Founded a consultancy specializing in research for emerging AI technologies, serving Fortune 500 clients including Samsung, HP, and innovative robotics companies.

Currently leading research initiatives that define how humans interact with AI wearables, humanoid robots, and embodied AI systems. My work transforms abstract technical capabilities into validated product strategies that shape investment decisions and product roadmaps.

Recent Client Impact:

1X Robotics (NEO humanoid robot): Transformed abstract robotic concepts into tangible insights through innovative research methods, fundamentally changing assumptions about product capabilities and expanding target user definition beyond early adopters

HP AI Wearables: Validated AI-enhanced glasses as optimal form factor for field technicians through multi-industry research, insights that influenced HP's strategic acquisition strategy in the wearable AI space

Samsung Display Innovation Center (SDIC): Introduced a science-backed framework for AI companion products, identifying two distinct product opportunities that shaped portfolio-wide development strategy

Specializations: Human-robot interaction, embodied AI, wearable intelligence, autonomous systems research, AI product strategy

Building on 20+ years of experience leading research at scale (Cruise, Ford, IDEO), I now focus on hands-on research that defines the future of human-AI interaction.

Scaled Cruise's autonomous delivery from pilot to 8,000 monthly Walmart deliveries through strategic research

Partnered directly with product, engineering, and operations teams to transform autonomous delivery from concept to reality. My research insights informed critical decisions that doubled the delivery volume in six months and secured Walmart's expansion commitment.

Key Impact:

Doubled delivery efficiency through targeted research identifying operational friction points, reducing delivery time by 35% and enabling the removal of safety drivers

Secured Walmart partnership expansion to 8,000 monthly deliveries by validating customer acceptance metrics and operational readiness through mixed-methods research

Shaped $50 million AV freight strategy through 18 executive interviews and market analysis, establishing Cruise's roadmap for Class 6 and Class 8 autonomous vehicles

Prevented service failures by identifying latent issues before scale, implementing research-driven solutions that improved the delivery success rate from 78% to 94%

Influenced product roadmap for multi-stop routing and unattended delivery, research that became the foundation for the 2024 product strategy

Methods: Field studies, operational shadowing, customer interviews, journey mapping, service blueprinting, quantitative analysis of delivery metrics

Led design transformation initiatives for government and higher education clients, embedding design thinking into traditionally bureaucratic organizations.

Joined a small consultancy where design was often misunderstood as purely visual. Fundamentally shifted how design was valued by introducing strategic design methods and building organizational design literacy across federal agencies and universities.

Key Impact:

Won U.S. Navy as strategic client through facilitated visioning workshops that transformed initial skepticism into multi-phase engagement, demonstrating design's value in complex defense environments

Built design capability across organizations by creating weekly design charrettes and training programs, elevating two junior designers to lead their own client engagements within 6 months

Shifted organizational mindset from design-as-decoration to design-as-strategy through executive workshops that resulted in 3 clients establishing permanent design roles

Navigated complex stakeholder dynamics in federal environments, aligning competing interests across multiple agencies to achieve consensus on transformation initiatives

Note: Brief tenure due to limited scope for strategic design work within existing client constraints. Sought opportunities with a greater innovation mandate.

Led strategic design research that identified a $460M market opportunity, fundamentally challenging Ford's traditional vehicle portfolio strategy.

Faced with threats to Ford's work truck dominance from the gig economy and on-demand services, I led a 25-person cross-functional team exploring new vehicle architectures. My research transformed how Ford's engineering and finance teams approach early-stage innovation.

Key Impact:

Identified $460M market opportunity through deep ethnographic research into commercial fleet needs, proposing modular vehicle architecture that secured $40M investment commitment despite exceeding typical funding thresholds

Influenced F-150 product strategy by co-creating research roadmap with Design Research Director, leading synthesis sessions that converted insights into features now in production

Transformed investment decision-making by establishing design research as critical input for significant capital allocation, shifting Ford from assumption-based to insight-driven innovation

Built bridges between design and finance - first design leader to present directly to the CEO's innovation committee, establishing a new precedent for research-driven business cases

Pioneered new research methods for the automotive sector, adapting tech-industry approaches to a 100-year-old manufacturing culture

Methods: Jobs-to-be-done framework, ethnographic fleet studies, financial modeling integration, opportunity mapping