⬇ Life updates ⬇
As of 3/11/24, I’ve left UX!
Fall 2024 I enrolled in graduate coursework to pursue a career pivot to financial planning.
Closing in on two years as a twin dad.
Cutting teeth as a board game designer. My first completed game design—Gold?! MINE!— got into Origins 2025 speed pitching. Big thanks to the Break My Game community and Protospiel MN for helping me get the game into shape.
⬇ Old UX career blurb ⬇
I’m a UX researcher and designer from the heartland.
I’ve helped my teams tease apart and identify today’s realities to design for tomorrow's opportunities. Equipped with empathetic tendencies, an academic background in social and media theory, and an insatiable curiosity about the designed ecosystems that people operate in, I can effectively engage anyone in conversation to uncover the insights needed for new courses of action.
I have...
...spent over three years serving food at a fine dining establishment and at an artisanal cheese shop.
...canvassed working class and suburban neighborhoods as a volunteer and paid canvasser in three elections.
...worked in a warehouse, on a delivery truck, and in a cubicle doing temp assignments.
...been a production assistant on film and video shoots.
... trained and managed a census team who resolved over 1100 cases in less than three months.
...studied extensively in China
...taught English in South Korea for one year.
...tutored U.S. high school students
...guest lectured at the community college where I also took classes.
The thread connecting these varied experiences is strong: they required learning distinct procedures, earning people's trust, listening to them, and responding to needs. It has cultivated greater empathy, humility and curiosity for understanding others’ predispositions and routines.