Signature strengths

Who I am and who I am not as a designer

Me

• I believe the absolute best thing for a team’s culture is winning together
• I’m a strong strategic partner to my Product and Engineering counterparts.
• I dig in to understand problems, and collaborate to frame them appropriately.
• I care deeply about information architecture and taxonomy.
• I understand that my org is part of a business — my job is to align user outcomes with business outcomes and sell my vision to my partners.
• I have an unhealthy obsession with the “Permanent Marker” Google Font (it’s uncannily close to how my handwriting actually looks on a whiteboard)

Not me

• I don’t design “eye candy”. Too many designers waste too much time thinking about how to make something visually stunning without ever bothering to first make something stunningly functional.
• I’m not a “handoff” guy. Design is a team sport, and I believe in continuous collaboration with product managers, developers, and QA engineers.
• I’m not a short-order cook. I thrive on teams where everyone feels safe to push back on each other’s ideas and work together to prioritize our customers.
• I’m not a “ball hog”. I don’t care about “scoring the winning shot”. I just care that we win. No idea is sacred — especially not mine. There are only ideas that work and ideas that don’t.

Outside of work

If I’m not working on solving problems or tinkering in Figma, I’m probably doing something music-adjacent. I’ve played guitar for the better part of 15 years, and can fake my way around just about any fretted plectrum instrument. (sitar and banjo not included — those dang drone strings get me every time)

I also love browsing my local record stores and catching live music at local venues. Few things inspire me more than watching a local band give their absolute best to a room of less than 200 people.

Recently, I started a newsletter to share music I’m into with other folks, and dig in to why I’m into what I’m sharing. One of my favorite kinds of people are “friendly nerds”. I want to be the internet’s “friendly music nerd”.

I’m a modest home chef, and enjoy doing most of the cooking for my wife and I. She’d probably tell you that you have to join us for a burger night. (I make a mean smash burger and know more than I should about regional burger culture and the history of the American hamburger.)