Hi! I’m Jeff.

I love creating products and experiences that just make you want to engage, to play with what’s right at your fingertips.

A Northern California native, I grew up over the hill from wine country. In August of 2006, I made the cross-country move to New York City, like so many, drawn to the electricity and energy of the city; but moreso, looking to start my career in design.

Six weeks later, I landed my first product design job at Social Sauce, or “sosauce”, a start-up travel content and social platform (now resigned to the pantheon of defunct start-ups). It was at sosauce where I realized that design was much more than informative, it motivated people to explore and express their passions in ways they had not yet realized.

Since then, I’ve architected, crafted and delivered deep and delightful experiences for people who want to engage with brands, organizations, their work, and each other the world over.

What motivates me? Helping people — in ways both tangible and intangible. 🏳️‍🌈

My Resume (PDF)

My first web design “project”

A Geocities tribute website to my favorite 90s tennis player, Goran Ivanišević of Croatia. “Ajde, Gorané!”

One day in 1996 while shopping at Costco, I found a $29 CD-ROM program called Sierra Web Designer — a W.Y.S.I.W.Y.G. web design program that designed, coded and uploaded directly to Geocities — and asked my mom to buy it for me. Thanks, Mom!

My first design job

…was during my undergraduate years. I worked for U.C. Davis’ Information & Educational Technology (I.E.T.) department’s marketing office.

We handled campus-wide physical and digital communications for everything technology related: computer labs, student intranet accounts, we even designed some cornball ads for the university’s busses. GO AGGIES!

I’ve worn many hats

…throughout my career (a full stack creative, incl. front-end developer), but have focused in on UX/product design and strategy since 2012.

I believe my experience having been a fullstack/multi-disciplinary creative has helped build bridges, I love collaborating and working with everyone, from devs, to PMs, to executive stakeholders.

My creative methodology

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Team casting & management

Build the right team who can collaboratively approach and solution the solution at-hand; set clear goals, be a mentor and guide for the team to successfully realize design strategy.

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Foster a culture of knowledge and courage

Make sure that my team members have the freedom to explore and to challenge their creativity, always in service of self-sustained improvement.

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Facilitate cross-functional collaboration

Ensure design considerations are integrated into all aspects of product development.

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Align design solutions with user & business goals

Ensure that the design strategy and approach provides value to both the business and the user.

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Drive user-centric solutions

Our ultimate goal is to always exceed end-user needs, and, we cannot do that without engaging and embracing our empathy for our users. Testing, observation, user feedback and input, and data reinforce our solutioning.

How I lead

I’ve led product and creative teams a small as 3 and as large as 25. My leadership style centers on empowering talent to do their best work through creativity, experimentation, shared knowledge and collaboration:

Be the guide, be the glue.

I want every person I work with to have confidence in my capability to keep the team moving towards progress, and, to understand that I am there as a sounding board, a creative lens and many times, a facilitator.

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Zoom Out. Zoom In

My favorite takeaway from my time working with start-ups, “seeing the 10,000ft view”, to see “the forest through the trees”. Maintaining perspective and awareness at every level of solutioning means the experiences we design are inclusive and sustainable.

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Collaboration. Facilitiation.

Passionate designers individually come with equally passionate perspectives. At every project KO, one ground rule I set is that there is multiple ways to creatively solve a problem. We learn from each other to solution from all angles, and together, deliver amazing experiences.

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Empathy.

Empathy is our greatest superpower, and not just for design, but also in recognizing each team members’ strengths and passions.

Building healthy relationships with everyone I work with is one of my biggest priorities.

Words from my colleagues

Lindsey Frantz
Director of UX/UI, Wisdom Tree
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“I worked with Jeff just a few months after beginning my career in UX and I honestly cannot imagine where I would be now if it weren’t for his stellar mentorship and guidance.”

Brian Singh
Product, Noom
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“In my book, what makes Jeff stand out from the pack is his amazing ability to easily understand a client’s needs and their actual business. When working with Jeff, you never need to spell out the details. You can always trust that Jeff understands what goes into making a good product and experience.”

Christine Park
Senior Product Designer, Wolt
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“Jeff was a source of invaluable feedback for myself and other designers. He set a high standard of professionalism and critical visual and UX thinking, which elevated the design team as a whole. I have always admired Jeff’s well thought through recommendations, which were always grounded in keeping the user’s interests at heart.”