As a designer...

...naturally, my interests are kind of all over the place. I love dabbling in front end development, architecting design systems, cleaning up and organizing files, writing, and crafting beautiful, functional experiences. Throughout the course of my career, I’ve found that these interests and skills have made me a product design leader without being a people manager. Once upon a time, I thought the two were mutually exclusive.

I've since learned, my best work is work that supports and uplifts those around me. So, I share what I learn, often. I try to write clearly and effectively, be it a feature proposal or a design system component spec. I jump on projects to support my fellow designers when they're feeling overloaded. I bring people together, across teams, because design doesn't happen in a vacuum. And as good as we all want to be individually, this is a team sport. I ask tons of questions to our users so that we can bring them the best possible solutions, and I involve key stakeholders early and often so that we're always on the same page.

Has it worked? Well, this is my portfolio so I've got to toot my own horn. I believe my success as a designer and design leader is a product of the above. Deliver high quality work, solve the right problems, collaborate effectively, communicate effectively, and share.

I hope you like what you see. If you’ve got questions, please feel free to ask 💬

Reading

• Design Systems, A practical guide to creating design languages for digital products - Alla Kholmatova
• UX for XR, User Experience Design and Strategies for Immersive Technologies - Cornel Hillmann
• Beneath the Lion's Gaze - Maaza Mengiste

Listening to

• Huberman Lab Podcast
• Snap Judgement
• Steve Lacy
• Gabriels

Interested in

• Notion
• Exercise physiology
• Music production

Doing

• Muay Thai
• Weightlifting
• Practicing Spanish (next up, Amharic and ASL)
• Making beats with this
• Finding LA's best croissants every Sunday 🌴 🥐