Process

I help teams build iterative and adaptable approaches to innovation that are people-centered, data-informed, business-intelligent, and implementation-aware. Practicing a collegial style of leadership, I cultivate cross-functional collaboration and lead by example.

Approach

Who is meant to benefit from what we’re creating and why? These questions guide everything. Design is one among several key functions ensuring an organization’s success. Cross-functional collaboration must be concurrent and iterative: teams alternate between learning and building in short cycles, grounding decisions in evidence rather than assumptions.

Strategic Capabilities

Cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder alignment

I operate as a peer to Product and Engineering, not a downstream service function. At SimCorp, I proactively engaged C-level stakeholders on strategic branding decisions and authored the “One Ecosystem, Two Spaces” platform framework that was adopted by product leadership and presented to 900 customers. I build shared understanding across disciplines through structured workshops, collaborative artifacts, and persistent advocacy.

Building design teams and capability

I grow design capability that persists beyond my direct involvement. At SimCorp, I helped grow the team from 4 to 14 designers while establishing design culture and methodologies. At Stanford Health Care, I hired and mentored designers and built research infrastructure the team continued using independently. I invest in teaching and enabling others, notably through practical workshops to level up on continuous learning with Users, integrating Design and Agile, design system adoption, or AI-assisted prototyping. Capability that compounds is more valuable than any individual skill or deliverable.

Contributing to business outcomes

Design leadership must connect to measurable business value. My work has directly contributed to winning major client deals, creating funded product teams from grassroots prototypes, and shaping product strategy at the executive level. I connect design research to business KPIs: reducing customer cost, enhancing measurable performance, enabling new sales, accelerating innovation, and strengthening brand.

Design’s organizational role and influence

I position design as a strategic capability, not a production function. This means contributing to vision and strategy, not just executing on requirements. It means building infrastructure that scales decisions—prototyping systems, design systems, research enablement toolkits—so that design quality doesn’t depend on adding headcount. And it means creating the conditions where evidence-based decisions become the default, not the exception.