“You are the sum total of everything you’ve ever seen, heard, eaten, smelled, been told, forgot - it’s all there. Everything influences each of us, and because of that I try to make sure that my experiences are positive.”
― Maya Angelou
I have worked in multiple industries and roles since my very first job shredding paper at a medical billing company at 14 years old. Each one, yes even shredding, contributed to who I am as a designer and product person today.
Take a look at my half résumé, half journal entry timeline to hear my experiences and learnings and get a better sense of who I am as a professional and as a person.
When I was in grammar school, I had a wonderful and incredibly strict English teacher with very high expectations. Her name was Sister Anne. Each week she had us do two things:
It was then I learned something. I can write and then perform or recite those writings really damn well.
So in 2009 and for the rest of my academic career, I did what any young entrepreneur in high school would do. I used my skill--writing--and turned it into a value proposition where I could bring it to its corresponding market audience--kids in school who didn't want to do their writing assignments. For the sake of academic integrity, I'll answer no further questions at this time, thank you.
I contributed some of my more palatable teen angst to the high school zine, Visions. I combined what I learned from Sr. Anne by being the zine's print assistant editor and co-head MC for something we created called Visions coffeeshop nights. Think of teachers, students, parents, friends, etc. all gathering at an open mic for music, poetry, snacks, slouchy beanie hats, and more. Sounds terrible, right? It was actually f**king awesome.
In fall 2010, I became a freshman at Northeastern University in Boston, MA, where I wrote album and concert reviews for the school music magazine, Tastemakers.
I had two jobs in college.
I worked for the Youth Development Initiative Project (YDIP) as a tutor and mentor to Boston youth between 6th - 12th grade for 6 years. Watching them grow, learn, and become adults was one of the best experiences of my life. I participated in biweekly meetings that focused on individual students and outlined deployment plans for their successes. I learned when is the time to work and when is the time to take a load off. Most importantly, I learned how to listen.
I have to admit, writing this is quite the trip down memory lane. I've had many fantastic experiences. Another one is working for House of Blues from 2012 to 2015. I wore a handful of hats there. As a member of security and experience, I spoke with concertgoers each shift and listened to their needs. I balanced guidelines and predetermined sets of principles with conflicts or difficult situations. As a merch rep, I handled merchandise sales and bookkeeping for numerous performers. As a trainer, I trained new hires on the ins and outs of those roles.
I learned a lot from doing CX and UX projects at Workbar, but I wanted formal education and hands on learning experiences. I left Workbar and went to General Assembly, receiving a certificate from their User Experience Design Immersive. I completed 4 projects while there.
I received another certification from the Interaction Design Foundation (IDF) in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) with a Top 10% Distinction.
In 2014, my friend Rita approached me with an idea: daily music "takeovers" for the people, by the people, a new DJ that you might personally know every day.
We were a music discovery focused TikTok before TikTok was TikTok, before it was even Musical.ly, and before Musical.ly even existed!
Rita was the brains of the operation, and I was lucky to be along for the ride. It was a side project, something we did after schoolwork and our jobs. We handled every aspect ourselves--social media marketing, grassroots marketing, operations and coordination, and basic graphic design.
This was my first "real job" out of college. I worked at Workbar, a coworking space with nearly 10 locations in Massachusetts. This is where I met C. Todd Lombardo, who was the Head of UX, the first Product and UX hire for the company ever. That's where I learned CX and UX, and helped C. Todd on research and information architecture projects. Because our company's primary value prop was physical coworking spaces, a lot of my job fell under customer experience, research, and wayfinding.
I was a consultant on a team of 4 designers for the City of Boston's Department of Innovation & Technology. We worked on 2 parts of their site. My role was focused on information architecture, user interface design, prototyping, and usability testing.
I started to freelance and take on clients part time. I currently manage a handful of websites and have built them all with Webflow.
I contracted for a few weeks with Cinch Financial. Cinch aimed to provide a personal advisor/pocket CFO with unbiased, comprehensive financial advice to everyone. After a few weeks, I joined the team full time. There, my team tackled the beast of personal finance and behavioral economics with solutions that were data-driven and user-centered--grounded in reality but always thinking ahead for progress. We did not simply help users budget. We wanted to help change behaviors and break harmful mental models around personal finance ideas, concepts, and habits.
The design team balanced being focused on thinking big and conceptually into the future and ensuring we stayed on track on our roadmap each sprint. I worked on cross-functional teams of designers, developers, product managers, copywriters, data scientists, and business analysts within an agile framework to implement and ship designs sprint-to-sprint. My boss was the head of both UX and Product, so I was lucky to dip my toes in product strategy and direction under smart, experienced leaders.
I began working for BondLink on October 22, 2018. BondLink works in the incredibly esoteric, convoluted industry of public finance and municipal bonds. We help muni bond issuers connect with investors. I've watched us go through rounds of funding, hires and departures, big changes, and lots of excitement.
When I joined the team, our tasks were to redesign everything from the ground up--that included 3 existing products. Along the way, we've designed completely new products and features, too. Because of the growing product suite and bond market participant we cater to, our design team of 2 has split responsibilities and own certain products. In Q4 2022, we launched our third iteration of my main product, Debt Database. It also won the 2022 U.S. Fintech Award for Data Initiative of the Year.
I also design corporate/company websites for small businesses, and launched three during this time period.
BondLink had their first round of layoffs, and in an effort to compensate for any lost talent, I took on some work in Product Management in addition to my full-time role as Senior Product Designer. The creative part of product management was a smooth transition and addition to my current workload. It was getting closer to the business side that was new, and truthfully, it has rounded out my skillset not just as a professional, but as a designer. I'm someone who likes to learn both by reading and doing. I already jumped in headfirst in the field, so to complement that, I earned a few product management online certificates on Coursera.
As a PM, I conducted research, pinpointed root problems, and guided development of new features. I presented ideas to stakeholders for feedback and buy-in. I identified areas of improvement and their appropriate solutions, whether product or process, through qualitative and quantitative data analysis. One major project was the implementation of an onboarding process that eliminated a bottleneck for signups and freed up resources for the customer support team.
BondLink had a second round of layoffs, and after almost exactly six years, my journey with them came to an end. I am immensely grateful for the knowledge and experience gained. One of my products won an award, and I acquired a new skill in product management. Now, I'm back on the job market and ready for a new challenge.
