Product design
A product is a set of decisions about who it serves and what it refuses to do. I help teams make those decisions early and out loud, then hold to them through delivery, when budgets, deadlines and politics start pulling the other way.
Product direction
Deciding what a product is for, who it serves and what ships first.
Discovery
Research and stakeholder work that frames the problem before anyone commits to a solution.
Design teams
Hiring designers, growing a practice and setting the standards the team works to.
Delivery
Getting from a decision to working software, on a schedule and a budget people agreed to.
Prototyping
Rough, testable versions that settle arguments faster than another meeting.
Consequence design
Dark patterns, deceptive design and the harm a product can do to the people who use it.
Work
- Head of Design at 18FGrew the design practice from 21 to 40 designers.
- Portland Digital CorpsFounding director. Six nonprofit sites rebuilt in eight week sprints.
- VlooraProduct direction for how people keep authority over AI agents acting on their behalf.
Talks and writing
- Defense Against Dark Patterns: Let’s Talk about Anti-UXTalk, Donut.js, 2019
- Skill Issue Is Not a Product StrategyEssay
- Some advice on managing your design career upwardsPiccalilli, 2026
- Improving the Product ToolboxTalk, Indy Design Week, 2018
- Content & Design: Ways to Ruin the Product ExperienceTalk, Pixel Up!, Cape Town, 2017
Blueprints, research, operations and the policy behind a service.
Language, information architecture and content systems.
The practice that carries the work into implementation.
Work with me
Sometimes you want advice from someone who has been there before. Have a quick question, an idea to bounce, or want to figure out ways we can work together based on what you’ve read here or a referral? Drop me a note.
Get in touch