A little more about me: I have backgrounds in media studies and design, and I brushed up my research skills during my Human-Computer Interaction graduate degree. I'm bilingual, and have picked up some German, French, Korean and Spanish. I love learning new languages because they give me a window into other cultures.
I love museums as well as mountains. I find ways to express my creativity with baking, painting and bullet journaling. I will be forever cheering for the Blue Devils 🏀.
Curiosity. I think as a designer it's important to keep an open mind, and to be willing to let new evidence challenge our existing ideas and shape our understanding of the world.
Generosity. I share my time and energy to enable others to do their best work. To do so, I listen to their goals and needs and find ways to support them accordingly.
Kindness. We need to be kind to each other. We also need to be kind to who we are designing for, and, when necessary, speak up and challenge those in power to do the right thing.
Below is a collection of thoughts around my design process. I'm sharing them here in hopes of shedding some light on how I like to approach my work.
Ask all the questions. I love asking questions to define the constraints I need to work with. I then go through information gathering - whether it’s revisiting past learnings, aligning goals with teams, or interviewing stakeholders to understand their needs and aspirations. Not every problem needs an innovative solution, so I also usually start by looking for any existing patterns.
Go back to the problem. To me having a clear problem statement is the key to the success of a project. I like engaging in healthy discussions: is this the right problem to solve? is now the right time to solve for this problem?
Keep an open mind. When the unknowns are more than what we’re comfortable dealing with using our best instincts, I work with my team to evaluate the risk. I try to find opportunities to talk to who we’re designing for and show them what we’re working on. We all hold biases and assumptions, and new information helps us challenge them and it's that we begin to build empathy.
Follow through. A designer’s impact should not conclude at engineering handoff. I work closely with my partners until and after getting a product out the door. I believe that information, when utilized wisely, helps us make better decisions; therefore I keep a close eye to feedback and signals post-launch and encourage my team to revisit our learnings.
I’m a believer that alignment creates a healthy and efficient working relationship, and that a well-defined process enables individuals and teams succeed. Like building empathy with our end users, it’s important to design with considerations for whom we work with; as a team lead, I led internal research a few times to come up with solutions to improve how we work together.
I love getting feedback, and synthesize that with my own point of view to come up with the optimal solution. I also believe everyone should be empowered to deliver feedback so I like to listen first and follow up with clarifying questions.