Hi, I’m Andrew.

I'm a design leader (and occasional writer) based out of Silver Spring, Maryland. I focus on user experience strategy, digital interactions, and brand stories, while relentlessly doodling on any available surface. 

I've worked with large international and national brands like Redken, Haribo, and Michelob Ultra, small startups, large agencies, and the U.S. government. I enjoy finding complex problems to solve.

Want to get in touch? Send me an email.

Experience

Senior Director of Experience Design Bixal

April 2022 – Present | Washington, DC

• Evangelize critical initiatives in strategy, governance, and the adoption of new ways of working with federal clients, healthcare initiatives, and our own practice areas to accelerate Bixal's mission and vision.

• Successfully grew the HCD team from 13 to 32, expanding capabilities to include UX Research, UX Design, UI Design, Creative Services, and Accessibility. Managed 31 direct reports, including managers, leads, and directors.

• Established and championed a management structure, fostering continued growth while creating a balance between freedom and expectations for employee success.

• Collaborated closely with Project Managers and Client Engagement leads to accurately scope projects and establish project plans.

• Partnered with Practice Leads to continuously evolve methods, improve collaboration, and strengthen practice areas.

• Guided the implementation of a culture of critique, enabling the team to identify feedback types and provide actionable insights.

• Increased team velocity and knowledge sharing by creating standardized templates and processes adaptable to different agency and project requirements.

• Set up cross-functional and co-creative spaces for the practice and wider Bixal team, facilitating sharing, learning, and strong working relationships.

• Led and collaborated with multidisciplinary teams on multiple projects, ensuring high quality, meeting objectives, and optimizing team utilization.

• Fostered a collaborative environment where everyone's voice is valued and positive collaboration is encouraged.

• Oversaw team management activities, including performance reviews, feedback, career planning, and support. Translated People & Culture initiatives into day-to-day employee experiences.

• Responsible for staff utilization, allocation, forecasting staffing needs, and managing the hiring process. Proactively addressed resource overages and shortages, while budgeting for tools, staffing, and planned needs.

• Leveraged employee capabilities, skill sets, and interests to make informed staffing decisions, aligning with career pathing and professional development goals.

• Ensured adherence to resource management and timekeeping policies and procedures, while effectively communicating and translating them into practical work realities.

• Managed the yearly budget for the HCD team, including procurement of necessary tools and resources.

Senior Associate — Design; Technical Lead MIL Corp, Contract in ITA

September 2019 – April 2022 | Washington, DC

I work as a dynamic resource across multiple teams and projects, leading data product design (primarily within Power BI and Sharepoint/Azure) for import and export data products that are used internally to brief policy makers and externally for US business intelligence. I directly support the CIO, and lead executive-level client personnel through problem definition sessions. I own client relationships within projects, and often act as the mediary between client, user, and developer. Internally, I work with MIL AVPs to build out and codify the productization of our UX consultancy offering, determining engagement types, team structures, and the build of the practice. I teach and coach employees on the use of data design, UX, and accessibility.

Creative Director Brunch Digital

January 2018 – September 2019 | Washington, DC

I lead the creative discovery and design process, establishing standards and systems for projects, while managing a small creative team—providing inspiration, creative direction, and constructive feedback to ensure all of the creative work is up to best practices and standards. Owning the deprtment, I built organizational ladder, providing context and clarity for career development. I often work with clients during the discovery process to help define requirements and the business goals behind them, acting as a business analyst to determine requirements. Internally, I pitch new clients, write RFP responses and generate new leads. I conduct UX research and analysis, following a framework of my devising and a methodology steeped in phenemology and ethnography.
I define strategic direction for creative projects, marrying the UX and creative with business needs and outcome metrics. Then present—and help the team present—the craft, strategy, and solutions we create. I act as lead designer on projects, either solely or with the team. Internally I define process with other senior team members at an organizational level, integrating feedback and implementing systemic changes to increase efficiency, clarity, and ease.

UX Lead MIL Corp, Contract in ITA

October 2016 – January 2018 | Washington, DC

As a UX Lead, I worked with client stakeholders, end users, and the development team to gather requirements, feedback, and test the efficacy of internal and external digital products in an Agile environment. I lead the experience efforts for the ITA's web presences (export.gov, privacyshield.gov, stopfakes.gov, selectusa.gov) as well as internal products, CMS, and applications. I conducted user testing for internal products such as case management and tasking systems, and lead the efforts to conduct external persona research and journey mapping. My main areas of focus were updating the design language to a new set of standards, including standards for interaction and animation; creating personas and journey maps of external users; balancing the interaction needs between two main platforms (Salesforce and O365), and managing a complex set of stakeholders and developers across multiple business units—each with individual needs, requirements, and success metrics. I managed a front end developer, and work as a team lead within a cross-office team of contractors.

