Skills and Leadership

Player-Coach Design Leadership

Hands-on when it matters. Strategic where it counts. Some teams don’t need a fully hands-off design leader or a pure IC. They need someone who can set direction, build systems, coach designers, and still ship real work—especially during moments of growth, ambiguity, or transition. That’s the lane I’ve spent most of my career in. At…
Rebuilding Design Culture After Team Turnover

When I joined TPT, the design team was at a turning point.The previous leader was beloved—a figure whose leadership had left a strong, positive legacy inside the team. But by the time I arrived, almost everyone was new. That internal culture we’d heard stories about had faded, and we were building again from the ground…
The Power of Service Design: Creating Seamless User Value

Think about the last time you had a frustrating customer experience—maybe you had to repeat your information multiple times when calling customer support, or you struggled to navigate a confusing online checkout process. These frustrations often stem from a lack of Service Design—the behind-the-scenes effort that ensures services work smoothly for both users and employees…
Shared Language: How Design Helps Define a Company’s Glossary

In any organization, words matter. The terms a company uses—internally and externally—shape how people understand the product, collaborate across teams, and communicate with customers. However, as companies grow, misalignment in terminology can create friction. Marketing may call something one name, while the product team uses a different name, and customer support hears yet another variation…
Design Principles: Creating Alignment & Consistency

Design evolves as organizations grow. What begins as a focus on fundamental execution inevitably transforms into strategic influence that shapes both product development and company direction. This evolution doesn’t happen by accident—it’s guided by principles. What Are Design Principles? Design principles are foundational guidelines that help teams create consistent, intentional, and user-centered experiences. They serve…
Designing for Two-Sided Marketplaces: Balancing the Needs of Creators and Their Audience

Designing for two-sided marketplaces presents a unique challenge: you’re not just building for one user type, but for two distinct groups whose needs must be balanced. Whether it’s filmmakers and their audiences on Vimeo, or teachers and teacher-authors on Teachers Pay Teachers (TPT), I’ve had the opportunity to design for platforms where creators produce content…
Design Team Management: Leading with Structure, Growth, and Visibility

Building and Leading High-Performing Design Teams Managing a design team requires a balance of mentorship, strategic leadership, and adaptability. Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to build teams from the ground up, step into existing teams in need of direction, and navigate difficult moments like team reductions. Through these experiences, I’ve developed a toolkit…
Design Advocacy and Leadership

Design’s role in an organization changes as it grows. I like to use the metaphor of a restaurant. At first, the design team is like a diner—there to serve up the expected results. The homepage is a grilled cheese. User onboarding is pancakes. Checkout flow is a BLT. These are the basic things necessary to…