Product design is more than adjusting pixels to create simple interactions. It’s about using human-centered design to place real people at the center of the process—so that what you build actually meets their needs.

As a product design leader, I bring together diverse teams and help them do their best work. That means fostering collaboration, championing inclusivity, and aligning around outcomes that can make a meaningful impact.

Here’s how I use design thinking to guide teams through complexity and unlock real progress:

Alignment

Alignment determines whether a project gains momentum or loses it before it starts. Silos, shifting priorities, and competing incentives can pull teams in different directions—often before a single feature is scoped.

I bring stakeholders together early to align on the problem space, business constraints, and internal perspectives. This creates shared context and helps surface what truly drives success.

I secure the right sponsorship and foster active participation throughout. Using stakeholder mapping, interviews, and assumption mapping, I build the clarity and trust needed to keep teams moving forward together.

  • Stakeholder Mapping

    Identifying the right stakeholders means understanding both influence and interest. I map individuals across key functions—sales, marketing, product, customer care, and even external partners—to ensure the full ecosystem is represented.

    This approach brings diverse perspectives to the table early, fostering more informed decisions, stronger collaboration, and fewer blind spots down the line.

  • Stakeholder Interviews

    To deeply understand the problem space, I lead interviews across disciplines to capture a range of perspectives—technical, strategic, operational, and customer-facing.

    These conversations reveal hidden constraints, surface opportunities, and challenge assumptions. They lay the groundwork for informed solutions and help teams avoid missteps rooted in incomplete understanding.

  • Assumption Mapping

    Assumption mapping is one of my go-to tools for building consensus and uncovering misalignment. It helps teams surface what they believe to be true—often for the first time—and evaluate those assumptions against reality.

    By mapping risks, uncertainties, and blind spots, we create space for honest conversations. This shared understanding leads to smarter decisions, clearer priorities, and stronger team alignment from the start.

Problem Framing

With teams more distributed than ever, it’s easy for alignment to slip—especially around the core problems you're solving. A team’s understanding often depends on how clearly the problem is framed and communicated.

Context is everything. Whether it’s customer-facing (are we meeting their needs and outcomes?) or internally focused (do we need to improve a process or unlock new revenue?), clearly defining the surrounding conditions helps anchor the challenge.

I design and facilitate workshops that bring teams together to establish that shared understanding—so we can focus on the riskiest problems, the biggest opportunities, and the path forward with confidence.

  • UX Playbook Workshops

    UX playbook workshops help teams cut through ambiguity and build alignment around experience goals. I design these sessions to uncover friction points, define guiding principles, and establish reusable patterns and behaviors.

    The result is a shared foundation teams can use to make faster, more consistent decisions—while staying anchored to the user experience.

  • Design Sprints

    When teams need momentum, I lead design sprints to rapidly explore, prototype, and validate new ideas.

    These time-boxed sessions bring cross-functional teams together to align quickly, reduce uncertainty, and turn abstract problems into tangible progress—often in just a few days. They accelerate decision-making while keeping creativity and focus high.

  • Formulating Effective Hypotheses

    Strong hypotheses focus teams and reduce guesswork. I help teams frame clear, testable statements that guide research, shape experiments, and validate direction.

    By turning assumptions into measurable questions, we uncover insights faster—and make decisions with more confidence and less risk.

Applying Research

Applying user research allows teams to deeply understand customer needs—and the circumstances, motivations, and expectations that shape their desired outcomes. Whether validating ideas or analyzing behaviors, research grounds decisions in evidence rather than opinion.

But research isn’t just about collecting data—it’s about inclusion. I ensure planning, recruiting, and synthesis are collaborative and accessible, so insights resonate across the team. When stakeholders are part of the process, empathy grows—and solutions improve.

I lead teams through defining hypotheses, selecting the right research methods, and executing with precision—so we capture insights that drive clarity, alignment, and meaningful outcomes.

  • Establishing Effective Measurement Criteria

    I help teams define clear, repeatable frameworks to measure what matters—consistently and accurately. Whether we’re testing a concept or tracking product performance, setting the right criteria ensures we can evaluate progress, spot gaps, and act on insights.

