BIO
Personal Profile
Hey! I'm Steve. Born and raised in Pennsylvania. Currently in Raleigh, NC by way of New Hampshire. Been married to my wife Becky since 1995. We own 2 German Shepherd Dogs, multiple aquariums, and one Axlotl.
My passion is with making the world better for people. Real people. Not the ubiquitous users we all hear about. I don't do horoscopes or Zodiac signs but I'm a Debater (ENTP) or Commander (ENTJ) depending on the day and an Optimist (iD on the DiSC charts).
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You can download my one-pager below.
Experience
Homesite Group Inc
Sr UX R&D Lead
2014-Present
Deloitte
UX Developer
2014
UX Genetics
UX/Visual Designer
2012 - 2014
Virgin Healthmiles
(Now Virgin Pulse)
UX/UI Designer
2012-2013
Verizon
Design Engineer
1997-2009
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Lead and mentor a team of 10 UX and visual designers (Remote since 2016)
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Lead strategic and tactical research across a wide suite of insurance products and services
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Influence and guide research and design strategy across a 2.5B organization
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Start and grow a dedicated UX Research team
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Lead design adoption of Agile and Lean UX
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Manage design vendor relationships
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Produce UX assets and front end code in a very collaborative public-sector environment
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Champion user-centered design principles and Lean UX practices
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Lead UX workshops and ideation sessions and interviews
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Service multiple client UX and visual design needs in a startup environment
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Create assets for UX copy, branding, personas, journey maps, user stories, site maps, wireframes and mockups
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Prototype, test and iterated designs before delivering final product for both web and apps
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Service multiple client UX and visual design needs in a startup environment
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Create assets for UX copy, branding, personas, journey maps, user stories, site maps, wireframes and mockups
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Prototype, test and iterated designs before delivering final product for both web and apps
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Consulted with internal stakeholders and end users to balance business needs with user requirements
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Produced assets and iterated throughout the entire design lifecycle
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Presented problems, solutions and change management strategies to leadership teams
Accomplishments
Design Leadership
Research Leadership
Platform Design
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Scaled and managed a team from 4 to 12 designers in 8 weeks
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Mapped team strengths and weaknesses and identify areas of synergy and needed growth
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Train, mentor and coach team in both organizational and career goals
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Currently leading and scaling all areas of research at Homesite
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Bridging gaps with other teams that provide research value to provide a consistent voice
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Conducting 360° interviews to uncover organizational opportunities
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Increasing maturity of multi-faceted research
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Lead R&D for all major platform initiatives from 2015 to present
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Comparative Rating Platform
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First comparative rater platform to offer in-app purchase
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Exceeded 10% yield metric 60 days post launch (12%)
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New Sales Platform
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8 week total Lean UX design
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Reduced 70+ question application to 4 questions
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6% Yield increase within 6 months
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Product Servicing Platform
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Created robust FAQ section resulting in better consumer self servicing
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$8M savings first year due to reduced call center agent handling time (AHT)
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Essentials
Tools
Skills
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Adobe Creative Suite
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Figma
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Axure
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Sketch
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usertesting.com
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Morae
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Jira
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Confluence
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Research
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Content strategy
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Workshop facilitation
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Usability analysis
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Behavioral design
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Visual design
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Interaction Design
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Information Architecture
Education
Completed
Ongoing
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Bradley Academy for the Arts
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BA, Graphic Design​
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Human Factors International​
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Certified Usability Analyst​
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​Certificate #2015-5751​
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LInkedIn​​
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Agile Methodologies
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UX Research for Agile Teams​
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M.I.T
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Cognitive Psychology​
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edX​
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Behavioral Economics​
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Interaction Design Foundation​
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Psychology of eCommerce​
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