Mentorship & craft
Guiding growth
Mentorship
The best mentors I had didn't just give advice. They showed me how they thought. That's what I try to pass on. At Amazon I co-founded our first formal design mentorship program. I wrote the playbook and ran the mentor matchups so that finding a great mentor depended less on luck. Today I coach designers one-on-one on confidence, goals, and where they want their careers to go.
Tech
for good
Volunteering
I've spent three years mentoring with Girls Who Code, served on the ChickTech steering committee, and run ChickTech workshops that introduce high school girls to UX through hands-on projects. The best part is the moment someone realizes design could be their path.
Leading by Doing
Player-Coach Management
I teach by working in the file, not by talking about it. I design alongside the team, turn live projects into teaching moments, and I'm upfront about expectations. When someone wants to grow, I run a gap analysis so "I want to level up" becomes an actual plan.
Scaling design
Building Teams & Studios
One of my proudest chapters: helping build Shopping Design's first UX studio in Berlin. We started as two solo designers and grew to a 12-person team spanning design, research, writing, and behavioral science. I stayed hands-on the whole way, shaping the customer experience across Reviews, Deals, and Gifting while building a studio culture that was connected to Seattle and still distinctly Berlin.