Approach
How I work
I align stakeholders around a shared narrative and form simple, focused user journeys that lead to tangible results. Five things tend to be true of how I do it — and the people I've worked with have said them better than I can.
I get along with people, and that is a strategy
I was brought into my first UX Director role by my manager at AOL, who had the faith to throw me into management at Scripps — Food Network, Travel Channel and HGTV. I'd built enough trust with her and other senior leaders that she knew she could depend on me to take design there to the next level.
At Google I received over fifty awards for collaboration and effective communication with cross-functional peers. Getting along with people isn't pleasantness; it's what lets a complex, cross-org project actually land.
Jeff led all Insights and Reporting work across the team, which took an enormous amount of cross-product and cross-functional collaboration to get off the ground. Jeff was relentless in his pursuit to get this work, which was critically important to users, prioritized and launched.
Midway through this cycle, Jeff assumed leadership of newly-combined Virtual and Physical Collaboration UX teams … I was super-impressed by Jeff's diplomacy and ability to steer a group with such diverse opinions towards consensus. Jeff is clearly seen as a leader by reports, peers and stakeholders.
I've spent my career at the front edge of the technology
The first feature-phone mobile banking app at Citibank. AOL's first investment app. Time Warner's first iPad magazine. Food Network's first Apple Watch app. Early AI tools for content moderation at Google. A generative-AI real estate platform in 2025.
I like new paradigms because they're where lives actually get easier — and I'd rather understand a new kind of tooling early than defend an old one late.
Jeff is an excellent designer who delivers deeply-thought-out, quality designs in a rapid timeframe. I can rely on him to act on UX research findings and internalize them quickly into the designs he creates.
I manage with compassion, because it works
We are so much more than images in a box on a screen. People are human and have needs outside of work. Flexibility and compassion are foundational to a successful and productive career, and they are central to how I manage.
Jeff is an extremely strong manager and contributor in Core UX — his Performance Manager Rating is among the highest on the team at 94. He leads many hugely strategic pieces of work, including a number of COVID response initiatives that were highly visible and impactful for Googlers.
Jeff has been a really great manager, possibly one of the best throughout my career. He really cares for his team, making sure we have a good balance between work and life, gives us direction on where to focus but trusts us completely for the execution. He advocates for my career growth and challenges me with projects to expand my limits.
I think in systems
I've worked on complex advertising systems and on multi-functional workflows for managing building capacity and tenant safety. I like thinking holistically — building an experience that both delights people and removes the specific, tangible pain points they came in with.
Jeff strives to truly understand a user's journey and to craft well-thought-out solutions to ambiguous design challenges based on that solid understanding. He has thoughtfully led the product definition of some of the more complex and visionary projects the reporting and insights team has worked on.
I adapt the process to the team, not the reverse
No two teams are alike, so no single process works perfectly for all of them. I've worked on small teams and large ones, with minimal budgets and generous ones, managing a handful of people and managing eighty.
It doesn't much matter which. I listen to the team and watch how they behave. What's working? What isn't? How can I solve their process problems with design thinking, rather than importing a methodology and hoping?
We work in a fast-paced space, with user needs evolving based on WFO and RTO … Jeff has a magic skill of making things work if the need is there. We have never been blocked on UX for any launch or product decision. The UX team is super resilient through all of these changes, and Jeff's leadership is the most critical piece to that.
Jeff's remit expanded exponentially in the last six months, taking responsibility for a broader set of portfolios … He's done a great job of leaning in quickly to understand the new space, work with the leaders in the org and develop a plan to address the most critical needs. Our UX partnership immediately turned around when Jeff took responsibility for it.
Get in touch
Got something complicated?
That's usually where I'm most useful. I'm open to design leadership roles and advisory work.