There's no escaping it - the Fire Phone was a massive flop in the market. But I learned so much on that project, and I'm still proud of the work my teams did. We were ultimately not able to convince the CEO that his pet project was not meeting a real customer need, but we were able to design and build an exciting UI that was unlike anything else.

My production design team created all 3D assets on the device, including all lock screens, all icons for Amazon products and services as well as some 3P products, and all map landmarks. All of the character animation, lighting, textures and models were created by my team and used across the entire UI. Our lock screens were called out for special attention during Jeff Bezos' product launch event.

My DT team created tools for validating assets and testing motion. We also modified and refined the algorithm used to detect a flick of the wrist, which was an interaction affordance used by the device. We modified the projection matrix to accentuate depth and motion. And ultimately, our DTs built a version of the phone that replaced all input from the four corner cameras with input from the device accelerometer and convinced leadership that the cameras weren't needed. And it was an innovation in the home screen design that reduced motion sickness in users by using a stable, faceted background and removing the all-white 'cyclorama' background that leadership had requested.

My user research team spent hundreds of hours doing human factors testing of the movement of the wrist and of motion sickness, both of which were major concerns with the 3D UI.

After the first, troubled launch of Fire TV, my org was given design ownership of the product. From that point forward, my team was integral to the design of multiple versions of the UI. Our design team simplified navigation across the entire device and made it much easier to use. My DT team created dozens of UI prototypes, my production design and design QA teams helped raise the bar on fit-and-finish across the device UI, and my user research team played a crucial role in helping designers and PMs understand our customers' needs and the product's place in the market.

Of particular note was my team's work porting all of the 1P Echo Show apps to Fire TV. With some iterations on the designs to account for the different 10-foot viewing experience, we were able to ship all of those apps on device within 6 months.

Unlike Fire Phone, Fire TV was a massive success in the marketplace.

As a leader in the Amazon design community and the creator of the DT discipline, I took it upon myself to create and get funding for an event dedicated to bringing DTs from around the company to share insights, thoughts, and projects with each other. The event was a huge success, and grew from that first year to an event that attracted over 100 DTs a year from all over the world.

I also was asked to think about how we could recognize the unsung heroes on our design team. My team and I designed the Shine award, which consisted of a custom award in the shape of a star with the name of the recipient engraved on it along with a tribute video for each recipient. The design of the award was the work of one of my team members and was modeled on our 3D printer. The award was given out yearly and was a huge hit with the team.