How I Lead
Twenty years ago I sat at a Microsoft and Xbox support desk, watching ordinary people meet new technology for the first time. I didn’t know it then, but that’s where I learned the muscle that defines my work now: translating complex systems into experiences people can trust, use, and enjoy.
Since then I’ve designed brands that won regional ADDY awards, founded and ran a venture-backed startup that built a real product and made hard calls about its future, and spent the last four years at Angel — first as a senior designer across multiple product teams, now leading a team of six senior product designers across web, TV, mobile, and theatrical. Two months in, Angel’s CEO and CXO tapped me to take on PM and Senior Product Designer of Web. A year later, the CXO pulled me alongside him as Lead Product Designer with the brief to build the function.
I report to the CXO and partner with the Head of Product on direction. I own the design system and the consumer-facing brand aesthetic. I’ve spent the last two years embedding AI into how our team and our company design and ship — building, prototyping, training, and writing about it publicly.
I lead by removing barriers and amplifying people. I’m a multiplier by practice.
Currently based in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
Leadership Philosophy
I lead by removing barriers and amplifying people. My job is to make my designers more capable than they were when they joined my team — and to extend the reach of the executives I work with, so they can focus on the vision and the long view.
Servant leadership isn’t a posture for me. It’s the operating mode. I read Liz Wiseman’s Multipliers two years ago and it didn’t teach me a philosophy — it gave me language for what was already working. My 1:1s open with what my designer is working on and what they’re discovering, and close with how I can help and what’s blocking them. I structure critique so the best idea wins, not the loudest voice. I hire for craft and judgment, then trust the judgment.
The work I’m proudest of is rarely the work that has my name on it.
What I Believe
I make my team more capable than they were when they joined.
The single best measure of my leadership is whether the designers around me grow. Not whether the work shipped, not whether the metrics moved — those happen as a consequence. Growth of the people is the cause.
The best idea wins. Not the loudest, not mine.
I run critique and decision-making so the room produces better thinking than any one of us would alone. My job is to make space, not to fill it. I'm still working on this one.
I demystify what feels hard.
When AI was the scary new thing for my team, I built something with it myself first. When critique feels risky for a new designer, I put my own work up before I ask anyone to put up theirs. I find the failure modes, then I show what I learned — what worked, what cost me a day, where I got stuck. The fastest way to remove a barrier is to walk through it where everyone can see.
I extend my executives' reach.
My job is not to be a designer who reports up. It's to be a partner who takes problems off my CXO's plate and stands peer-to-peer with my Head of Product on the direction of our products.
AI & Design
People come first. AI comes second.
I lead with trust in the people I work with. My designers, my partners in product and engineering, my CXO — I show up assuming they’re capable and treat them like it. AI is different. I push it, challenge it, ask it the obvious question, and watch how it answers under real pressure. It’s a powerful tool. It’s not a teammate. The people are the team.
What I Do
Practice 01
Junior-to-Senior Weeks
Periodically I allocate myself as a junior product designer to one of my senior product designers for a full week. They lead. I follow. I execute on their direction and priorities. Feedback only when warranted. The rest of the time I'm there to move work forward at their pace.
Practice 02
Designer Hat / Leader Hat
When I'm sharing a designer's perspective (an opinion, a critique, a different approach) rather than a lead's directive, I say so out loud. So my designers know the difference between their lead asking them to do something and a fellow designer offering a thought. The practice came out of 360 survey feedback that “my words have weight.”
Practice 03
360 Survey at Year One
A year into the lead role, I asked our COO to run a survey on me. Designers, engineers, peers, and leaders above. No one asked me to do it. Structured feedback before anyone required it. That’s where “words have weight” came from.
Practice 04
Pre-Flight Checklist for Theatrical Giveaways
Built after the Homestead giveaway shipped, when scope creep on the second giveaway exposed the cost of running a one-off without a system. Four tiers: things needed before the project can be discussed, things needed before it ships to production, nice-to-haves, and stretch goals built around network effects. It also documents team members and roles for visibility. Handed off to the Theatrical Release Coordinator, who now owns and iterates on it.