Break it till you make it
Growing up I was building websites before there was a Web to host them on. Though I eventually went to school for digital communications, I kept teaching myself design on the side.
After completing an internship at BlackBerry and learning from some amazing user researchers and mobile interaction designers, I booked my ticket into UX — starting with user research.
While doing my Master’s thesis on ideation communities, I got the chance to lead the redesign of BlackBerry Beta Zone: one of the first online user engagement platforms (think Centercode, but home grown).
When the platform wars hit and the writing was on the wall for BlackBerry, I made the jump over to financial services. This was back in 2012, and let me tell you: there wasn’t much appreciation for digital product or design.
"We're not a software company," a Marketing VP told me after reviewing a list of usability issues I documented after a $16 million(!) dollar web project launched, "we don't do user testing."
After picking my jaw up off the floor, I started working to help teams understand the value of good user experience — one user test at a time.
That wasn’t all I did, however. If so, I might have gone nuts. Around the same time I also formed a video production company with a couple of talented friends. We created explainer videos for startups and tech companies for a few years, which was a ton of fun.
Hearts and minds, one test at a time
In the early days a lot of people in financial services were downright hostile about bringing a user-centered lens to decades-old problems. However, with time and a little patience, we managed to evolve to the point where client discovery and user research became part of our day-to-day at Manulife...just in time for me to head back to tech where I found similar challenges waiting.
Reflecting on the past 10 years, it’s been incredible to see the shift in mindset across many industries toward user-centered product development. Finance and healthcare applications are used by millions of people every day, and there’s still a ton of opportunity for technology, design, and now AI to improve their lives.
"We're not a software company," a bank executive told me a few years ago, "but we'd like to be."
Designing the future of healthcare CX
Today I'm AVP of Product Management Solutions at League, working directly with leading technology companies and forward-thinking insurance organizations to reimagine healthcare for millions of Canadians.
It's a fascinating time to be working in digital healthcare, as advances in data interoperability and AI have created countless opportunities to improve health outcomes and make a real difference in peoples' lives. League's AI-native platform is a game-changer in the healthtech space, bringing AI, behavioral science, and (of course) exceptional design together into a single experience to help users navigate their health benefits and live better lives. It's exciting to be part of building that future.
Just prior to joining League I helped re-launch Sun Life Canada's industry-leading mobile app with a focus on improving health outcomes for Canadians. By embracing new ways of working and emerging tech, we were able to increase health solution engagement by +300%, while at the same time drastically improving delivery velocity and embedding AI-powered functionality that will reduce contact centre calls by over -100K annually.
For a bit more about my background, what we accomplished at Sun Life, and some musings on AI and the future of design leadership, check out this podcast I did with Kuldeep Kelkar from UX Ignite: