User Experience Talent Acquisition

SUMMARY

Dynamic and results-oriented UX leader with over 15 years of experience in establishing and refining UX practices across diverse industries. A proven track record of driving business results through strategic collaboration, effective team leadership, and innovative UX solutions.

Key Skills: Team Building, Peer Mentoring, Design Thinking, Information & Experience Architecture, User Research, Usability, Agile Methodologies, Content Strategy, Research and Development.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Northern Trust April 2024 – January 2025

User Experience Manager/Product Design Lead – Contract

Led UX strategy to automate workflows and improve complex internal processes, partnering with designers, product, and development teams to deliver impactful Salesforce solutions.

Mentored and recruited top design talent, building a high-performing, innovative, and user-focused team.

Echo Global Logistics July 2021 – February 2024

Manager of User Experience

Leadership & Coaching:

Established and led a high-performing UX team emphasizing strategic collaboration and talent acquisition.

Introduced Design Systems, optimizing documentation processes for streamlined workflows.

Collaborated with QA, Scrum Masters, and Product Director for continuous refinement of UX and agile collaboration.

Achievements & Notable Impact:

Enhanced feature adoption and execution relevant solutions by leveraging NPS intercepts

Advocated for Datadog, driving data-driven decision-making, resulting in a 20% improvement in decision clarity.

Led change initiatives and standardized Agile practices, increasing team focus during Sprints by 30%.

Initiated data collection for end-users leading to a 15% increase in feature adoption.

Innovative Practices:

Streamlined tools, fostering improved collaboration and speed with UX and Product teams.

Spearheaded the implementation of Figma DevMode, reducing process time between UX and Dev by 25%

Revitalized EchoDrive transportation management, ensuring seamless booking experiences through strategic algorithmic intelligence.

Successfully implemented Automated Carrier Negotiations capabilities, achieving a notable 70% reduction in processing time for freight claims in LTL shipments.

Optimized freight claims execution for LTL shipments, achieving a notable 70% reduction in processing time, ensuring prompt payments within a 20-day timeframe.

Consulting September 2020 – July 2021

Salesforce, CIC Plus, Goods & Services

Senior Product Designer/Lead consultant

Key Achievements:

Created interactive training manuals for software utilizing Lightning components.

Validated proof-of-concept (POC) through target user segments.

Conducted heuristic evaluations to ensure effective usability and user-centric design

Spearheaded the construction and enhancement of workflows, introducing effective sequencing and task management systems that significantly improved the overall Underwriter experience.

Defined comprehensive consumer engagement paths by creating detailed personas encompassing characteristics, behaviors, attitudes, and pain points. Developed 'secure-journey life cycles' that holistically represent all user activities to enhance overall user understanding and tailor experiences accordingly.

Defined and implemented Consumer Identity and Access Management (CIAM) controls to ensure robust security measures.

Strategically selected and applied CIAM controls to prioritize and secure key user journeys.

Conducted thorough risk assessments to identify and address potential vulnerabilities, weaknesses, and security flaws, implementing tactical strategies for enhanced consumer protection.

SMS Assist, Chicago, Illinois August 2018 – April 2020

Lead UX Architect

Assisted in establishing user experience and design thinking methodology, optimizing technician performance, eliminating schedule conflicts b6y 80% and increasing productivity by 25%

Executed an Affiliate SaaS offering, providing a value proposition of approximately $7 million/year5 in savings over the contract’s lifetime

ATI Physical Therapy, Bolingbrook, Illinois, June 2016 – August 2018

Senior User Experience Designer

Incorporated user experience processes across Information Technology, conducting field studies, usability testing, and contributing to agile development teams.

IBM, Chicago, Illinois December 2014 – February 2016

Human Factors/Usability Engineer - Contractor

Improve the usability and accessibility of sales-based products at IBM.

Create workflows and user interface specifications.

Conduct contextual inquiries, heuristic evaluations, and usability tests in support of these designs.

Work with agile development teams.

FCB Global, Chicago, Illinois May 2014 – August 2014

Strategic Planner - Contractor

Reviewed over 30 sites to assist in the consolidation of a unified experience by:

Identification of KPIs and responsibilities per user

Content strategy

Envision the future responsive experience through site map, scenarios and low fidelity wireframes

Salesforce.com, Chicago, Illinois April 2014 – May 2014

User Experience Architect - Contractor

Conducted work-flow sessions to identify the 'as is' and the 'to be' process for each user group and their primary tasks for site redesign. Created UX artifacts, such as site map and wireframes leveraging salesforce capability and responsive design.

SapientNitro, Chicago, Illinois September 2013 – February 2014

Senior Associate: User Experience Architect – Contractor

Designed navigation, built site maps, conducted interaction design, as well as, evaluated content and identified business user processes. Responsive design considerations incorporated for both proof-of-concepts and redesign engagements.

Accenture, Chicago, Illinois July 2013 – September 2013

User Experience Architect - Contractor

Created end-to-end user experience by identifying and optimizing the key facets of a manual workflow of data entry and transport of hard copy documentation through digitization of workflow onto Surface' Tablet with Windows 8 by:

Identification of key goals and responsibilities per user

Understanding of key pain points

Connecting users in real time via a communication platform, to ensure issue resolution is addressed.

Envisioning of the future innovative tablet experience through personas, scenarios, low and high fidelity wireframes

Allstate, Northbrook, Illinois, March 2013 – July 2013

User Experience Architect – Contractor

Identified seamless customer experience, define business and user requirements for a suite of applications that support Inspection scheduling and handling for auto and property.