Adjunct Faculty Maryland Institute College of Art

January 2016 – May 2016 | Baltimore, MD

Adjunct Faculty: Design for User Experience. Teaching a class of junior and senior Graphic Design undergrads the fundamentals of user experience design by focusing on effective UX practices, methodologies, and presentation structures. Created lesson plans and projects to teach and test skills, while trying to impart lateral thinking about how current skills such as typographic hierarchy can be applied to things like navigation structures. Focused the curriculum on user-centered design.

Design Lead/Creative Director cove.is

June 2015 – October 2016 | Washington, DC

Joined a small product team as the first and only designer, taking ownership of the brand direction, design standards, and implementing a structured design process. Created all marketing assets and redefined the brand. Engaged customers as a UX designer by conducting interviews, surveys, and ethnographic research, then interpreted the data to find and prioritize pain points and needs as feature implementations. Set up userflows and personas, worked through customer experience mapping, and created presentations to explain and disseminate findings. Created consistency between online and offline experiences and translated brand language across all channels and touchpoints. Helped lead marketing on concept and advertising. Ran workshops to explain and uncover brand elements. Acted as a user advocate to vet product and brand decisions against real needs and data. Hired and managed a junior designer, and planned the expansion of the team to scale with business needs.

Interactive Art Director Havas helia

September 2014 – June 2015 | Baltimore, MD

Joined a struggling social team for Michelob Ultra and increased user engagement by ~70% through effective content strategy and strong campaigns. Solved usability problems for AutoZone’s internal marketing apps by creating more coherent experiences and intuitive interfaces, drawing on user feedback. Created a streamlined and consistent onboarding process for TD Ameritrade by implementing a structured content and deployment strategy, as well as adjusting the hierarchy of communications. Mentored junior designers in UX standards, client presentations, and tool skills.

Senior Designer IMRE

July 2013 – August 2014 | Sparks, MD

Worked with clients and account to create websites, print and digital advertisements, ad campaigns, and interactive apps. Worked with development team defining UX and design for websites and applications. Created integrated campaigns including traditional and social advertising for clients such as Astra Zeneca (Seroquel™ and Nexium™ brands), YKK AP, Redken, PowerBar, and STIHL products. Organized and managed design interns. Lead creative concept and directed production on social media editorial calendars.

Designer Slate Magazine

June 2012 – July 2013 | Washington, DC

Created website editorial and advertising graphics - banner ads, takeovers, charts, graphs, illustrations, and photo research on a daily news schedule of tight deadlines. Art direct the Slate Interactive Editor, as well as produce assets for interactive elements. Supervise and train interns and non-art staff. Manage and organize daily art needs and long term projects such as micro-sites and the Slate Book Review. Assist development team with design and implementation of new site features. Devise new custom ad units within the site to increase sales and integrate harmoniously with current interface. Act as consultant for the sales team on large scale events that go beyond the website, with the mantra that “the content is the advertisement.”

Senior Designer R2integrated

December 2011 – June 2012 | Baltimore, MD

Created print collateral and websites for various clients, including Sylvan Learning Center and Microsoft. Worked closely with smaller clients to seamlessly bring rebranding efforts into new websites, and worked as part of a team for larger clients and complicated websites. Created illustrations and visual solutions for campaign imagery, while keeping with UX best practices to craft websites that are both interesting and usable. Co-supervised a junior designer, teaching design programs and giving feedback on her work.

Junior Designer TBC

September 2010 – December 2011 | Baltimore, MD

Crafted print design, identity systems, animations, mailers, infographics, websites, logos and campaigns for clients including: Goldwell North America, HairCuttery, Polk Audio, SmartBalance, Haribo, the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development, the Wall Street Journal, the International Consumer Electronics Show, Genesis Healthcare, and TBC. Directed the interactive department on various projects, while also creating assets and setting typography. Implemented ideas and executions for smaller clients; directed mechanical operations for packaging and print design for Goldwell. Established concepts, illustrations, and storyboards for SmartBalance flash animations, and oversaw their production. Co-directed on-site scouting and photography, helped art direct the TBC rebrand, worked directly with clients, account executives, and creative directors.

EDUCATION

2017 Nielsen Norman Group UXC, UX Management
Washington DC

2007-2010 Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) BFA, Graphic Design Baltimore, MD

2005-2007 Delaware College of Art and Design (DCAD) AFA, Illustration
Wilmington, DE 

SKILLS

• UX Strategy

• UX Management

• UX Research / Reporting (qualitative and quantitative)

• UX Design

• Usability Testing

• User Interviews

• Workshop Facilitation

• Creative Direction & Management 

• Adobe Creative Suite

• Graphic Design

• Sketch

• Invision

• Power BI

• Writing

• Public Speaking

• Web Design

• Print Design

• Environmental Design

• Interface Design / UI

• Advertising

• Branding

• Business Analysis

• Design Management

• Design Thinking

• User-Centered Design

• Rapid Prototyping

• Agile Framework

• Illustration