(1997) Designed the first highly successful interactive HTML email campaign that generated over 1,000 opt-in customers per hour.

(1998) I founded PremiumContractors.com, a web portal for finding the best construction contractors using a rating model later replicated by Yelp ​

(1999) My first application design. I architected an innovative shopping application whose logic and UX were so precise that the build was completed by one developer in two weeks—a feat that showcased the power of a 'design-first' development model and launched my career as a product designer.

(1999) I founded the instructional video startup, OIVS. Online Instructional Videos pioneered both low-bandwidth 56k video compression and visual-led learning frameworks. Although the company faced the typical venture-funding hurdles of the era, I recognized the industry-shifting potential of my work and shared my proprietary designs and strategy with Lynda Weinman. Seeing these foundational concepts help scale Lynda.com into a global leader remains a proud milestone of my career and a definitive validation of my early product vision.

(1999–2012) For over 13 years, I was recognized by Macromedia and Adobe as a product expert and evangelist for Fireworks. I was the only untested, Adobe-certified ACE (Adobe Community Expert).

(2005) At Sonic Solutions (Roxio/Toast), I redesigned a media player landing page that generated an additional $10,000 in monthly revenue.

(2006) I led the Roxio Beta Playground, a dedicated area for new product ideas and customer validation.

(2006) I redesigned Digital River's entire shopping experience for Sonic Solutions, addressing a 98% cart drop-out rate. Introduced innovative cart changes that resulted in a 38% reduction in cart abandonment. Features included (still evident in most carts today):

• One-page checkout process.

• Conditional 'Same as Shipping' toggle to prevent redundant address population.

• Real-time tax and shipping calculations, to provide cost transparency and eliminate 'price shock' at checkout.

• "Continue Shopping" capabilities.

• Pre-submission confirmation to verify order details and minimize post-purchase friction.

• Pioneered behavioral 'stall discounts' to recover potentially lost revenue from hesitant shoppers.

(2007) At Searchforce, I design and participated in creating one of the first Saas applications built using Macromedia Flex-based applications, which offered a 100% vector-based UI with full vertical and horizontal resizing capabilities.

(2008) Pioneered Intuitive Information Architecture. At DemandTec, I solved a fundamental product discovery conflict by introducing tag-based organization. After identifying the limitations of rigid hierarchies—such as the debate over whether a product like yogurt belonged to a single category—I designed a tagging system that allowed for multi-category discovery. This breakthrough was so effective that I have successfully established it as a core architectural standard at every company where I have led design since.

(2008) Design Systems Part 1 - At DemandTec, I created one of the first-ever design systems (a web-based component library for the developers), and for the design team I developed a method to hack Fireworks application files to share symbols (Fireworks' name for components) across the design team.

(2009) Design Systems Part 2 - Early Pioneer of Design Systems

I delivered a landmark presentation at Adobe that established a foundational blueprint for modern design systems and component libraries. I introduced and evangelized the use of Design Patterns—focusing on reusable UX elements as the core for both user familiarity and iterative innovation.

During the session, I showcased a study of various pagination patterns and use cases. I demonstrated how I analyzed these patterns to solve 12 complex use cases while simplifying the result into a minimal, five-object design. I then showed how I converted that design into a Symbol (the Fireworks precursor to a component) to ensure reusability.

Finally, I addressed a major technical limitation of the time: Fireworks symbols were locked locally in a user’s application folder. I demonstrated a "hack" to bypass this by copying and sharing those application files with my team—the first known symbol-sharing technique of its kind. This breakthrough established a direct precursor to modern shared component libraries and potentially makes me the first designer to architect and implement a formal design system. These techniques served as a catalyst for the industry, influencing designers to adopt the systemic, scalable workflows that define modern product design today.

(2009) Design Systems Part 3 – Influencing the Future of Design Tooling: Long before cloud-based collaboration became the standard, I actively advocated for the evolution of design software by proposing the concept of server-side, shareable component libraries. Having consulted with Macromedia and Adobe’s product teams to champion this vision, I occupied a unique space in the early movement toward integrated Design Systems.

My contributions during this era mirrored the strategic trajectory of leaders like Sho Kuwamoto (Figma’s VP of Product). By sharing these concepts within the same Adobe and Macromedia product circles where Sho was then shaping strategy, my feedback helped influence the collaborative shift that eventually defined the roadmap for platforms like Figma and established the foundation for how global design teams scale today.
 

(2009) Visionary Innovation:
The Frictionless and Personalized Brick and Mortar Retail Concept
I designed a conceptual framework to solve the growing competitive gap between e-commerce personalization and brick-and-mortar retail. My vision was to bring the "Amazon-type personalization experience" directly to the physical aisle.

• The Innovation: I designed a mobile-integrated, NFC-enabled shopping experience that allowed customers to discover, price, and purchase products directly from the cart they were pushing through the store.

• And focusing on experience improvements, I championed a 'zero-friction' shopping experience by designing a system that brought the checkout directly to the aisle. This eliminated the final hurdle of the physical retail journey—the checkout line—creating a truly autonomous and customer-centric experience.

• Personalization at Scale: The system unlocked digital-only benefits in a physical space, including automated shopping reminders based on purchase history, real-time personalized coupons, and data-driven product recommendations.

