Cribl empowers organizations to unlock the full potential of their data. Our cutting-edge products help companies manage, analyze, collect, process, and route IT and Security data at any scale, making data management seamless and efficient.

Tanzu products accelerate cloud-native app development, streamline Kubernetes operations, simplify app development, provide actionable insights on cost and performance, and empower customers with a secure, seamless, efficient, and scalable software lifecycle. In my role as Director of UX, I had the privilege of working with top-notch designers and fostering a culture of innovation.

We focused on enhancing design maturity and driving strategic vision projects to align nine different Tanzu R&D product teams. Within a year, we achieved key milestones, including elevating design to help drive key strategic direction through in-depth customer research, the development of a journey map, and ultimately creating a vision for the Tanzu product integration that everyone could align behind.

This transformation was prominently showcased at VMware Explore 2023, marking a significant achievement in our journey.

At VMware's MAPBU, I expanded the Observability team from 3 to 11 designers, focusing on integrating a recently acquired observability product into VMware's ecosystem. This product, originally built on a different technology and design system, required a unique approach for alignment. Collaborating with my manager and staff designers, we established processes to ensure design consistency. Recognizing the challenge posed by the differing tech stacks, we developed the Tanzu Observability component library. This strategic move enabled us to align the product with Clarity, VMware's design system, within a year. For an in-depth insight into this process, I invite you to read my article: Building Product-Specific Design Components to Drive Consistency: A Case Study (https://octo.vmware.com/building-product-specific-design-components-to-drive-consistency-a-case-study/).

I began my management journey at VMware leading a globally distributed team of 11 designers. This team had experienced frequent management changes and significant attrition, with a history of non-user-validated, product management-driven user experiences. My initial six months were dedicated to addressing these challenges. Additionally, I immersed myself in learning the intricacies of VMware's technically complex product portfolio, equipping me to offer the necessary guidance for my team to develop effective, consistent, and customer-validated designs. By the time I departed, the team's collaboration had significantly improved, and the designers were fully committed to staying, marking a substantial turnaround in team dynamics and morale.

Joining Autodesk as an individual contributor, I was charged with the challenging task of streamlining the account experience for a vast customer base, previously muddled by custom solutions tailored for numerous clients. My journey at Autodesk took a pivotal turn when I transitioned to the role of acting Director of UX amidst leadership changes. In this capacity, I successfully unified a team that had long operated in isolated silos. My tenure at Autodesk culminated in a profound achievement: fostering a cohesive, supportive, and collaborative design community. This transformation was especially noteworthy as it involved encouraging team members, who were unaccustomed to sharing their work, to recognize and appreciate the broader impact of their contributions across the entire product portfolio.