About
My personality and experience give me range. I can talk business strategy, run a research study, iterate on a service blueprint, and then collaborate on UI components - in the span of a morning. I nerd out in spreadsheets, Mural, and Figma, and I bliss out on waterways and hiking paths. I look to make serious improvement in the world while wielding a seriously goofy sense of humor. It’s all there.
My Journey
The Early Craft
The inspiration could be floating in some harbor, or perhaps gleaming in a magazine. A boat would grab my attention and set my mind to expanding on what I had seen. I’d imagine adventures or purposes with the boat, and think about what shape or features it might need. Then I’d draw - sketching at first, seeing if I was onto an idea. Maybe I’d try a few directions, and see if any seemed more promising. If I felt good about the direction, I’d pull out drafting paper and equipment and further work up design, doing formal plan, profile, and section views like I learned from the books. All the while I’d be evaluating the design against my imagined use and ability to build it. I always hoped I could one day actually build the good ones.
I’m not sure I would have talked in terms of setting a goal, designing and building to that goal with known components and constraints, reviewing options, and then iterating to an even better end, but that’s what I was doing. The craft of design has been with me from my early days, but it took me some years to figure out it’s what I wanted to be when I grew up.
Foundations & FinTech
The first chunk of my career was several years of FinTech laid on a bed of analytic metaphysics. The search for a grand, meaningful, unified theory, a la Aristotle or Kant, may not have directly led me to the bond trading floor at Lehman Brothers, but the system thinking helped when confronting a suite of sales and trading applications. I found myself helping developers determine how a piece of software should work, talking to demanding or disinterested users about their experiences with it, showing them new features, and documenting the tool. I was forming the foundation.
After earning my MBA, I went back to the financial technology world, first as a consultant and then at a financial industry dot.com. I learned research. I learned product definition. I honed facilitation and presentation skills. My skill set was expanding.
Explorations in Business Leadership
From my MBA through tech-flavored management consulting, and on to Forum One, I was growing in business management and leadership skills and experiences. At Forum One I led a strategy practice that consisted of my senior peers and managers. I brought standard approaches and new ideas to grow and improve our work, leading many key projects.
I also took on a proto-COO role, overseeing all project operations, including project management, resourcing, and KPIs. We grew and earned decent profits during this period, and I learned to develop processes and manage tricky client situations.
Realization and Actualization
As I progressed, I came to realize that the work I have always loved most is design, so I decided to turn my career towards creating great audience experiences. I am forever grateful that Forum One not only supported some training but also allowed me to move to the Design team and begin practicing as a UX designer.
Through training and mentorship I filled in gaps in my knowledge while leveraging the many skills I had already developed. My path from my boat drawings, philosophical systems, and time side-by-side with developers discussing application features came full-circle and formed the multi-faceted, broadly experienced designer I am today.
I also found my leadership style. It starts from building trust through careful attention to learning and understanding new spaces, organizations, and people. I enhance this trust by using data and acknowledging gaps. I form partnerships with teammates, clients, and stakeholders, ensuring shared goals and mutual appreciation of needed outcomes. I teach and tell stories. I am always authentic and, when needed, vulnerable. I set an example of getting quality work done and delivered when it’s needed. “Design is a team sport,” said Spool, and I believe and live that.
Hobbies & Interests
The boats didn’t go away! Traditional small boats are my biggest non-professional passion. I designed and built, by hand, the skin-on-frame outrigger canoe AL DEMANY CHIMAN in 2008-09, and rebuilt it in 2020. I am still tinkering with it and finishing some small elements. Before that, I built a dory when I was 16 and later a canoe.
When not building or caring for the canoe, I love to get out in it, mostly in the tidal waters of Maryland and Virginia, though she’s been as far as mid-coast Maine. Part of the rebuild in 2020 was the addition of features to make it more accessible for my daughter who has very limited mobility. Ensuring more family use was a long-time desire.
You may also find me hiking or running, often with another self-designed mobility aid, a PVC, broader-terrain wheelchair. I definitely need my outdoors-in-nature time.
