AND SO I GROW

My mind was blown when a team I worked with surprised me by submitting my custom work for design awards in 2015 and I actually won. It’s never something I thought about doing for myself or thought was capable in achieving, but I did it. People always loved my work more than I did, and the imposter syndrome was always VERY real. After that, I really started pushing myself even further. If I was capable of achieving something like this, what else could I do? More importantly, what else could I learn, and who could I impact as well as bring along in the journey? Since then, I’ve invested myself in learning the art of managing up, across, and down while continuously building tactical strength into my gaps.

MINDSET SHIFT

In 2019 I attended Adobe Max. This was a conference that was always on my bucket list. The amount of information to build myself up, as well as others, was more than I could have dreamt of. I took what I learned back to my team at Capital One and went to work on ideation of how to strengthen our team. I wanted to build up our connection and synchronicity in what we designed, how we designed it, and how it embodied the brand vision for the company. The team was excited and involved, and we began collaborating more and more.

INTROSPECTIVE

Since I also have a small history in teaching curriculum in schools, I wanted to help others whether it was in designing products or building the culture of the teams I worked with. How could I help? The past few years I spent a lot of time mentoring other designers while unsure of my own voice at those times. The more time I spent with people I worked with, the more I recognized my own previous struggles in them. I took time to build out a curriculum to mentor other designers in not only tactical skills, but in finding their own individual voice as a designer, their own style, and a steady practice in applying the best of themselves to their product work. Not to forget myself, I decided to take on my own mentors and business coaches. Holy crap it worked. The designers who were once shy in communicating with teams around their thought processes were now leading sessions and bringing out strengths in others on their product teams.

TYPICAL MENTIONS

Have I worked with business stakeholders and product owners? Yep. Had drinks with them too in order to learn the people I worked within a less formal scenario. Over 15 years of designing, I have worked in everything from spec jobs for agencies, to design thinking within an enterprise for companies like Capital One and TiVo Inc.

HERE WE ARE

Today, it’s led me to a place where I’m able to be a strategy consultant for management, as well as training up interns to principal levels to be promoted and achieve their next level definition of “best self”. I take pride in this. Because I’ve learned, I can teach.

ASIDE FROM ALL OF THIS MUSHINESS…

I love hiking, camping, playing drums, messing around in Photoshop, trying new artistic skills, and cuddling with my sweet border collie and husky mix breed, Silver. That’s my boy! If there’s anything else you want to know about, hit me up! I love a good chat and sharing stories. I have plenty of them.