Where I've been and where I am

Throughout my career, there has been one common factor - I am fascinated with how people think and why we do the things we do. What affects our decisions? Why are certain challenges commonplace to so many people? What draws us to the products we choose to have in our lives?

Upon graduating from USU with a BFA in Graphic Design, my first job out of college was a design job that was strictly visuals. Any interaction with the clients or the users that my designs would go to was handled separately by other management positions. I quickly realized that just being a production artist was not where I wanted to be. I wanted to make products that helped people meet and solve real-world challenges and problems.

This led me to several other companies where I started to work more as a member of a product team. I quickly learned that this is where the magic happened. I started meeting real users, understanding their needs from research and contextual inquiry, and collaborated with developers, product managers, business stakeholders, writers, videographers and photographers, and many others. I had found my place.

Now with just about a decade of experience under my belt in the UX/Product design world, I have found that the recipe for a successful product team has solidified into 5 steps; empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test. I have found great success with this model and it has led me to some of the greatest experiences in helping people improve themselves and solve real-world challenges.