“Design is simply to move from an existing condition to a preferred one.”
— Milton Glaser
— Milton Glaser
Trusted Design Leader with 20+ years of experience modernizing and driving human-centered, customer/UX/UI experiences that deliver measurable business value. Demonstrates success identifying opportunities leveraging data/insights to create integrated, scalable solutions and processes that generate greater efficiency, productivity and performance.
Strong reputation for empathetic leadership as a player/coach, collaborating with internal groups and external clients, championing creative talent, guiding and empowering product/design teams, and navigating constant change to consistently deliver results.
SKILLS
CX Strategy - UX Design & Research - Design Systems - Agile Frameworks - User Testing
Data/Analytics - Product & Service Design - Visual/Brand Design - Interaction Design
Information Design - Technical Illustration - Client Management
Ideation Work-Shopping - Creative Direction - Brand Consistency/Growth - ADA compliance
Digital - Collaboration & Facilitation - Cross-Functional Team Leadership - Team Building
TOOLS
Miro - Figma - Jira - Microsoft Teams - Adobe Suite - ChatGPT
EXPERIENCE
VP Experience Design, Corporate Technology
Prudential Financial • Newark, NJ • 2021–Present
• Established 1st Human Centered design practice focused on building better performing tools/services for corporate groups. Increased overall product SUS for HR & career focused tools by 20%.
• Developed the Voice of Employee (VoE) UX research panel, comprising over 800+ employees. Conducted rigorous user testing, this diverse group has guided improvements to over 200 features across 30 products. Increasing employee satisfaction by 15%.
• Enacted eNPS (employee net promoter score) and SUS (System Usability Scoring) to increase qualitative measurement of all new products, sites, and services being designed in Corp.Technology.
• As player/coach designed and develop new HR Assistant bot estimated to save $500K in 1st year supporting 10% reduction in HR workforce need & 20% call center efficiency supporting employees.
• As player/coach co-designed and user tested Prudentials 1st internal ChatGPT work assistant automating routine tasks, increasing employee writing/editing productivity by an estimated 50% of beta users. Early experience enjoying an 89% ease of use score.
• Co-designed our industry award winning Prudential Talent Marketplace, a one stop shop for employee career mobility, skill building, and job search. Increasing internal mobility by 25% and slowing employee exits by 7%. More than 70% of employees are visiting monthly.
Prudential Financial • Newark, NJ • 2008–2020
• Headed experience design and brand consistency across Prudential US Businesses.
• Built the first UX/UI practice for Prudential’s US CMO.
• Hired and managed an onshore/offshore talented team of 20 including designers, researchers and developers.
• Led extended team to practice a customer centric design thinking process in the creation of tools, products & services.
• Built Prudential’s 1st Design System Operations team from the ground up.
• Advocated for and built Prudential’s first dedicated UX Research team and modern usability testing lab which delivered qualitative based user feedback improving speed to market and SUS Scores by 25%, and improved sales of tested products by 15%.
• Designed and built new single sign on experience that generated 10% increase in site access, 8% reduction in related call center volumes.
• Created responsive-designed marketing sites, corporate micro-sites, social media platform approaches, mobile apps, intranet designs, and interactive tools.
• Supported digital brand extension of the Prudential Master Brand Campaign launched in 2009, unifying a fragmented brand experience providing 25% improved positioning for sales and marketing funnels.
Work included: Web & mobile designs, front-end application design, low/high fidelity wireframes, email campaigns, landing pages, banner campaigns, interactive banner storyboards, and branding/design systems development, client management.
Senior Interactive Designer
Flying Point Digital • New York, NY • 2007–2008
Applied design leadership and strategic thinking to print and interactive ad campaigns. Worked both independently and in group settings directly with clients and agency teams demonstrating strong problem-solving skills.
• Executed rich media solutions that delivered increased engagement with brand and increase exposure and value on average 12% for ad spend dollars spent on creative with our firm.
• Implemented abstract concepts and turn them into visually exciting, innovative designs that were web friendly, easy to navigate, representative of the client's goals, and that satisfied branding requirements and enhanced the user experience.
Work included: Web designs, email campaigns, landing pages, banner campaigns, animation story boards, and branding Clients included: American Express Network/Travel, Emigrant Direct, Sleepy’s, Prudential Douglas Elliman, P.C. Richards, Baby Depot, Cohen’s Fashion Optical, Casual Male XL, and LensCrafters.
Senior Designer | Information Architect
Register.com • New York, NY • 2003–2007
Managed creative as part of the direct marketing team using A/B testing and user centered design practices to increase domain registration completes and web site creation starts by 18%.
• Led a small team that helped identify technical, software, and workflow inefficiencies in their Halifax, Call Center and then optimize workflow processes, and customized software toolsets to increase efficiency by 12%.
• Designed and maintained style guidelines for internal and outsourced projects.
• Implemented multivariate and A/B testing initiatives that improved usability, conversion, and sales.
• Used SEO best practices to optimize register.com to better perform in natural search.
Work included: Web Site Design, Site and Process Optimization, Promotional print materials, white papers, direct mailings and welcome kits.
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA), Graphic Design
Rutgers University, Mason Gross School of the Arts • New Brunswick, NJ • 1989–1993
PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
Board Member, Rutgers Center for Innovation Education
Rutgers University • New Brunswick, NJ • 2017–2019
Customer Experience Advisory Board member focused on strengthening student curriculum in customer experience strategy, customer-focused innovation, human centered design, modern tools, practices, and mindsets.