Design for Impact

I lead design teams building complex products. My work focuses on evolving them without breaking how people work, growing strong teams and leaders, and introducing AI in ways people can trust.

Leadership

Examples of how I've led teams, shaped direction, and helped organizations work more effectively.

Design Leadership & Strategy

How I've tied design to business outcomes by shaping vision, aligning teams around real impact, and building frameworks that keep design calibrated over time.

›3 Examples: Infor · Cisco

Create a Clear Vision with Effective Storytelling

Setting a clear vision and ensuring it's well-communicated is fundamental.

Example: At Infor, I articulated a vision of "beautiful enterprise experiences," arguing that ERP software should be pleasurable, not just functional. That philosophy guided the re-imagination of Infor's product suite and became a key differentiator in the enterprise software market.

Clear Impact Awareness & Goal Alignment

Ensuring each team member understands their impact on the organization and customer experience is vital.

Example: At Cisco, while developing a new AI platform, I used an evidence-based design methodology with rigorous prototyping and user feedback. Clear goal-setting and continuous performance assessments kept the team aligned with user needs and business objectives.

Foster Skill Frameworks & Calibration

A well-defined skills framework keeps performance evaluations consistent across dimensions like vision, systems thinking, communication, and accountability.

Example: At Cisco, I implemented a detailed calibration approach with feedback from cross-functional partners like engineers and PMs, and defined clear team goals aligned to the company's strategic objectives.

Designing for AI & Autonomous Agents

The patterns, principles, and tooling I've built so teams can ship agent-driven features with consistency and user trust.

›Case Study: HAX Framework at Outshift by Cisco

My approach to agentic design leadership

Shared behavioral principles: Humans maintain control, agent reasoning stays visible, and accountability remains clear across products.

Reusable SDKs and components: Teams use consistent patterns for explainability, control, and handoff instead of building workflows from scratch.

Trust through consistency: Establish design rules that connect to engineering tooling, so teams ship agent features users can actually trust.

Case Study:

HAX: An open standard for human-agent collaboration at Outshift by Cisco

I led the creation of HAX, a unified framework for designing, building, and governing meaningful human-agent collaboration. It connects five design principles (Control, Clarity, Collaboration, Recovery, Traceability) to an SDK and component library, giving teams a shared language and practical toolkit for AI-driven interactions.

HAX shipped as an open standard and is being considered for adoption across multiple product teams at Cisco.

Visit HAX ↗

Evidence-Based Design

How I shift teams away from opinion-driven decisions toward rigorous validation, testing hypotheses before, not after, building.

›Case Study: Outshift by Cisco

I have developed an evidence-based design approach that is centered around rigorous validation of hypotheses and continuous user engagement throughout the product development lifecycle. This comprehensive design process, which includes discovery, prototyping, and validation phases, ensures each hypothesis is rigorously tested and iterated upon based on user feedback and data.

Case Study:

Building an Innovation Design Process at Outshift by Cisco

At Outshift, the mission was clear: Shift from a "build first, ask questions later" mentality to a structured, evidence-guided framework. I first helped re-establish design as a cornerstone of product development, integral from the outset and not just a final touch on aesthetics and usability. By promoting early and frequent collaboration between designers, product managers, and developers, we streamlined the design process to focus sharply on delivering key value outcomes.

Impact Metrics & Performance

Measuring outcomes, not outputs. I focus on how design actually moves the metrics that matter: adoption, retention, conversion.

›Case Study: Skills Framework for a Next-Gen Design Team

My approach is centered around measuring outcomes rather than outputs. I prioritize understanding how our designs influence user behaviors and drive key business metrics like adoption, retention, and conversion. Instead of focusing solely on the completion of tasks or features, I emphasize the importance of telemetry and data analysis to gauge the real-world impact of our work.

Case Study:

Building a Skills Framework for a Next-Gen Design Team

Across my entire career I have encouraged my design team members to develop a strong strategic mindset by involving them in the early stages of product development. This includes understanding the broader business objectives, market landscape, and user needs. I have developed a skills framework to help calibrate designers to align with the business' needs. This includes analyzing areas like the designer's strategic and collaboration abilities as well as their impact and effectiveness.

Human-Centered Design

The principles I rely on to keep research, prototyping, and real collaboration at the core of how teams build products.

›5 Principles for applied HCD practice

Empathy & Research

To deeply understand the user, I prioritize extensive research, including interviews, surveys, ethnographic studies, and usability tests to gather insights into the users' needs, behaviors, pain points, and aspirations.

Co-Creation Workshops

Involving users in the design process through co-creation workshops and participatory design sessions. This ensures solutions are grounded in real user experiences and expectations.

Rapid Prototyping & Iteration

HCD is inherently iterative. I advocate for rapid prototyping and iterative testing to validate ideas quickly and refine solutions based on user feedback.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Successful HCD relies on collaboration across different functions. I ensure that designers work closely with product managers, engineers, marketers, and other stakeholders.

Feedback & Continuous Improvement

Post-launch, it's essential to continue gathering data on how users interact with the product. Using telemetry and other feedback tools, we monitor user behavior and make informed decisions.

Innovation & Incubation

How I've led invention in emerging spaces like AI and agents, pairing structured innovation practices with hands-on design.

