A bit of what I’ve learned
After two decades at customer-centric, innovative companies, I’ve learned that design is the bridge between human needs and business success.
When people are at the center, teams align, products resonate, and growth accelerates. Creativity and results aren’t opposites—they’re inseparable.
I help organizations transform by making design a shared language, measuring what matters, and embedding human-centered thinking into how they grow.
My Design Leadership Philosophy
Design is not a function—it’s a mindset. When human-centered thinking is embedded across an organization, it drives measurable business outcomes: faster time-to-market, more innovation, and sustained growth.
Design strategy is business strategy—expressed through experience.
Companies that lead with design grow revenue faster, outperform peers, and build lasting competitive advantage.
Great design transforms more than products—it reshapes culture, accelerates impact, and puts people at the center of how businesses win.
How I Lead
Strategic Vision + Tactical Execution: I align design initiatives with organizational goals, positioning design as a key driver of innovation and growth.
Business Translation: I communicate design’s impact through compelling stories and hard numbers, bridging creative vision with business reality.
Culture Building: I create environments where creativity flourishes alongside operational excellence, developing both individual skills and team capabilities.
People
How leaders collaborate across teams and with other leaders is core to driving impact for design, business, and customers.
My Team
Vision and strategy only matter if they deliver customer value—and that depends on the team executing them. I lead with empathy, prioritizing my team’s experience and creating psychological safety where everyone contributes ideas that shape our success. I develop personalized growth plans for each team member, finding the intersection between what excites them and where they can impact the business. This has resulted in numerous promotions to senior design roles and transitions into management positions. At One Medical, this approach achieved 100% desired retention for nearly 4 years through the pandemic and ‘great resignation.’
Stakeholders
I begin by mapping key stakeholders and defining engagement strategies for each. To build design influence, I “bring folks along” by sharing early and often through demos, lunch-and-learns, and updates, plus leading cross-functional workshops for strategic problem-solving and ideation. When stakeholders—whether product managers, engineers, marketers, or others—participate in design processes, they value and seek more design input, raising the overall bar for design excellence.
Senior Leaders
Senior leaders may be removed from day-to-day work, but their buy-in is critical to design success. I maintain regular touchpoints with key senior leaders, sharing unique insights we see across journeys and experiences while soliciting their perspectives. These conversations include what we’re learning, highlights and challenges, key tensions in the work, and areas where we need senior input for difficult, impactful decisions.