Design & Strategy

I’m currently an area lead at Dropbox, where we’re designing a more enlightened way of working.

Before that, I was a principal designer at Skylight working with the CDC, and a design lead at Square and Cash App where I managed a team of senior & staff designers in the United States and Australia.

I’ve typically worked across platforms and ecosystems to address gaps that result in better user comprehension and satisfaction and on projects that shift behavior toward making an important or expensive decision. I’ve shaped how people purchase appliances online at Home Depot, choose to build their online store with Mailchimp, link bank accounts and move money at Cash App, purchase lines of insurance with State Farm, or securely run their business with Square.

I can usually be found reading, snapping photos of the beautiful world around me, fly-fishing with my husband in a mountain stream, making handmade pottery for family and friends, or recording environmental soundscapes and turning them into music.

 
 
 
  • Staff Product Designer

    2024 - Current

    Design lead for the Desktop area's five squads who are responsible for the surface you might know as the "Dropbox app" on your computer.

  • Principal Product Designer

    2024 - 2024

    I work with a passionate, tight-knit team of technologists to help advance the tools and technologies that epidemiologists at the CDC use to solve some of our country’s most pressing public health challenges.

  • Design Manager & Staff Designer
    2022 - 2024

    I was the design manager for Support (phone, web, chat, AI/ML chatbot, advocate tooling) & previously the concurrent interim manager for Health (access, identity, security, disputes).

    I led an international team of senior-level designers who drove trust on the platform using service-oriented design. Our focus was ensuring that our customers could better access support, and our advocates could deliver more meaningful resolutions.

    In addition to managing, I was also a staff designer and I balanced my team management with responsibilities for designing across two workstreams.

    Prior to leading Support, I initially joined Cash App as the design lead for Transfers and focused on money movement (linking banks, deposits, and withdrawals) and I worked on Instant ACH, automatically adding cash based on a balance, partial authorizations, and instant deposit fee changes.

  • Staff Designer
    2020 - 2022

    Senior, and then promoted to Staff Designer on the Risk team within Financial Services at Square. I primarily worked with Banking, Card Issuing and Payroll.

    • Designed + shipped security experiences that reduced fraudulent activity across the platform

    • Cross-collaborated with senior PMs, design directors, and GMs across our organization to bring attention to high-touch / high-value projects around account health & platform security

    • Facilitated a recorded workshop for the Financial Services organization called "Uncovering Opportunities through Service Blueprinting." I outlined the why and what of service design and its artifacts, and how cross-functional teams can use them to strategically inform project work.

  • Senior UX Strategist
    2019 - 2020

    Design strategy for Commerce, Growth, and Revenue teams to accelerate Mailchimp's position as the all-in-one marketing platform for small business.

    • Commerce: 0-1 foundational design & strategy that shaped the net-new Store product - shipped in 2021

    • Growth: Audited the product holistically and developed customer journey maps and service blueprints which identified key experiential misses impacting retention & growth

    • Revenue: Designed a win-back / recapture experience to reduce churn during the off-boarding process

  • Researcher
    2017 - 2018

    ShootProof is a beautiful platform for independent photographers to host their images and monetize their work by selling paid prints in coordination with a network of high-quality, industry-standard partners. If you've ever had portraits taken for school, engagements, wedding, newborns, family photos, etc., I wouldn't be surprised if ShootProof hosted them.

    • Conducted qual & quant research for a media gallery / eComm sales product to validate the direction of a new feature set; i.e., "should the company invest in print packages"

    • Built functional prototypes in InVision, facilitated on-site usability tests at two regional tradeshows, moderated virtual usability tests, scheduled and conducted site visits to gain insights through observational research, screened participants, coordinated payouts / incentives for participants

    • Created a research repository in Confluence and Airtable, and presented product recommendations stemming from research findings

  • Senior Designer
    2015 - 2016

    BetterCloud allows companies like Square, Betterment, ClassPass, Mapbox and others to discover, manage, and secure the applications employees use, reduces IT management, streamlines automation, and reduces costs for organizations of all sizes.

    • I led the product design and research for the Directory, Settings, Tools, and Help sections of the platform as we completely redesigned the product.

    • Overhauled the product’s design system and created standards, patterns, components and elements

    • Built new features with an enhanced focus on accessibility, modern / minimal design and ease of use.

    • Articulated the vision for the new customer experience, and conveyed the value of HCD

    • Redesigned half of the platform: established the information architecture, created user flows and annotated wireframes, developed prototypes, wrote test scripts and facilitated usability sessions, wrote in-app copy, and completed all detailed designs in Sketch for engineering handoff.

  • Senior Experience Architect
    2014 - 2015

    I was the Experience Architect staffed to a team of ~70 who were dedicated to a multi-year vision to overhaul the UX for acquiring multiple lines of insurance.

