Hello
I’m Dan.
I help teams excel at serving their customers. Through the application of design thinking to products, experiences, and organizations, I’m grateful to get to work and learn with some of the most impactful companies in the world.
"People are at the heart of life. By truly understanding them, we can better shape the products and experiences they love and use everyday."
Dan
SUMMARY
As a digital-thinker my career progression has driven on a multi-disciplinary path through architecture > product design > digital strategy > program management with a common thread of collaborating with passionately -intelligent, curious, great people.
This includes experience across healthcare (Johnson & Johnson, Astra-Zeneca, Reckitt Benckiser), education (Harvard), architecture (Robert A.M. Stern), association (PMI), tech (Razorfish), sports (Little League, National Lacrosse League), retail (IKEA, Best Buy), agency (Digitas, Publicis), building materials (Saint-Gobain), food service (Compass Group), consulting (DuPont), e-commerce, product design, content production, enterprise-level projects, and many more.
Some Quantifiable insights
- 80+ Organizations collaborated with
- 1,100+ team members positively impacted by organizational workflow optimizations
- $5M+ in project budgets managed, teams of 20+ people
- 110+ digital products designed, tested, and launched
- 35+ physical products prototyped and designed
- 15+ Intellectual property applications managed (patents, trademarks, copyrights)
- 17+ Brand identies concepted, developed, and marketed
- 21,000+ hours spent designing and applying specialized creative skills to both products and business
- 9+ certifications earned spanning design, operational excellence, and project management
- 4M+ readers from 185 countries and 6M+ video views of content produced
Related Certifications
- Google UX Certified Design Professional
- 3D CAD Modeling - Certified Solidworks Associate in Mechanical Design
- 3D CAD Modeling - Certified Solidworks Associate in Sustainable Design
- Held the ITIL-V3 Certification in Organizational Service Management
- Held the Project Management Professional (PMP) Credential
- Held the Certified Scrum Master (CSM) Certification
- Held Hubspot Certification for Inbound Marketing
- Held Google Certification for Adwords Marketing
SKILLSETS
Applying research, analysis, design, and implementation of digital systems and tools to recommend a specific combination you can use to identify, reach, serve your customers, meet your goals, and grow your business.
01. Digital Architecture
Designing the optimal set of digital systems and tools through which your team most efficiently works on a daily basis. This might include internal project management tools, data warehouses, communications platforms, 3rd party services (including AI), websites, apps, and more.
02. Digital Strategy
Assessing and develping the specific steps needed for you to get the job done well. This might be refining an app to best serve a remote fleet of vehicle operators, or defining the optimal set of social media channels through which to reach your niche base of customers and viewers.
03. Digital Marketing
Using data-based analysis to determine the most effective channels for you to reach customers. This can include Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Search Engine Management (SEM), AI-Optimization, Paid Ads, Affiliate Marketing, Content Collaborations, and unique approaches based on your organizational needs.
04. Content Strategy
Developing a specific approach through which to leverage content to connect with customers and grow your brand. This can include what types of content to make, how often, the tone, style, content calendar devellopment, and design of specific team workflows to put it into practice.
05. Emerging Tech Integration
Understanding and leveraging new technologies as we exist in a digital landscape that compounds changes over months instead of years. Integrate new tech into your current business infrastaucture to stay fast, nimble, and highly-effective in serving your customers.
06. Digital Footprint Analysis
Research to understand your customers’ specific needs, quantify the digital capabilities of your current team, plan how to use digital as a strategic advantage, and develop a plan to integrate digital into your team’s culture so its benefits can be easily seen every day.
07. Website Design
Develop Information Architecture for website design or redesigns, capturing the totality of content needed for your customers, and organizing it in a way that is most appealing and effective for them to navigate, use, and act upon.
08. App Design
Consider the mobile needs and use cases for your customers, translating that into an actionable approach for app development that provides them an interface that’s easy to use and directly supports your business growth goals.
09. Digital Product Design
Develop highly-curated and most importantly effective and delightful user experiences on web, mobile, app, wearable, and digital interfaces with physical products to make their use enjoyable, actionable, memorable, and helpful.
Related Certifications
- Google UX Certified Design Professional
- Held Hubspot Certification for Inbound Marketing
- Held Google Certification for Adwords Marketing
Harvard.edu Website Redesign
A redesign for the Harvard University website to serve the needs of its 12 graduate and professional schools, the undergraduate Harvard College, and present as its main digital property.
