Head of Product Research & Design

I build teams and systems that turn complex digital experiences and ecommerce journeys into simple, usable and high-converting experiences.

Leadership

I've spent the last 4 years at Inspire Brands building the systems that power digital orgs: research operations that inform roadmaps, multi-brand design systems and platform designs that scale, and enterprise-wide human-centered AI adoption with guardrails.

This is the work that energizes me — building & leading product design and research at companies where craft, growth, and platform complexity intersect. I build for the long term, and I'm drawn to organizations that are scaling, not standing still.

Inspire Brands logo

Inspire Brands

As Head of Product Research & Design, I built and lead a distributed team (US + India) supporting a multi-brand ecommerce portfolio. I've built the culture, operating model, design system, accessibility standards, and customer insight infrastructure that enable brands to move faster without breaking, and delivering coherent experiences across guest touchpoints while preserving brand expression via "freedom within a framework".

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Capgemini

Before Inspire, as part of Capgemini's Digital Customer Experience Practice, I led and scaled design across 75+ organizations - from startups to Fortune 10 - learning what works at scale. That breadth taught me how to build systems, not just solutions. Now I apply that lens to digital platforms that need coherence, velocity, and craft.

    Career Snapshot
    Head of Product Research & Design | Inspire Brands
    Built and lead distributed in-house Product Research & Design org. Established operating model including research cadence, prototyping rituals, and critique embedded into empowered product team, multi-brand design system, accessibility governance, customer listening infrastructure.
    Also leading company-wide human-centered AI adoption with guardrails.

    Prior Leadership Roles
    Design leadership across retail, hospitality, healthcare, and financial services. 75+ clients spanning ecommerce platforms, enterprise software, mobile apps, and service design.

    Breadth + Depth
    Design and design leadership for companies from seed-stage startups to Fortune 10; currently focused on ecommerce product leadership where systems thinking, growth, and craft intersect.

    Recognition
  • * Multiple Inspire Ignite Awards for UX Transformation (BWW Choice, BWW GO)
  • * Published Contributor, Smashing Magazine (19 articles since 2010)
  • * Recent publications on AI + Design: "From Prompt to Partner: Designing Your Custom AI Assistant" (Sept 2025), "A Week in the Life of an AI-Augmented Designer" (Aug 2025)
Work

Building & Leading Product Research & Design Teams & Systems

Built & Scaled Global Team Built & Scaled Global Team

Built & scaled Product Research + Design org (US + India)

Built an in-house research, design and content organization across the US and India to support digital experiences for the digital customer experience of Inspire's portfolio of brands, followed by restaurant employee and franchisee experience.

Multi-brand Design System Multi-brand Design System

Multi-brand design system - Freedom within a framework

Enabled distinct brand expression on shared, conversion-driven, accessible multi-brand design system. Reduced platform design onboarding by 30%, and also facilitates quick preview of a new QSR brand web and app experience with a few clicks.

Customer Listening & Continuous Discovery System Customer Listening & Continuous Discovery System

Customer Listening & Continuous Discovery system → roadmap decisions

Turned solicited and unsolicited customer signals from a dozen disparate sources into a repeatable insight-to-roadmap decision engine that improved prioritization quality. Now uses AI responsibly with human oversight for quicker time to insights.

Responsible human-centered AI adoption Responsible human-centered AI adoption

Responsible human-centered AI adoption: speed + guardrails

Drove enterprise-wide AI adoption through a human-centered approach, bottoms-up learning and experimentation, and responsible AI use with human ownership. Facilitated leadership team creating the first ever AI OKRs to increase efficiency and creativity.

Writing

I publish Being Designerly, and regularly contribute to Smashing Magazine as an author and as expert panelist.