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How I Get the Job Done

Every Business Challenge Demands Its Own Strategy.

Customer empathy and data-backed validation, shaped to the market you are actually in. No rigid formulas. No templates. Work that moves fast because the thinking was done first.

See it in practice

Columbus, Ohio

Product Designer First

The Field Changed.
So Did I.

I’m still a product designer. And a UX designer, UI designer, graphic designer, brand designer, creative director, and design lead, depending on the day. None of that has changed. The field has. Now you see the words design engineer everywhere, and it’s become the elephant in the room.

How I Define a Design Engineer Right Now

So, What Is a Design Engineer?

Ask ten people and you’ll get ten answers. Here’s mine. Graphic design, then UX, then product. Fifteen years of that is what got me here. Each step added a layer, from how things look to how they work to why they matter to the business. Underneath all of it sits empathy for the people using it, and the craft to make the experience tasteful, with a little delight.

AI agents added the last one. I still land the approach in Figma, because that’s where I decide what good looks like. Then I point agents at it and build a live prototype, pixel for pixel, with real data. A site in a real browser, an app on TestFlight, whatever the ask is. That’s what a design engineer is to me. A designer who ships the real thing.

Agents write code fast. They can’t tell which version should ship. That call is mine. Being a product designer first keeps the work lined up with business objectives, and makes sure the tickets getting written are the ones that move the business and make the experience better for users.

Taste decides. Agents build. I hold it to the pixel. Put it together and I’m a Swiss Army knife. What to build, why it matters, and the build itself. That’s the definition today. Ask me again in a year.

My Process, Step by Step

Here’s How That Plays Out.

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  1. Charting the Course

    Before designing anything, I get clear on the objective. What’s the actual problem, who is it for, and what does success look like for the business. This is the product designer in me. I make sure the tickets that come out of it are the ones that move the business and make the experience better for users, so the team starts aligned instead of finding out in week three that we weren’t.

  2. Deep Dive

    Real insight comes from talking to people. I run continuous research, interviews, and competitive analysis, then use LLMs to work through qualitative feedback at volume and surface patterns I would otherwise miss. The goal is strategy rooted in genuine frustration rather than assumption.

  3. Creative Exploration

    This is where I push past the obvious answer. Tools like Claude Design, Figma Make, and Midjourney let me generate and compare a lot of directions fast. Agents can make a pile of options. Picking the right one is taste, and that part is mine.

  4. From Concept to Reality

    The strongest direction gets finalized in Figma. That’s where I decide what good looks like. Then I point agents at it and build it for real, pixel for pixel, with real data. Variations take minutes instead of days, so I find the best path instead of defending the first one.

  5. Hands-On Validation

    Design is a conversation, not a handoff. I get the live prototype in front of users early, a site in a real browser or an app on TestFlight, to see what people actually do rather than what they say they’d do. The risky assumptions get tested before anyone commits engineering time to them.

  6. Engineering the Gap

    I work closely with development to make sure what I design can be built. Pairing design system knowledge with Claude Code, I generate front-end prototypes to test implementation ideas early. Agents do the typing, I hold the result to the design, and engineering gets something they can run instead of a spec to interpret. Speaking the same language as engineers removes an enormous amount of friction, and on one team it cut dev cycles by 25%.

  7. Launch & Beyond

    Launch is the start. I track live data, optimize conversion, and keep the design infrastructure scaling as the product grows. Agents help me ship the next iteration fast. Whether it should ship is still my call.

Programs I Use