What is your educational background?
I have a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University/Teachers College. The curriculum was part of a dual program with the Columbia University Business School and the Arts Administration program at Teachers College. I also have a bachelors degree in English Literature from the University of South Florida and a minor in visual arts (print making).
What are some of your technical skills that inform what you do?
Because of my website and marketing work with Upper 90 for the last 10 years, I have taught myself and have experience with quite a few of the core applications that drive a successful e-commerce business channel. For example, I have a strong understanding of the the Google suite of applications: Google Analytics, Merchant Center, and Ads. These core tools are essential to implementing successful e-commerce marketing campaigns.
The foundation for all of my understanding of web and digital technologies comes from my early studies and work as an agency designer in the early 2000s. I hard coded HTML, JavaScript and CSS for websites, created multimedia animations with Flash and ActionScript, and edited and compressed video with Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere.
Of course, I couldn't have done anything in my career without core capabilities in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign.
What are your strengths and where you could improve in your work?
Strengths: I think my educational background and love of reading has given me a strong sense of how to communicate effectively. Clean, concise, and efficient communication is essential to both customer engagement and client interactions. Planning and process informs everything I do. So, when tackling any design project, I like to understand the scope of the work and its desired outcomes before diving into the creative work.
Improvements: "Data is the new oil." "Data drives everything." Data driven design is obviously key to solid UX and I use it as much as I can and always look to improve my utilization of A/B testing, customer analytics, and weighing the best use of quantitive vs. qualitative data.
What would be your "dream job"?
The thought that is always in the back of my head when I am working is "how can I make this better?" ...whether it is customer interaction on a website, or a collaborative strategy meeting with the marketing staff, or a business partner looking for new ideas. I feel that I can make connections to customers, clients, and my fellow staff through good design and communication. So, If I could translate what I have learned and achieved over my career into a position where I can help everyone make better mistakes than I did, I would see that as a fulfilling job. Whatever the work may be – B2B, B2C, or direct to consumer – I would like to have a positive impact and make other people's lives a little bit more enjoyable.