    Strong measurement builds confidence. It turns experimentation into a habit, and learning into a system.

  • Concept Testing with Qualitative Insights

    Concept testing reveals what works, what doesn’t, and why—before investing in full development. I lead teams through structured interviews and feedback sessions that uncover early signals of value, confusion, or friction.

    By mapping qualitative insights directly to the concept, we guide iterative refinement, align stakeholders, and ensure we’re building something that resonates with real users.

  • Team Visualization Synthesis

    I use visualization synthesis to help teams make sense of messy research data—together. By capturing insights visually, we reveal patterns, surface themes, and create a shared understanding of what the data is really telling us.

    This method transforms findings into something accessible, collaborative, and actionable—so teams can move from insight to impact with confidence.

Mapping the Output

Visualizing insights and decisions is essential for aligning teams and bringing strategy to life. The key is selecting the right artifacts—those that give stakeholders a clear, holistic view across key touchpoints.

Whether it's an empathy map, value proposition canvas, journey map, screen-state flow, or even a pitch deck—the tool is only as effective as its clarity. If people can’t understand it, they can’t act on it.

I help teams identify and build the right communication artifacts based on context and strategy. I also ensure these artifacts evolve with the project—staying current, useful, and visible—so they continue driving alignment and reinforcing value at every stage.

  • Pinpointing Critical User Flows

    I guide teams in mapping core user flows to uncover the highest-impact moments within a product experience—where users engage, convert, or drop off.

    By visualizing these key interactions, we can identify friction, streamline decision points, and prioritize what truly needs refinement. It’s a practical, high-leverage way to drive clarity and improve outcomes across design, dev, and product teams.

  • Developing Communication Strategies

    Clear, consistent communication is a cornerstone of great user experiences. I help teams map the full communication journey—across onboarding, usage, support, and beyond—to ensure every message feels intentional, timely, and aligned.

    By identifying gaps, overlaps, and tone inconsistencies, we craft strategies that deliver clarity and build trust—turning fragmented moments into a seamless, engaging experience.

  • Defining Experience States

    I work closely with internal teams to define and document the full range of product screen-states—from first-time use to edge cases.

    Clear experience states help designers, developers, and QA teams stay aligned—reducing ambiguity, catching gaps early, and ensuring the product behaves seamlessly across the full journey. It’s one of the most practical ways to prevent confusion and elevate execution.

  • Journey Gap Analysis

    I lead journey gap analyses to uncover disconnects between the digital experience and real-world expectations. These gaps often reveal friction, missed moments, or inconsistencies that undermine trust.

    By identifying and addressing them, we align experience delivery with user intent—elevating satisfaction and strengthening the overall strategy across channels and touchpoints.

  • Building Customer Profiles

    I help teams move beyond static personas by building dynamic customer profiles rooted in real jobs-to-be-done, motivations, and pain points.

    These profiles serve as living tools—not just audience snapshots—guiding solution mapping, prioritization, and experience design. The result: more relevant, more tailored, and more effective product decisions.

  • Journey Mapping for Holistic Experience Design

    I create journey maps that visualize every stage of the user experience—capturing key touchpoints, behaviors, emotions, and opportunities.

    These maps help teams step back, see the full picture, and identify where the experience shines or breaks down. They’re critical tools for spotting gaps, optimizing interactions, and designing more seamless, human-centered journeys.

Embracing a Non-Linear Process with Design Thinking

Design thinking isn’t linear—it’s an adaptive framework that balances structure with flexibility. It encourages divergent exploration and convergent decision-making, helping teams stay human-centered while navigating uncertainty.

Here’s how I lead teams with agility:

  • Foster Collaboration – Encourage open communication, knowledge sharing, and cross-functional creativity.

  • Cultivate Empathy – Keep user needs, motivations, and context at the heart of every decision.

  • Iterate and Experiment – Prototype early, test often, and evolve quickly through feedback.

  • Embrace Ambiguity – Stay adaptable in shifting environments without losing sight of the goal.

  • Reflect and Improve – Use retrospectives to refine process, team dynamics, and outcomes.

Design thinking, when practiced with intention, builds momentum—not just solutions. It enables teams to stay responsive, inclusive, and relevant in a constantly changing world.