I’m a design strategy and innovation leader who helps early-stage teams and established brands turn ambiguity into clear direction. I work where emerging technology, human behavior, and systems thinking meet, helping teams shape products and services that make sense in the real world.
Experience
2023 — Now
2023 — Now
Palo Alto, California, United States
Provides guidance on product design and design research strategies for an early-stage AI/consumer tech company democratizing expert home design.
• Shapes 0-1 prototyping strategy for an emerging AI and consumer tech platform, ensuring new features start with real user needs in mind.
• Advises on marketplace strategy—providing guidance on which template designs and independent brand products to include, and explaining the rationale behind each recommendation to align with business goals and user preferences.
2025 — 2025
2025 — 2025
I advised the emerging fashion brand’s founding team helping turn a rough idea into a tangible, launch-ready brand. My role blended creative direction with strategic thinking. I translated vision into design systems, guided early prototypes, and laid the groundwork for go-to-market success.
* Led early product design and defined the brand’s look and feel
* Led design research to understand what people actually want
* Initiated the go-to-market strategy so the team could launch with clarity and confidence
* Advised on how to scale the brand with intention
* Managed a small team of three across design and strategy
2019 — 2023
San Francisco, CA
Led the creative direction for the New Ventures agency studio within Old Navy's Innovation Strategy team. I drove UX design and strategy, using a human-centered approach to identify user needs, test concepts, and transform 0-1 ideas into scalable solutions across over 1,200 stores and digital platforms nationwide. I mentored and guided cross-functional teams, led UX prototyping for omnichannel experiences, and ensured innovation was both practical and user-focused. I ensured experiences were designed to serve a wide range of users, with accessibility and inclusive design informing both digital and physical environments.
• Drove Old Navy’s fit overhaul, leading UX and design to cut $120M in returns and set Gap Inc.’s sizing standards.
• Directed a 25-person team to launch Old Navy’s first modular testing store, The Imagine Lab, from idea to launch. Developed a feedback loop for real-time customer input, enabling immediate improvements in digital and physical service elements, store design, product placement, and confidence in launch viability.
• Managed and mentored cross-functional teams spanning product, merchandising, operations, engineering, stores, and marketing—bridging design vision with key business objectives.
• Crafted user journey maps, service blueprints and high-impact strategic presentations for C-suite, and board stakeholders—pinpointing new customer acquisition strategies that increased net sales by an estimated 14%.
• Influenced user-centered design (UCD) methodologies, conducting design-thinking workshops with 40+ teams, enhancing collaborative problem-solving, and building empathy and creative confidence across functions.
• Introduced Google-style design sprints, streamlining team handoffs and accelerating decision cycles from 3 months to 4 weeks.
• Used Adobe CC, Miro, InVision, and Figma for rapid digital and physical prototyping, reducing design iteration cycles, and de-risking change for the retail brand.
2018 — 2019
2018 — 2019
San Francisco Bay Area
Provided consultation services to Sutter Health, a pioneering non-profit healthcare system.
• Designed an interactive user journey map summarizing strategies to improve patient service experience: This work seeded Sutter Health’s Scout, a digital platform supporting youth mental health.
• Conducted foundational design research and collaborated with senior stakeholders to enhance patient journey experiences. I conducted over 100 hours of in-person research, including interviews, presentations, and workshops, to understand youth healthcare needs.
• Presented findings and recommendations directly to senior leadership and donor stakeholders.
* Lantern Lab is a consulting group started by IDEO alum.
2016 — 2018
2016 — 2018
San Francisco Bay Area
Co-founded AI-personalized shopping discovery engine using computer vision and machine learning.
• Led and managed a global team, overseeing product design and management, design operations, and engineering teams to ship a fully-built consumer web application to USA Beta Users.
• Designed and developed front-end (Adobe CC, Sketch, HTML, CSS, InVision), and demonstrated understanding of Microsoft Computer Vision API and AWS S3.
• Conducted comprehensive UX testing (round tables, one-on-one, surveys, UX analytics) with users in 5 North American cities.
• Led the creation of a shopping tool supported by an innovative AI-driven algorithm and Microsoft Computer Vision API, which recommended from over 2000 retails the best fashion and home products based on their style input, and managed the development of a machine-learning feature that fine-tuned how products were paired with styles.
• Secured Seed round venture funding with IDEO Ventures, Graph Ventures, and notable super angels.
Education
Bard College
MA
Mount Allison University