and services company that provides benefits, HR, payroll, and risk management solutions for people-driven employers with 20 to 20,000 employees – including some of the most dynamic and fast-growing companies in tech (Bilt, Goop, Stash, Headspace, Blank Street, Peloton, Turo and more). Sequoia OS centralizes workforce data and helps companies navigate complex issues so they can maximize their investment in people, whether they are in office, distributed, or global.

Led the Design & Research organization encompassing Product Design, Research (UXR) Content Design (UXW) and Design Systems.

A few things I'm proud of:

* Partnered with C-suite leaders in Product and Engineering to create MXP, the Member Experience Project, which provides user-centric actionable insights and contextual education to consumers no matter where they are in their debt journey – a fundamental transformation of how the company engages with its customers.

* Launched a redesigned Achieve.com and Achieve Resolution with our VP of Brand – weaving powerful Member Stories and interactive tools together to educate and engage while delivering business impact (ie. enrollments).

* Built the team’s “Design Leadership” roster with veterans from Meta, Rocket Money, and DoorDash to raise the craft and quality bar across all functions – while unblocking the growth of their design and leadership skills.

* Launched Ascend 2.0, a head-to-toe rebuild of our design system creating a 1:1 match between Figma and code (reducing design and engineering bloat, reducing time to ship, delivering a more consistent and performant experience).

* Raised the IC hiring bar and recruited new talent to drive higher-craft output from Product Design, Content Design (UXW), Research, and Design Systems.

* Refined our Career Ladders based on team feedback making them crisper and more actionable.

* Created the first company-wide illustration system in partnership with Brand and Marketing teams.

* Launched “Skills Clinic” where our team members proficient in areas like prototyping, design systems, public speaking share their talents and passions with the rest of the team and the company – upleveling their storytelling skills while positioning the Design & Research org as an “education engine” for the entire company.

Led design teams focused on Lyft Direct, our new no-fee banking product for Drivers; Payments (all incoming Rider payments; all outgoing Driver payments); Identity (Rider and Driver ratings, reviews, account safety, ID scan, etc.); and Integrity.

I also edited Lyft Design's home for engaging with the design community @ design.lyft.com.

Led the product design team for Talent Insights (new product, launched Fall 2018) and LinkedIn Learning.

Led a team of Product Designers and Content Strategists at Groupon/Living Social – using research and data-derived insights – to develop the next evolution of the Groupon experience across mobile, web, wearables and more.

Lasting impacts I made on the Design and Product orgs include:

• Establishing GIG ("Groupon Interface Guidelines"), the Groupon Design System, staffing it and figuring out how to integrate it into the broader team workflow – forging a tighter collaboration between engineering and design, and raising the quality of the user experience across multiple platforms.

• Identifying the need for Content Strategists – a first in the product design team – then integrated them raising the quality of copy, messaging, and UI end-to-end.

• After Groupon acquired LivingSocial, I led the team that adapted LivingSocial's native mobile and responsive web experiences onto the Groupon architecture – as well as managed their entire design team through the transition. I also devised a way for our design system to support "dual brands" when marketing researched revealed the significant revenue impact of maintaining two, distinct look-and-feels.

• Rebranding and remarketing the design team ("Design Union") using a variety of social media platforms (Medium, Dribbble, Webflow and more).