Leadership Principles
I love making things.
I have a long track record of success creating world-class experiences across device, web and desktop. My teams have included creative coders, user researchers, visual, motion and interaction designers, technical artists, 3D modelers, animators and texture artists as well as hardware hackers, technical writers and production designers. I am named on over 20 patent submissions covering a wide array of design and technical innovations.
As a design leader, I distill my core values down to a few key principles that I keep in mind every day, during every interaction I have with my partners, stakeholders, and team. They are:
Collaboration and humility.
Product-making is a team sport. Great products are great across multiple domains; they're not only well-designed, they are well-built and meet real customer needs. I am passionate about operationalizing cross-team and cross-discipline collaboration to guarantee that we're all rowing in the same direction.
Be hard on the design. Be kind to the designer.
Its important to have high standards, especially when designing highly complex products for a demanding customer base. But sharing work in progress requires a trusting environment, and trust is only built through respect and kindness. I believe that leaders must always take the time to focus feedback on the work and not on the designer who created it, so that everyone feels supported when sharing work and seeking feedback.
Model, coach, and care.
I believe deeply that is a leader's role to create team cultures that empower designers to do the best work of their careers on behalf of all customers. This means taking the time to learn about each individual's goals and experiences in both work and life; to think of them as a human and not a resource. It means embodying the culture you want to create with every word you say and every action you take. And it means taking the time to offer constructive feedback to your team members using the style that will be most effective for that person.
I am not the type of leader whose ego demands that they make every design decision for the team. I view my role as a facilitator and servant of the talented people working with me; I want every designer working with me to know that I am there to support them and help them grow to reach their career goals. I set the expectation that our team will create excellent work and then I do whatever I can to empower the team to do just that.
