Start with why! I am insatiabiy curious and love to wallow in the discovery phase, defining and framing problems. Are we building the right thing? Are we buiding it right? Those are my two favorite questions.

One of my favorite tools for assessing whether or not we’re “building it right” is the heuristic analysis. I created a template for teams to use in their work at Microsoft. I’ve found it particulary useful when involving developers.

For the first 10 years of my career, I was a design educator. I ran design sprints in the classroom and carried those skills into my work at Microsoft. I’ve facilitated many design sprints and am really good at it. The Sprint Book and IDEO’s Human-Centered Design Toolkit are among my favorite resources.

I created data visualizations in the newsroom at NPR for Obama’s historic election and worked on Excel, the world’s most ubiquitous analytics tool, for seven years. Combining data + design is one of my favorite things to do.

I like designing things, but I also like PM-ing them. I love doing product breakdowns and strategic thinking. I bring the best of both disciplines to a team in one human.

I am a strong visual and interaction designer who can pull it all together into products people find useful and valuable.