Speek was included in Wall Street Journal’s “Top 25 Startups of the Year” and Entrepreneur Magazine’s “100 Most Brilliant Companies” for 2013. As Director of Product, I worked closely with the executive team, marketing, sales and engineering within a fast-paced agile (Kanban) startup environment to manage the lifecycle of the Speek product to create a seamless experience to maximize customer retention and improve acquisitions.

► Prioritized feature development and product workflow, tracking issues through JIRA to implement incremental improvements for each product release.
► Increased conversions and reduced the customer churn rate by utilizing analytics gathered from Mixpanel, Google Analytics and A/B tests from Unbounce and Optimizely to inform product enhancements.
► Provided hands-on creative expertise developing user stories, use cases, wireframes and visual design for the Speek product across all platforms.
► Distributed team located in California, Washington, DC, New York and Vietnam.

AOL's Instant Messenger Client (AIM) reaches approximately 800k users per day; 3 million users send at least 1 instant message per month. As Design Director, I set the creative vision and strategy for the entire AIM brand by effectively managing and overseeing multiple projects simultaneously during 2-week agile development sprints across the web, desktop, mobile and enterprise teams. I evangelized conceptual ideas and design rationale for new features to innovate and attract new users while maintaining the existing demographic – 70% of all users have been with AIM for 3 or more years and continue to use legacy versions of the client.

► Exceeded expectations on annual performance review.
► Created a comprehensive design proposal for the AOL Family Chat App, a cross-platform tool to aid in family communication. Concepts were adopted by MapQuest as the basis for their Family Center mobile application.
► Released updated AIM Client, collaborating with the development team to integrate popular features from the legacy client into the “new” AIM web and desktop applications, and proactively sought out incremental improvements for further iterations.
► Provided all visual and user experience design AIM client updates on the Mac and Windows desktop and iOS and Android mobile platforms, as well as creative for online marketing efforts.
► Distributed team located in Washington, DC , California, Texas, New York and the Ukraine.

► Helped to define the user interface and visual design for new and existing Refinery29 products and features.
► Translated business objectives and end-user needs into design strategies.
► Participated in brainstorming sessions and concept sketching.

UX and visual design lead for the Abbott Nutrition International team, working with distributed team to maintain design consistency of the Abbott brand across all international product offerings.

► Created visual design, artwork and specs for the Abbott Nutrition international websites, including country-specific sites for India, Russia, Vietnam and Singapore.
► Developed interactive tools for expectant mothers.

Autonomously led creative direction of existing and new products throughout the entire product lifecycle, from initial explorations through final design deliverables, including use cases, task flows, and detailed mockups for development and QA.

► Successfully launched the DVDs By Mail website, acting as the Creative and User Experience Design Lead connecting the executive teams at Comcast and Blockbuster to leverage assets from both companies into one online resource.
► Established look and feel of all print marketing materials for Blockbuster’s Camp Wannawatchamovie 2011 summer campaign, producing in-store point-of-sale merchandising and signage.
► Led design efforts for Blockbuster Android and iPad Tablet application, defining all product requirements and requirements documentation to present to key stakeholders.
► Assembled comprehensive competitive analysis of key competitors in the digital video industry.
► Distributed team located in Texas, California, New York, and Washington, DC.

UX and visual design lead for the Userplane communication platform. Collaborated with distributed team members in a fast-paced, agile, startup-like environment to develop a shared vision of the updated Userplane communication platform. Led the process to define the user experience and create designs that delivered on the product’s objectives.

► Provided wireframes, UX flows and visual design for the Mini-Chat, EventChat and Webchat web applications.
► Created all marketing materials, including magazine advertisements and the implementation of the Userplane trade show booth.

Worked with the Profiles team in Beverly Hills, CA to create visual treatments of reputation systems for the Futura Myspace release in October 2010.

Design lead and primary point of contact for all design-related projects on the AIM Connect and AOL Instant Messager (AIM) Client teams in a remote capacity. Product focus included brand development, styleguide creation, user interface design and overall look and feel for the Socialthing/AIM Connect web application. Partnered and collaborated with members of senior management team on a daily basis. Worked with geographically distributed teams based in CA, CO, NY and VA.

► Partnered with Director of Marketing and VP of the AOL PeopleNetworks team to create sales presentation mocks and ad placements for the AIM Connect brand, increasing product awareness; created web presence for the AIM Connect brand.
► Assisted SVP of Marketing and Partnerships in creation of sales mocks in tight time frame for a campaign which encouraged Ford Fiesta to work with AIM.
► Collaborated with internal Authentication and Key Experiences teams to develop new authentication screens for use within the AIM Connect platform.
► Named winner of internal competition to redesign company Intranet. (today.office.aol.com)
► Selected by management as one of five colleagues to attend Ad Week 2009 in NYC as a representative of the AIM Instant Messaging Client team.
► Exceeded expectations on performance evaluations for past 3 years and received Distinguished Performance recognition during first year as a remote employee.

Supported all design needs for small start-up acquisition within the AOL PeopleNetworks team. Developed user interface and visual design of Yourminis widgets. Introduced redesign for Goowy’s web presence; worked with teams based in CA, VA, NC, NY, and India.

► Created user experience flows and visual designs utilized by the Bangalore development team. Successfully implemented Yourminis widgets for the Ticketmaster EventEngine, CBS Survivor Participant Tracker, Macy’s 100th Anniversary Trivia and Nintendo’s “Defend the Castle” game.
► Initiated and utilized new technologies (Flash) which cut down build time for developers and received recognition from management for this time-saving effort.
► Delivered widget design prototypes to sales team for use in retaining new clients, including FedEx, CBS Sports, Sex & the City Movie and Coke.

Performed rapid design prototyping for new AIM products and services working with Virginia-based design team.

► Played integral role in successfully launching the interactive timeline-based web application Circavie.com. Elements from CircaVie.com have since been adapted for use within the current bebo user profiles and AIM Lifestream products.
► Selected by SVP of Global Communication to assist in creating Flash-based application to promote a new product on the bebo platform. Presentation was made by Joanna Shields, President of AOL PeopleNetworks to Jefferey Bewkes (CEO, Time Warner), which led to development and implementation of the current bebo profiles timeline application.
► Created moodboards and promotional artwork based on persona profiles, defining the design aesthetic for the redesigned site.
► Redesigned AIM Today web experience by defining style guidelines and partner advertising specifications to drive additional e-commerce revenue.

Provided design support to aid sales initiatives, including static and animated design mocks for partners, exploration of additional revenue streams, and click through rate improvements.

► Managed Columbus-based AIM design team in creation and development of AIM prototype applications and services.

Hired permanently from a 3-month contract status as a result of outstanding results in the design and implementation of sponsored “takeovers” appearing on the AIM Today Welcome Screen and creating high-performing Flash-based games for Netscape’s Fun & Games Channel.