    • Designed and socialized a Customer Journey Map charting the pre-and post-purchase experience, identified pain points & opportunities, and aligned experience principles to triage highest-value touchpoints

    • Concurrently staffed to the Design & Visual Template System team that maintained a set of enterprise-wide design and accessibility standards for desktop and mobile to meet a minimum of WCAG 2.0 AA guidelines.

  • Experience Architect & Strategist
    2013 - 2014

    Interaction designer for Home Depot’s cart & checkout experience, partnered closely with my visual design partner who turned my flows and frames into PSD files for final delivery.

    • Designed and shipped the Appliance Parts and Services Configurator, BODFS (Buy Online Deliver from Store) and BOPIS (Buy Online Pick Up In Store) experiences

    • Designed a WCAG-compliant AA-accessible tablet cart & checkout experience

    • Partnered with two commerce PMs to continually release experimental tests to cart & checkout

    • Created detailed wireframes and built dynamic commerce prototypes in Axure with real-time math, functions & expressions to accurately prototype and test high-price-point appliance sales

    • Worked closely with research to deliver aforementioned prototypes for moderated & unmoderated tests; I was awarded our internal "Homer" recognition for rapid prototyping

  • Manager, Content Strategy
    2011 - 2013

    Managed the redesign and migration of the company marketing site with our agency partner and wrote marketing copy for ads, landing pages, PR and social media.

    • Sourced, hired and managed contractors for corporate videos and communications; crafted briefs and creative direction for marketing videos

    • Wrote standalone + supplementary vertical-specific case studies about our clients

    • Vendor manager for our PR and SEO firms, and freelance writers and designers

    • Partnered with product teams & change management to write and release marketing copy around system features and support.

 
 

Etc.

I earned both of my degrees with a focus in digital delivery & strategy, and while I haven’t been back to school since my masters degree in 2010, I love learning! I keep up to date by attending industry events, mentoring, and completing certificate programs and online trainings.

 
 
 
    • Masters - Georgia State University - 2010

    • Bachelors - Towson University - 2007

    • Health Informatics Technology in Population Healthcare Analytics. DoaneX. Online. 2024.

    • Financial Therapy Level 1 Series. Financial Therapy Association. Online. 2024.

      • Money Patterns & Behaviors

      • Financial Enmeshment

      • Intergenerational Wealth Transmission

      • Money Conflict

      • Relationship Dissolution & Divorce

      • Relational & Financial Infidelity

      • Financial Abuse & Financial Trauma

    • AI for Product Management. Course. Pendo / Mind the Product / Google Cloud. Online. 2023.

    • Product Management Professional Certificate. University of Maryland. Online. 2023.

      • Product Management Fundamentals

      • Achieving Product-Market Fit

      • Product Design, Prototyping, and Testing

      • Data Science and Agile Systems for Product Management

      • Modern Product Leadership

    • Leadership - Creating Public Value. Certificate. HarvardX. Online. 2023.

    • Foundations in Creative Leadership. Certificate. IDEOU. Online. 2020

      • Cultivating Creative Collaboration (2019)

      • Storytelling for Influence (2020)

      • Leading for Creativity (2019)

    • Leading Creative Ideation Workshop. Cooper Professional Education. Atlanta, Georgia. 2019.

    • Service Design Immersive. Certificate. Cooper Professional Education. Atlanta, Georgia. 2019.

    • Experience Mapping Workshop. Adaptive Path. San Francisco, California. 2015.

    • Pragmatic Marketing – Foundations Course & Certification. New York, New York. 2015.

    • Agile Bootcamp – 3 day Course (21 PDUs). Davisbase Consulting, on behalf of State Farm – Atlanta. Bloomington, Illinois. 2015.

    • Advanced Prototyping & Mobile Prototyping Axure Training. 2014.

    • Neilsen Norman Group Usability Week, New York, New York. 2013.

    • Volunteer. Mile High United Way. 2023.

    • Mentor. Square Mentorship Program. 2020.

    • Member. Generation Green Board for the Georgia Conservancy. 2019 - 2020

    • Secondary Committee Member. Next Generation PhD - Georgia State University. 2016.

    • “The Integral Lead.” Sponsored by Block. Online 2023.

    • “Leading Distributed Teams.” Sponsored by Block. Online. 2022.

    • “Delivering & Receiving Feedback.” Sponsored by Block. Online. 2022.

    • “Inclusive Interviewer Workshop.” Sponsored by Block. Online. 2022.

    • “Transitioning from Technical Professional to Manager.” LinkedIn Learning. Online. 2022.

    • “Designing Accessible Components in Figma.” LinkedIn Learning. Online. 2022.

    • “Cues: Small Signals, Incredible Impact” by Vanessa Van Edwards. Sponsored by Stanford d.School. Online. 2022.

    • “Impact with Integrity” by Becky Margiotta. Sponsored by Stanford d.School. Online. 2022.

    • “World Usability Day (WUD) 2021: Trust, Ethics and Integrity in Design.” Sponsored by UXRS. Online. 2021.

