# Joe L. > Armchair generalist Location: Oakland, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/joel1 I am an independent contractor helping people who want to improve the performance of their wifi networks, and who want to feel more in control of the digital products and services they use. I specialize in physical network infrastructure (low voltage wiring) and equipment installation and configuration, all aspects of Apple-ecosystem products and services, conference room systems, and security camera systems. I enjoy helping people of all ages and all levels of technical capability. Previously, I had a long and satisfying career designing usable, useful enterprise software experiences for customers across a broad range of industries. As an interaction designer and design leader working on web, desktop and mobile apps, I designed, specified, diagramed, prototyped, tested, and worked with development teams to implement designs as shipping software. I collaborated with product managers on strategy and execution. I built and managed multidisciplinary teams at large and small software companies. ## Work Experience ### Espresso Machine Repair Technician @ Mr. Espresso Jan 2023 – Jan 2024 | Oakland, California, United States After 3+ decades as a designer, I changed careers. The team I worked on at Mr. Espresso diagnoses and repairs the full range of commercial and prosumer espresso machines from Faema, Rocket, La Marzocco, Rancilio and many others. I also worked on grinders from Mazzer, Obel, Rocket, and others, as well as various other commercial coffee and tea service equipment from Fetco, Bunn, and Curtis. Customers include restaurants, cafés, hotels, office facilities, and home enthusiasts. We mainly serve the SF Bay Area and Northern California. As a newcomer to the field, I typically spent my days learning by servicing and restoring worn out equipment for continued service, bench testing and calibrating new and repaired equipment, and assisting with field installations. I also prepared equipment for shipment and helped manage warehouse equipment inventory using a pallet stacker, which is like a giant Tonka toy, just more dangerous. Leveraging my extensive background in enterprise software, I helped Mr. Espresso to identify, evaluate, select and implement a field service management platform, which successfully replaced their paper-based workflow with a more efficient, modern, fully digital solution. ### Leader, Design & Experience Organization at AppDynamics @ AppDynamics Jan 2021 – Jan 2022 | San Francisco Bay Area The Design and Experience organization at AppDynamics includes Product Design, User Research, Design Operations, and Documentation. We are relentlessly systematic, customer focused, user centered, and research driven. We believe winning products result when designers, researchers, writers, developers and product managers enjoy a friendly, high trust, professional collaboration. Team members work primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area, and in Bengaluru, India. AppDynamics is a Cisco company. ### Director of Product Design @ AppDynamics Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 | San Francisco Bay Area I led teams of Product Designers in the US and India, working closely with peers in Product and Architecture to breathe life into a completely reimagined AppD user experience. ### Principal Product Designer @ AppDynamics Jan 2018 – Jan 2020 | San Francisco Collaborating with an amazing team of technologists – experience designers, researchers, product managers, architects, developers and customer solution engineers – we redefined the AppDynamics experience, modernizing and refactoring our wildly successful product to improve utility, usability, and performance. ### Sr. Principal UX/UI Designer @ KATERRA Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 | San Francisco, California Design contributor on Katerra Apollo, a web app used by residential real estate developers to layout and configure manufactured multi-unit apartment building projects quickly and efficiently. ### Sr. Principal User Experience Designer, Life Sciences @ Autodesk Jan 2014 – Jan 2018 | San Francisco Bay Area User experience designer working on the Autodesk Life Sciences team, where we built cloud-based CAD tools for the next generation of biological design. Projects included Genetic Constructor, Wet Lab Accelerator, and Project Cyborg. I also ran ADSKphoto, a volunteer photography practice and experimental software project exploring experiences, tools, technologies and workflows at Autodesk company events. ### Sr. User Experience Manager, Cloud Platforms @ Autodesk Jan 2013 – Jan 2014 | San Francisco Bay Area Managed and led user experience design for Autodesk 360, a cloud-based social collaboration web application serving many of Autodesk's professional users - architects, designers, engineers, and manufacturers - and the range of other people they interact with. Managed a staff of 3 designers in SF and Hyderabad, India, and working closely with user researchers and design architects on a larger team. ### Sr. Principal UX Designer, Cloud Platforms @ Autodesk Jan 2008 – Jan 2013 | San Francisco Bay Area Designed web applications, web services and desktop interface components to help unify Autodesk's user experience across the company's entire portfolio of software products. Designed and ran an experimental remote research project, photo ethnography, bringing more Autodesk employees closer to users through their unique photographs and writings from workplaces around the world. ### Director of User Interaction @ Pure Digital Technologies (Acquired by Cisco) Jan 2006 – Jan 2008 | San Francisco, California, United States Designed device UI and desktop software for the Flip Video camcorder. ### Director of User Experience @ Good Technology (formerly Visto Corporation) Jan 2003 – Jan 2006 | Redwood City, California, United States Designed and managed user experience and research for mobile push email software. ### Sr. User Interface Designer @ Kivera Jan 2001 – Jan 2003 | Oakland, California, United States Designed location-based services (map) applications for the web and mobile devices. ### Director of User Experience @ EQuill (Acquired by Microsoft) Jan 2000 – Jan 2001 | San Francisco, California, United States Designed the UI for a novel browser extension and web application allowing users to mark up and share web pages. ### Design Director @ NetAbacus Jan 1999 – Jan 2000 | San Francisco, California, United States Led interaction design and client-side UI code for a purchase order web app. ### Senior Designer, Founding Partner @ Process 39 Jan 1995 – Jan 1999 | San Francisco, California, United States Co-founded and co-operated a small design studio in San Francisco through five years of explosive dot com growth. ### Sr. User Interface and Media Designer @ Arnowitz Studios Jan 1991 – Jan 1994 | Mill Valley, California, United States Designed and built interfaces and media for CD-ROM-based new media titles for the consumer and education markets. ### Prepress Specialist @ Digital Pre-Press International Jan 1989 – Jan 1991 | San Francisco, California, United States Produced the first regular production all-digital 4-color separations for MacWorld magazine, The Understanding Business, and countless other clients. ### Design Intern @ American Photographic Artists - Los Angeles chapter (formerly Advertising Photographers of America) Jan 1988 – Jan 1989 | Los Angeles, California, United States Designed and published APA/LA's monthly news magazine. Maintained member database. ## Education ### B.A. in Design UCLA ### Design San Diego Mesa College ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/jlachoff - Portfolio: https://highfivehelp.com - Portfolio: https://bsky.app/profile/highfivehelp.com --- Source: https://flows.cv/joel1 JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/joel1/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-13