Skills

Professional Experience (and how it has shaped me)

My current job = Product Design Lead for a company called theCOOP .

My current project = t.ux (an educational product that teaches UX design concepts)

So… what exactly does “Product Design Lead” entail at theCOOP?

• I built the Phase 1 curriculum plan for new designers. I have trained and onboarded 13 designers so far and up-skilled them to Phase 2 of our program.

• At Phase 2, I assign designers work (based on our product roadmap), critique, and eventually approve their designs.

• I help Phase 3 designers network, strategize, and find the right mentors in order to grow the skills they need for the design niches they have chosen to pursue.

• I run our weekly Design sprints using a Kan Ban board in Notion and conduct daily stand-ups.

• I am in charge of decision making. I assign all designers their next project tickets, determine what needs to be built, and act as the gate keeper before designs are handed over to Product and Engineering.

• I also am the gatekeeper for our design library and what elements are implemented into it.

• I counsel and help designers when they get stuck or need guidance

• I work on projects of my own, thus far I have designed:

  • The entire Accessibility Activity (and restructured our basic Activity cadence and flow)

  • The entire Heuristics Activity

  • The side navigation bar as it stands

  • Several Question Types and a Question Types Template file for reference

  • Naming Conventions and How We Work Figma File for designers to use as a template when they start a new project

  • 8 Figma Skill Building Activities for our Phase 1 designers

  • The Content Wizard

  • The Activity Wizard (which combined the content and question wizards)

  • The Color Slider Mini Activity

  • The majority of the components in our design library

  • Tool tips

  • Currently working on the responsive design of our product, t.ux

I do all of this under the leadership and guidance of our founder and Product Manager, Aaron Neeley.

Always a Leader

My career as a personal trainer prepared me to be a leader. In that career, I learned to gently guide others and lead by example. Who is going to listen to me if I’m not practicing what I preach?

People need a positive environment in order to really thrive. Fear of failure limits creativity, which is the opposite of what I want from my fellow designers. At theCOOP, one of our favorite sayings is:

“Break things, so we can teach you to fix them.”

I use my ability to empathize with others to lead them.

When I was a personal trainer, I used to have my clients take the 8 colors of fitness personality test before I met with them for their first session. That personality test gave me a baseline understanding of what my clients were motivated by. I was able to then tailor their workouts to keep them engaged and happy. For example, if my client was more motivated by nature, I would take our workouts outside (weather permitting), or if they were motivated by competition, I would have them compete against themselves or a workout partner.

Creative Thinker/ Problem Solver

As a personal trainer, I had to come up with a lot of creative solutions. I worked mainly with injured people and people with severe weight problems that limited their mobility. Each person was unique and required unique training to help them overcome their personal obstacles.

I apply that same thinking when it comes to problem solving as a Product Designer. I start with the question “What is our main goal?” and I work backward from there. I love to solve problems, and I don’t rest until I figure out a suitable solution.

But don’t just take my word for it, check out my work and see how I think for yourself!

Lifelong Learner

Learning is important to me. One of my favorite quotes is:

“Stagnation is death. If you don’t change, you die. It’s that simple. It’s that scary.”

— Leonard Sweet

I’m a huge believer that life is meant to be lived. I don’t want to sit and stagnate. I want to keep being the best version of myself that I can be. I want to grow.

I have so loved the journey of learning how to be a product designer. I read as much as I can on the topic, I pick the brains of those who know more than I do. I listen to podcasts, and watch Youtube videos to gain skills in complementary crafts (like learning to use Spline and Figma tricks, Adobe Illustrator, etc.).

I’m looking for a work place where I can continue to grow, to learn from people better than me, and become the best product designer I can be. I also want to help the company I work for grow and keep up with the changing needs of their users.