    • Remote Design Week. Online. 2021.

    • “Getting UX and Service Design Research Right at Scale with Erika Hall.” Sponsored by UX Research & Strategy. Online. 2021.

    • “Abstract Model Testing: Exposing Underlying Assumptions". Sponsored by UX Research & Strategy. Online. 2021.

    • “Leadership Mindsets”. LinkedIn Learning. Online. 2021.

    • “Giving and Recieving Feedback.” LinkedIn Learning. Online. 2021.

    • “Collaborative Conflict.” Sponsored by Block. Online. 2020.

    • “Product and Design Leadership in the New Normal.” Sponsored by Nine Labs & Product 404. Online. 2020.

    • UX STRAT USA. Boulder, Colorado. 2019

      • Design Thinking for Strategic Alignment - Workshop

      • Laying a Foundation for Effective Design Teams - Workshop

    • Presentation Presence Improv Workshop. Mailchimp. Atlanta, GA. 2019.

    • Converting Information into a Persuasive Story. Mailchimp. Atlanta, GA. 2019.

    • Creative Mornings with Tim Keane. City Winery. Sponsored by Creative Mornings - Atlanta. Atlanta, Georgia. 2018.

    • Creative Mornings with Sarah Kate Noftsinger & Mike Benford. Turner Studios. Sponsored by Creative Mornings - Atlanta. Atlanta, Georgia. 2018.

    • Ladies That UX. "Show and Tell." - Ladies That UX, Hosted by Sagepath, Atlanta, GA. 2017.

    • UIE Virtual Symposium. "Designing for Sophisticated Systems." UIE. Online. 2017.

      • Stephen Anderson. "Using Visual Models to Solve Big Design Problems."

      • Karl Fast. "Timeless Interaction Patterns."

      • Chris Noessel. "Agentive Technology."

    • Product Tank Inaugural Meetup. Sponsored by Product Tank ATL. Atlanta, Georgia. 2017.

    • UX in Government. General Assembly, Sponsored by IxDA – Atlanta. Atlanta, Georgia. 2015.

    • Creative Mornings with Aaron Walter. High Museum of Art, Sponsored by Creative Mornings – Atlanta. Atlanta, Georgia. 2015.

    • Fog Networks and the Internet of Things. Coursera, Sponsored and Facilitated by Princeton University. Online. 2015.

    • Machine Learning. Coursera, Sponsored and Facilitated by Stanford University. Online. 2015.

    • UI Prototyping Tools. General Assembly, Sponsored by IxDA – Atlanta. Atlanta, Georgia. 2015.

    • Creative Mornings with Eryn Eddy. Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Sponsored by Creative Mornings – Atlanta. Atlanta, Georgia. 2015.

    • Dan Szuc. “Sleepwalking + Designing for a Healthy Future.” Sponsored by IxDA Atlanta – Atlanta, Georgia. 2014.

    • Creative Mornings with Chris Coleman. UniverSoul Circus, Sponsored by Creative Mornings – Atlanta. Atlanta, Georgia. 2014.

    • Jared Spool. Hypepotamus, Sponsored by Atlanta Web Design Group – Atlanta, Georgia. 2013.

    • “Creative Mornings with Jacob Escobedo.” 112 Gallery, Sponsored by Creative Mornings – Atlanta. Atlanta, Georgia. 2013.

    • “Creative Mornings with Jeff Doud.” High Museum of Art, Sponsored by Creative Mornings – Atlanta. Atlanta, Georgia. 2012.

    • “Creative Mornings with Stewart Scott-Curran.” High Museum of Art, Sponsored by Creative Mornings – Atlanta. Atlanta, Georgia. 2012.

    • “A Web Afternoon.” Georgia Tech Research Institute Conference Center, Sponsored by Atlanta Web Design Group – Atlanta, Georgia. 2012.

    • “Creative Mornings with Matt Rollins.” Batdorf and Bronson Coffee Roasters, Sponsored by Creative Mornings – Atlanta. Atlanta, Georgia. 2012.

    • “Global Service Jam – Atlanta.” InfoRetail. Atlanta, Georgia. 2012.

    • “The Intersection of Social and Location.” Hudson Grille, sponsored by YP and Social Media Club Atlanta. Atlanta, Georgia. 2011.

    • “Love and Money: The What, Why and How of the Social Entrepreneur.” William H. Thumel Sr. Business Center, Baltimore, Maryland. 2008

    • Presented a workshop called “Uncovering Opportunities through Service Blueprinting.” Financial Services Team, Sponsored by Square. Remote. 2021.

    • Presented my thoughts on “Ambient Intelligence and Context Aware Computing.” State Farm Technology Thursday Roundtable, Sponsored by ISD-Digital Department. Atlanta, Georgia. 2015.

    • Presented my thoughts about the future of design at “Future in Five.” People of Resource, Sponsored by IDSA – Atlanta, Georgia. 2013.