Aaron’s Resume (.pdf)
Product Design & Research Lead @ Apto; Denver (2020-2021)
Led the design and validation of end-to-end user flows for a CRM product in the commercial real estate space.
Specific responsibilities included: Founded a usability testing program that worked within the agile sprint process; established metrics for user success partnering with engineering and product; configured and launched behavioral data tools with a partner team; and took the full product design to completion from a bare-bones draft state.
Favorite Success: Sped up the internal time from idea-to-built by streamlining design strategy and making it work within the agile process.
Senior Design Strategist @ BlueSuit; Denver (2020-2021)
Scoped and developed strategies to understand and design for the thresholds for trust and confidence in users for a B2B workflow product based heavily on AI and machine learning.
Specific responsibilities included: Led the design team in finding creative design solutions that blended design patterns with disruptive, new technologies; created and executed design research plans (qualitative interviews, contextual studies, diary studies, landscape analysis); and started and maintained a database of research results.
Favorite Success: Reduced the time for a user to process a single document from 30 minutes to under 10 (65% reduction).
UX Product Strategist @ Various, contract; Denver (2018 – 2020)
I created and executed design strategies for clients to achieve their individual goals.
Specific work included: Developed research plans to understand use of data by call-center agents while on calls; Implemented remote user-behavior testing using Google Tag manager for in-field explosives work; Designed a GDPR-compliant consent and member data management systems; Strategized plans for usability and research testing for blockchain startups running on a lean budget; and implemented lean UX research strategies for a beta group of over 300+ users for a telecom start-up.
Favorite success: Designed and tested usable interactive charts for viewing blast data in the fields.
Design Team Lead @ Teach for America, New York City (2013-2018)
Built the design department from the ground up and established a program of goal-directed-design and Lean UX practice.
Specific responsibilities included: Built partnerships with other departments to institute design culture; built the design team, hired and mentored junior designers and researchers; led research and product design for internal compliance systems; and worked with stakeholders to identify and realize business goals.
Favorite Success: Designed a mobile application which increased year-over-year completion rate by over 25%; with nearly 100% increase on mobile devices.
Designer & Researcher @ The GIN is IN (2009-2021)
Conduct research into how people talk about gin (the spirit) and synthesize the data into an annual report for distillers focusing on possible gaps in the market.
Specific responsibilities include: Design and define the metrics for collecting how the average consumer talks about gin; design visualization tools based on those findings; use information to support social media promotion efforts around the data collection tool to increase the data lake; and continually refine and use new data as it comes into the system.
Favorite success: Grew traffic by about 20% year-over-year to 900K uniques annually..
Education
Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), 2016
Masters in City and Regional Planning, Pratt Institute
- GPA 3.9
- Coursework includes: psychology of design, anthropological research methods, statistics, visual design
- Presented work to community boards and community stakeholders
B.A. in Environmental Design , University at Buffalo,
- GPA 3.75
- Coursework in visual design, public presentation, statistics and research design
- Minor in English Literature and Writing.
- Won award for outstanding undergraduate research: LeClaire-Kindel wildlife sanctuary as a potential model for redeveloping land adjacent to highways