National Lacrosse League Platform Design
A digital platform design for a national sports league to power its online presence and an integrated websites for each of its individual teams with branding, stats, player bios, events, and news.
DuPont Sustainable Solutions Website Redesign
Ideation, design, and development of a new website for the DSS operations management consulting firm serving Fortune 500 clients around the world. Role: Project Manager
Here are some key UX skills I can apply in helping you to research, develop, shape, and launch meaningful products, and the tools that I use.
01. Understand Vision
Connect with your fundamental goals and how they connect to your larger industry and customers.
02. Conduct Research
Perform detailed research interviews, surveys, analytics review, competitor analysis, and more to truly understand the landscape being designed for.
03. Perform Interviews
Plan and conduct stakeholder interviews to better understand needs, and the value proposition to design for.
04. Develop Personas
Create research-driven user personas, storyboards, and user stories, to profide informed product direction.
05. Journey Mapping
Create customer journey maps all informed by the previous research, building real value based on the measured needs.
06. Wireframes & Prototypes
Designing from information architecture to sketching to wireframes and prototypes through to reusable design systems, creating a data-driven, scalable design foundation.
07. Usability Studies
Validate the design through usability testing, questionnaires, surveys, analytics analysis, and more - ensure that what we built truly serves the identified need, and does it delightfully well.
08. Process Iteration
Continuously improve through iteration of the process and constantly measure and deliver optimized experiences that grow with your business and your users.
09. Use Industry Tools
Build with industry standard tools. Experience with Figma, Miro, Axure, Sketch, HotJar, Clarity, GA4, GTM, Photoshop, Illustrator, and more popular programs.
Related Certifications
- Google UX Certified Design Professional
- 3D CAD Modeling - Certified Solidworks Associate in Mechanical Design
- 3D CAD Modeling - Certified Solidworks Associate in Sustainable Design
Food Finder Mobile App
An app for local food truck vendors to provide a fast, easy, efficient way for customers to digitally order and pay for their food.
Natura Cross-Platform Digital Tool
A cross-platform tool (native app and responsive website) that helps urban residents more easily connect with nature.
Fine Art Responsive eCommerce Website
A responsive website where art collectors can preview and purchase authenticated fine art.
How I Use Design Thinking
I use a human-centered, iterative approach to problem-solving that focuses on peoples’ needs – and driving results.
The UX Process I Apply
Here are the usual steps I follow through a project – creating delightful user experiences.
My Design System Approach
A detailed look into a reference I put together and use when developing design systems.
Manage, coach, and mentor teams, lead organizational change, manage systems implementation, content production, and content management for websites, apps, and social media platforms.
01. Project Management
Managing project work from Initiating, through Planning, Executing, Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing. Including teams, budgets, schedules, dliverables, stakeholder managment, reporting, and delivery.
02. Program Management
Managing groups of related projects across a group or organization. Aligning them towards key business goals and ensuring the program meets the objective needs it is created to serve.
03. Portfolio Management
Managing the strategic selection, prioritization, and slignment of work across an organization or enterprise. Ensuring the right work is getting done in the right ways to support the organizations mission.
04. Organizational Change Management
Managing the social and cultural changes that come with the implementation of new organizational processes and growth. Making real connections wth people and providing clear, reasonable steps to lasting, positive change.
05. Workflow Optimization
Analyzing and optimizing existing operational workflows to run lean and maximize the returns from team effort. There is often huge opportunity to do more with what already exists, tightening up direction, clarity, flow and execution of work and having a happier, driven, motivated team.
06. Business Service Design
Researching, analyzing, and defining the workflow, user experience, and supporting governance for new business services. From concept through delivery it works better with a clear understanding and clear path to follow, making new services data-driven and setup for success from the start.
07. Systems Thinking
Applying a broad approach where team and organizational systems interact in a planned, efficient way that synergestically enhances one another while operating in a lean, powerful, clear way. They provide the mechanism through which actions flows to deliver on strategic organizational objectives.
08. Continuous Improvement
Designing iterative, incremental refinements into team systems and processes, allowing for simpler changes over time that are manageable and yield stronger results over time than more static, classic approaches. Teams have clear direction, data-driven metrics, and logic that drives changes over time based on measurable realities.
