My work UX contributions

Because I didn't do all of this shit myself

User journey map example

User journeys can reveal opportunities

Mapping complex experiences I’ve recently learned how user journey maps can help understand user flows and problems as a designer. But I think the bigger benefit is using those maps to have a conversation with others involved in the project to bring everyone to the same understanding. NN/G has a great course on user journey […]

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Who I am

Who I am

I’m Dan, a Red Hatter I built this portfolio site to make sure I was spending enough time on me. When you’re a design leader, it’s often hard to invest time in yourself. My free time often goes to scheduling that 1:1 that I haven’t had a chance to do yet, or spending 15 minutes […]

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Trying a product

Open source enterprise software When marketing enterprise software, we have requirements to allow users to test the products out. Selling open source enterprise software makes the process of giving the user what they need even more challenging. The goal of the business is to connect with the user, finding ways to make sure they’re enabled […]

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A call on a Sunday

Design without context I got a call on a Sunday from my bosses boss. So I knew something big was happening. It wasn’t the first time I had a call like this, but it was normally less hush hush, and revolved around something like a new product release or a partnership. But this time it […]

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Design system components

Building tools for designers

Design systems and enablement Sometimes being a designer means making sure others have what they need to design. That could be a designer, a developer, a strategist, among others. Every stage of the process needs design, whether its someone considering a possible future strategy or a designer creating a pixel-perfect component for their experience. For […]

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Blurry org chart

Leading design teams

Becoming a design manager I was hesitant to move into people management. I had studied for years to become a designer. I was worried I’d no longer be able to do the thing I was best at. I loved coding. I loved being in my zen space, working on a design to solve a user […]

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Design talks

Cross-team sharing I helped to start a concept of sharing across our large (at the time) 30 person or so design & development team (it’s now grown to close to 60). As our team evolved, it was becoming more and more difficult to stay connected. What we found useful in smaller sessions were leaders of […]

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