Journey

I've spent the last 6 years leading product design functions at startups. In my last two positions I've had the immense honor of holding the title of 'Founding Designer'.

I was first exposed to the world of design while interning at CK-12, a Palo Alto-based nonprofit aiming to close access gaps in K-12 education. After a serendipitous encounter with a UX Designer, I was intrigued enough to change my internship focus from Marketing to Design.

Fast forward a few years...

I dropped out of college and founded a startup focused on building management and tracking tools for non-profits. My co-founder ran the technical side of things while I handled research and design. Though the startup didn't work out, it yielded some important lessons on the power of perseverance and resilience and rekindled my passion for design. After diving into the world of Internet of Things (IoT) Design at Cisco as a Data Visualization Designer, I started freelancing for beta-stage HealthTech startups. Eventually I decided to go back into the startup world full-time and was the back-to-back Founding Designer at two startups (most recently, Edquity).

Though the startup world can be incredibly stressful at times, I'm extremely grateful for the growth opportunities and invaluable lessons it's afforded me over the years. Plus I've had the immense privilege of working alongside colleagues that share the same drive to use technology to change the world.

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Process

When I reflect on my design career so far, the through line is my desire to combine the power of technology with equitable design practices to enact transformative change. My design philosophy has been largely influenced by my nonlinear path into tech how cultural context, infrastructure, and on-the-ground realities matter to good design. I care deeply about designing with intentionality. In practice, this means incorporating practices like designing at the margins and co-creation to ensure that I'm hearing from perspectives that have been historically sidelined (or excluded entirely) from the product development process.

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Constant interrogation (of perspectives), introspection, and innovation are the core tenets of my design philosophy.

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At Edquity I pushed our design team to expand on the traditional human-centered design framework by incorporating principles of equity design. In 2020, I was included in an Invision Inside Design profile of design leaders using equitable design practices to address major societal problems. I shed some light on how I've managed to nimbly incorporate equitable design into the core of our startup product development process.

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This is a topic I feel particularly passionate about and I've gone on to give talks on it at Google and Interaction Design Association (IxDA) Interaction Design Week.

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Outside of Design

When I'm not designing digital experiences, you can find me directing experiences across other mediums like film, media, and music. I've worn numerous hats throughout my creative career, including creative director, artist manager, and DJ. Last year, I directed a music video that premiered on Complex. I love curating playlists, 35mm film photography, and boxing (doing one amateur fight is at the top of my bucket list).