About me
I have extensive experience working in various roles and companies, two decades in product and UX design, including 7 years in product design leadership and product management.
I’ve worked in-house at the world’s biggest tech firms and have headed design and product for pre-IPO startups. Some of my proudest moments have included:
Unifying Microsoft consumer products like Mail, Calendar, Photos in the company’s early foray into cloud-based computing
Launching a full-service design agency with an A-list roster of Fortune 100’s and top startups
Being on the first design team at Uber Eats and an early advisor to UberX, Uber’s first affordable transportation product
Leading a patent-producing design team for a new hardware wearable for Meta
Evolving Google Search to leverage AI/ML capabilities for a more visual and personalized search experience.
Most recently, I serve as a Director of Product Design at Walmart, the world’s largest retailer (and Fortune #1), ideating on new GenAI experiences for Enterprise and designing the software that drives the Buyer Experience, Walmart.com, the Walmart app, and physical store retail strategies.
Learn more on LinkedIn →
My values
I am a storyteller, bringing heart to raw data and user insight, focusing teams on “who” and “why”
I am a pragmatic visionary, considering the limitations, possibilities, applications and ethics of new technologies like Gen AI
I have a systems mindset, designing products and frameworks for scale, future-proofing, and efficiency
I am a player coach who has kept current in product and design tools to lead through example and establish best practices
Design Director
WALMART
Building and leading a team of designers, design managers and user research on a transformational effort to unite, simplify and evolve best-in-class Enterprise products for the world’s biggest retailer.
Generative AI for Enterprise applications
Buyer experience: product assortment, inventory, pricing (all departments, $500B+ revenue)
Physical store retail strategy for 4,600+ stores
eCommerce platform for Walmart’s consumer website and mobile shopping app
Business strategy, consumer insights, trend forecasting
Buyer/supplier touchpoints
Design Manager
REALITY LABS, NEW WEARABLES
Scaled a patent-producing design team building a multi-generation wearable hardware product. Improved processes for collaboration and product quality at the leadership level across multiple teams.
Led a multi-disciplinary design team (product design, research, content) responsible for the operating system and design system for a new hardware product.
Shipped an OS comprised of over 80+ features supporting dozens of product teams including hundreds of engineers.
Key contributor to standing up Quality and collaboration processes to measure and validate launch readiness and raise the design bar across the Reality Labs org.
Worked across the Reality Labs and Meta portfolio of products (AR glasses, Instagram, WhatsApp) to create a shared vision of a platform for connection across products and devices.
Design Manager / Lead
GOOGLE LOCAL SEARCH | CORE UX
Launched the biggest changes to Google's Local Search in over 5 years, resulting in double-digit growth (particularly with Gen Z and international audiences) and new strategic opportunities to promote businesses using user-generated content
Responsible for helping billions of daily users to seek out local destinations such as restaurants, shopping, services and attractions for Google's Local Search.
Key launches: Visual Search, Categorical Search impacting 100+ local verticals, including Dining, Shopping, Services, Leisure, Commodities.
42m daily users have better interactions in Local Search, and 70%+ of users engage in the new Visual Search experience, increasing Local Search traction internationally (notably in APAC).
Strengthened design team and collaborative model across Search, Maps, Ads organizations.
Design Lead
UBER EATS | COURIER
Our team was instrumental in helping Uber Eats scale from an experiment 22 cities, to $3B revenue in 120+ cities. We were able to keep up with consumer demand by building a courier network that was efficient to launch, maintain and scale in each new city.
Increased courier supply by thousands/week (+12%)
Shortened time to first delivery by 9.5 days
Positive courier NPS and increased retention
Launched innovative internal research program, in which employees do deliveries to identify gaps and opportunities
Pitched/launched a global philanthropic food donation program delivering thousands of pounds of food to those in need
Founder & Director
STUDIO AKKO
I founded a full service digital agency with a full time team, that partnered with over two dozen startups and Fortune 500’s on early stage product ideation and MVP launch. Notable clients included American Express, Motorola, Bloomberg, Dolby, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Clinique, and Uber.
We launched several award winning design concepts and highly rated apps in the iOS App Store.
Through Akko, I launched Artifacts, a creative salon attended by 1,000+ designers and makers. Speakers came from the likes of Warby Parker and The New York Times and was sponsored by Mailchimp.
If you’re hiring, looking for an advisor, or just saying hi...