My Story

I remember my first design thinking workshop so vividly. The instructor was giving an analogy of what design thinking was. He showed a picture of the most trendy coffeemaker at the time. He said that design thinking was not about building the bells and whistles of the latest and greatest coffeemaker. He then showed a slide of a lady smelling the aroma of coffee and simply enjoying that experience. He said this is what design thinking is about. This analogy totally changed my outlook and mindset on design. As Tim Brown, the former CEO of IDEO put, “Empathy is at the heart of design. Without the understanding of what others see, feel, and experience, design is a pointless task.” Sometimes we are so caught up building that latest feature or trying to fit in one more story into that sprint, we forget to connect with our users to know what they are really feeling. I love to work with people to understand their problems. Whether I am working on a product or coaching a designer, my passion is to empathize with people to deliver that warm feeling and aroma of coffee I smelled during that workshop. I think Maya Angelou’s quote sums it all up. 

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

- Maya Angelou

Awards & Patents

• IBM Outstanding Technical Achievement Award - Verse Mobile Experience, November 16, 2015

• Improving Efficiency of Scheduling of a Meeting Time
  United States GB820140678 - Issued December 11, 2014

The invention introduces a new way to quickly and more effectively schedule a meeting. The user can select the times based on selecting common time segments.

For instance, if the user wanted 2 hours, they could click twice on the 1h window. If the user wanted 1 hour 30 minutes, they could click once on 1h, and then 30m. The invention may also be customized with the user's preferred time windows 1m, 10m, 30m. The invention may observe the patterns of scheduling meetings, and present 15m, 30m based on the pattern of the person scheduling the meeting.

Advantages are:

• Focus on the Useful Time Slots

• Revitalize the Mail Business

• Add to the Collaboration Portfolio

• Mobile Enhancement