Most design leaders come from one context.

I come from three: agency, startup, and growth-stage SaaS. That range is what gives me a different lens on product problems. I’m not pattern-matching to what design usually does. I’m asking what the problem actually needs.

At SapientNitro I was Creative Director, Experience Design, leading multi-channel brand and product work for Target, Fiat Chrysler, and McDonald’s. I learned how narrative and business strategy work together, and what actually moves people to act. Four of five Fiat Chrysler sites I directed ranked in JD Power’s Top 10, earning the agency a $450K performance bonus. That kind of accountability, where design has a measurable number attached to it, shaped how I’ve approached every role since.

I build at three levels.

Most design leaders build products. I also build the practices and systems that determine how teams build. At Muck Rack I’ve authored product opportunity docs, defined success metrics alongside product and engineering leadership, directed research programs that change what ends up on the roadmap, and run GTM initiatives end-to-end. In 2025 that work influenced $15.75M in revenue impact.

In 2025 I rebuilt how UX work gets done. We ran 57 structured AI experiments across research synthesis, concept generation, content design, and prototyping, documented what worked, and built those workflows into how we operate permanently. I authored the Vibe Design Prototyping Guide to establish guardrails so AI-assisted exploration stays grounded in real problems. The goal wasn’t efficiency for its own sake. It was creating more space for upstream, strategic work that actually changes what gets built.

I also drove Muck Rack’s component library program, defining the governance model, decision rights, and contribution framework from scratch. It’s framed as an operational program with measurable outcomes, not a library to maintain.

How I think about the work.

There is no perfect process. The right approach varies too much from company to company and from situation to situation. When the problem and the solution are clear, jumping straight to code with an AI tool like Claude Code can be exactly the right move. But when the problem isn’t clear, upstream work has to happen first.

That’s where my highest leverage is: entering conversations while problems are still shapeable, making abstract strategy concrete, and connecting the work back to the business’s success metrics before solutions are explored. Only then can a team evaluate options against the actual criteria, weigh tradeoffs, and account for real constraints like timing and risk tolerance.

When that foundation is in place, speed becomes an outcome rather than a goal. Everyone is aligned on what we’re solving and why, and the work moves in one direction. That’s the job: reduce the risk and cost of being wrong, and get teams to the right answer faster.

How I lead teams.

I run a high-expectations environment: clear on what good looks like, direct when we’re not there, and genuinely invested in the growth of everyone on the team, from skill development to career trajectory.

What I care most about is the ceiling. Most people arrive with an idea of what they can own. My job is to put them in the right environment and push past it.

At Muck Rack, team engagement hit 91 against a company average of 78. eNPS was 80 against 40 company-wide, while shipping 49 features in a year that included an unexpected team departure.

What I’m looking for.

I’m looking for my next role at a company where design has genuine authority over product strategy, not just execution. I’m drawn to Design/UX leadership roles and hybrid Product-UX leadership roles at AI-native B2B SaaS companies, including roles where the PM and design functions are explicitly converging and the company needs someone who can both define the direction and prototype it.

I’m not looking to run a large design org for its own sake. I want to contribute upstream: shaping what gets built, compressing the distance between strategy and artifact, and building the team that scales what works.

If that sounds like a fit, I’d love to talk.