Shopify
Working on AI-powered features and raising the quality bar in the
core product at Shopify— the admin for merchants.
Spotify
Design for the core app experience with a focus on the interplay
between user interaction and machine learning.
IDEO
Worked at IDEO twice— from 2010 to 2014 and again from 2018
to 2020, after four years of leading Design at technology startups.
In the more recent tour of duty as a Senior Design Director in
IDEO's New York studio, I focused on Digital Products and Emerging
Technologies. In the first tour of duty, I went from being a
Mechanical Engineer to leading cross-disciplinary project teams and
client engagements.
Select Clients:
Worked with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to help craft
messaging and design a microsite for the non-profit's
principal gift donor campaign.
One of the Spotify collaborations was related to their
Premium business unit and involved research, strategy,
concepting, and testing. Another project was for Spotify
Design Ops, supporting the rollout of their internal
cross-platform design system, Encore.
There have been several engagements with Amex including work
on the future of Trust, technology futures around digital
payment, and also research around brand marks. 
Worked with 7-Eleven to design the experience, physical, and
digital touchpoints for their Scan and Pay mobile payment
offering.
Led a program where IDEO partnered with Fidelity and Harvard.
We built four astonishing teams of entrepreneurs from 16
Harvard students to explore four opportunity areas of
innovation (AI, Social, Data Visualization, and
Wearables.)
Over the course of 6 years, I've taught workshops, classes,
and a summer-long program at Harvard. The classes have spanned
HBS, Kennedy School, GSD, and SEAS.
Led a new product innovation program for one of
Colgate-Palmolive's personal care brands.
Did a packaging design project for Clover Food Lab, a
Massachusetts-based vegetarian fast food chain.
Led a project with Broward Center for Performing Arts to
research their patron experience and develop concepts and
signature moments to make the experience exceptional and
memorable.
Directed curriculum development for a series of workshops at
Otsuka, a pharmaceutical company. The workshops were focused
on Human-Centered Design and Design Thinking– team creation,
research, strategy, concept development, prototyping, and
testing.
Collaborated with Denso to create concepts and prototypes to
combat distracted driving. The functional prototypes were
built and debuted at the Detroit Auto Show.
Directed a project for Sanofi to create a service design
offering to help patients with chronic disease onboard to drug
adherence, exercise, and dietary changes.
Led a set of projects in collaboration with Timberland's R&D
and Responsibility teams where we researched the footwear
packaging cycle from cradle-to-cradle and created a
now-patented solution to reduce environmental impact.
The team rebranded Bigelow Tea and redesigned the packaging
structure and visual language to make a better unboxing
experience and a stronger brand block at the retail shelf to
attract new audiences while keeping Bigelow Tea
loyalists.
Led a project with the Executive Director of Innovation at
the United States Institute of Peace to create a vision and
plan for the PeaceTech Lab– a non-partisan collaboration with
government, academia, industry, and NGOs to support
non-violent conflict resolution with emerging
technology.
Directed a project for Gillette as they launched a new
product platform. We created point-of-purchase and packaging
concepts that showcase the product and allow customers to
experience and better understand the new product's value
proposition.
Worked with the American Heart Association to research and
develop concepts for improving the experience of cardiac
rehabilitation.
Led a project with Faurecia, an international automotive
component manufacturer, on a now-patented innovative car seat
design that uses mechanical articulation rather than foam
cushion or electromechanical devices, which are costly, heavy,
prone to failure, and environmentally unsound.
Created retail experience concepts for the flagship Art of
Shaving location on the corner of Rodeo Drive in Beverly
Hills.
Created a broad set of innovative drug delivery concepts for
patients with chronic disease.
Mount Sisu
Mount Sisu is my own design studio. Worked with leaders at ambitious
startups to realize new ventures through Design. My approach
leverages experience from Stanford Design, IDEO and a high-growth
VC-backed startup to offer a full design solution for new ventures.
This includes user research, product strategy, prototyping and
validation, full UI/UX, creative direction, and digital marketing.
Select Clients:
Brought on by IDEO to guide digital projects and create a
digital strategy for IDEO's NY studio.
Worked with the founder and CEO of Octave to launch the
company and it's first therapy space in Manhattan. My
involvement included research, product, brand, strategy,
creative direction, acquisition marketing, bringing on a
technical team.
Worked with the executive team and Engineers at Sonder to
replatform the UI and UX of the entire digital product.
Provided research and strategy around the customer experience
of the physical Sonder spaces. Worked on some stealth
projects. Also collaborated with Creech, the agency that
delivered the excellent re-brand.
Developed the UI/UX for several MikMak products.
Worked with the leadership team at Artsy to research, test,
and prototype an offering to help educate new art collectors
in navigating the art market. This project also included
strategy and business design where we leveraged paid marketing
to determine cost of customer acquisition across several core
value propositions.
Design coach to Handy's Product Designer.
Yieldmo
Head of Design at a GV (Google Ventures) and Union Square Ventures
backed tech startup focused on developing an innovative platform to
support digital publishers and marketers on mobile. Led the Ad
Format Lab— a team of Engineers and Designers focused on
inventing new formats for creative delivery that are relevant to
users and effective for publishers and brands/agencies. Drove
thought leadership through writing and speaking engagements. From
Aug 2014 to Jan 2017, my team covered Ad Formats, Web Applications,
Brand/Marketing and Sales Support as the company grew from under 30
to over 100 people.
Aerovironment
Worked on the Advanced R&D team as an Aeropace/Mechanical Engineer
for a Summer internship in 2009. Work that Summer centered around a
specific unmanned aerial vehicle. Projects involved LiPo battery
safety experiments, fabricating kevlar and carbon fiber parts,
station-keeping algorithms, and concepts for a ground control unit.
Mide Technology
Worked as an Aerospace + Mechanical Engineer on Advanced R&D for Air
Force Research Laboratory, Office of Naval Research, Missile Defense
Agency, NASA (briefly), and other DoD entities. Projects included
work on hypersonic electromagnetic railguns, self-actuating
rotorcraft blade mass balance and pitch control, high-speed fuel
modulation for jet engine afterburners, pressure relief valve for
suppressing combustion in solid rocket motors, and other programs.