I am a hands-on creative leader.

I live at the intersection of design and product management, and have a history of building diverse and effective teams. I value a strong collaboration with business and technology partners and seek to establish inclusive processes within organizations. Using curiosity, passion, humility, and an eye for detail, I strive to bring user-centered experiences that are both practical and magical to life.

Approach

Right Problem

Finding clarity around opportunity areas enables organizations to take on the right challenges. An experience strategy and roadmap keep teams on track while communicating priorities outward to the organization.

Right Solution

The first idea is rarely the best. Finding the right solution for a well-defined problem requires exploration and experimentation. Collaborative ideation sessions ensure a breadth of options while also driving alignment across teams.

Right Execution

Once a solid solution is proven, it’s time to get into the cycle of launching and learning. When iterating toward perfection, the metrics chosen for optimization are as important as the modifications and tweaks being made.

The Past Decade

  • 2023

    Wrapped up my tenure at VanMoof; now carefully considering my next steps.

  • 2022

    Launched the next generation of VanMoof e-bikes – the S5 and A5.

  • 2021

    Worked across disciplines at VanMoof to create an experience strategy to guide work and priorities for the next five years.

  • 2021

    Spoke at Shift Mobility about how Design is Shaping the Future of Mobility and on the importance of creating a diverse and inclusive team in Elle is Driving a New Perspective.

  • 2020 – 2023

    Worked at VanMoof, establishing Experience Design as a discipline and setting the standard for user-centric product definition and development.

  • 2020

    Published my book, The Practical Guide to Experience Design.

  • 2018

    Consulted for two years, supporting companies seeking to disrupt their own processes or the status quo within their industry. Clients included Booking.com and Deutsche Bahn.

  • 2014

    Successfully launched my first (and only) Kickstarter campaign for to [icon].

  • 2013 – 2018

    Founded and ran The Artificial, a boutique agency specializing in UX and product strategy. Clients included Philips and 3D Systems.

Life at VanMoof

I spent the past three years at VanMoof, building a team, bringing several next generations of bikes to life, and establishing an experience strategy to guide the team for the coming years. It all fell apart in the end, but the design team did all we could to keep it all together until the very end.

a team riding e-bikes on a tree-lined path alongside a canal

Establishing a Team

Building the teams and practices companies need to realize the strategic advantages of design

In three years, I built and scaled the Experience Design team at VanMoof. This required retraining the organization, establishing a shared hiring strategy with engineering, and implementing structures to guide the growth of the team.

an iPhone mounted on a bike's handlebar and showing a mobile app for riding

Designing a Connected Product

Creating seamless experiences around products that bridge physical and digital worlds

I brought together design, engineering, marketing, and operations departments to establish an overarching experience strategy, and then established inclusive processes to drive alignment toward shared outcomes.

a journey mapping out key parts of the user experience

Creating a Strategy and a Movement

Defining opportunities so that teams are empowered to set their own destinies

I worked across departments and levels, pulling together top-down and bottom-up approaches into a single overarching strategy to guide our work for the coming quarters and years.

Philosophy

Diverse Collaborators

I’ve found that the best teams are made of diverse people with t-shaped skills and a passion for collaboration. I seek to build an environment that is both safe and challenging, enabling people to do their best work.

Flexible Processes

Process cannot solve everything, but it can compensate for a lot. I do not believe in one-size-fits-all solutions, and strive to find ways of working that empower teams to be user-focused and flexible.

Oneness with Tools

Being able to use one’s tools to their fullest is as important as having the right tools. Designers and product managers who are one with their tools (and processes) are able to truly focus on solving problems.

Industry Expertise

Mobility

I’ve worked with Deutsche Bahn to bring more holistic thinking to their mobility offering and with VanMoof to transform our cities with e-bikes.

Design Systems

With some of my favorite people, I designed apps that define larger ecosystems for Samsung and 3D Systems, and created the reference app that established the design system for the Xbox developer SDK.

Entertainment

I’ve worked on TV interfaces for North American and Asian audiences, and collaborated with Xbox to build the reference app so that other companies could develop usable apps for the gesture interface of the Kinect.

Healthcare

I worked with Philips AVENT to create connected apps supporting the healthy development of babies and with Philips Sonicare to create an experience around a tele-dentistry service. I also worked with a partner to develope tools that would increase operating room efficiency.

Retail

I helped to create a wedding registry experience full of celebration for Target, designed a home-buying experience targeted at a more urban market for Weyerhaeuser, and collaborated with a startup to bring more measurability to brick-and-mortar stores.

Social Networks

I’ve designed a social network for humans and their pets for Purina, brought to life the social side of music-streaming service Zune for Microsoft, and worked on UI in and around a casual MMO game at Big Fish Games.

Pages from The Practical Guide to Experience Design

The Practical Guide to Experience Design

After five years of running a boutique UX consultancy, I gathered our many learnings into a practical guidebook of processes, complete with high-fidelity examples.