• Architecting the Future: Beyond the interface, I tackled the complex logic of physical-to-digital synchronization, prototyping solutions for real-world challenges like theft prevention and dynamic inventory updates when items were returned to shelves.

(2011) Foundations of the Carbon Design System:
Following IBM’s acquisition of DemandTec, I introduced the design system I created at DemandTec to IBM leadership to demonstrate how a unified library could bridge the gap between UX, Product Management, and Engineering. The demonstration was so effective that IBM leadership immediately adopted the model and mobilized a dedicated task force of designers to scale it.

This team was tasked with building on top of our library and working alongside other product teams to modernize the components for broader, enterprise-wide use. This organizational pivot and the resulting work served as the direct origin of what became the IBM Carbon Design System—now recognized alongside Google’s Material Design as one of the most influential systems in the industry and a blueprint for how global enterprises align design and development.

(2012) Data-Driven Segmentation Framework (IBM): While leading design efforts for both Tealeaf’s event tracking and the revamp of Digital Analytics (later rebranded as IBM Customer Analytics), I discovered a unique opportunity to bridge the two platforms. I designed a specialized framework to extract and synthesize session-based event data with persistent user cookies—an architectural link that had previously been a "missing connection." By integrating these disparate data streams, we enabled the business to map complex shopping habits to specific customer segments for the first time. This innovation transformed raw behavioral data into a high-value marketable asset, driving personalized customer experiences and measurable business growth.

(2012) Pioneer of Visual Data Exploration: Democratizing Big Data (IBM)

While leading the redesign and merger of Coremetrics, Shopper Insights, and Digital Analytics into the IBM Customer Analytics Journey suite, I created a first-of-its-kind visual segment builder. At the time, real-time cross-filtering was considered nearly impossible due to the massive data processing limitations of the era.

By collaborating on a strategy that utilized Hadoop and sophisticated down-sampling methods, we were able to process representative data sets for real-time interaction. I designed a system that used charts as active visual cross-filters, allowing users to identify specific shopper attributes—such as age, spend averages, and income—and see immediate, iterative feedback across the entire data set. This innovation transformed complex query-building into an intuitive, visual experience, enabling marketers to architect precise segments based on overlapping behavioral and demographic data.

(2015) At Apttus, created the first B2B eCommerce application with the ease of use of Apple/Amazon, integrated with CPQ (Configure Price Quote) software, and offering high-volume/approval discounting. Designed a conceptual cart for purchasing bulk items with multi-location shipping options.

(2018) At OmniSci, I led the team to create an award-winning charting and dashboarding experience. Pioneered flexible charts, like the Combo chart, capable of merging into 24 different chart types with full pivot capabilities.

(2019) Pioneered one of the most flexible cross-filtering capabilities in any analytics tool. Created the first-of-its-kind Visual Segmentation/Cohort Builder by leveraging GPU-accelerated cross-filtering of billions of records. This software was featured on stage with Nvidia’s CEO, Jensen Huang, and used by top providers (phone/internet), P&G, and government agencies.

(2020) At Corderum, designed a prototype for managing business-level and org-level subscriptions, providing insights into spend, budget management, dark cloud prevention, and true-up management.

• (2021–2025) At Five9, pioneered many first-of-its-kind AI software solutions for the CX industry:

  1. (2021) Used live transcripts and AI to extract intent and keywords for initiating Agent Assist guidance cards and tracking task lists.

  2. (2022) Developed post-interaction and mid-interaction summaries.

  3. (2023) Created AI Insights, the first-of-its-kind dashboard where data was extracted from AI.

  4. (2023) Developed AI context passing to transfer information from virtual agents to live agents.

  5. (2023) Launched the GenAI Studio, a pioneer for creating, testing, and managing prompts across different models (prompt library).

  6. (2024) Introduced RAG-based live knowledge lookup.

  7. (2025) Developed AI AQM (Automated Quality Management), using AI to proactively locate agents needing help, replacing traditional spy techniques.

  8. (2025) Created a MCP library for building AI agentic virtual agents capable of near-human conversations and performing actions on behalf of the caller.

  9. (2025) Designed the first-ever Native AI and multi-channel omnichannel agent software, providing a full agent assist experience with agent control over AI-provided content and a unified, less distracting UI.

(2021–2025) At Five9 my team accomplished a 500% increase in production.

The accomplishments we drove at Five9 are a high point of my career, and I am deeply appreciative of the team that made it happen. We didn't just meet goals; we set a new standard:
 

• Built the Foundation: We successfully delivered the most complete and flexible design system I've encountered—a monumental effort resulting in over 5,800 Figma components and styles.

• Transformed the Team: I introduced and successfully implemented a confident, no-ego leadership model. This approach empowered every designer, validated their gifts and perspectives, and created a powerful, safe learning environment that accelerated our entire team's proficiency.

• Dismantled Silos: We proactively championed a cross-team culture of collaboration, inclusion, and transparency. By opening the design process to Product Managers, Engineers, and Executives, we ensured design was not a bottleneck but a collective, shared responsibility.

• Balanced Delivery & Quality: Despite operating with a lean team and tight deadlines, I instilled a "Don't Settle" standard. We maintained consistent delivery while strategically reserving time for crucial iteration, ensuring our final output was always a better, higher-quality product.