Leveraged current technology platform that supports future Claim’s strategy and more flexible business rules for a future enterprise-based solution by defining current and future workflows, detailed wireframes, and usability testing scenarios.

AON Hewitt, Lincolnshire, Illinois June 2012 – March 2013

Customer Experience Architect (CS&E) – Contractor

Collaborated with Customer Experience Architects, Stakeholders, Business Analysts, Visual Designer, Writer and Leadership teams to define detail requirements and low to mid-level interaction points for proper integration for base line style guide to be integrated into responsive design.

Worked with the Product Development team to understand the vision and business goals in order to set, guide and validate overall direction of the user experience.

Coordinated all aspects of the project from a CS&E perspective – collaborate with design and usability; create and ensure adherence to project plans; coordinate CS&E project plan with overall project schedule.

Created customer experience goals and success matrix, journeys, and low-fidelity prototypes.

Collaborated with designer and business analyst to create medium fidelity responsive design to be configurable in Liferay.

Identified and communicated potential risks to web solutions and helped create ways to address them.

Participated in post-launch activities (e.g., call listening) to evaluate the customer experience.

Worked with the measurement lead to report post-launch results to leadership team and provide recommendations for improvements.

UXFactory, Batavia, Illinois August 20011 – May 2012

Director of User Experience

Collaborated with Information Architects, Business Analysts, Visual Designer and Leadership teams to establish the organization, proves and delivery requirements while defining the strategy, personas/scenarios, site architecture and navigation, map out user flow and experience, and define high-level interaction.

Established strategic web-enablement plan to establish a holistic and comprehensive web strategy including B2C.com, B2B.com, Social Media and Mobile.

Created plans for delivery and release schedules for the UX disciplinary track

Collaborated with the Business and Executive Management to provide guidance and direction.

Defined user flow and recommended functionality enhancements

Created navigation maps and wireframes supporting .com and services including Account Registration & Management, Payment Services, Claims Reporting, and more.

Managed UX team and BA team to ensure on-time and within budget delivery.

Provided thought-leadership and established a user-centered design approach for delivery.

IBM Interactive, Chicago, Illinois 2004 – 2011

Information Architect/User Experience Designer – Senior Consultant

Created simple click-through wireframe usability test prototype illustrating key redesign site interactions among various user segments.

Analyzed findings and identify usability issues and propose remediation.

Conducted Evaluation Labs with the stakeholders and target users. Interact closely with the client design and business team.

Created and validated requirements, to ensure design alignment with data model and out of the box Cognos functionality.

Defined overall user experience design process, including personas and scenarios, screen flows, wireframes, and documenting client feedback, identify data items and attributes.

Collected attributes and provided recommendations for additions after analysis.

Facilitated user scenario and user segmentation workshops, to identify a common UX method for creating wireframe design which would allow IBM Commerce team to deliver a solution for three geographies (USA, Germany, and UK).

Created a single global baseline solution design for all geographies which adhered to requirements and identified unique geo specific features/functions.

Created process flows, As-Is and To-Be Information Architecture for POS vendor selection.

Directed and collaborated with teams to define and implement strategic direction for applications and web sites.

Led mid-size teams.

Facility business requirements workshops

Content strategy:

Organized and analyzed over 5,000 pieces of content, resulting in 20% increase in content efficiency

Assessed in determining content attributes for migration, repurpose and identify gaps.

Identified and mapped content elements for personalization based on design cycle, product type, content type and sales cycle.

Reviewed existing and new content requirements and document as-is content inventory to identify current content, to-be content creation and/or revision, for new WebSphere Portal redesign.

Created content management workflows from authoring through publication on website via the content management system which defines the style, and presentation requirements for content.

Created Editorial Style Guide defines the voice, tone, writing style, and usage guidelines.

Defined and documented SEO guidelines, contributing to a 15% improvement in search engine visibility

Gathered and managed over 1,000 unique business requirements and internal business documentation and insights.

Give back:

Acted as an interviewer on Interview Day; participated in numerous Project Showcases; SME Panel member and manager for IT Development & Implementation for India

Participated in RFPs and Community Grants

Pathfinder, Manifest Digital, IIT Testing Center, Centrifusion, Chicago, Illinois October 1999– October 2004

Senior Information Architect, Usability Specialist, Content Manager, and Project Manager

Implemented applicant tracking systems at Pathfinder, streamlining the hiring process and ensuring efficient candidate management for crucial roles in the final phase of the Arabic portal project.

Spearheaded the redesign of architecture at Manifest Digital, optimizing the structure for targeted end-users and utilizing effective talent acquisition, managing a cross-functional team.

Pioneered Information Architecture efforts for a POP Kiosk at Manifest Digital, integrating seamless recruitment of production artists, developers, and other essential team members.

Managed a team of 20 students at the Illinois Institute of Technology Testing Center, overseeing the redesign of a learning system for a government agency, incorporating for more efficient student recruitment and project management.

Streamlined design concepts at Centrifusion, utilizing to enhance the hiring process during the transition from a rural to an urban environment while maintaining brand integrity.

Successfully integrated new functionalities into the Centrifusion website, optimizing user experience, and leveraging for strategic talent acquisition, presenting recommendations to project sponsors and focus groups.

Incorporated various driven usability testing methodologies, including card sorting, to continually enhance and refine user experience across roles and companies.

Education

Master of Science in Information Architecture

Illinois Institute of Technology, US

Concentration in cognitive psychology and human factors

Bachelor’s Degree

School of the Art Institute of Chicago, US

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