›Case Study: AI Lens at Outshift by Cisco

Leading innovation and new product design processes

  1. Early Involvement and Cross-Functional Collaboration: Engaging design early to unify vision across teams, especially critical when inventing in emerging spaces like agentic AI where the problem itself is still forming.
  2. Evidence-Based Decision Making: Shifting from opinion-driven to data-driven decisions by rigorously testing and validating hypotheses through prototyping and user feedback.
  3. Design Thinking and Agile Methodologies: Applying Design Thinking principles to foster creativity and problem-solving through agile practices to keep the development process flexible and adaptable.

This approach has produced multiple invented products in AI and agent design, including AI Lens, HAX, and AgentVine.

Case Study:

Inventing a patented context-aware AI interface at Outshift by Cisco

At Outshift I invented "AI Lens," a breakthrough feature designed to optimize user workflows and task management within the enterprise. Key features include context-aware collaboration with a "Context Button" for querying UI objects, multi-item selection for coherent analysis, and interactive UI enhancements like the "Contextual Screenshot Region Picker" and "Precision Data Spotlight."

US Patent Application #18428774. AI Lens became a reference pattern for how humans and AI assistants collaborate on complex visual data.

Design Systems & Standardization

How I build design systems that give teams consistency without slowing them down, and scale as products evolve.

›Case Study: Infor's move from on-prem to cloud

Core components to design systems and standardization

  1. Principles and Guidelines
  2. Component Libraries and Patterns
  3. Agile Methodologies
  4. Collaboration and Documentation
  5. Scalability and Flexibility
  6. Governance and Management

Case Study:

Standardizing the Infor product experience for its move from on-prem to cloud at Infor

A collection of acquisitions burdened Infor with diverse experiences across products. Infor's move to the cloud required a complete rethinking of the UX with a new consistent and scalable design system.

Cross-Functional Collaboration

Getting design, product, and engineering rowing in the same direction: early, often, and around shared evidence.

›Case Study: Panoptica relaunch at Outshift by Cisco

How I foster effective cross-functional collaboration

Facilitate Collaboration: Act as a bridge between different teams, facilitating effective communication and collaboration to drive alignment.

Providing Support and Resources: Offer design-thinking help to other teams to overcome challenges. Whether it's providing design assets quickly or helping articulate an idea, always be service-oriented.

Ownership and Accountability: Take ownership of the design outcomes while also ensuring that the credit is shared with all contributors in order to foster a strong spirit of teamwork and mutual respect.

Case Study:

Driving alignment during a new product merger for the relaunch of Panoptica at Outshift by Cisco

At Outshift my team's collaboration involves early and ongoing integration into the product lifecycle, which helps focus on delivering key value outcomes. During the re-launch of Panoptica, our cloud-security offering, the early engagement of the design team was pivotal. By involving the team from the onset, we unified our CNAPP platform instead of creating separate solutions.

This early and frequent collaboration across teams enabled us to help drive clarity and alignment to deliver a cohesive product that met our user needs more effectively.

Transformational Design

How design has been a lever for deeper change at the companies I've led, reshaping products, process, and culture together.

›Case Study: Infor's cloud business apps transformation

Basic tenets that encapsulate my approach

Early and Continuous Involvement: Design should be an integral part of the product development process from the very beginning. By collaborating closely with product managers, developers, and other stakeholders early on, we can help articulate and realize a shared vision.

Evidence-Based Decision Making: Shifting from opinion-based decision-making to an evidence-based framework is crucial.

Focused Alignment on Outcomes: Our design goals go beyond aesthetics to focus on key outcomes such as stakeholder alignment, user adoption, and conversion.

Case Study:

Transforming Infor from an on-prem ERP company to a next-gen cloud business apps company

At Infor, I created the first-of-its-kind internal design & innovation studio, hiring and nurturing a team of over 100 talented UX designers & product strategists.

This team was at the center of Infor's large-scale move from disparate on-prem products to a powerful, unified SaaS suite, and was consistently recognized as a significant part of Infor's incredible revenue growth at the time.

Agile Design Practices

How I run design in short iteration cycles with real user feedback, so the product improves with every sprint.

›Case Study: Motific at Outshift by Cisco

My approach to an agile design practice

  1. Incremental and Iterative Development: Working in short development cycles called sprints. Each sprint focuses on completing a set of design tasks or features that can be tested and reviewed. Continuously refining and improving the design based on user feedback and testing results.
  2. Close Collaboration and Communication: Short, daily meetings where team members share updates. Agile relies heavily on cross-functional collaboration. Designers, developers, product managers, and other stakeholders work closely together.
  3. Flexibility and Adaptability: Being open to changes in requirements and feedback, even late in the development process. Continuously prioritizing work based on user value, business goals, and feedback.

Case Study:

An Agile approach to innovation at Outshift by Cisco

In the development of Motific at Outshift, we employed agile design practices to ensure the product remained aligned with user needs and business goals.

We worked in 2-week sprints, each focused on delivering specific features or improvements. At the end of each sprint, we conducted reviews and gathered feedback from users and stakeholders. We regularly tested prototypes with target users and remained flexible to changes in requirements and feedback.