Leadership cascades meaning to teams delivering work, which provides context and purpose. Stories that convey what could be in the future inspire teams to innovate. Investment in setting vision and direction and telling the stories of our customers’ and users’ challenges creates a critical differentiator for businesses.
Design, vision, and strategy are investments. In time. In resources. In providing space to explore.
I have focused on recombining existing concepts and tools to create things greater than the sum of their parts in my work life. I have focused on programs, systems, and the need to drive deep customer-centricity. I have focused on creating shared understanding in teams, supporting strategic vision, or a feature-level research study. I believe a diversity of points of view across disciplines, cultures, customers, and aspects of the business drive the most innovative results.
My focus in the late 1990s was building e-commerce sites, finance industry-grade web applications, an Intranet integrating our communications and internal systems for 9,000 employees—building teams and hiring and managing visual design agencies.
In the 2000s, I led creative work at start-ups, consulting for non-profits, developing software for large-scale impact, and directing and conducting generative research for Fortune 500 companies.
Since 2010, I have led the vision and strategy for two products built at Autodesk, a company with a propensity to acquire. I contributed key elements and insight as a member of leadership teams of two company-wide projects that have fundamentally changed how we work at Autodesk. I taught over fifty two-day courses to employees at Autodesk on how to leverage the LUMA method of Human-Centered Design to change how we collaborate and communicate. I led efforts to define a platform business to our teams and what this means to our company.
I am ready for my next challenge.
I have lived all over the United States, but the San Francisco Bay area is now home and the only home my kids know. I have lived in Europe and enjoyed many long-term stays. Learning languages provides a beautiful view of how language can influence how a culture observes and consumes the world.
When not working, I love to explore trails receding into the horizon with my children on bikes or skis, my hound in the open space, or solo on one of my bikes. I love cooking or ordering food, and the experiments are the best. The taqueria under the bridge is far better than Taco Joe. I love to travel and new experiences, particularly with others. I strive to get outside my comfort zone with any of these as often as possible.