09. Reduce Friction
Understanding your culture, team, and goals to identify opportunities to reduce workflow friction and increase output, clarity, ease, and organizational happiness. There is often huge oppirtunity in making a current-state run smoother, which directly translates into resources savings, increased output, and more motivated teams.
10. Content Research
Researching and planning content topics that will resonate with your audience, and factor in SEO, niche growth path, and optimized paid search preferences. Create a cohesive content strategy that directly supports and contributes to buisiness goals and customer engagement.
11. Content Production
Manage the creation of, and or directly create written, audio, and video content for production assets. This can indluce scripts, researched and annotated blog posts, voiceover recording, photography, and videography. Including editing, formatting, and exporting assets for use on web, mobile, and social platforms.
12. Content Management
Managing WordPress CMS website content, ensuring content posts and pages are created, scheduled, and published on a daily basis. Ensuring the website is up-to-date with system and plugin versions and updates, security patches, and backups are running, tested, and ready.
Related Certifications
- Held the ITIL-V3 Certification in Organizational Service Management
- Held the Project Management Professional (PMP) Credential
- Held the Certified Scrum Master (CSM) Certification
Related Education
- edX Leadership Training: Leading with Effective Communication
- PMI Seminars World: The Ultimate PMO: Leading Practices for Performance Management
- PMI Seminars World: Project Portfolio Management: Selection, Prioritization, and Management
- PMI Seminars World: Implementing Enterprise Portfolio Management Solutions
Portfolio
Here are some of the projects I have been involved with – not listed are many private client works.
Food Finder Mobile App
An app for local food truck vendors to provide a fast, easy, efficient way for customers to digitally order and pay for their food.
Natura Cross-Platform Digital Tool
A cross-platform tool (native app and responsive website) that helps urban residents more easily connect with nature.
Fine Art Responsive eCommerce Website
A responsive website where art collectors can preview and purchase authenticated fine art.
Harvard.edu Website Redesign
A redesign for the Harvard University website to serve the needs of its 12 graduate and professional schools, the undergraduate Harvard College, and present as its main digital property.
National Lacrosse League Platform Design
A digital platform design for a national sports league to power its online presence and an integrated websites for each of its individual teams with branding, stats, player bios, events, and news.
DuPont Sustainable Solutions Website Redesign
Ideation, design, and development of a new website for the DSS operations management consulting firm serving Fortune 500 clients around the world. Role: Project Manager
How I Use Design Thinking
I use a human-centered, iterative approach to problem-solving that focuses on peoples’ needs – and driving results.
The UX Process I Apply
Here are the usual steps I follow through a project – creating delightful user experiences.
My Design System Approach
A detailed look into a reference I put together and use when developing design systems.
Sleever Pro
A hand tool that helps to easily insert sports, trading, and other cards into protectors without damaging edges and corners.
KegSheet
Light, portable, reusable insulators that use NASA technology to keep beverage kegs cold, even in direct sunlight without ice.
BrassMags
Precision-crafted shells fitted with strong neodymium magnets that look stunning & easily hold cards and papers to metal surfaces.
Team Optimization
Assessed and realigned daily operations of 20+ software engineers across 3 continents, resulting in a 160% increase in output, deeper team engagement, and higher team happiness.
Workflow Optimization
Designed and implemented ITIL-compliant change management processes to support a ~200-person organization and reduce production issue rate by ~85%.
Systems Optimization
Evaluated the digital systems infrastructure of a ~100-person agency and designed an implementation strategy for reduced complexity, increased security, and ongoing cost savings.
15 Central Park West (NYC)
35-floor luxury condominium in the New Classical style located at West 61st Street and Central Park West on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Comcast Tower (Phila)
Houses corporate office for the Comcast Corporation, and features offices, art installations, and a sub-ground level concourse.
Harvard Law School
Wasserstein Hall – a LEED Gold building that houses classrooms, a conference center, and an underground garage in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
IDBOK Guide for Industrial Design
A written draft for a global standard that defines the breadth of skills necessary to be an effective industrial designer – with a framework, processes, and methods.
Colorful Skylight
I enjoy all sorts of photography – in the built-world around us as well as in nature I draw inspiration from the incredible everyday things around us. Each has a story to tell.
Architectural Illustrations
A series of digital illustrations of iconic skyscrapers from the United States. Chrysler building, Sears Tower, TransAmerica Pyramid, and the Empire State Building.
Let's Chat
What can we build together?