My Story
The Beginning - I grew up being curious about how the world worked. I never could’ve imagined that my curiosity would take me on a journey to empower people. Originally my plan was to go to school to become an architect. I thought I wanted to design spaces for people but a series of events shifted my course to tech. My journey into tech wasn’t easy but my desire to learn carried me through the tough times. I never could've imagined what would happen next.
Startup Life Act I - I launched my tech career by teaching myself user experience design while starting startups. Co-founding startups gave me a playground to learn a lot fast. I would also take on freelance projects to learn and fund my startup dreams. Freelancing taught me valuable lessons on how to collaborate with people. My startups took me to some incredible destinations but struggled to gain adoption.
Agency Life - After eventually sunsetting my startups, I went on to work at several agencies in Chicago. I got the opportunity to work on a variety of design projects working with teams around the world. While it was incredible getting a chance to collaborate with so many I felt disconnected from the people I was designing for.
Startup Life Act II - A former boss reached out to me about a job working at a fintech startup called Oranj. I would be the solo designer but I was excited to showcase everything I had learned from agency life. I worked across 4 product teams to ship a lot of impactful features. I helped build a data oriented culture by creating a user research program and leveraging our product analytics tool Pendo to measure and share insights.
Present Day - In 2020, I was fortunate to have a job at Oranj during the pandemic. Working from home gave me the time to re-evaluate my career. I felt a desire to empower people through community. That’s when I came across Reddit. Today I lead consumer projects that bring people delight.